Day 2, HK: What A Dinner!

H & A are friends from uni days in Canada. Both are successful architects living the high life in HK. My visits to HK are always made special by the awesome dinners they treat me to.

They decided that we must eat in this Cantonese restaurant that they eat in once a week. However, because I had given short notice, it may not be possible to get a table because bookings have a one-week wait! However, A is a person with clout so we got a table, although we kinda had to be discreet going in one by one because there were people seated outside the restaurant waiting before us.

Tai Wing Wah (Shop No. 2, Chevalier Comm. Ctr, 8 Wang Hoi Rd, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon. Tel: 00852 2148 7773) is a big restaurant, and on that Wed night it was fully packed. Yi noticed people eating a kind of cake in a bamboo steamer. That made my stomach churn out more acid, ready for a gastronomic frenzy. A gastronomic frenzy of the best Cantonese cooking I've tasted so far.


Steamed fish with with pickled lime

An unusual tangy-sweet-salty lime-flavored sauce over the fish--just too good to describe.


Roasted baby ribs

Sticky icky sweet and tasty pork ribs that are very tender too.


House tofu skin

Tofu skin, freshly-made in the restaurant, is a dish that is light yet tasty.


House fried prawns

This seemed more like a popular Shanghainese dish of prawns cooked in wine and soy sauce but I'm not too sure since Wing Wah is a Cantonese restaurant.


House fine hand-made noodles in superior soup

Noodles so good that they need only top them with blanched mustard greens. Nobody makes noodles this fine and tasty and with such a bite as Wing Wah. The noodles are made by the restaurant and dried before cooking. This makes them more crunchy than fresh noodles. For only HK$22, you can buy 8 nests of noodles packed nicely in a box. I brought some back and I won't share:)


House special chicken with ginger-green onion dip

Tender, huah (smooth), tasty, and flavorful. Wish I knew the recipe.


Mung bean noodles with crabmeat and eggs

Very subtle dish, kinda like fried rice with eggs. Every thread of noodles is coated with egg, making it creamy and eggy. I like it but Yi found it too plain.


A perfect dinner!


Malaigo (Malay cake)

Nobody (except me) bothered to eat the red beans soup, a complimentary dessert from the restaurant. All of us just pounced on this heavenly cake, so cotton-candy soft, moist and fragrant with eggs, butter perhaps? and some unrecognisible flavor. It is unlike the Chinese steamed sponge which is dry, heavy and tasteless. It just makes you marvel at how people can cook so well. Question: Why is it called malaigo when it is rare or non-existent here in Malaysia?

If you could have only one dinner in Hk and you are hankering for Cantonese food, this is the place. You'll thank me profusely for it. You should. Do make your booking early unless your name is A. Lui!

Note: Subject to confirmation, I remember A mentioning that the great thing about Wing Wah, other than the fantastic food, is the price. Every dish is HK$48 (MR25/US$7) which is what my mom would term "half-give half-buy"! In HK! One more thing. The next time I go to Tai Wing Wah, I'll not be waistline or cholesterol -conscious. I WILL eat a bowl of their famous steamed rice with lard and soya sauce. I bet Wey would eat at least 3 bowls of that.

Edit: I've since found out that this restaurant is an off-shoot of another, by the same name, in Yuen Long and their owner is no other than To To, that white-haired big-as=a-drum food connoissieur on TVB!