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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Eating Vietnamese In HK Day 3

We were spoilt for choices and quite sick of Chinese food by now so A and H took us to a superb Vietnamese joint in Harbour City that gave a beautiful view from our table.

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The restaurant reminded me of Raffles Hotel Singapore, with its white paint and colonial decor. As usual, A was well-received by the staff who were polite and efficient.

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Nightview of Hong Kong's skyline from Harbour City, Kowloon

I think HK has the most beautiful skyline in the world. It has the advantage of a seafront and can be viewed nearby from the Kowloon side, the buildings are each unique and outstanding, and the lights at night just awesome. It's worthwhile to go to HK during Christmas to see the lights, neon show (we did, at the turn of the millenuim) and the fireworks. Breathtaking.

My favorite building in HK is on the left, the Bank of China building. It just makes HK's skyline spectacular. The tallest building on the right is the International Finance Centre (IFC), which is currently the highest building in HK and, depending on your criteria (to include or not the antennae or roof top or other architectural details), IFC ranks about 5th tallest in the world. By year end Burj Dubai and HK's ICC building will knock IFC two ranks lower.

A great pic from Hub considering no tripod was used.


















Lobster bisque

We started with a beautiful lobster bisque. It was just perfect in flavor, not too thin or thick, with chunks of sweet lobster. So good I was scraping the last drop. Mmmm.

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Platter of chicken kebabs, deep-fried rice-paper rolls, prawn balls and some kind of terrine.

This starter had all the popular Vietnamese snacks and came with different kinds of dips, Thai basil and lettuce for you to wrap the goodies in.

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Crispy chicken with namyue sauce

The skin of the chicken was crackling-crisp, the meat moist and tender and the namyue (fermented red bean curd) dip out of this world. Definitely what I'd order next time I eat there.

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Swimming flounder!

At least the bones looked it. Squares of the freshest flounder crumbed and deep-fried and served with a beautiful mayo dip that smoothened the fried taste.

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Taiwan bok with bamboo pith and a crunchy kind of mushroom.

Perfect harmony of flavor and textures.

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Vietnamese lamb curry with french bread

At this point, Yi sat back and gave up. We slogged on, hypnotised in a meal so well-ordered, cooked and presented. It was a delight, one after the other, as each dish was brought to our table.

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Beef pho

The just-cooked beef was tender-smooth, beefy and 'sweet,' the noodles were smooth with a perfect bite, the soup again good to the last drop. Despite being stuffed dazed by now, I still managed two bowls of this as A had ordered two portions for the 5 of us.

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Last but truly not least was this beautiful dessert. I am pleased with the way this pic turned out because the lighting was very dim and I just love the effect of the lines of the plate, radiating out around those sweet yummy gems of black sticky rice and red beans on pumpkin topped with coconut milk.

It was a dream meal (you don't dream about food??). I would never have enjoyed or appreciated HK the way I do now if not for H and A's hospitality towards me every time I visited.

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6 comments:

  1. The dessert looks absolutely tempting and Yi looks like a movie star.

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  2. hi Terri..its great you posted this up and the foody pix, devine! reminds me of my days living and working in HK/China.. :-)

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  3. raina: TQ. how nice if d 4 of us could travel 2gather one day. ha, she's be blushing.
    melly: wow, wish i'd done tt too. those places just open up ur eyes don't they?but i wouldn't be able to live there continiuously.

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  4. raina: so i shd qualify as a 'sing ma'? don't reply!

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  5. it 's really nice shot of the skyline of HKG, professional one i supposed.

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  6. I went to Golden Bull before back in 1998. Love their sugar cane prawn.

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