Hong Kong Lounge

5322 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94121

Occasion: Father's day dim sum! 06.16.12 Saturday morning dim sum brings back a lot of childhood memories.  Definitely not something that happens much in the present, but dim sum used to be a treat for us.  We don't go as often as we'd like anymore and our tastes have definitely changed from the younger years, but there are still a few favorite that we must get.  Besides the standoffish waiter guy in the front giving people tickets to wait for a seat, it was a good experience.  Make sure to arrive before 1030am to beat the crowd.

Rice noodle wrapped around a chinese donut on the left and a bbq pork filled rice noodle

Always one of my favorite things to get at dim sum.  Not all places have the one on the left, so I have to get it when they have it.  Soft noodle with deep fried doughy goodness.

Steamed bun filled with custard and egg yolk

Best eaten when it's fresh, warm and gooey.  This is actually a newly discovered favorite of mine.  I don't remember ever having it as a child, but I love it!!! It's sweet with a little bit of savory and it's become one of my favorite and must order items at dim sum.

 Taro Pastry

Bbq pork buns

These are not  your typical baked bbq pork buns, because these are way better.  There's a flaky crust on it, that is absolutely delicious.  I used to get buns like these at golden gate bakery in chinatown without the bbq pork filling and I would LOVE them.  I think it was called a "Mexican bun".  Oh more childhood memories.

Xiao Mai

Always a favorite.

lal

Durian pastry

I didn't get to eat or try it because I was stuffed with all the other goodies.

Peninsula Seafood Restaurant

641 Jackson St
San Francisco, CA 94133

Occasion: Early birthday dinner with the family. 03.06.12

Nothing beats Chinese food for my parents so of course, we have Chinese food to celebrate. Something simple.

Squab made with soy sauce

My parents aren't big on meat and instead love their birds.  We usually order roasted squab, but this time in addition to our roasted squab, we decided to get the soy sauce one as well.  The meat is definitely not as dry and juicier, but the skin was soft and not crispy, which is how I like it.  I mean it wasn't bad, but I just prefer the roasted squab more.

Snow pea shoots sauteed with garlic

Usually our choice of vegetable. I love the crunchy hollow stems. Yum.

Fish

What's a Chinese dinner without fish. I'm not exactly sure what type of fish this is, but my dad bought it from a Chinese supermarket/ fish store in Chinatown and brought it to the restaurant to have them make it.  They do charge an extra fee for preparation, but it's totally worth it. Soft meat, with a soy sauce and scallion garnished.

Chinese chicken salad

It was way too salty, but good try.

Chinese soup

Roasted squab

I like it roasted better than the soy sauce.  Next time, we'll only stick with roasted squab. Definitely more flavorful and in my opinion tastier than the soy sauce.

Salt and pepper shrimp

 

Kingdom of Dumpling

1713 Taraval St
San Francisco, CA 94116

Occasion: Wednesday night dinner. Cravings satisfied! 12.28.12

Cold Wide Bean Noodle

It had a gelatinous texture to it that somewhat looked like the jellyfish that we eat at Chinese banquets. It was tasty, yet refreshing and was a great appetizer to start off with. Not exactly sure what the noodle is made of, but its definitely something different from what I normally see at northern Chinese restaurants.

Chives Pancake

It's been a must get item for us since our first encounter with it.  We love the batter of the pancake that's stuffed with chives, noodles and fried eggs yumminess.  It's not only delicious, but super filling.  I almost always have to get this now.  A great dish to get.

Chicken and spinach dumplings

Another one of our favorite items here.  We've tried about three other flavors, and this one just does it for us.  Yummy!

Beef Chow Fun

It's one of my all time favorite Chinese dishes.  For some reason, I think it tasted really good here.  It must be the sauce they use to stir fry everything in, or I was super hungry, because it was so darn tasty, I could almost say it's the best I've ever had.  The noodles were chewy, it wasn't overly greasy and it was just amazingly delicious.

Xi Yuan Da Jiu Dian

Suzhou, China

Occasion: After the pearl market, our tour guide brought us here for lunch. We had a family style lunch at this place. December 2011

I didn't want to scare everyone on our table with my weird picture taking habits, so I only got a few photos. Most of these were appetizers, but there are some main dishes pictured. The food was pretty good and very filling!

Du Men Chong -独门冲(簋街总店)

东城区东直门内大街15-3号(北小街北中街间)

Occasion: After exploring the 13 Sacred Ming Tombs, Jade Factory and the Great Wall, we were ready to get our grub on. 12.11.11 

Spicy fried shrimp 

This was a lot spicier than I had expected it to be.  I was almost ready to cry and ate 1 shrimp with an attempt to eat another one.  My tolerance for spicy food just isn't that high and I could not take the spiciness of this dish.  If you love spicy food, I'd really recommend coming here!

 Zhong Xing Kao Yu- Zhong Hing style Fried Fish

Fried fish that was served hot pot style.  They first deep fry the fish then put it in this hot pot soaked with spicy sauces and our choice of sides: we chose mushrooms and veggies.  Also another spicy dish, but a lot more bearable.  It seemed as though a majority of the menu consisted of spicy foods that did not appeal much to me, but I still wanted to try it.  Our tour guide recommended this restaurant for their fried fish and so I was on a mission to try it.  It was only after we had eaten there did I realize that this restaurant is well known for this dish! YAY!  We selected catfish as our choice of fish, as it was more of Henry's pick.  The meat was super soft and moist.   Though this dish was spicy, it was ALOT more bearable than the shrimps.  Henry was a full and happy camper!

 

Yang Chow Fried Rice

YAY! Something that wasn't spicy! I think I feasted on most of this, since it was the only dish that was bearable to my palate.  I thought it was delicious!

DaDong Roast Duck- 大董烤鸭店

朝阳区东三环长虹桥东南
Building 3, Tuanjiehu Beikou, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

Occasion: Dinner after a day of touring the city! We just had to come here and try their infamous duck! 12.10.11

Roast Duck 

We had to try their infamous duck! It was $40 a pop! I don't usually eat duck, but back home in the states, I'm sure you can get a whole duck for half the price at a Chinese restaurant! I usually do not like the way Chinese duck is prepared because I find it too fatty, but not here.  It definitely met the standards of good duck.  Each piece of meat and skin I ate was free of fat, which was a definite plus for me.  The chef brings the duck in front of our faces to show us our duck, then goes ahead and artistically slices each piece of meat and skin.  It was a skill I've never seen before.  It came with a basket of crepe like skin for us to wrap the duck and condiments to eat as a roll.  They also taught me to dip the meat in sugar as it gives it not only a sweet taste but also a nice crunchy texture! YUM!

Condiments, sauteed green bean sprouts with garlic and some kind of pastry puff 

The condiments we ate with the duck wrapped in a chinese roti like wrap.  We definitely needed some greens in our system to help with the digestion of food! The pastry puff was thin and hallow and we stuffed it with duck meat and condiments and hate it like a sandwich.

 Soup

With all the bones from the duck they make it into a soup, which was perfect for the cold winter night.  We had the option of taking the bones to go or soup, we opted for the soup that had a hint of natural sweetness from the duck bone. Very brothy and tasted authentic.

Complimentary fruit platter

So fancy! We ate it all because we liked the selection of fruits.

Wang Fu Jing- 王府井小吃街

东城区王府井好友世界商场南 Beijing, China

Occasion: Second time here! This time to try different things. 12.10.11

From left to right, top to bottom

Cuttlefish stuffed with meat,  Zha Zhang Mien, Potstickers, Lamb intestine

Cuttlefish balls came with soup.  We did not expect it to have anything inside, but it was a nice and tasty surprise. It was delicious.

Zha Zhang Mien was a vegetarian dish. Noodles were fresh and tasty and for the price we paid, we couldn't have expected any more.  We enjoyed it!

Potstickers for 15 RNB. That is super cheap considering the amount we got.  I got to watch them make it fresh. Delicious!

Lamb intestine sounded kind of disgusting, but actually quite tasty.  Reminded me of beef tripe and was drizzled with a little bit of spicy sauce.  Something different, authentic and definitely not something I'd be able to order here in the states.

Crab apple candy sticks
I saw a lot of people walking around with these and so I wanted to try one myself.  I mean you won't be able to find these in San Francisco, so why not.  These crab apples were sour and tangy with a mushy texture.  It definitely looked a lot better than it tasted.  At first taste, I thought it was disgustingly weird, but after a couple of bites I started thinking it was better.  Still I threw it out after about 4 bites.  Just not my stick of dessert.

Deep Fried Scorpion

It was my goal to try this during my trip!  It was now or never, so I chose that moment to do it.  I first got full of real food before I could eat this.  These little creatures were still alive when I purchased it.  Once I bought it, the cart owner would toss the stick in the deep fryer.  He let it cook for about a minute or so.  Anyway on to what it tasted like.  After I got passed the fact that I was eating these little nasty creatures, I was brave enough to take my first bite.  It reminded me of deep fried shrimp shells.  Crunchy with a deep fried flavor.  There was not meat and was crispy.  Not bad at all! I ate all four of it.

Wang Fu Jing- 王府井小吃街

东城区王府井好友世界商场南
Beijing, China

Occasion: Much anticipated lunch. Our first visit to this little snack street. 12.09.11

Stinky Tofu

"What was that smell and where is it coming from?" It was the familiar aromas of stinky tofu for Henry.  He knew instantly what it was.  Though I've never tried it before,  I've heard many horror stories of how they've caused people to want to yack and feel nauseous.  Not for me though, I actually thought it the smell gave it more character.  I was anxious and overly ready to finally give these bad boys a try.  One bite and I fell in love.  I don't think I've ever hated a tofu dish, and this was one more to add to my list of favorite dishes.  It's deep fried and topped with a spicy sauce and cilantro.  Henry was brave enough to have a few pieces and to my surprise he actually didn't mind it.  For once, he actually thought a dish was too salty.  I had to object.  Honestly, this street snack food is not too bad once you overcome the smell and the idea of it.  It's just like deep fried tofu.

 Cuttlefish Ball

Henry really wanted to try these, so we got them.  They were surprisingly very tasty for very very very cheap!   Texture is rubbery, like fishballs in your pho, but the outside is crispy since it's been deep fried.  Something about eating it in China makes this little snack taste very authentic, or the fact that we're eating it in an alley filled with Chinese snack foods.

I'm not sure what these are called and I've definitely never had these before.  But the skin reminded me of potsticker skins and we got some that were filled with a thin layer of ground meat goodies and a few that were just chopped up veggies.  These things were not only good, but super greasy, which is probably what got us full. Not bad at all!

Milk Tea Tapioca

Not as sweet as the ones from the states and there aren't that many tapioca balls in it, but for less than $1, it was well worth it.  I used it as a source of heat for my frozen hands.

We satisfied our hunger with all of these snacks and was happy to find that it didn't not give us stomach problems, considering the fact that the foods we ate were made in an environment that would most likely not pass the health inspections that would be performed in the States.

Bread Talk-面包新语

Located in the Oriental Plaza Mall
东城区东长安街1号东方广场东方新天地B1楼BB08B号
Beijing, China

Occasion: After a 14+ hour flight, 2 hour ride back into Beijing city, tour to the Temple of Heaven and another tour at the Cole Hill Park, we finally stopped for food.  Our tour guide took us to the Oriental Plaza Mall for food, but Henry and I wanted to check out Wang Fu Jin, which was nearby.  Before doing so, I was desperate for food and could not walk another block until I had something in my stomach.  This bakery was the first thing I spotted that had fast food.  It almost reminded me of a smaller version of 85 degree. 12.09.11

Pizza Bread

It was some kind of pizza inspired pastry bread.  It may not have been too good on any regular given day, but because I was food deprived and cold I was desperate for anything that would yield energy to the body.

Chinese donuts

Not exactly sure what it's called, but it reminded me of sugar donut holes on a skewer.  I saw a little girl eating it and I knew I had to have it.  It was freaking delicious!  I needed the extra sugar to pump me up! The dough was fluffy and not too much sugar.  The size of the holes were slightly bigger than those found in the states, but I wasn't complaining.  The more for my tummy the better!

Kingdom of Dumpling

1713 Taraval St
San Francisco, CA 94116

Occasion: We stayed in and had an early dinner, but by 8:30pm we were hungry again.  In our sweatfits, we came back here for some northern Chinese food. 12.03.11

 Pork and spinach dumplings

We loved them so much last week, we came back for more.  They come in a plate of 12 and its definitely not enough.  They're juicy, delicious and flavorful made with skin that's not as thin as XLBs but not as thick as potstickers. They're a bite of goodness!

Chow Mein

We were actually trying to order the Chow fun (flat rice noodle), but since they were out of the noodle we decided on the next best thing: chow mein.  This was surprisingly really really good.  Almost reminds me of my favorite chow mein place on stockton and jackson in Chinatown, but better!  The noodles taste a lot more fresh and it's less greasy.  Delicious and satisfied. Yum!

Chives pancake

Last time we had the scallion pancakes, so this time we decided something different.  So glad we did because these little pockets filled with chives, fried egg and clear noodles are freaking delicious.  The dough component of this dish is fried to the perfect crisp, yet still has a chewy consistency.  Next time, I'm definitely getting this again. One of my new favorites.

Xiao Long Baos

Perfect amount for just the two of us.  We liked it so much we ordered it again.