Food & Recipes

Dumplings

Nothing beats freshly made dumplings for a lazy Sunday lunch. The best kind is an immediate taste sensation on the tongue and once found you go back again and again. Many places in Hong Kong produce dumplings with expertise. We’ve put together a selection that we love, but like anything popular, these places often draw a queue. Arriving early can alleviate the time spent waiting for a table.

Tim Ho Wan – Renowned one star Michelin restaurant. Always long queues. Need I say more? Shop 8, Taui Yuen Mansion Phase 2, 2 -20 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok. +852 2332 2896.

The second Tim Ho Wan is conveniently located in Sham Shui Po so you can buy cuttings of silk and textiles before tasting the fresh delicious dumplings here. G/F 9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, +852 2788 1226.

Din Tai Fung is part of a chain of restaurants in Hong Kong but their dumplings are exactly right. It’s fascinating to watch the chefs in the kitchen painstakingly make the dumplings from scratch. G/F 68 Yee Woo Street Causeway Bay +852 3160 8998 and Silvercord Building, 20 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui +852 2730 6928.

Mak’s Noodles has many locations around Hong Kong but we are just mentioning the two we ate at. Service is fast and the dumplings are very good. Head to Shop 1, G/F The Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road, The Peak, +852 2854 3871 and 77 Wellington Street, Central, +852 2854 3810.

With all due respect to plates we decided to give a vintage porcelain tile a new life. The tile is circa 1920s found by me, in the back of a shop just off Cat Street, Central, covered in layers of dust and grime – I believe it’s an old Chinese cigarette advertisement. These tiles are hard to come by, but some of the shops along Hollywood Road can turn out a few hidden gems. The photograph features Belinda’s hand-made dumplings and dipping sauce. See recipe below.

We love bamboo

Bamboo is a symbol of longevity for the Chinese. Many skyscrapers in Hong Kong are enclosed in bamboo scaffolding – you can see it when they’re being built or torn down and this is a unique sight to Hong Kong. For a wonderful selection of natural bamboo pieces head to these streets:

Our fave: Tuck Chong Sum Kee Bamboo Steamer Company; G/F 12 Western Street, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong. +852 2559 7765. Manager Raymond Lam still hand-makes the bamboo steamers. The store’s bins and shelves at the front have plenty of chopsticks, trays, fans, tongs and biscuit moulds at very reasonable prices. Go to Siu Woo Trading Company, 1/F 94 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.+852 2544 2049 which has always had big and small bamboo trays arranged around its shopfronts – make sure you check out the bamboo hats as well. Shanghai Street on Kowloon side has plenty of bamboo shops as well – you won’t miss the high stacked displays of bamboo steamers. Inside these specialist bamboo stores you can shop for strong seating with that resort-at-home feel that instantly looks better when you move it out of the shop.

For our steamed ginger pudding recipe (dessert featured in our pictures of bamboo steamers) see below.

Spotlight on Lunch

Since I’ve been living in Hong Kong, friends have been coming and going: it’s sometimes relocating to different districts of Hong Kong, and further afield to Australia, Britain, Europe or Indonesia. The result is an eclectic mix of constantly moving people who are familiar with airports. In celebration of a few returning and in support of those leaving, we got everyone together and arranged lunch.

The theme was based around recycling so the idea was to create an original space by transforming anything secondhand. The newspapers, which I took off flights, are easy to cut up and shape into flowers. It requires patience, but hand-dyeing strips of cotton, linen, silk and lace in pale hues and hanging and weaving over the table becomes a stunning canopy. Pom-poms are pretty when dipped in tea and strung up, and guests’ names I stamped on rose-tea stained strips of canvas and the napkins were sourced from local hardware shops in Hong Kong.

Egg Tarts – Our Way

The egg tart is synonymous to Hong Kong. While researching authentic recipes for these sweet custard tarts we got inspired to create our own but with a twist. We stuck to the traditional crisp flaky pastry and added some new flavours. For more beautiful Chinese crockery to put your own custard tarts on head to 17 Staunton Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong Island.

If you’re ever in Central, Hong Kong Island at about 11am just promise us you’ll go to Tai Cheong Bakery, G/F 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central. It’s a taste fix – they serve the egg tarts straight out of the oven. No wonder there’s always a queue.

Kowloon City Thai area

Head out to Kowloon City. Also known as Little Thailand, it’s a buzzy, eclectic hotspot for amazing food and history lessons all on the edge of the Kowloon Walled City Park. The Thai community relocated to Kowloon City in the nineties from Central on Hong Kong Island when redevelopment took over. You can source wonderful Thai delicacies here – everything from curry pastes, fruit, freshly made coconut juices and desserts, to beauty products and Thai orchids.

Check out In Love Thai Healthy for coconut oils and creams, shampoos and conditioners and an exquisitely scented range of Thai beauty products. D2, G/F, 52D Nga Tsin Wai Rd, Kowloon City. Tel: +852 3487 2406. For fresh herbs, pre-made curries and Thai sweets go straight to Ban ThaiThai, G/F 52B Nga Tsin Wai Rd, Kowloon City. Tel: +852 2382 5599. If you are looking for fresh fruits such as pomegranates, mangoes and pineapples the best streets are South Wall Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road. The area makes your mouth water for Thai cuisine. Here’s a couple of recipes we’ve added below for you from Belinda.

Chinese Wooden Biscuit Moulds

Belinda got her love of freshly baked treats from her mother who always made biscuits and cakes. In my childhood, too, there were rarely packaged sweets. These biscuit moulds appeal to our love of freshly baked goodies. And Hong Kong is filled with such winning moulds for cooking in. Belinda used them to whip up a delicious biscuit with a cardamom twist (recipe below). Most of the wooden moulds were sourced from Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei.

Top two faves for baking goods are WoodWork Professor, G/F 335-339 Shanghai Street, Yaumatei, Kowloon, Tel: +852 2332 2443, www.woodwork-professor.com and New Chun Fat, 277 Shanghai Street, Yaumatei, Kowloon, Tel: +852 2388 5318.

Party time

Belinda and I recently worked on a fashion shoot for a children’s magazine based in Hong Kong. The theme was Oriental and living in Hong Kong is truly a stylist’s playground. We sourced most of the props for the food shots from Shanghai Street in Prince Edward. Our two favourite shops for all party products are Woodwork Professor, G/F 335-339, Shanghai St, Tel: +852 2332 2443, www.woodwork-professor.com and I Love Cake, G/F 338, Shanghai St, Tel: +852 2671 2671, www.ilovecake.hk.
The clothes were sourced from a great French brand: La Petite Caravane www.lapetitecaravane.com. Thy-Tien Crampton is now based in Hong Kong and is a young French designer who has a lovely eye when it comes to prints and design. Her children’s clothes are well constructed and only run in a very limited edition as fabric is often vintage and sourced from around the globe. With Belinda’s past experience in food styling she was able to create some delicious recipes. I have posted them here for you.

Follow stylebriefHongKong