What Did We Do Before Chucks?

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After so many nights spent wandering for food through the crowded streets known better by the shops on their corners than their names on signs, it's time to start keeping track. In my past life I ate only in Los Angeles eateries that were recommended by friends or Yelp.com users, in my current life it's not so simple. Hong Kong is a vertical beast, and its best restaurants are up hidden staircases, down streets that you can only find once and darkened by brighter lights and bigger signs next door.

In a city that sleeps less than New York, is always more crowded, and is (unfortunately) more sober, there's too much eating to be done to waste another meal. I hope that you will learn from my mistakes, as well as my triumphs, so that we can all eat a life more efficient than this old one.

herbs vietnam - tst

I love pho. I have eaten Vietnamese food at every chance in HK, and a good bowl always eludes me. Today I got smart and went safe. I had the bun, my friend had "vietnamese shredded chicken on rice," which was really like a spicy, fishy hainan chicken.

The grilled pork bun was great, the rice vermicelli was perfectly soft and the grilled pork was tender on the inside and slightly charred on the outside. The cut of pork was good too, not crappy tendons or fatty fat. The chicken was surprisingly good too, it tasted like Hainan chicken, but with standard Vietnamese fish & chili sauce, a little spicy and pretty delicious. For starters (yes, I know these usually come before main dishes) we had chicken liver and grilled pork chuck. I'm don't eat many animal organs usually, but the kidney was passable and the grilled pork was not shabby either. It came with a sweet & sour sauce that was probably the worst tasting thing we ate here, it tasted like the kind that you can only buy in the US, and comes only in small, single usage ketchup packages. Since we ordered lunch sets, we also got cheap/free drinks and red bean soup for dessert.

Bottom line: this place was legit. I am often disappointed by cheap HK restaurants that charge you less by giving you shitty meat and lots of iceberg lettuce to take up space in your noodle bowl. It's rare to find a spot with decent ambiance (nice chairs and even a free napkin!), very good prices and great food. I'm happy to start journaling with such a good meal.

4 of 5 possible stars