Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hong Kong: Tai Woo Restaurant

We went back to Tai Woo for dinner tonight, I haven't told you about the first time yet actually... I will get around to it, I promise. This was our first time to go back to a restaurant for a second time. We had a tentative no repeats policy which is still the guideline, just not the rule. We went back because we know the restaurant is both very good and open late. Which is important because I keep falling asleep after eating lunch and not waking up until 10:30-11:30 pm. All I do is eat, nap, eat, sleep, repeat. Its great. Usually there are a few hours worth of walking per day all told, so its not as if I am lacking in exercise. Particularly since we keep hiking up into the mountains. I love how quickly one can go from being in one of the most densely populated cities in the world to being alone in a rain forest. This city is awesome.

So Dinner:

Eggplant with Crab Meat and Shrimp Roe
This dish was really phenomenal. Some of the best eggplant I've ever eaten. The Crab and Roe provided a rich salty element to the sweet tender eggplant.

Squid with Spicy Salt
Squid, deep fried and battered. Timeless. I need to know what this batter is made of because it doesn't seem to trigger anything gluten - pain related within me. The battered frog we had during our first visit didn't bother me either.

Roast Eel with Jellyfish and Chinese Cucumber
This eel was definitely the starlet of the night. So-Han and I are much more familiar with eel prepared in the Japanese style... which is delicious... but totally different than this dish. The eel here is so crisp, the skin on the underside has a deep fried crispy quality that had the perfect combination of crunching and then melting in your mouth. The eel meat itself redefined my idea of how eel can taste and feel by being perfectly tender all the way through while maintaining a crisp edge. Each bite of eel was a crisp neat little packet of delicious. The jellyfish and cucumber both provided a salty - cured compliment to the sweetness of the eel.

Tai Woo is a great place to get a late night meal in Causeway Bay.

...or a normally timed meal as well... one can only assume...


P.S. I didn't take my camera to Tai Woo the first time, here is a video of the meal. The dishes brought were somewhat of a surprise as we were unable to read the menu and they didn't bring us an english one, unlike the second time we went where they brought us only the English menu (significantly more limited a selection than the 6+ menus in Cantonese, the squid above was the only dish shown which was actually on the English menu)

5 comments:

  1. You really should become a food critic. "Ah, this (insert completely odd sounding food here) is just amazing! A little packet of deliciousness in every bite!" I am not joking here.

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  2. Also, my mom wants to know how you find out which restaurants to go to. I do as well. With so much delicious food to choose from, how do you pick?

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  3. Your dad says he wants to bite my computer, the food looks so good! And my mom says we miss you and want you back home. Or at least back in the U.S., where we can call you or text you for MUCH less ;)

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  4. Mom insisted that I tell you that she did NOT (she said all caps) say the last sentence.

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  5. Haha, well hopefully I won't be back for a while. Much to learn and much to see. There is no simple answer to how we find out which restaurants to go to. We use online resources such as openrice.com, hong kong food-bloggers such as http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/chaxiubao/ and other sources such as anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Hong Kong. We also just wander around. In many countries other than our own, the meat they have available is prominently displayed in the front window. We look for the best looking, healthiest looking and most flavorful meat. We walk around during the lunch rush looking for restaurants that have lines outside and make notes of their locations to come back after the rush. We look for restaurants that don't have any english signage. If I walk into a restaurant and get a bunch of weird looks then I know I am in an authentic and local restaurant. It doesn't always work out for us but luckily the handicap in Hong Kong is really high as the standards of food here are phenomenal.

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