5 Best Eat-outs in Sheung Wan Final: Coco Espresso

Note from the author: As I won't be working in Sheung Wan area soon, I decide to start this series about my personal choice of the best eat-outs in the area. I will write about five places and hope you would enjoy it. I wrote about a siu mei restaurant, a restaurant which serves Hong Kong style Western food, a Hong Kong home-food place and a burger stand in my previous posts.

When I first worked in Sheung Wan area almost four years ago, I was searching for a good coffee place. Thanks to the exchange trip to San Diego in the States, I learnt the basics of being a barista. I could tamp the coffee powder. I could froth the milk until the latter shines and becomes smooth. I could pull an espresso shot that has a nice crema. I despised the coffee scene in Hong Kong, especially that in the Central and Sheung Wan area, where most of the cafes are either Starbucks or Pacific Coffee, chains that mass-produce caffeine drinks of low quality.

Until I passed this shop.

5 Best Eat-outs in Sheung Wan (4) Bowl Burger

Note from the author: As I won't be working in Sheung Wan area soon, I decide to start this series about my personal choice of the best eat-outs in the area. I will write about five places and hope you would enjoy it. I wrote about a siu mei restaurant, a restaurant which serves Hong Kong style Western food, and a Hong Kong home-food place in my previous posts.

I love burgers. I will be happy to have a cheese burger from time to time. My ideal burger must have a juicy, chewy beef patty; fresh, green lettuce; and a piece of half molten cheese.

In this post, I am going to introduce a great burger stand in Sheung Wan area.

Its name is Bowl Burger.

5 Best Eat-outs in Sheung Wan (3) Sheung Wan Canteen (上環食堂)

Note from the author: As I won't be working in Sheung Wan area soon, I decide to start this series about my personal choice of the best eat-outs in the area. I will write about five places and hope you would enjoy it. I wrote about Long Kei Siu Mei and Gold Cafe in my last two pieces.

Hong Kong people hardly cook. They are busy at work. They have no time to cook or to learn how to cook. They consume MSG-infested, meat-intensive meals during lunch. Many of them tell me that they miss home food: steamed rice, poached vegetables, minced pork, chicken wings in soya sauce and, most importantly, home-made soup.

There is one eat-out in Sheung Wan serving Hong Kong home food.

Its name is Sheung Wan Canteen.

5 Best Eat-outs in Sheung Wan (2) Gold Cafe

Note from the author: As I won't be working in Sheung Wan area soon, I decide to start this series about my personal choice of the best eat-outs in the area. I will write about five places and hope you would enjoy it. I wrote about Long Kei Siu Mei in my last piece.

Most will agree that restaurants in Hong Kong are expensive, especially those on the Hong Kong Island. One bowl of noodles with fish balls costs over 35 dollars and a meal with a drink from Cafe De Coral, a notorious restaurant-chain, is around 40 dollars. On a hot summer day, an icy drink may cost you three dollars more than a hot drink.

Recently, I have found a good deal in Sheung Wan.

The name of the restaurant is Gold Cafe.

5 Best Eat-outs in Sheung Wan (1) - Long Kei Siu Mei

Note from the author: As I won't be working in Sheung Wan area soon, I decide to start this series about my personal choice of the best eat-outs in the area. I will write about five places and hope you would enjoy it.

Most Centralists agree that Kam Wah serves the best Cha Siu, a traditional Cantonese barbeque using skin-less lean pork as contrast to Siu Yuk. It is on every guide-book, praised about on every food web and even talked about on Facebook from time to time. Kam Wah as to Cha Siu is similar to Barcelonah as to the world of football.

Recently, however, I found a challenger.

Its name is Long Kei Siu Mei.

Entrance

Unboxing Baumkuechen (Japanese Tree-trunk Cake)

It is a pleasure to unbox a Baumkuechen, a cake which looks like the trunk horizontally cut.

Congee or Zhuk

What is better than a bowl of congee after a bellyful of ribs, steaks and turkey in Christmas and New Year? 

Plain Congee (白粥)

Congee is a rice porridge. Chinese eat it for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, or for supper or when we are sick, lack of appetite or simply poor.

Many restaurants in Hong Kong serve congee while not so many of them serve a bowl of good one. Usually, the congee is not cooked enough to give the silky texture and the resulting mixture is a bowl of whitish liquid with over-soaked rice lumps. The worst of all is adding MSG to the congee, which makes the customers thirsty after eating it.

A bowl of ideal Cantonese congee is not simply rice and water; it shall be silky with no rice grains visible and there shall be a sweet flavor which is not available in a bowl of ordinary steamed rice. 

Congee with century egg and lean pork (Pei Dan Sou Yuk Zhuk) is my favorite congee.  Savory lean pork and half of a century egg with a fluffy egg yolk form an ideal one.

Another favorite congee of mine is congee with minced beef (Sui Ngau Zhuk). The minced beef shall come with deep-fried rice noodles.

Sui Ngau Zhuk (碎牛粥)

Hong Kong is getting cold and a bowl of congee will keep you warm. Enjoy!