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Got up at my normal 6am-7am time and finished off more of the left over egg waffles from last night.
Decided to read a book for a while before going out for breakfast, which once again I decided would be Dim Sum!
Headed to the MTR and over to Central Station to find the Central branch of "Tim Ho Wan", a chain of Dim Sum restaurants that many web sites recommend as being very good quality and affordable in price.
It was a short walk towards the Pier and then down through a mall building, which happened to have an Apple Store in it, to the food court level where this branch was located.
There really was no wait at all and I was directed to a 'group table' where I filled out a slip
which was quickly picked up by a waitress. Shortly after that my Dim Sim arrived.
I started with the obligatory Char Siu Bau - pork buns. These were flakey and crisp baked bau similar to what I had a
few days ago at Dim Sum Square but which I have not run across in San Francisco before. Inside was a nice gooey
pork filling with high quality pork (not spam!)
I ate two of these and took the other one home for later as I wanted to save room for the next course... which was an order
of shrimp noodles.
These had very fresh shrimp in them! The table had various sauces available, so I poured some of the sweet soy mixture on top of these and wolfed them down before
moving onto the next course of peppers stuffed with pork and shrimp (or more accurately pork and shrimp on top of a cut open pepper. What was unusual about this
version was the peppers were actually super fresh and flavorful along with a bit of heat -- in the past when I've gotten this dish the peppers are not very flavorful and just provide
a "tray" on which the shrimp and port lies... In this case both the peppers and the mixture of pork and shrimp had great flavor. Wow!
I was pretty full at this point, so I paid the bill (it was only around $10 US - a little over $70 HKD) and decided to walk off some of breakfast by
continuing to the ferry building and taking the ferry boat across to the Tsim She Tsui side of the harbor and then catch the subway to head out
to Prince Edward Station where the Flower Market as well as the Bird Market were located. I could have just taken the MTR all the way from
Central, but I wanted the extra walk and the 10 minute ferry ride is very nice and relaxing.
Here are some pictures of the Flower Market Street -- they had TONS of amazing orchids for sale.
Here are some stills of more birds --
Anyway,finally had enough walking so headed back on the MTR to the hotel for a nap.
After my nap I decided that I would have a mid-afternoon dessert. There was an interesting Dessert place that I'd read about that does
desserts using interesting cooking techniques (like Marcel Vignarone of Top Chef fame -- cooking with liquid nitrogen and the like).
I called and they were open and could seat me so I walked over -- about a 10 minute walk from my hotel - and ordered their special house tea
along with one of their special dessert plates.
While they were prepping for the tea (see video below) they gave me a "shooter tube" - literally a test tube - of a juice treat. Basically a strawberry extract of some type:
The tea was interesting as it was a fruit infused tea that literally had the boiling tea push up to an upper level at which point the heat was removed it and would
distill back down to the lower level from which it could then be poured. The tea was fine (similar to other 'fruit infused' tea's that I have had in the past, but the
technique of making it -- which happened right in front of me - was very very cool. Here's a video of it (OOPS - it is sideways! I will try and fix this later -- turn your head or
computer so that the tea is boiling vertically!)
The dessert was also interesting -- 2 pieces of strawberry cheesecake, a scoop of cucumber ice cream and another slice of
red wine cheesecake. Also a few tablespoons of hazelnut crumble and a few sesame flat tea cookies. Actually a very light and
refreshing treat.
After this great snack I went back to the hotel and before taking a nap called to make a reservation at
Shanghai Lu Yang Cun restaurant - right across the street from my hotel. They specialize in
Shanghai cuisine and have Shanghai Hairy Crab -- something I wanted to try. Got a 7pm reservation!
I also had a surprise waiting for me in my room -- the Hotel knew it was my birthday "tomorrow" so they left me a nice piece of cake
with a "happy birthday" on it! Pretty classy!
I took a nice nap and worked up prepping some of the above images for upload. Around 6:55pm I headed next door for
my dinner at Shanghai Lu Yang Cun restaurant. I actually stopped by the concierge here at the hotel and asked him to write
down "Shanghai Crab" on a piece of paper for me so that I could make it clear what I wanted to order.
Turned out that was a pretty good idea as the staff at the restaurant spoke very very little english. But it worked out fine.
Once I gave the waiter the paper with "hairy crab" on it he guided me back to the front of the restaurant where they had a shelf
of different sized (and priced) crabs. Basically "small", "medium" and "large". I picked the "medium" sized crab and then
went back to the table and also ordered their xioa long bau (pork filled soup dumplings) as well as some pan fried seafood dumplings.
Each came with 4 dumplings and it turns out that I guessed the perfect amount (1 medium hairy crab, 4 pan fried seafood
dumplings and 4 XLB's) to fill me up.
My steamed medium sized hairy crab
Which I then had to operate on (they provided scissors) to open up for eating.
Fortunately I found a great web site with "instructive pictures" on the process.
1) Remove top shell
2) Cut off all the legs at body
3) Cut legs diagonally at all joints
4) Cut off "hair" on legs
5) remove and discard heart
6) Eat!
I actually added another step, which was after cutting legs diagonally to cut them all the way
open so as to more easily peel out the meat.
They also provided a "crab fork" and 'spoon' to assist in pulling the meat out and
eating of the roe (orange stuff in the middle).
Here's a closeup of a leg (before I cut off the hairs)
This was a lot of work, but actually somewhat fun.
In terms of taste I do understand why this is considered a rare treat. The crab meat is quite flavorful and "sweet"., even if just
eaten alone. The dish does come with a sweet ginger-soy dipping sauce, which I used a little of on a few pieces, but honestly
the steamed crab meat stood on its own. I would definitely order this again if given the opportunity.
After finishing off the crab I was given a nice cup of "ginger tea". This was in addition to the normal green table tea that was, of course,
present since the start of the meal. Ginger tea is a "warming tea" which offsets the effect of the "cooling food" that the Shanghai culture
attributes to hairy crab. It was strong but refreshing.
I then dove into my Xiao Long Bau (XLB) dumplings which came with the traditional vinegar and ginger sauce. They were very very good soup dumplings.
XLB in soup spoon with vinegar-ginger sauce drizzled on top
Oh soooooo very good
Finally I made it through the four pan fried seafood dumplings. They came with the traditional red chili dipping sauce.
I was quite full and very happy. This was a fairly expensive dinner compared to most -- about $70 US, but it was a great experience and
the quality of all the food was great. I am really glad I only ordered one crab as even though they look small they are quite filling.
I would not have been able to eat a second one and still eat the dumpling dishes.
Headed back to the hotel to goto sleep. Tomorrow I'll have something for breakfast, checkout and head to the airport to move onto
Seoul.
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