After spending the week warming up our vocal chords for a spot of Philippine karaoke, you can imagine our disappointment when we discovered it was for lunch-time singers only and our intended destination was not open for dinner on Saturday. So we found ourselves in a situation familiar to many travellers in Asia – taking an extended stopover in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong 1 – The Heyday Café
Celestial Avenue (off Little Bourke St), Melbourne City
On one of the many alleyways branching off Chinatown’s main drag, the Heyday is a small but busy food stop. We were lucky that our group was only five this week – Rami, Caroline, Sai, Naomi and Nick – as we would have been hard pressed to fit more people around a table in the cramped dining room.
While the décor’s nothing fancy, the paper menus pasted around the walls and the friendly staff gave the Heyday a relaxed atmosphere. From $7-$8.50 a meal, drink included, our wallets could relax too. We settled in for café dining Hong Kong style.
Meals:
Sliced chicken in spicy garlic sauce on rice.
Sliced chicken in egg sauce on rice.
Chicken steak with spicy lemon sauce with steamed rice.
Beef steak in honey black pepper sauce with steamed rice.
Minced beef and raw egg on rice.
Drinks:
Hot almond drink.
Iced red bean drink.
Lemon coke.
Lemon water.
Meals:
The first thing we noticed about the menu is how, um, non-Asian a lot of it seemed. Hong Kong of course is one part China, one part Britain away from Britain and one part science fiction. So it shouldn’t have surprised us that the menu included East-meets-West dishes like “sausage and bacon in spicy sauce on rice”, “pork chop in mushroom sauce on rice” and “spaghetti bolognaise.” We needed to adjust our western expectations yet again.
The meals were basic but tasty. Honey and black pepper were a perfect combination for the beef, as were the lemon and spices used on the chicken steak. When the menu said “garlic” it wasn’t lying – the garlic chicken was pretty powerful (and, if you like garlic, goooood) – and when it said “raw egg” it wasn’t lying either: the minced beef dish was literally a mound of mince with a raw egg sitting sunny side up on top of it. The chicken in egg sauce was less challenging – imagine a cross between thick chicken soup and runny scrambled eggs – and well worth it.
Drinks:
Coke with lemon is the quintessential Hong Kong drink and it was certainly refreshing. The lemon water was less lemony, more watery and a lot more sugary than expected. The red bean drink was also very sweet, served with a dash of UHT milk and a bit cloying to the palate. By contrast, the hot almond drink was better with some sugar added and was like hot liquid marzipan. All drinks could be served either hot or iced, according to preference, and came free with the meals. Complimentary green tea was also served at the beginning of the meal.
Overall:
The Heyday is probably best described as an authentic Hong Kong-style diner rather than authentic Hong Kong-style cuisine. For value for money it can’t be beat, and it is easy to see why it buzzed with customers. It was cheap food and sometimes that reflected in the ingredients (such as the mince and the use of UHT milk) but the sauces were done well and on the whole it was an enjoyable meal.
Afterwards though, we all still felt a bit hungry. So we went up the street and around the corner, to:
Hong Kong 2 – The Fresh Stop.
One of many businesses clamouring for attention on the hectic Chinatown stretch of Russell St – though perhaps the only one to do so with a stop sign – the Fresh Stop is a lively, cheap café offering an eclectic selection of dishes.
117 Russell St, Melbourne City
Ushered to a table by the enthusiastic staff, we were almost lost for choice trying to find a snack or dessert to finish off our Hong Kong experience. The menu included many of the East-West fusion dishes we had seen down the street, as well as a greater range of more traditional Cantonese dishes, noodles, soups and pan-Chinese fare. There were also some unique options such as “turnip pudding”, “chocolate rice” and “Maltesers glutinous balls”. In the end we settled on sharing one savoury snack with a couple of desserts.
Savoury:
Sweet:
Hong Kong style waffle - with margarine, peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk and sugar.
Chocolate flavoured crispy fried egg puff.
Savoury:
Sweet:
Hong Kong waffles are decadence incarnate. It would take one hell of a sweet tooth to finish one alone but among the four gluten-tolerant diners ours was polished off eagerly. Following this intense treat the semi-sweet egg puff made for a crisp, light finish to the meal.Overall:
Everything we had here was great. If our selection of dishes was any indication, the wide-ranging menu at Fresh Stop is worth exploring further. It also had the advantage of being super-cheap. Viva Hong Kong!
We finished the night in true Hong Kong style, with some crowd-pleasing entertainment. At Jeff’s Shed on Southbank we pressed through the throng of moustached hawkers handing out half-price strip-tease vouchers out the front of Sexpo, the “Carnal Carnival” where you can meet real porn stars and browse selections of kinky toys, and found our way to the real event – “Elexpo!” That’s right, we went and saw the Victorian State Election live, on grandstand seating in the counting rooms. Here the hollering crowds (well WE were hollering anyway) were kept happy by commemorative posters, election play-dough and purple gingerbread cookies in the shape of Victoria. Ahhh, what more could you ask for than to end your night with a big election? Just don’t say that with a Hong Kong accent – that was next door.
1 comment:
Yay for photos! About time :) :P
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