italian food

stupidly i never liked italian food. sure, i have always loved pizza (who doesn't?) and enjoyed the frozen lasagne my mom left for my brother and i to eat when she was working late. but whenever someone suggested to go out to an italian restaurant, i would quickly try to change the venue to a vietnamese, mexican, korean, or japanese restaurant. growing up, italian food to me was olive garden or (later on) buca di beppo. i came to associate eating italian food with enormous portions of pasta accompanied by garlic bread, followed by the feeling of being sickly full of empty carbs and cream.




so when my friend said we should go to parma, my expectations were pretty low. not that i thought i would starve, but i thought if i could figure out anything about italian cuisine then this would be the place. pictured above is the first thing we ate in parma; a spaccaballe and a 'ham and cheese sandwich.' i put it in quotes because it is nowhere near the bland ham and cheese single sandwiches that i've been subjected to in the past. i'd previously read some positive reviews about pepen, and we wandered in by chance. despite being 3pm, it was full of locals where other restaurants were closed for a break between lunch and dinner. and if there is anything i've learned from my travels, it's to get whatever the chef at a good restaurant recommends. these two were the result, and the PARMA ham and PARMesan cheese sandwich blew my mind. the bread isn't stellar but it fits well with the moreish prosciutto and the salty, intense parmesan cheese. we polished it off with a glass of white wine and left as happy tourists.




for me, parmesan used to be that powder in a shaker on tables in pizza places. eventually i learned to buy it in wedges or blocks and grate it freshly over pasta. but even the blocks you get in upscale grocery stores here usually can't compare to what you can get at a discount supermarket in parma for a fraction of the price. yes, of course i bought some and took it back with me. this plate was served to us at ombre rosse with a couple of glasses of decent red. the two cheeses on top are two types of parmesan, and the other three are obviously blues. with honey and walnuts, it was the perfect dish to whet the appetite.




in fact most of the meals i was pleasantly surprised by were the appetizers. parma ham, mortadella, and especially culatello. we had the privilege of tasting a batch from november 2012 at la greppia and were floored by the flavour. how can a paper-thin slice of meat have so many facets? again, the bread was not great but maybe it was intentional as to not overshadow the meat. not pictured is an amazing plate of bottarga tagliolini that i regrettably couldn't finish due to our excessive snacking. i still have nightmares about leaving that pasta behind!




speaking of pasta, we did make our way out to bologna, where we of course had some pasta bolognese. or, as it is known in bologna; ragu. there it is served with tagliatelle instead of spagetti as the rest of the world does. all the food we had in parma and bologna was delicious, but i was particularly surprised by the pasta dishes. though they were sparsely dressed, they were certainly not light on flavour. it made me realize that the pasta itself is the star of the dish when made properly. so i do love italian food now! my feelings for olive garden are the same as before; you won't catch me there.

osaka

again, i wish we'd spent more time here! osaka didn't seem like so much in the daytime, though i can't say i spent too much time outside of shops and department stores. but at night, the city was teeming with people looking for late-night eats and of course drinks.



a friend who i met in copenhagen at a couchsurfing party was gracious enough to take me to her favourite takoyaki place. 'octopus balls' may sound like a sad prank of a meal, but i promise you it's delicious. it's a savoury, spherical pancake with bits of octopus inside and slathered with a brown sauce and bonito flakes. seeing how thin she is, i was surprised when she suggested we get okonomiyaki afterward. it was about 9pm; i don't mind eating late, but i have to say i wasn't expecting to in japan.



thankfully the okonomiyaki place was pretty popular, so i got to digest a bit while waiting in line. once seated, we got to watch the cooks at the bar expertly forming our dinners. the batter seems to be very similar to takoyaki, but with many more options on fillings. we split two very common pancakes; one with pork belly and cabbage and another with green onion and cabbage (a.k.a. negiyaki). the toppings are also similar to their round counterparts with the brown sauce and the addition of kewpie mayo. equally delicious.

kyoto

i wish we had spent more time in kyoto.

we were only there for two days, but i think 2 weeks in japan was about all the dane could handle. we stayed at guesthouse bon, a nice homestay which was recommended to me by a friend. it is not a ryokan or hotel, it's like someone's home with several additional bedrooms. our host was so kind; showing us points of interest on his wall covered by a hand-drawn map and even picking us up and dropping us off at the nearest subway station. it's a beautiful city, one of the only places in japan where the charm overshadowed the food for me. but that's not to say that we didn't have some good meals there!



unlike osaka and tokyo, this is not a port city. of course in this day and age it is much easier to get fresh fish in landlocked areas, but the traditional sushi in kyoto is preserved. pictured above is a particularly good sabazushi, which is lightly pickled mackerel covered with what i think is thinly-sliced kombu. the flavour is not as delicate fresh fish, but it's delicious! it is a little on the large side though, so i had to bite it in half. i always feel a bit self-conscious when i fail to eat sushi in one bite. >_>;



we also happened upon a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop while on our way to the silver pavilion. i ordered soba noodles and the dane got udon. my dish came with a mackerel braised in soy sauce. it was very flavourful! it wasn't very complicated but it didn't cost much either and it really hit the spot.



the silver pavilion was lovely, but packed with people. almost all of them were japanese, which is definitely a step above american tourists. yes, i realize i am american too, which makes it all the more embarrassing when their voices carry over everyone else's in the metro in copenhagen. anyway, i got bitten by 15 mosquitos (or the same number of times by a single mosquito..) and then we made our way over to the next famous spot.



the sight of all these bright red gates is really something. i have seen many photos of it and once we got there, the dane pointed out; how did they manage to take those photos? it is really hard to get both rows of shrine in the frame, especially with tourists walking in both directions. the photo above is actually the back of the gates where you can see the donor of each one has signed it. after seeing only two sights, we headed to osaka... but not without getting a kyoto-style bento for the road!

tokyo

yet another travel post! it may seem like i go on a lot of adventures, but really this year is an exception. normally in my free time, i sit at home and twiddle my thumbs and cook to keep insanity at bay... heh heh. but this trip was a long time coming. even before my husband and i were married, we fantasized about going to japan together. we had only traveled twice together besides to and from our respective homes; new york and new zealand. we had a blast together and were looking forward to doing it again. fast-forward to 4 years later and we haven't traveled to any new places at all. luckily when we got married, my parents gave us money towards our honeymoon. and that's what this was, a belated honeymoon to japan. ^^


oh, the food. the service was impeccable at every restaurant we ate at; i am not used to servers being so polite after living in copenhagen for 4 years... ok! that's the first and last jab at denmark for this post. while my husband was more interested in eating as much quality sushi he could fit into his tummy, i was looking forward to comfort foods like freshly-made ramen/udon/soba, katsu-sando, tarako, pretty much anything with tofu.. i did get to eat all those lovely things, but i feel like i didn't eat enough noodles. the ones i had were all very good, with perfect bite and length. nothing sadder than a short noodle when you are expecting to slurp. (;


they have a tendency to eat eggs quite raw in japan; which i have absolutely no problem with, since they take the necessary precautions. i never got sick from food in japan, even though i was served almost raw eggs to crack on top of the tsukemen pictured above. and the yolks are bright orange! you can also get them already cooked (somewhat) at convenience stores if you have a craving. seems like those shops are much better in asia than any other place in the world, or at least it seems that way to me. i only ate breakfast once in a hotel because you can always find a delicious bento at the convenience store and they will warm it up for you. or if i wasn't feeling hungry, i'd just buy an umeboshi onigiri for later. everything was delicious, i don't remember tasting anything i didn't like. even tomato chocolate.. it took a while, but it grew on me. ^^


along with seeking out and ingesting all the food, we did do some sightseeing. in tokyo we went to koishikawa korakuen gardens, tsukiji market, and attempted to enter the imperial gardens which turned out to be inexplicably closed on the one day we had time to go. it was closed sunday, and monday was a national holiday.. 'health and sports day.' grrrr! i highly recommend visiting the other two places, though. contrary to what i've read online, you don't need to show up at tsukiji market at the crack of dawn unless you want to watch the tuna auction or line up at sushi dai or daiwa zushi. we weren't interested in a 5am wake-up call, so we moseyed along at our own pace and reached the outer market at about 11:30. it was still bustling with activity and we sat down to a delicious (and reasonably-priced) sushi lunch at a random spot. afterwards we poked our heads into the actual fish market, which was all but shut down. merchants were hosing the place down and the boxes were empty, but we did get to witness two guys wrestling with a slice of tuna.


we only got to see a fraction of the city so i'm hoping i can go back someday. especially for the shopping! be on the lookout for places like tokyu hands, muji, and 100 yen shops for cool stuff that won't put a dent in your wallet. besides not eating enough noodles, my other regret of the trip was not buying enough groceries and clothes! especially packs of umeboshi and seaweed at tsukiji. i did get some but my suitcases were almost halfway under the weight limit. it's very unusual for me to not be right at 23kg! i should have bought more stuff... but i was thankful for the lower weight once we got home. we live on the second floor (third floor to americans) of an apartment with no elevator, so coming home from trips is hard in more ways than one! my husband was probably also grateful, as i tend to squeeze provisions into every corner of the flat. but he'll thank me when the zombie apocalypse is upon us...

prague

a couple weekends ago, i went to prague with a friend of mine. no sightseeing plans or things to do in mind, we are just starting to enjoy the concept of the ladies only weekend trip. last year we went to berlin with another friend and had a blast. actually i am a little ashamed to say that we go to these great places and all we really care about is the food and shopping. well, all europe is the same, right? >_>


the cuisine seemed to be pretty much meat and potatoes/bread and cheese but still tasty and fairly inexpensive. we happened to wander into restaurace trilobit on a side street of one of the busier areas. lucky for us, the beer was cheap and the place was good despite being mostly empty. i ordered a steak in gravy with dumplings and what i got was what you see above. i was definitely expecting something else but the thin piece of beef was tender and the gravy was delicious, albeit maybe a little too sweet. however i wasn't too crazy about the 'dumplings' which was some boiled dough that was cut into slices. as you can imagine, the dish went very well with czech beer. the lack of patrons turned out to be a good thing as i later discovered that smoking is allowed inside.


one thing that is found on pretty much every pub menu in prague is chicken. to be specific, chicken breast with cheese. this one is from u cipu, another unassuming place we stumbled across. it was pretty full of both people and smoke. despite the smoke, my chicken with mozzarella tasted great. there was a bit of somewhat sour cabbage on the side that i also appreciated. i thought i ordered croquettes instead of fries but i guess there was a misunderstanding; i received them later when i was pretty full. what i was expecting was maybe two or three deep-fried potato and cheese palm-sized patties but what i got was a bunch of little balls. they were still good, but would have been better with some ketchup. what can i say, i am an uncultured american. (;


surprise! chicken again. this one from restaurance titanic was the one slightly dry chicken breast i got; the previous one was nice and juicy. the broccoli and cheese inside made up for it. also, i ordered mashed potatoes and i suppose i was expecting something creamy; this looks more like 'smashed' potatoes. anyway they were fine, the beer was good (and the same price we'd become accustomed to paying; 30 czk), and they had free wifi. can't complain so much, eh?


the one cultural thing we did was go to the sedlec ossuary a.k.a. the bone church. though small, it was worth the trip for me; although we did manage to screw it up a little. after arriving by train in kutná hora station, we were advised to take the local train to the bone church. in reality it is within walking distance but the actual city of kutná hora is not. we ended up waiting for the local train to take us back to the station for a long time, and then found out that the train back to prague wasn't coming for a few more hours. we decided to go poke around kutná hora to kill time and finally spotted the bus which was actually a van. wasn't so much to do there but we at least got some fries and a beer to tide us over until we got back to prague.

our tip to travelers that are looking for the bone church: walk from kutná hora station. the city proper is not a must-see, but if you need to kill time then you can either take a bus/van or walk it if you have an hour (each way) to spare. i think we wasted about half a day wandering around and waiting here instead of shopping back in prague. don't make the same mistake as us! (:

relæ

whenever i read in the paper about how copenhagen is the culinary capital of europe or someone mentions how lucky i am to be living here, i am honestly annoyed. just look up the restaurants that are listed in such articles and you'll realize that not everyone can afford to indulge in gastronomic adventures every month, much less every week. i'm not saying that said restaurants do not serve good food; i've only been to a few of them. but to me, at least, a 'culinary capital' is somewhere that just about everyone has the opportunity and will to eat well. hong kong, san sebastian, and new york come to mind. i've been witness to many danes settling for rugbrød with cucumbers or some cold meat topping for lunch. i am not talking bad about rye bread, i enjoy it myself. but for lunch, every day of the week? no thanks.




my little brother finally came to visit me in copenhagen in the beginning of may. he is very enthusiastic about food, so this was the perfect chance for me to check out some of the places that are bringing attention to the city. of course noma, being the so-called 'best restaurant in the world,' was at the top of our list. but due to the short notice of my brother's visit, there was no chance we could get a table.. maybe next time. relæ is only about 10 minutes walk from our flat, located on the trendy street of jægersborggade. the area had a shady past with gunfire and drugs, but it has cleaned up well and is now home to hipster-friendly shops and restaurants. the thing about relæ is that despite the humble interior and reasonable prices, it has recently been crowned with a michelin star. the price of a four-course menu is 355 DKK ($60 USD), same with the vegetarian menu, and the supplementing wines. though it could be argued that it should be cheaper than the regular menu, how many michelin restaurants have you been to that cater to vegetarians?




the vegetarian menu started with thinly-sliced kohlrabi wrapped around cucumber and lemon balm and topped with roasted caraway seeds (see top photo). sadly, the most i can say about this dish was that it was interesting. i wasn't crazy about the texture of anything, nor the cucumber soup it was served in. however, it did whet our appetites; we polished off the perfect bread and olive oil that was presented earlier. the wine pairing was jacquere ’11, jacques maillet vin de savoie. the next course was leagues better; marabel potatoes cut into noodles, wrapped around pecorino and seaweed (hijiki?), and served in a cream with seaweed (wakame?). i never imagined potatoes in this way... this should be a huge inspiration of vegetarians everywhere.




the third dish was half a head of romaine lettuce (possibly poached?) topped with cured, shaved egg yolk and dotted with olives, served on top of a pool of stinging nettle sauce. i've never eaten anything like this before. the yolk reminded me a bit of salted duck egg, but with the texture of shredded cheese. it was actually a very salty dish, on the verge of being too salty. but the crisp white wine took that away with every sip; bouchat ’09 de guy blanchard, mâcon. my brother had the accompanying juice menu instead of wine, and i'm sorry to report that he didn't like them. they were not all sweet as he expected; in fact the first juice tasted very much like my cucumber soup. i'm not saying you shouldn't try it, but don't expect them all to be fruit juices. (;




when i first looked at the menu, i didn't know if we would be offered dessert at all or maybe we would have to order it separate from the menu. when the fourth course was presented to us, i realized that "sunchoke, malt, and bread" was our dessert. the sunchoke a.k.a. jerusalem artichoke was made into an ice cream and the peels were saved to become sweet roasted chips. little bits of bread were soaked in malt, creating an almost raisin-y taste and texture. this was a very pleasant, not-too-sweet dessert. i love sunchokes and we do use them from time to time at the soup kitchen, but i never would have imagined them in this way. the wine pairing was actually a cider; eric bordelet sidre tendre, normandie. it had just enough acidity to cut through the mild sweetness of dessert.

i don't want to hype this place too much but it really was very good, and not just for the price. service was on point and each dish was explained to us in english by the chefs. i'm still far from convinced that copenhagen is the culinary capital of anywhere except denmark, but if you're traveling through then this is good eats.

restaurant relæ
jægersborggade 41 
2200 københavn n 
+45 3696 6609

turkey, part 2

you may not feel the love in big cities like istanbul or ankara, but when you go to less-populated places in turkey the locals' hospitality is legendary. our tour guide told us that it was not uncommon to be offered to join the dinner table if we knocked on the door of someone's residence in the evening. unfortunately we weren't invited anywhere, though my dad did try his best to get some young girls and also some boys my age to invite us to dinner. though the girls had a hard time understanding him, they did point us in the direction of a restaurant they liked... at least from what we understood. it advertised a turkish-uzbek menu and looked very small inside, like someone's living room. maybe it was a friend of one of the young girl's family? in any case, it looked inviting to us.



luckily the turkish owner/server spoke very good english and welcomed us warmly. my parents ordered way too much food, as usual. i think they are like me in that they enjoy trying new foods.. but at the same time i sense they hold those tough times after the war close to their heart and like to see a lot of food on the table. in any case, the owner's uzbek wife cooked up the dishes very quickly and at least i was overwhelmed by the spread. of course we started with bread and the ubiquitous lentil soup, which i quickly fell in love with. followed by lamb manti; dumplings that are steamed and smothered in yoghurt and drizzled with hot sauce. a mixed grill platter with lamb and chicken and a few vegetables. the most delicious dish served was also the most deceptive; uzbek pilaf. rice is a funny thing in turkey; i think most americans think of rice as a bland starch to cleanse the palate from the main dishes which are presumably mostly meat. the rice dishes we were served on this trip were almost always bursting with flavour, usually cooked in butter or olive oil and carefully simmered with broth. this pilaf was no exception. there were generous hunks of lamb along with chickpeas and grated carrot, and half a head of roasted garlic as the cherry on top. of course we didn't waste one clove of it and spread it greedily on the bread.



during the meal, the owner offered to put on some traditional uzbek music and chatted with us a bit. apparently he had been born in this city, ürgüp, and moved to istanbul for school. after marriage and kids and divorce, this small town called to him and he moved back. he found his new wife and they opened the restaurant together. it seemed like a place the locals enjoyed; the other diners were an old man smoking and drinking raki and a group of young ladies talking over lentil soup and occasionally checking on their babies. everything had been homemade and so delicious. it was such a privilege to eat with and talk to this man and wife team. they were even kind enough to pose for a photo with my parents.



if you are ever passing through ürgüp, you'd be doing yourself a favour by eating here.

avyan saray
(close to the intersecton of)
atatürk blv and sarıhan sk
ürgüp, nevşehir 50400
turkey

turkey, part 1

where do i even begin?

sad to say, it never occurred to me to travel to turkey. when someone mentioned the country, all i could think of was women with headscarves and kebab. of course now i am very ashamed since i found out that the food is not all meat and bread and the women are not all covered from head to toe. the big cities of istanbul and ankara were especially liberal. i even caught a glimpse of a girl's inner thigh as she was walking down the long pedestrian street. obviously, people looked but it was a far cry from being yelled at or beaten. why did i have so many misconceptions of this place? i blame american media and education, but i can't escape part of the blame myself.


despite aforementioned misconceptions the main dishes in turkey are, in fact, mostly meat and snacks are mainly bread. but vegetarians and the gluten-intolerant shouldn't be worried, as long as they know how to express to their needs. a lady in our group was carrying celiac cards with her in turkish, very smart! instead of being served bulgur or bread, she got the lovely rice that was cooked in butter, minus the şehriye (a type of pasta). as for myself, i was able to get some relief from the endless meaty meals through mezeler; side dishes or appetizers which were luckily mostly vegetarian. i must have eaten tomato and aubergine cooked in 10 different ways. all delicious!


if you weren't able to get enough of what you needed at the table, the markets offer naturally vegan and gluten-free snacks of olives, fruits both fresh and dried, nuts, halva, and lokum, which we know as 'turkish delight.' the flavours blew my mind. of course i have eaten an orange before! obviously i have tried turkish delight and halva! but here, it tastes different. even the texture is better in everything. and don't even get me started on the hand-squeezed juices...


people are proud of what they are selling in the markets. they are not trying to rip you off. as i walked down the aisles with my camera, most of the shopkeepers invited me to take a picture with them and photos of them with their wares. you are encouraged to bargain, this is what market life is about. if you don't want to barter, go to the supermarket or a department store. turkish people have pride, as they should! i only saw two beggars during the 2 weeks i was traveling around western turkey. one was a woman with no feet and another was a squeaky-clean, smiley little girl who seemed to be doing it just for fun. even the shopkeepers hissed at her and shooed her away from their stalls; they seemed to be ashamed of her. you might see old women selling small knitted socks or pocket tissues in istanbul, but they are not begging; they are merchants.

the vegan side of hong kong

i was really happy to see my friend R again, and even got to stay at her flat in the city. that last time i saw her was almost precisely a year ago, only in london. i hope we meet up again next october! since my friend is mostly-vegetarian-sometimes-pescatarian, i was curious to see how she was faring in the land of chicken stock and pork filling. i was surprised to find that she was doing pretty well!


harvester is a vegetarian buffet joint close to R's flat. it just looks like a regular cafe with no eye-catching decor, aside from the smattering of health foods for sale that are sparsely displayed on some shelves. but the buffet is amazing! it is a little on the pricey side when compared to the local fare, but i think the extra money is worth it. you pay for the buffet by weight and then you can take as much soup or congee as you'd like. the offerings for that day were: fake pork in tofu, fake fishcake, fried asparagus, broccoli with fake chicken, and a stir-fry with fake squid. the consistency of the chicken and squid were almost too convincing, the chicken even had 'skin' and 'goosebumps.' well, i guess they would be chickenbumps.

harvester
shop a-b, yardley commercial building
3 connaught road west (sheung wan)
hong kong
tlf. 2542-4788


we had another epic lunch at life cafe, a hip vegetarian cafe that serves alcohol and filling meals along with coffee and cakes. english seemed to be the language of choice here, with all the expats that were milling about. R ordered the quesadilla in the lovely pink tortilla. i had the tempe burger, which was absolutely perfect! the tempe was cooked just enough so that i couldn't taste the fermented mushiness and the red onion relish gave a nice tang. the only thing i would have added was a bit more ketchup, but hey, i'm american. i needs my ketchups. and the service was so good already that i didn't want to bother them more. guess i've been living in copenhagen too long. (;

life cafe
10 shelley street (Soho)
hong kong
tlf. 2810 9777

sadly, that was about all the vegetarian food we ate in the two weeks i spent there, aside from the 3 times we cooked at her flat. kitchens are usually not so big in those hong kong high-rises, so people tend to eat out more. kind of nice, but also kind of sad. i really missed cooking while i was there!

hong kong

first of all, let me warn my vegan and vegetarian readers that this is not a veg-friendly post; that's coming later! the purpose of my trip was to visit with friends and also to attend a friend's wedding dinner in china. funny that the three of us met in the first module of our danish language course! i was in hong kong for about 2 weeks and it was pretty much nonstop eating and shopping with a tiny bit of sightseeing thrown in for good measure. let's just get the dim sum out of the way first. P:


i've eaten a lot of dim sum in my lifetime; both in california and denmark and also once in singapore airport. now that i finally had the chance to try it in hong kong and china, i can say that the places i've been to in orange county are more authentic than the two decent dim sum places in copenhagen. but there were a few differences that stood out. in hong kong, the dumpling wrappers were rolled very thin and the radish cakes had big chunks of radish and shrimp (instead of a consistent texture). also, it seemed generally less oily than copenhagen and more than california. i had the honor of watching a woman in a noodle shop rolling her own dumpling wrappers and eventually wrapping some. i saw it with my own eyes and still don't get it. the fluffy buns were slightly sweeter than i'm used to, with the lightest feel! i need to learn how to make char siu bao like that! o_o


pickles to start
i would dare to say that one of the best meals i had there was at a private kitchen. i love the idea and wish i could do something like that in denmark... but there's that whole problem with me having only a work visa for echocardiography and my lack of enthusiasm for becoming a permanent resident... anyway, sìchuān cuisine da píng huō served us 12 courses of plate after plate of amazing food. not pictured are 2 bowls of palate-cleansing soup that the low light was not kind to. corkage is very reasonable so we brought a bottle of white and later ordered another one from the menu. i wish i could remember the names, as they went surprisingly well with such strong food.


glass noodles with peanuts and chilies


chicken with peanuts


braised beef cheeks(?)
in the background of this photo you can see some vegetarian dishes that they made especially for my friend. how thoughtful! (:


pork sticky rice with sweet potatoes


pork(?) dumplings


mabo tofu
okay, now i really like spice but this dish was just insane. from the very first bite, the schezuan peppercorns did their job numbing my mouth... and then the chilies kicked in. we all ate a little bowlful but i stubbornly took a second helping. hey, it tasted good! this dish haunted several of us for a long time... i didn't feel completely right until after we got back from china a few days later; my stomach was really complaining! this was probably one of the spiciest dishes i've ever eaten. ><
to finish, we had a not-too-sweet tofu pudding. it helped take a bit of the edge off of the mabo tofu and was a nice close to the seemingly never-ending meal. then the wife and husband team who own the restaurant came out to thank us for coming and she sang opera! i was blown away.

it's quite intimate since the room is only suitable for about 40 diners and only 2 seatings. and you can really tell that they pay attention to every detail of the food... and the price? well, a bit expensive more expensive than traditional chinese restaurants in the area but absolutely worth it. there are a handful of other private kitchen in hong kong. i can definitely recommend the experience!

sìchuān cuisine da píng huō
49 hollywood road (central)
hong kong
entrance on graham street!