Amazing Asia * Sink Your Teeth into Light and Crisp Baked BBQ Pork Buns

BBQ Pork Buns are one of the most basic and popular Chinese dim sum dishes out there.  Most often, we would find them, also referred to as cha siu bao, steamed in one of the bamboo steamers and being sold at the sidewalk bakery or being pushed in a traditional dimsum cart in restaurants.

Two buns left from the full order of three,
before I could even take a snapshot of it,
that's how yummy they are and people can't wait 

But as the market becomes more competitive, chefs have to think of new dishes or rather new and innovative ways to present old dishes.  Tim Ho Wan, one of Hong Kong's famous hole in the wall dimsum restaurants and Michelin Star-rated, have just done that.  Personally, I find the traditional steamed buns sometimes heavy and too filling and am happily surprised to get these light and crisp buns instead.

When you step into a Tim Ho Wan restaurant, you'll almost see every table with their famous baked buns, that's if you are quick enough to spot them before the customers devour them while hot and fresh.  Each table has to wait for them to be baked and brought out on a giant tray fresh, which in an instant becomes empty in just a few seconds as the dishes are immediately distributed to the waiting customers.

We arrived in Singapore, just ready for late lunch at around 3pm.  Obviously we weren't satisfied with airplane food.  Who does anyway? ;-)  So we headed to the Tim Ho Wan brnach in Plaza Singapura, hoping to get a table quickly, assuming an off peak time.  But to our surprise, there was a long queue still.  Being a big fan of their buns which would often be a struggle to try in Hong Kong given our short visits, we were willing to wait this time, and the queue seem to be moving quickly.  We decided to break into two groups to get a better chance at getting tables.  After about 30 minutes playing musical chairs as we moved one seat after another nearer to the end of the queue, we finally got a table.  Not bad for a wait.  The other half of our group was not so lucky, since the restaurant requires all members of the group to be complete before seating you, and they had to queue up separately.  I think that's a fair guideline to have though.  No take out orders either for this branch, such a bummer!

Once seated (eight of us had to squeeze in a table for six), we got a menu which we could tick off what we wanted to order.  Three orders (3 pcs each order) of those baked buns for eight of us please, one each with one extra bun for the lucky one.  But before turning in our order, we added another one, just to make sure we ended up satisfied, and we did not regret it ;-)  We also ordered their famous Pan Fried Turnip Cake (otherwise referred to as Raddish Cake in the Philippines) as well as Steamed Egg Cake (otherwise referred to us Ma Lai Gao in Hong Kong or Malay Cake back home).  Despite the flurry of dim sum places in the Philippines, we still miss the great quality of the dim sum dishes that we can almost only find in Hong Kong.  After all, that's where dim sum originated.

Light and Crisp Based BBQ Pork Buns

Light and Fragrant Ma Lai Gao (Malay Sponge Cake)

Can't miss ordering my favorite dim sum dish:  Steamed Beef Balls,
best dipped  in Worchestershire Sauce which unfortunately, most restaurants nowadays don't serve

Eating dim sum reminds me of my childhood days when we would go back to my mom's hometown in Hong Kong, on every school break we get.  And we'd have towers of the yummiest and most authentic dim sum dishes each time we go.

Photo Gallery * Amazing Asia * A 1.5 Day Retreat at HK's less visited destination :-)

Hong Kong is mostly known for its busy city with great shopping and delicious Cantonese food, but not so much as a destination to enjoy nature. And yet there are so many places outside of the city that you wouldn't expect Hong Kong to have, places that force you to slow down from the busy life that Hong Kong is known for.

On this trip, I decided to take 2 days to visit Sai Kung, a set of islands on the east of Kowloon at the New Territories. At the center of it all is Sai Kung Town Centre, which is a an old sleepy Chinese fishing town. There you'll find the public piers where fisherman sell live seafood from their boats under the pier, and rows of seafood restaurants serving great seafood dishes. At the town, you can still find small alleys, old houses and and an old Chinese temple. But as soon as you step in to the rest of Sai Kung, you will find yourself secluded in lush green parklands where the busy city life is suddenly turned into a quiet place where you can smell only fresh air and see mountains densely filled with green trees and bushes. It is so quiet that you can hear a concert of birds, crickets and other insects. Cows walk the streets with the cars, and you can find all sorts of insects and colorful butterflies on the nearby bushes and sidewalks. The residents all know each other and are quite friendly. I also see the dog walker walking almost a dozen of resident dogs, and never fails to wave to my host as he drives past. A team of park rangers patrol and monitor the area.

While the locals migrate to the city for easy accessibility, the foreigners/expatriates move out to these places to enjoy the space and more relaxed lifestyle. It's nice to see that these beautiful places are being preserved at the same time, being promoted so that people learn to appreciate and love nature and its simplicity.


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Day 1
- Afternoon visit Sai Kung Town, Sai Kung Promenade with the seafood restos, Sai Kung Pier with the fishermen selling seafood on their boats, old Ancient Houses and temple
- Sunset walk along the waterfront from Sai Kung Promenade to Sha Ha Beach

Day 2
- Morning Hike suggested by my host, to Pak Sha O and Hoi Ha Wan
- Lunch at a Thai restaurant in Sai Kung Town Centre and a cold fruit shake for dessert
- Afternoon visit to High Island Reservoir within the HK Geological Park
- Sunset at the roofdeck at my host's house - great way to cap the trip :-)

Amazing Asia * Hong Kong Off The Beaten Path (April 2011)

Having been to Hong Kong so many times over the last 40 years, I realized there's still so much more to explore in Hong Kong aside from the usual city visits, food and shopping.  On this trip to Hong Kong, I wanted to explore the path less traveled by tourists.  At one time or another, I've visited off the beaten path places like Repulse Bay, Shatin, Stanley and nearby Macau, but all of these have also become common places to visit.  So this time, I made it a point to plan a different itinerary, something that I've never visited or experience before and where few people have gone.

First of all, I made sure I stayed in a hotel in Lantau Island, away from the city, and a convenient take off point to the islands.  So weekend came, and I'm all set to explore a new path.

Saturday, I started on a slow and relaxing road trip around Lantau via bus.  I planned for a stop in Ngong Ping where the Giant Buddha is, then head further down to Tai O where the fishing village with stilt houses and pink dolphins are.  I decided to skip Mui Wo, which is just a landing point for folks coming from the city via ferry.

I've been to Ngong Ping once before, so I planned a slightly different itinerary for this place.  I took the bus, similar to the last time.  I was tempted to take the cable car, but given that the track record was not good (an accident happened before where a cable car fell), I wasn't keen on it.  Besides, I've ridden cable cars in the past and even if this offered a scenic view, I'm more comfortable on land anyway.  The bus trip from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping was about 50 minutes and the path up was a winding road.  A lot of people call this a hairy ride, and indeed it is.  So now, I ask myself, is this safer than the cable car ride? Hahaha.  Imagine the bus running along a highway, this is how fast it felt like, except that it was doing this in a winding road along the mountain.  At one point, the mountain was actually just inches from the bus' window.  But the views were marvelous.  You see endless mountains with dark green lush trees and bushes.  The road is built on the edge of the mountains and thus, you can see the views falling down on the side of the road.  That was part of the reason why the bus ride felt like a roller coaster ride.  But I salute the driver, excellent driving all the way.

Photo Gallery * Amazing Asia * Off The Beaten Path of Hong Kong

Having gone to Hong Kong so many times over the last 40 years, this is the first time I've really explored the many nice islands outside of the Hong Kong city proper which offer a more relaxed and pristine place to visit.

Both islands are easily accessible. I took the bus from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping (45 minutes) to see the Giant Buddha, Wisdom Path and explore the trailhead that leads back to Tung Chung. I then took the bus again (20 minutes) to Tai O to see the fishing village and pink dolphins. Lamma Island, on the other hand, is just a 30 minute ferry ride from Central.


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