Lounging in Hong Kong

So, big Papa celebrated the anniversary of his birth and the family decided to go to a nice restaurant to commemorate the occasion. Of course, being the Chinese people that we are, we had to get Chinese food. Instead of the usual Hong Kong cafes (which I love, don't get me wrong), we went to a relatively more upscale restaurant called Hong Kong Flower Lounge (香滿樓). Last time I was here was way back in the day when one of my uncles was getting married. Besides the embarrassing slide show, the one other thing I remember was the sea bass (鱈魚）which was amazing. So naturally this time, we had to get it again.

Sharkfin Soup

Assorted Plate - Jellyfish, Pork, Duck Wings

Some kind of clam

Salt & Pepper Crab

Roast Squab

Ox Tail Clay Pot

Sea Bass

Bok Choy

Buns w/ Red Bean

Hong Kong Flower Lounge

Overall, this place is pretty decent. It's pretty pricey, so not a place I would go to normally. The service is friendly and prompt about serving you. The food is great if you don't mind taking a hit to your wallet. Got to get the sea bass. It's money with a $. But if you are treating someone to a birthday, not a bad choice to go to.

Hong Kong Flower Lounge
51 Millbrae Ave
Millbrae, CA 94030

Kappa Kappa Kappa

Ah yes....the first blog entry. It's been a while since I've done one of these things. What brought about the resurrection of my written life experiences you may ask? Well, since you asked and must know at this very instant, it all started after I got off a long hard day at work. A lovely young lady and I decided to go to Japantown for a nice meal when we stumbled upon a small quaint Japanese hole-in-the-wall called Kappa. (Alright, so I exaggerated a bit and in actuality, my girlfriend made a reservation in advance, but it sounds much cooler the other way, right?) Anyways, we go in and we have the Omakase (お任せ). The first dish to come out is this:

Dried Beancurd (腐皮) with Melon

This dish was awesome especially with the sauce that it was drenched in. It wasn't overwhelming and just floated about in my mouth, all while melting away into sweet nothingness down into my stomach. This was followed up with our next item:

Snow Crab with Cucumber and Sesame Seeds

This was definitely one of the freshest raw crabs I've had in a while. The sauce was a tad sour for my taste but went very well with the seafood. Next up came:

Asparagus with Peanut Sauce

Excellent asparagus that reminded me of celery and peanut butter as a kid. After this came a platter of assorted bite-sized items:

Tamago (front), Duck Breast (back)

The egg was awesome! So smooth and sweet....just like me. Haha...classic. *High five* The duck was great, too! Full of flavor and tender.

Grilled Unagi

I was not terribly impressed with the Unagi. It was good but not GOOD. You know what I mean?

A Bean of some sort (front), Fried Octopus Ball (back)

The bean tasted like a very sweet red bean (紅豆). The octopus was decent. I'd eat another one if they'd given it to me.

Grilled Shrimp


Vegetable wrapped in Unagi (front), Fried Pork Ball (back)


Snow Crab Roll


Duck Liver

Another great item they offered us. If you're into animal intestines, you should check this out. The next thing to come down the pipeline was:

Platter of Sashimi


Uni (Front), Toro (back)

Uniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Toroooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Enough said.

Tuna

Honestly, not the best tuna I've had but it was still good nonetheless.

Fish

Honestly, I don't remember what kind of fish this was. Such is life. Next up:

More Unagi


Fried Shrimp over Shitake Mushroom

This reminded me of dim sum food.

Grilled Red Snapper


Pork Katsu

Finished off the meal with:

Green Tea

I love green tea! This was really good tea! If I had to choose between my favorite beverage and green tea, I'd pick green tea. Okay...that didn't really make sense. But yes, this tea was great.

Red Bean "Jello"

Not quite a jello. My mom called it 紅豆糕. That's not quite right either but close enough. It tasted great so that's all that mattered.

Platter of Fruit

Very fresh fruit. There was papaya, a yellow fruit which I think is a mango, an Asian pear, and....

THE GRAPE

The ultimate icing on the cake. This was the BEST grape I've ever had. As my girlfriend will contest, I said, "Oh my gosh, the grape meat just pops out of the skin." She just started laughing and suggested that I should post that on my food blog. And here we are.

Last thing. I do and say a lot of random things when I eat. For instance, when I eat especially good food, I will sway in joy. Okay, that sounds really weird. Don't look at me that way! Shut up! You're stupid! Anyway, in order to rate the restaurants on my blog, I'll be basing it on the intensity of my reactions. Why not use something like stars or points instead? Well...why not use reactions?

Rating: Lots of swaying till people started looking at me weird.

Overall Summary: Food was great. Highly recommended. The food is pricey but you can't really expect it to be cheap. There could definitely be better out there but this is one of the best I've had in the city. If anything though, you have to stay for THE GRAPE.