zulup... zulup

Most nutritionists categories food based on the 4-layer food pyramid: 1) fat and sweets 2) dairy and proteins 3) veggie and fruits 4) carbohydrates. To me, the food pyramid has 5 layers and the additional one is, what else, Noodles!

I don't get the name NoodleGal for nothing. My last postings about noodles has received some good feedback. So, I decide to share more my experience of “zulupping” the best noodle shops in town.

Being single, living by myself and, more importantly, not making a lot of money, have brought me loads of opportunities to try out new and cheap noodles places around town. Trying out new noodle places is often highlight of the day, after staying long hours behind the computer screens.

To me, having noodles is a very personal experience. It's great to enjoy being alone and not to be disturbed. For those of you from Hong Kong, you might still remember this news a few months ago. An explosion happened at a noodle shop in Tai Kok Tsui because a bottle of insect spray was placed too close to the stove. The explosion injured five people, including some customers. If I were at the shop, for sure I'll be one of the injured, because I would be so busy zulupping noodles that I couldn't be bothered to run. Of course, provided the shop made good noodles ;-)

Unfortunately, my noodle experience have been quite limited around my neighborhood and area near my workplace. But, for a small area like Hong Kong Island, it has so much varieties of noodle shops that I don't need to go too far to find something I like.

I mentioned in last posting there are a few types of noodles are my favorite. Not only I love these noodles, there is a particular shop that I go to for each of them. So, here's the NoodleGal's favorite noodle shops:

Yuanan noodles
Yuanan is the southern province in China. It is known for its diversified ethnic groups, as well as its noodles. Also known as the “Cross-bridge Noodle”, it is a big bowl of hot soup filled with white rice noodles and variety of ingredients and spices. The best one I had was in Lijiang Yuanan.

In Hong Kong, the noodles have been localized with a smaller bowl and less spices in the soup base. But I still crave for the Yuanan noodles at this shop at Causeway Bay, whenever I'm around the area. “Kim Sai” has a spicy and sour soup base, with a variety of ingredients that you can pick and choose. All in a great deal of less than HK$25! The soup base could be spicy and sour. You can always ask for a lighter soup base. But why go for less tasty when you can get the best! I always left the place with running nose and satisfaction!



Laksa
This famous spicy noodles from Singapore and Malaysia has only been one of my favorites in recent years. I've tried a few shops in Central and Sheungwan. The Laksa tends to taste really good when the shop first opened, but it got worse after awhile. Only Pasar, I think have the most consistent quality.



Prawn Meen
Another famous noodles in Malaysia and Singapore is Prawn Meen. Different from Laksa, which uses coconut milk in the soup base, Prawn Meen uses prawn as the base of the soup base. You can choose to have chicken or prawns or both of them as the major ingredients. For having prawn meen, I'd only go for two places: Malay MaMa and Prawn Noodles Shop. I like the friendly environment and their super tasty soup base, which has the sweetness from the seafood, but not fishy at all.



Wonton noodle
If there's a Hong Kong cuisine, wonton noodle has to been one of the main dishes. Everyone from Hong Kong grow up with wonton noodles, so I'm not surprise everyone will have their own favorite shop. I was not a big fan of wonton noodle until only about six years ago, when I first live by myself in this big and pricey city. Wonton noodles from Jim Chai Kee (URL) become my favorite food, especially when I'm broke! The HK$12 (it used to be only HK$10) per bowl is still a wonderful deal for a quick and simple meal. Each bowl contains three huge wontons, with the size of a ping pong ball! The noodle also come in great texture, its solid and chewy texture, which is just the way what I like. I hate when the noodles are overcooked, because the texture becomes soft and soggy.

The pingpong-wonton

Apart from JCK, my latest favorite is Wong Chee Kee. It is not a local brand, it's a shop with long history in Macau and has recently opened in Hong Kong. WCK is the delicate version of JCK. The wontons are much smaller, but the size is perfect for a mouthful. The noodles are much finer, but still maintain a chewy texture. It is almost double the price from JCK, but totally worth when I want to treat myself a one fine bowl of wonton noodles.

One fine bowl of wonton!


Ramen
Japanese food has become most Hong Kong people's favorite cuisine. Sushi shops, ramen places are all over town. But too many of them have been localized, so I didn't have my favorite ramen place, until I tried those from Sapporo (URL).

That's probably the most authentic ramen place in Hong Kong. Authentic, in both the menu selection and service. It does not have a lot of collection, basically the menu is only a list of 4-5 types of soup bases. The shop decide your topics, which is mainly char siu, roast pork. The usual soup bases are miso, soy sauce and salt. But this place has the traditional soup base that I yet to find in any other ramen places in Hong Kong so far, that is butter. It is probably more Hokkaido style then Japanese in general. But I must say during cold winter, (HK's winter could be really chilly), seeing a think piece of butter melting in the salt soup base is the most comforting experience. Having a zip of the melting butter brings me instant warmth to not only my belly, but the entire body!
A bowl of hot warm soup that melts the butter!


The list of my favorite noodle places can go on and on... but it may change anytime. If you have any other places, you'd like to recommend, please do so! I need more incentive to explore outside Central and CWB :-) Of course, it's also great to hear from you guys!

NoodleGal

Carrie Bradshaw has a nick name for her IM account. All you Sex and the City addict of the TV show must know, it's "shoegal". Whenever she's down or upset with Big, she goes shoe shopping and that brings a smile back to her face.

Well, there's something else that does the same effect to me, as beautiful shoes to Carrie. That is Noodles! After a long day at work or some tough stretch from yoga class, nothing more smoothing than having a bowl of noodles.

Probably that's why I love my little nickname, noodlegal. I've got the nickname after a holiday with my friend, Deserie the shopgal. We went to Vietnam Ho Chih Minh (HCM) City a few years ago. It was one of those long-weekend trip to reward myself after months of stress from work. It was a perfect holiday for both of us, as we all got what we wanted. While Deserie spent most of the time bargaining for delegate and beautiful handbags and art pieces, I went to get my Pho Bo (beef noodles)... everyday!


My favorite Pho 24 in HCM City!

For most southern Chinese, particularly Hong Kongers, the daily carbo is rice. I grew up having rice everyday. But now my daily carbo has completely changed. In fact, I don't really have a regular daily carbo, but only weekly carbo, which consist of noodles, rice, bread. But noodles is definitely the most frequent one among the three.

I love all kinds of noodles, Cantonese Wonton Mein, Chinese DaimDaim Mein, Japanese Ramen, Vietnamese Pho, Thai Pad Thai and Indonesian Mei Gorang are just some of my favorites. Among them, Vietnames Pho has to be top of the list.


Ramen with Butter! It's the specialty in Hokkaido.

To me, noodles, especially soup noodle, is the most fascinating type of food! There are many different elements within a bowl of noodle: the soup base, the noodle, the toppings and the add-on (which are the herbs, spring onion and dried garlic). They can be mixed in different combination and create a total different experience, all out from that little spoon.

OK, I know it may sound a bit exaggerating for people that are not big fan of noodles. But the best thing about soup noodle is the mix and match I can create in every mouthful. In one spoonful, I could have some soup with the noodles, in the next spoonful I could mix the soup with toppings, without noodles at all, and in another spoonful, the add-ons with noodles, they all create a total different taste and texture.

I have a special routine when eating my favorite noodles. It always start with a spoonful of soup and the noodles would come second. Soup base is the most important element, it is like the signature of the noodle shop. No matter what kind of soup noodle it is, the effort the chef put into the stock makes a big difference to the bowl of noodle.

The second most important, apart from the noodles, is the add-ons. The spring onion in Wonton Mein and Ramen, the basil and coriander in Vietnamese Pho are as important as the noodle itself. They are like the Parmigiano in Italian pasta, it brings a whole new experience when added on the noodles.

Probably the reason why I love Vietnamese Pho so much is the importance of the add-ons. It's rare to find a good Vietnamese Pho shop in Hong Kong. But recently, I've discovered a great Pho shop, Pho 26.


My favorite Pho shop in Hong Kong and it's Pho Bo!


One of my favorite pho shop in HCM City is Pho 24 and I think this Pho 26 is even better!! The tasty soup base has an intense beef favor, combined with chinese herbs and lime, is one of the best soup base I've ever tried. Of course, most importantly, is the add-ons. They are very generous with the add-ons. The onion, spring onion, basil and coriander basically covered the entire bowl of noodle. It certainly was a great to myself after a long day of work.


I almost forgot to take the pix of my Pho :-p

US Politics Vs TV Series

I've been following the US election in the past couple months. This is not the normal me. The only site I'd visit religiously is my daily horoscope. But recently I've been following the US elections like... TV series.

Actually, I don't see much of a difference between the two. This is why:

1) The season basically starts in July and end in November. Not exactly the summer season, it's a good 4 month show. Btw, Season One, the Democrat primary election, that lasted for months before this. I wonder will there be a Third Season....

2) There is always a very funny character involve:
John McCain Vs Steve Martin



3) There is always a very serious character involve:
Barack Obama Vs Charles Philips (President of Oracle)



4) When the TV show becomes popular, Saturday Night Live will always make fun of it.

For full coverage check out here, it is really quite hilarious.


I think it is quite sad for Americans. We outsider seeing their presidential election as a TV series, an entertainment, rather than a serious matter. But I have to give them credit for generating interest of politics for people like me.

I didn't even pay attention to the Hong Kong Legco election until 2 weeks before that. (Though, the HK Legco election is a much shorter series, that last only for 2 months) At least I voted. The turnover rate for the once-every-4-year-Legco-election was only 45.2% this year. What I want to say is politics has never been a pretty alien topic for me, until early 1980s, when the discussion of Hong Kong's sovereignty began.

My encounter with local politics, or any kind of politics, in my entire has been a number less than Elizabeth Taylor's marriage. The first encounter of politics is probably when I was 10. I remember one day I discovered a stack of pocket-size lime green-covered books at my Dad's study room. The cover was plain, with simple black font. It says something like Hong Kong's Transition to Chinese Rule. That's the first green paper consultation published on the political system reform in HK.

The title resonated from terms I heard on TV about the transition of HK's sovereignty. So I flipped through it. There were words that I recognized, but they form phrases and terms that were incomprehensible. So I tossed it aside. A couple days later, in the study room, I saw my Dad holding those books in his in his study room. But with his head resting on the chair, glasses on, but eyes closed and mouth wide opened... snoring. That's my first encounter with politics!

So, I should thank the entertainment value that US Election brought, making politics a lot more interesting that I thought.

On top of these reasons, I do believe this US Election is set at a very controversial period. The on-going war in Iraq, the continuous disappointment and idiocy from the current US President, also the latest wall street crisis, these are rating the US in its worst credit for decades. People around the world are looking forward to find out, are Americans really that dumb, to get a comedian, whose partner loves her lipstick, to be the next US President.