HK-Inspired Wonton Noodle Soup

Mom and I had a craving for Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup. I knew we wouldn't get anywhere close to their clear and simple soup, nor would we be able to replicate the bouncy and sweet shrimp wontons the master chefs make. Despite knowing this, we flexed our culinary muscles and attempted to make a decent rendition of wonton noodle soup.

After I did a quick google search of what ingredients we might need for the soup and wontons, we drove to T&T and purchased most of the ingredients. I spotted a container of dried egg noodles that were on sale.



Upon further inspection, I noticed that there were two flavours: regular egg noodles and the shrimp egg noodles. I took a look at the label and saw that it was made by a company in Hong Kong. Done. Looked legit. Apparently one of the more well-known wonton noodle soup shops in Hong Kong uses powdered shrimp eggs in their soup. These shrimp egg noodles were good enough for us.



The bundles of shrimp egg noodles were quite small.


The soup ended up turning into something like Phnom Penh noodle soup since we used pork neck bones and dried squid. I didn't take a photo of the pot. The soup looked just like this pot of Phnom Penh noodle soup though.



As for the shrimp wontons, we used regular ground pork, shrimps, green onions, ginger, oyster sauce, cornstarch, salt, sugar, and a few drops of sesame oil. That's it. Mom chopped everything together until it was a sticky mess. Once cooked, the sticky mess becomes an unbelievably bouncy ball of dim sum-like fare -- mind you, it wasn't as bouncy as these pissing beef balls (skip to 0:38). I took a bit of the filling and nuked it in the microwave to see how it tasted.


It. Was. Amazing. They really tasted like dim sum fare. Though they didn't taste like the shrimp wontons we had in Hong Kong, I was still very happy with the seasoning of this batch.




We filled the wontons quite generously.


The shrimp wonton filling tasted so good that Mom wanted to try and fry them. "They'll taste like the shrimp balls at dim sum," she said. They really did taste like them.

The first few shrimp balls she put into the oil ended up burning. The innards were uncooked so we popped them into the microwave to cook. The rest of the filling were pressed into patties to cook evenly.


Mom also fried these homemade shrimp tempura for an appetizer. She made these shrimp tempura two weeks ago and froze these. Smart.


We used five bundles of shrimp egg noodles to feed seven people (I invited my grandparents over for lunch). The wonton noodle soup still tasted amazing despite the noodles being overcooked. I can't wait to make these again!

Leftover Broth? HK Breakfast!

We had leftover soup from Phnom Penh noodles one morning last month. There wasn't enough soup to soak half a package of rice noodles and finish it, so I thought about making some pasta and turning the soup into a Hong Kong-style breakfast.


Our house didn't have any macaroni, so I just slightly over-cooked some rotini. When you have pasta in soup, Lucy and I think that the pasta has to be past al dente or else it doesn't feel right. Soup is supposed to be easy to eat, right? Also, Mom used to make us macaroni in chicken soup as an after school snack, but by the time we got home and ate it, the macaroni was bloated. Ah, childhood.




Anyway, the pasta was drained and then added to the simmering leftover soup. We had a few over-easy eggs and toast made. And to complete the HK-style breakfast, we made cups of strong HK milk tea. As I was enjoying the yummy breakfast, I couldn't help but reminisce about our trip we took to asia last year. Good times!

Tea in Asia 2011 Round Up

Our trip began back in November with spending some time in Hong Kong with Aunty. She found us a short tour to Guilin and then she brought us to Macau for a day.

From there, we bid our relatives goodbye and visited Taiwan for a week.

We spent the last leg of the trip around Shanghai. Since we joined a tour group, we were able to visit Wuxi, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as well.

Here are all the articles:

• Hello from Hong Kong 
• Window Shopping in Macau
• Dim Sum at Tung Yuen and Plain Congee Dinner
• Wonton Egg Noodle Soup and Dinner at the HK Airport

• Breakfast and Tea Tasting: First Day in Guilin
• Breathtaking Sights and Seafood Banquet in Guilin
• Last Day in Guilin

• Hong Kong Harbour Front and Korean BBQ
• Ngong Ping, Tian Tan Buddha, Dai Pai Dong Dinner
• Sportful Garden Restaurant and The Peak Tower
• Last Meal in Hong Kong: Tsui Wah Restaurant

• Seafood Dinner in Taipei, Taiwan
• Stinky Tofu and CoCo Bubble Tea
• Sun Moon Lake Cabin
• Sun Moon Lake and the Aboriginal Culture Village
• Sick in Taiwan
• Leaving Taiwan: Taoyuan International Airport

• Arriving in Shanghai: Muslim Restaurant
• Breakfast in Shanghai, Visiting Wuxi
• Breakfast in Wuxi, Visiting Nanjing
• Breakfast in Nanjing, Visiting in Suzhou
• Breakfast in Suzhou, Visiting Hangzhou
• Last Full Day: Hangzhou to Shanghai
• Last Meal in Shanghai

This was a trip of a lifetime. We spent just under a month in Asia. I was very fortunate to have this chance and I’m very thankful to everyone who made the trip possible and enjoyable.

Last Meal in Shanghai

Our trip to Asia blew by so quickly. I wasn’t homesick at all. In fact, I didn’t want to go back. Not yet. I wanted to go back to Hong Kong.

But if my parents and Aunt IS could’ve chosen one last meal in Shanghai, the majority of the group would’ve wanted to have one more breakfast at the Ramada.

Dad started with a savoury congee, with some salted egg, youtiao, and pickled veggies as condiments.

Dad’s second plate had some dumplings, youtiao, bread and an omelette.

My first plate was filled was familiar breakfast choices.

Mom had some toasted croissant with an over-easy egg, and a bunch of other pastries. She put the croissant through the toaster but it got stuck, hence the burnt top.

I filled up with a bowl of wonton soup. The wonton soup wasn’t as good as the bowl I had in Nanjing, but it was comforting nonetheless.

Mom and Dad were eager to eat the steamed custard buns again. They had been dreaming about them since the first breakfast.

The filling was apparently different from the first time. Mom and Dad were disappointed, but they still enjoyed these with a slight smile.

There were salted egg yolks in the egg custard. I tried a bite but since I didn’t try any on the first morning, I had nothing to compare it to. Still, these were on a different level than the stuff we get in Ottawa and Toronto, where the filling is a fully cooked paste.

After breakfast, we grabbed our luggage and boarded the tour bus one last time. Our friends from Connecticut and America also joined us on the bus. Although they left on different flights, it made the ride to the airport much easier.

While on the long flight back home, I could’ve help but think about how much we saw and how much we experienced in the past month. I knew I was lucky to have travelled around Asia with little health issues, Mom made sure to remind me (she still does). Believe me, I know I’m lucky. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the chance to travel overseas again, but I’ll die happy knowing that I have already done so.

These are a few of my favourite images from the trip. Some of them aren’t strong photography-wise, but I like them because of the story behind the pictures. I'll attach a link to the corresponding article which you can read under each of the images.

Breakfast in HK: Tsui Wah Restaurant

Our flight to Taiwan was scheduled to leave sometime after noon, so we had plenty of time to enjoy breakfast that wasn’t dim sum or smoked salmon – not that there was anything wrong with those two choices. We were brought to the Tsui Wah Restaurant. I hear it's a popular chain.

I’ve always seen restaurants offer Hong Kong breakfast fare, but I thought the restaurants just made it up. Take the macaroni soup with ham. Really? In Hong Kong?

Yes really. And of course HK has to take it another step and add in abalone. Hahaa!

Some of us had the macaroni soup set, while everyone else got the instant noodle one. Why I didn't try the macaroni soup is beyond me.

They used Nissin instant noodles. Yum! The tender satay beef didn’t taste like the satay I’m used to, which was a good thing. While I liked the mild satay flavour, Mom thought it wasn’t impressive. But that’s what I like about the Hong Kong style breakfast – it’s not that impressive. Okay, ignore the abalone in the macaroni soup.

Aunty had a lemon tea to drink. I chose milk tea. Mmm…. Milk tea.

Buttered toast with condensed milk? Okay! I was surprised I still had space in my stomach after finishing my over easy eggs, toast and bowl of instant noodles. The milk tea helped everything go down easily. I wished that I could've had another cup of milk tea to enjoy on the car ride to the airport, but that was just being greedy.

For the bill, we were able to pay it off with our transit cards. The staff didn’t accept them at first. They explained that the payments couldn’t be split between the cards. After we pleaded our case, one of the managers reluctantly accepted and swiftly left the scene.

On the drive to the airport, the blue skies and bright sun beamed happily. I couldn’t wipe my smile off my face. I knew how lucky I was; being able to travel overseas and experience the things we did without my health becoming an issue.

This also made me smile. I’ve seen signs that warned drivers of deer, moose, ducks, and turtles, but cattle on a highway?


<<
Sportful Garden Restaurant and The Peak Tower

>> Arriving in Taiwan
Seafood Dinner in Taipei, Taiwan
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More links from the Tea in Asia 2011 trip:

• Arriving in HK: Hello from Hong Kong!
• Day Trip to Macau: Window Shopping in Macau
• Arriving in Guilin, China: Breakfast and Tea Tasting
• Arriving in Shanghai: Muslim Restaurant

Sportful Garden Restaurant and The Peak Tower

Our last full day in Hong Kong had arrived. There was one last thing we needed to see. The Peak Tower.

Before we headed out to the ride the Peak Tram up, we had baguettes with smoked salmon and smoked cheese for breakfast – again. What an awesome breakfast!

We also bought a few baked items from a pastry store that was located in a subway station. They were paid for using our prepaid (Octopus) transit cards, too!

This was the chocolate flavoured one. All of the innards were chewy. It reminded me of the deep fried sticky glutinous rice dumplings that can be found on the dim sum carts – the one that’s football shaped. I found all of the flavours underwhelming, but they tasted great with a cup of coffee.

It was a light breakfast that gave us just enough energy to pack our things for Taiwan.

Aunty wanted to take us out to try some expensive dim sum. I though the stuff we ate the previous trips were expensive. Not so.

Ngong Ping, Tian Tan Buddha, Dai Pai Dong

Warning: Your computer might implode from all of these photos. Continue at your own risk.
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It was our second last day in Hong Kong before leaving to Taiwan. We had a few more things we wanted to do before departing. One of them included going to see the Tian Tan Buddha.

We luckily bought our cable car tickets ahead of time, because there was a very long line up that snaked from the parking lot to the counter. We were able to bypass the other tourists and ride the cable car in under ten minutes.

Lots of floating bubbles greeted us as we got off and walked through a gift shop.

As we walked through the Ngong Ping 360 area, we found a wishing tree hiding behind a sign. I had to take a picture of a few of the wishes.

This was probably written by someone who was Chinese (and not because of the writing on the sides of the paper).

This by someone who was probably North American.

And whoever wrote this was probably a hippie. Just kidding.

As we walked towards to Tian Tan Buddha, there were a few restaurants along the road. There were plenty of stores too. Not only were there a lot of tourists, but also stray dogs.

Just as the road opens up, I spotted a small stand that was selling the Hong Kong style egg waffles. There was one on the cooling rack, but I didn’t know when it was made. So I just asked the lady if she could make me a fresh one. She gave me a smile and a nod.

She turned on the gas and the small pink fan to warm up the charcoals. Next, she heated the metal waffle iron.

The batter was poured on the hot waffle iron and then it was flipped over.

No, no, no… Don’t even think about eyeing my waffle.

The sweet fragrant smell of vanilla filled the air as the waffle continued to cook. It definitely reminded me of Toronto’s Chinatown.

My waffle was set down on the cooling rack for a bit. The lady fanned it while chatting on her cell phone and then tossed my waffle in a paper bag.

I retreated to sit down nearby to enjoy my waffle. Some dogs tried to follow me, but I gave them an evil glare and they backed off. That’s right. Back off, get your own waffle!

As I enjoyed my freshly made Hong Kong style waffle, I watched a stray dog stalking two ladies. One lady stupidly threw some jerky away from them to try and get the dog off their trail. Genius. The stray dog just followed them even closer.

The two ladies tried to take touristy shots of one another, but the dog didn’t care. It just wanted more food. Then an older Chinese lady walked up to the dog and fed it crackers. She muttered something about how it was sad that the dogs were neglected and had to resort to begging and scavenging for food. Really lady? There’s a reason they’re roaming around freely. It has something to do with people feeding the dogs.

Anyway, I began to get irritated so I turned my attention to a gardener. I curiously watched the gardener worked on the bushes that lined the road. He just randomly picked off the leaves in no particular pattern. He walked to the back of the bushes, trimmed some leaves, and then came back to the edge of the road. Watching the indecisive gardener was amusing. I guess the bushes that lined the road needed a bit of trimming.

Check out what the gardener left behind.