Long Dinner

Have you ever had chinese food at a chinese restaurant that served better western fare than its chinese counterpart? If you consider Xin Wang (HK) Cafe to be a chinese restaurant, then I just did. Up till tonight I have had the opportunity to try its black pepper chicken chop with spaghetti, baked rice with fish and hot coconut. All of the above-mentioned dishes were fine; well, maybe the hot coconut was a tad expensive at $7.50.

My opinion of Xin Wang changed today when I tried the self-proclaimed famous Mongkok porridge (congee, actually): Century egg with tender meat (皮蛋瘦肉粥). The porridge came in a pot, served on a china plate, but the Mongkok-ness stops here. In it were three or four quarters of egg, with a few slices of hard pork, swimming in less-than-delicious porridge. For $7.50++ the portion or taste just couldn't make it. The chicken porridge/chicken rice/dessert stall at AMK Central hawker centre serves better chicken porridge at approximately $3.50 in a more generous portion with an additional fried dough fritter.

The Chocolate Apple Sensation (velvety chocolate cake served with two sour strawberries, 1x scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream) at Cafe Cartel is pretty chocolatey and there is the 50% discount for after-9pm desserts. The apple was hidden well and the dessert was much more chocolate than apple. Still, I don't have much affection for apples and like the dessert the way it is.

Was a pretty long affair and reached home at 0030.