NG = Nice Guy

This boy came to visit! This is still mind blowing for me haha. I've known this kid since childhood and we grew up down the street from each other.

Gosh, I think it's just been such a blessing how timely my paths have crossed with friends while abroad. I'm miles away from home but somehow I still get to see seven friends from America all the way in Asia (TW: Louis, Ben, HK: Louis again :p, Christian, Kong, Jack KR: Irving, Hac). This past weekend, my buddy Jack Ng (he's a nice guy and he's single ladies!) came to visit. Here's a snippet of our day and my food reviews:

Brunch before church!

When I go out to eat, I would Openrice (HK's equivalent to Yelp) restaurants but sometimes you just got to pick a random restaurant and go in blindly...usually you can't go terribly wrong in HK. HK Chinese food is all around rather decent even if the place isn't popping with crowds. I forgot the name of this restaurant but it's in Tsim Sha Tsui near the YMCA (where my church is: ECCHK). Their menu consisted of the staples: Congee, Noodle Soups, etc., but since Jack is such a flirt with the 姊姊 (ze2 ze2 Translates to: "Older Sister" but it's what you would call the older women in Cantonese...it's a slightly informal but flattering gesture) she ended up recommending the dish for for us: 牛腩. She was eating it herself at the table with us and told her she is the chef so we decided to give it a try.

牛腩 : Beef Brisket Dish consists of
坑腩: Boneless Short Rib
牛肚: Tripe (cow stomach)
牛筋: Beef Tendon

(Thank you to my roommate Amy for helping translate!)

Hands down one of my favourite Southern Chinese dishes...paired with a side of chili oil, I can stomach this any day. Hohoho.

Afterwards we went to church and met up with Celeste. After service, we went to Green Lounge for Breakfast Club's weekend tradition. I was still pretty full from our earlier meal but since there's always room for dessert...heh.

Classic Egg's Benedict

Celeste order the Classic Egg's Benedict. My review: From the bite I tried, it can be a satisfying light brunch time snack. The egg oozed out perfectly over the crisp warm toast. Olives are pair perfectly with the smoked salmon. Usually I would have capers with smoked salmons but sometimes it's a bit too salty so the olive was a more balanced pairing. I'm usually not a fan of Hollandaise sauce but this one wasn't too overwhelming. The hot Earl Grey tea was a nice palate cleanser.

Jack modeling the Instagram menu of their desserts. 

Irish Baileys Molten Cake w/ Vanilla Ice Cream

Breaking the mold.

More oozing. 

This type of dessert (molten cake) has been spammed all over my HK food related Instagram feed...time to finally try it!

My review: I wish the cake was a little hotter...well it probably was but cooled down because of all that wait time during its photoshoot ahhaha. The cake itself was a bit too mushy and wet (again maybe because I didn't eat it immediately). I would prefer a more solid crusting around it. I felt that the Bailey wasn't strong enough. I wish it had a little more bitterness of the alcohol, that way the sweetness of vanilla ice cream could be optimized. The wheat cereal flakes were a nice touch for texture. Overall...I think HKD 65 is overpriced for this dessert but maybe it's because preparation time is quite long.

The rest of the day was spent in Mong Kok looking for shoes and clothes for Jack. However it was a failed attempt because he didn't like any of the styles. We didn't have time to go to UNIQLO so Jack was a very sad child. Good thing ice cream heals all pain and sorrows.

Forgot to change my lighting setting... 

Hong Kong Soft Serve Ice Cream Truck...Jack says he's the Statue of Liberty

Although this weekend wasn't crazy packed with activities, it was really refreshing just to chill and catch up with Jack and update each other with our life happenings and our aspirations for the future and pursuing dreams and relationship advice (HAHA). We've all matured a bit and Jack could not have said this any better: "But I hope when I look back at myself from a year ago, I was such a sucky person compared to today." Haha, sorry I probably butchered your words of wisdom...I couldn't remember it verbatim, but it was deep man, deep. Hopefully I'll see you again in the next year and we can look back and see even more growth. Werk hard my friend and make yo mama proud. (& we're going to church again :p)

So here's a shameless plug for my homie King Jack, now known as MAYJACK:

Check out his beatzzz @ http://www.soundcloud.com/wjack

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& thanks again for visiting Jack and keeping me accountable to my Cantonese learning. I had set a goal to learn Cantonese this trip but I ended up losing sight of it somewhere along the way...probably overshadowed by all the food adventures and just not having confidence to speak up. I'll be composing a post about the status of my Cantonese...it has been a steep learning curve.