We're back! We're back! And at Yat Lok too!

Yup, we're back! We're sorry it's taken so long but a lot has happened since our last post in 2012. The biggest of which was Jess' return home from London - yay! Life gets a little too busy and we struggled to find the time to blog but we kept saying we'd get back to it and we've finally done it! We may no longer be on opposites of the globe but we still want to share all the great food we eat here in Sydney and on our travels around the world. Our posts won't be so lengthy but hopefully more frequent :)

To continue the theme of returns, this post is about our favourite place to eat goose in Hong Kong - Yat Lok. Because one can't help but return to Yat Lok over and over again just to eat the glorious goose. It's on the Hong Kong Michelin Guide's "Bib Gourmand" list but that's not what took us there. It was Jess who stumbled across it by chance and thought it looked like a place we needed to try. She was right too! So tasty and perfectly cooked, even better if you can get your jaws on a prized goose leg. So tasty that Jack ate there twice in one week on her first ever trip to Hong Kong last year. So tasty that when were in Hong Kong for a week in March we ate there thrice!

It's only a small place in Central so weekday lunchtime gets busy - try to eat outside of these times to avoid the lines and to have a more relaxed meal. Apparently the char siu (bbq pork) is good too but somehow we didn't try it as roast goose trumps pork any day!

Spot the difference - "off peak" vs the tail end of weekday lunch. Love the big chopping board!

Roast goose leg with rice noodles - this is Yat Lok's signature dish and rightly so

Why hello there!

Half a roast goose makes for a delicious lunch for 3

Jess' last goose before leaving Hong Kong - roast goose on rice

Jack's last goose before leaving Hong Kong - goose leg and milk tea - yum!

What: Yat Lok Restaurant
Where: G/F, 34-38 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong (we found exit D2 from Central station the easiest).
When: Mon-Sat 8am-9pm, Sun and pub hols 9am-5:30pm. From what we can tell bbq meats aren't available til 11am.
How much: Roast goose leg with rice noodles $69hkd, less for non-leg pieces.

Yakiniku Kashiwa

Aki's birthday was two months ago so this post has been waiting to be written for a while. A little bit like how I first read about this on hungry.digital.elf back in January 2010 and just knew I had to come and eat here. Yes - it took a while!

I was the last to arrive as I had been trying to find parking (parking at dinner time in Crows Nest is like winning the lottery). So the dishes had already been chosen and it was just a matter of waiting to eat! First they brought out the 'pots' of charcoal and placed them underneath the big exhaust pipes and just by looking at this we knew we were in for good bbq. You just can't go past real charcoal in my opinion.

Wagyu beef rib ($9.80) is tender and juicy just as the menu promises. The marinade is tasty as well, I find that I don't need to add any more sauce once it's been bbq-ed. Ox tongue ($9.80) is sliced thinly and good quality - so good that we order a second serve later on Apparently tongue is cholestorol-free so that means I can eat as much as I like without feeling guilty!

Wagyu beef rib - YUM! Ready to bbq, guilt-free ox tongue!

LA Short Rib (I think? I can't remember the price either) is good too, it comes in slightly thicker slices with a sliver of bone. There's a detour from cooking in the form of yukke, raw beef strips mixed with an egg yolk and sauce which is refreshing although aki and I eat most of it as not everyone is keen on raw beef.


LA Short Rib (i think), cooked meat on the grill, raw meat in beef yukke.

For non-beef dishes we had chicken thigh fillet ($8.80) which was juicy but well, it's chicken and nothing to get too excited about when there's.... pork neck! This came out to the table and I had been manning the tongs at the time. By the time I was ready to take a photo half the pork was already sitting on the bbq mesh! Pork neck ($9.80) is a fatty and juicy cut of meat so it cooked up really nicely. And we better not forget about the plate of vegies ($7.80) which was OK but nothing too exciting. BBQ cabbage? Can't say I'd ever had that before, but hey each to their own.

Chicken thigh fillet is juicy, vegies are alright (cabbage?) and gloriously fatty pork neck.

Corn (can't remember the price sorry) came in a little metal dish with a few slices of butter which is pretty cool but I didn't get to taste it, it wasn't a huge serve and we only ordered one.


Corn and butter, more ox tongue, the pork neck is on fire! Save the pork neck!

Last but not least. The waiter said that if we were bbq fans then we should try the 'Pork Tube' ($8.80). It's pork intestines cut into short little sections. I love the name! The consensus down our end of the table was that it was a bit chewy. But the other end said it was OK, maybe we weren't cooking our ones right. I'd be willing to try it again, along with all the other meats we didn't get to try. I liked that the serves are smaller portions with a proportionate price tag as it means you can try a lot of different menu items without getting a meat coma.


Pork tube, cute name but it was too chewy. I'm going to cook it right next time!

 
I should have come sooner. It's even better than I hoped and already I can't wait to go back again. But I really enjoyed trying it out for the first time with my Supper group friends as we always have a great time trying out new goods together. Aki - I hope you had a great birthday my friend!
 
What: Yakiniku Kashiwa
Where: 7A Falcon Street, Crows Nest. Check their website for phone number/opening hours and menu
How much: Meats are around $10 a plate