Noodle Frenzy

It's impossible to go to Hong Kong and not eat your body weight in noodles. Frankly, I'd be seriously disappointed if I didn't do so. A favourite of mine is ngau lam ho fun, or beef brisket soup noodles, the wide flat rice ones. I was encouraged to visit Kau Kee for a decent version; at 7pm on a Saturday night, they had sadly run out of ho fun. Vermicelli noodles made a good enough substitute. The beef was tender, strands falling apart and the curry soup broth rich and oily. Pieces of beef tendon gave a good squidgy texture contrast. For roughly £4 with a milk tea it was terribly good value.

Kau Kee

G/F, 21 Gough Street
Central



This particular noodle place was located right opposite our hotel in Western, on Centre Street. I don't have the exact address (I'm guessing it's 6 - 14 by the sign above) but it was newly opened. We popped in for breakfast. The menu is dedicated to noodle soups; pork, beef or fish. Our waitress told us they were famous for the pork, so I elected to have ho fun with pork lung, heart, tongue and intestine (no liver please), topped with some seaweed. The broth was light, the meats giving a great textures of chewiness with the slippery ho fun. A fine breakfast. A side portion of crispy fish skin was really moreish; the pieces crackled in the soup to soften slightly. Squid balls, fish cake and fish won ton were equally excellent; great, bouncy textures. Since returning I've found my bowl of muesli, eaten al desko, to be a tear-inducing bump back to reality when compared with this.

We had this dish a couple of times, it's quite common. Cold shredded chicken atop cold rice noodles in a peanut sauce. Cooling, creamy and light.

More beef, this time at Mak's Noodle. Tendon and brisket again, the brisket with some excellent prawn wontons. Silky skins and packed full of the seafood, they seemed a touch incongruous with the beef but still went well together. We also ordered a dish of noodles sprinkled with prawn roe; served with a little bowl of soup to moisten it, it was so tasty. Very prawny and the noodles were wonderfully springy and elastic. It was a messy business eating it all - in fact, all noodle soups are, and I came back with a suitcase full of soup-splattered clothes.

Mak's Noodle

G/F, 77 Wellington Street,
Lan Kwai Fong,
Central