A nice and cozy restaurant that the fennel bulbs would almost always come back to whenever they come to Hong Kong is Delicious Kitchen along Cleveland Street in Causeway Bay. It is located in a rather quiet neighborhood, lined with apartment buildings and some speciality boutiques. Delicious Kitchen serves Chinese food, and the menu is quite an eclectic mix of entrees, soups, and noodles. The cuisine is generally Chinese, but not restricted to Cantonese, as some entrees are Shanghai-style and Sichuan-style dishes.
Condiments are pickled cabbage which is a bit on the sweet side. They are served right after the orders have been taken. The dressing is most probably a mixture of vinegar, sugar, and sesame seeds. Acidity and sweetness are the dominant themes in this condiment, which can become quite addictive especially when one is already hungry!
A speciality of the restaurant is crispy fried dumplings. A majority of take-away orders for the restaurant are actually these fried dumplings, which are served with a sweet-spicy red dipping sauce. The wrappers are crisp and light and the filling is a very delicious mix of minced pork and some vegetables (scallions definitely included). Locals usually eat these with a big bowl of noodle soup or vegetable rice (tsoi fan) on the side.
The dish pictured above shows a plate of Nanking-style beef and vegetable rice. The beef has been softened but not to the point of becoming mushy. This preparation is typical of Nanking cuisine, where softening of meats is done quite often in a lot of dishes. The taste is rich and suggestive of a rich beef broth for the sauce.
The vegetable rice is also very flavorful, as the bok choy imparts a buttery flavor to the rice due to the steaming process. It is a very tasty bowl of rice indeed.
Another delicious treat is the Sichuan-style Chili Prawns. The prawns have been consistently of the same size, which is quite big and a bit tricky to eat with a pair of chopsticks as they do tend to slide off. The sauce is a delicious mix of chili and scallions, amongst other spices, and some peppers; its texture markedly made silky by the addition of starch. The taste is not overwhelmingly spicy, but just enough to tease the palate. A hint of sweetness further enhances the cravings.
Treats never seem to end at Delicious Kitchen. Another sumptuous dish is the beef tendons cooked on an earthen dish. The sauce is made from the juices of the tendons and perhaps the addition of stock. It is a bit sticky due to the consistency of the tendons' juices. Ginger is the dominant flavor in the sauce, though it does not overpower the dish.
Last but not the least is the restaurant's signature dish, pork chop rice. The picture above shows only some of the pork chop. The rice is exactly the same as the bowl of vegetable rice shown earlier. The meat is tender and tasty, and the breading is crunchy. The flavor is a blend of sweet and salty, somewhat like barbecue. This is comfort food at its best, and is by all means, the best-selling dish DelIcious Kitchen has to offer.
Prices are likewise affordable by Hong Kong standards. A meal for four hungry people sharing some viands would cost anywhere between HK$350 - HK$500. And this ends the fennel bulb's Hong Kong sampler of restaurants, at least for the time being.
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