Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 2

Lan Fong Yuen @ Tsim Sha Tsui
Image from Locky's English Playground

My quest in search for great Hong Kong-style French toasts continues as I found myself, my then-fiancee and 2 other students in one of the most renowned local cafeterias in Hong Kong, the Lan Fong Yuen's Tsim Sha Tsui underground branch.

Lan Fong Yuen made its name in the Central branch, offering a variety of Hong Kong-style food ranges from   milk tea, instant noodles and of course, the Hong Kong-style French toast. The branch in Central receives the most praises, but others seem up-to-par looking at the ratio of smileys and cries.

Image from Openrice

Now, I do really like the milk tea, smooth for sure, with an eventual rough texture in the mouth as the tea moved down the throat. I'm not too sure, maybe this is what people called 'layers", my students who suggested this place loves it. I personally prefer some consistency in the texture. But I must say my taste butts had targetted the toast long before the milk tea arrived, so I might be more / less fair to the milk tea.

Hong Kong-style French Toast with kaya @ Lan Fong Yuen
Image from Locky's English Playground

My first impression of the French toast was, Kaya? Isn't that a South-East Asian thing? Since when has this become a Hong Kong-style ingredient? Then when I looked at the rest of the menu and saw Macau's pork chop buns, I reckon sticking to the Hong Kong tradition isn't the motto of this cafe, so I shouldn't be asking too much.

What I like about the toast is that I finally get to have some golden syrup on it. It's something I consider a must-have in order to make it look attractive. I also like that there was no Kaya in it because I don't really like Kaya.

Kaya Ham on toast
Image from asiaathome

What I didn't like was that the Kaya was not apparent to my eyes on the dish but only on the bill. They should really just offer a cheaper non-Kaya version for me to order. The toast was made from two very thin slides of bread without the crust. The moment it gets cool, the toast started sinking in the middle and become one piece of flattened ... thing. As the thing started soaking up the buttery syrup, it gets soggy. Tastewise, okay, lookwise, nah!!!!

Compared to the Man Wah Restaurant's French toast, Lan Fong Yuen's French toast won by the use of golden syrup, lost by the overall appearance and texture. You can't even see those photos after being cut up because I didn't even bother to do so. That's how good it was.

Then again, you can say, French toast isn't the signature dish at Lan Fong Yuen. For that, my reply is... "oh well...."

Scores:

Look:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Taste:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Smell:            ★★★★☆ 4/5

Textures:       ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Temperature: ★★★★★ 5/5

Overall:         ★★★☆☆ 17/25

Vocabulary:
quest -- (n)[C] literary a long search for something that is difficult to find, or an attempt to achieve something difficult
be up-to-par -- to be of the usual or expected standard
Kaya -- is a food spread, a fruit curd in the general sense, consumed mainly in Southeast Asia and made from a base of coconut and sugar.
tastewise -- (adv) in terms of the taste
lookwise -- (adv) in terms of the look


Resources:
Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2012/12/food-search-for-great-french-toast-part.html


Lan Fong Yuen @ Openrice
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=36670&tc=bc

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/quest?q=quest
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/be-up-to-par?q=up+to+par#be-up-to-par__1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaya_(jam)#Malaysia_and_Singapore