Food & Dining: Joy Hing Roasted Meat

Can it live up to its fame?
Image from Locky's English Playground

A friend of mine came to Hong Kong to visit me, specifically mentioned that he would be in Wan Chai and he wanted to try Siu Mei. So naturally, there is only one choice -- Joy Hing Roasted Meat.

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It was not exactly a long walk from the Wan Chai MTR station, but it was also not a short one in a hot stuffy summer day either. A portable air-conditioner will be a nice idea walking along Hennessy Road, but I'm waiting for a day when only electric cars rule the road.

Seated immediately
Image from Locky's English Playground

Once I learnt from a food review that as long as you don't speak the same the same dialect as all Hongkongers do, the staff will offer you a completely different menu with much much higher prices. My friend and I were like two lambs walking into a slaughter house asking for a meal, not knowing who the real victim is.

Chinese menus on the wall
Image from Locky's English Playground

With the menu up on the wall and staff who speak a little English, what can go wrong? Well, the thing is, my friend wanted to try out some goose, and what's the point of visiting a new restaurant if you are not going to try out their best food? So, I asked for a goose leg, the waitress said it would cost HK$80, and suggested a quarter of a goose for us instead at $100 while ordering a trio-meat set from the menu. Since it sounds like a reasonable choice, we took up the offer.

Roasted goose!!!!
Image from Locky's English Playground

All the orders basically came pretty much at the same time, but honestly speaking, none of the food came at a reasonably hot temperature. The roasted goose quarter tasted amazing despite the temperature!!! It was tender, juicy, your know, the usual good words for meat, but it is among the best goose legs I have ever tried! Premium price for the (1/4) premium bird ?

With that said, let's not forget the word "among" in my line "among the best", so I must compare this with that from Tai Hing, the once-Locky's canteen before they up the price by 30%.

Still, if you want a full goose leg set with rice, vegetables and soup / drink,  it will cost you around HK$80, not the cheapest of course, but cheaPER when compared to Joy Hing, let alone the food being definitely hotter. I'm gonna give the roasted goose quarter an individual score. The look is fantastic and the meat is nicely chopped. The taste was rich and goosey (hold on, was that really goose or duck? I'm starting to think that I have been cheated). Not much of a smell because it wasn't hot enough to present its aroma, meat was exactly the way you would expect from a good bird -- crispy skin, juicy fat then tender meat. Here's the overall score.

Scores:

Look:            ★★★★★ 5/5

Taste:            ★★★★★ 5/5

Smell:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Textures:       ★★★★★ 5/5

Temperature: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Overall:         ★★★★☆ 20/25

er.......
Image from Locky's English Playground

What is really unusual is the quality of this meaty plate, with roasted pork, soy sauce chicken wing and cha siu. Unusual in what way? Unusually poor! The cha siu was inedibly tough even for someone with perfectly healthy teeth, the chicken wings were skinny, bony, and stingy in amount. The roasted pork was already the best, but it came nothing close to those from Wah Fung at all! For HK$40, maybe this is what you'll get, so here's my scores for this:


Scores:

Look:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Taste:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Smell:            ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Textures:       ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Temperature: ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Overall:         ★★★☆☆ 14/25

My advice is, if you are looking for a good place for siu mei, you don't need Joy Hing, try the other two I have recommended before, links are in the Resources below.


Resources:
Food and Restaurant: Tai Hing @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2010/05/food-and-restaurant-tai-hing.html

Food & Dining: Wah Fung Since 1941 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/04/food-dining-wah-fung-since-1941.html

Living & Photography: China-made Cheap But Not Tacky ND Filters From Taobao

Image from Locky's English Playground

Sometimes, it take quite a bit of courage to buy something from Taobao, mainly due to the not-so-cheap postage. This is particularly true if you are trying to buy a number of different products from different suppliers, which is why I will try to buy all I need from just one. It is easier said than done of course, since I can't buy photography gear and a glass tea set from the same supplier, so usually, I will just choose the most essential product to buy from a list of many, and then tell myself to forget about the rest. Often, this strategy helps me save lots of money.

This time round because I broke my 77mm UV lens filter in a lens drop incident at waist height, I need to buy a replacement. Since that broken UV filter cost over $100 and it is of little photographic use other than protection, it would be silly to buy the same one again. If I have to buy, I thought to myself, I will buy an ND filter.

Background photo taken using welding glass
Image from Locky's English Playground & Locky's E.P. @ Digitalrev

ND filters are great tools for photography as I have mentioned several times before (see Photography: Welding Glass Photography (WGP) Result 2012 and Photography: ND Filters & Photography for details), but they can do quite a bit of damage to your wallet, thus Taobao came to my mind once more.

Image from Taobao

Just typed "ND" in the search bar and I easily got hundreds of shops offering ND filters. My budget helped me narrow the search down to about 5 and after comparing the price-cum-postage I decided to buy from this shop.

Image from Locky's English Playground

From the shop, I picked 77mm ND2, 77mm ND4 and 77mm Variable ND2-400. The earlier two costs RMB 24 and the last one costs RMB 105. Why did I buy three filters? Simply because it costs the same postage of RMB 30 for one item or ten, so I might as well buy more. Then why didn't I buy more? I tried to ask my friends if they wanted to give the ND filters a go but they were worried about the quality of the filters so they told me to be the guinea pig first. I guess those RMB 24 is probably too much for them to lose.

Anyway, I must say I am very pleased with the fact that these filters are glass, not plastic, it has a bit of weight which I like, and the build quality is pretty sturdy good.

Image from Learning DSLR Video

As for the quality, well, hard to say from my limited knowledge, so I try to read up on it. I find this website pretty informative.

I must say, I have no plan to do all the tests, but I did try out the sharpness as well as the Big X test. It happens that on the 22nd this month (Wednesday), there was a black rainstorm signal and so I earned an afternoon off. I was woken up by the thunder and lightning at 4:30am and immediately I took out my 7D and  went to the living room to try to take photos of the lightning. What was sad was the only hit I got of an actual lightning bolt was taken at the moment before I remembered to set the lens to infinity.

A lightning bolt, that only a good-eyesight person can see
Image from Locky's English Playground

So, for the next 3 hours, I was basically sitting there taking hundreds of 30 seconds long exposure photos using my ND filters.

Taken with ND 4 filter for 30 seconds at 5:33am
Image from Locky's English Playground

Basically, non-variable ND Filters do no produce that big X, and the photos captured were quite nice.

However, when sun began to rise, I had to put my ND 2, ND4 and my ND 2-400 all together to get the sky dark enough, and that's when the big X appeared.

Taken with ND2, 4 and 2-400 filters for 30 seconds at 6:32am
Image from Locky's English Playground

Taken with ND2, 4 and 2-400 filters for 30 seconds at 6:33am
Image from Locky's English Playground

Taken with ND2, 4 and 2-400 filters for 30 seconds at 6:36am
Image from Locky's English Playground

Of course, you are not advised to combine your ND filters like I do, cos even if you can get your shots, they will be either very noisy or very blur. What I did was because I had no choice and I was so desperately trying to get at least one shot of the lightning, so...

Overall, if you are not in need of a super dark ND filter, these cheap ND filters from Taobao are great at their prices. The build quality is not bad and they do their job alright. If you are super tight on your budget and you are adventurous enough to try out new things, do see the links below if you are interested.

Welding Glass installed on the mask
Image from Wikipedia

But of course, if you wanna take long exposure photos in bright daylight for more than 30 seconds, remember that welding glass is still your best friend.

For more references, do visit the links down below.


Vocabulary:
postage -- (n) [U] the money that you pay for sending letters and parcels through the post:
easier said than done -- informal said when something seems like a good idea but it would be difficult to do:
guinea pig -- (n)[C] a person used in a scientific test, usually to discover the effect of a drug on humans:
sturdy -- (adj) physically strong and solid or thick, and therefore unlikely to break or be hurt:


Resources:
Travelling & Living: Patong Beach VS Kamala Beach (Why Patong Beach Is Overrated) @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/03/travelling-living-patong-beach-vs.html

Technology: My First Galaxy S2 Surgery -- Sea Water Damage S2 Fixed!! @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/02/technology-my-first-galaxy-s2-surgery.html

Photography: Welding Glass Photography (WGP) Result 2012
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/05/photography-welding-glass-photography.html

Photography: ND Filters & Photography
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/02/photography-nd-filters-photography.html

首頁-格林爾數碼器材專營店-- 淘寶網
http://shop72988993.taobao.com/shop/view_shop.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.5.iqsHfG&user_number_id=930897275

Variable ND Filter Shootout @ Learning DSLR Video
http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/variable-nd-filter-shootout/

Variable ND Filter Shootout - Polariod Genus Lightcraft Tiffen Singh-Ray Heliopan @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/nECdBiu5Rrw

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/postage?q=postage
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/easier-said-than-done?q=easier+said+than+done+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/guinea-pig_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/sturdy?q=sturdy

Drink, Health & Fitness: Caffeine -- How Much Is Too Much?

Who know what this is?
Image from Wikipedia

I admit, I'm addicted to DNews, if I don't watch it for a day, I'm lost, I can't concentrate. Does that make DNews a drug?

Well, of course not. I'm just addicted to the knowledge, but hey, there is something maybe both you and me are kind of addicted to already, and that thing is in tea, coffee, soft drinks, energy drinks and even chewing gums!

It's CAFFEINE!

Drinking coffee while writing this post
Image from Locky's English Playground

What? Caffeine is a drug? If it is, why are they so common? If it is, Starbucks is practically a pharmacy!

Well, denial is the longest river in the world. (The Nile ~ Denial? The Nile ~ Denial? The Nile ~ Denial?) Why don't you watch the following video first?

Here's a summary, caffeine can cause caffeine intoxication which can cause restlessness, nervousness, excitement, red faces,  gastrointestinal distress, muscle twitching, rambling speech, sleeplessness, rapid and irregular heartbeat.

After the caffeine wears off, caffeine withdrawal kicks in which can cause headaches, fatigue, difficulties concentrating and a depressed mood. Doctors say 500-600mg of caffeine can cause serious side effects.

Here's a list of common caffeine sources sorted in ascending amount of caffeine,

•   35mg of caffeine = a can of coke
•   75mg of caffeine = a shot of espresso
•   80mg of caffeine = a Red Bull
• 250mg of caffeine = a 12oz tall Starbucks coffee

Yeah, and I heard people say that after drinking Red Bull, they get that serious "Red Bull hangover", seems like Starbucks coffee is 3 times worse!!! (But how come I don't get these hangovers often?)

Caffeine is not all that bad considering it might lower the risk of prostate cancer, diabetes, liver diseases, Alzheimer's, stroke and Parkinson's disease. But, all these, might need further research to confirm. Should you not want to take any risk of being affected by the caffeine, yet still want to enjoy the taste and aroma of coffee, why not try decaf coffee?

So how is caffeine removed from from decaf coffee?

In short, there are the methylene chloride, ethyl acetate, carbon dioxide and water processing methods. None of these methods completely removes caffeine from the material but a decaf coffee in the United States should have less than 2.5% of the original caffeine content. Other places, no idea.

Whatever your choice is, take my advice, don't overdo anything, and you'll be okay.


Vocabulary:
caffeine intoxication -- (n)[U] A syndrome typically occurs only after ingestion of large amounts of caffeine, well over the amounts found in typical caffeinated beverages and caffeine tablets (e.g. more than 400–500 mg per at a time)
gastrointestinal distress -- (n)[U] including diarrhea, dyspepsia, and/or gastroenteritis
twitching -- (n)[U] a sudden small movement with a part of the body, usually without intending to:
rambling -- (adj) too long and confused:
wear off -- (phrasal vb) If a feeling or the effect of something wears off, it gradually disappears:
kick in -- informal  (phrasal vb) to start to have an effect or to happen:
fatigue -- (n)[U] formal extreme tiredness:
Red Bull hangover -- (n)[U] When you wake up really early the next morning and your heart is pounding because you drank so much Red Bull the night before.


Resources:
Caffeine @ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

EDITORIAL: Now, a war on caffeine @ The Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/8/now-a-war-on-caffeine/

DR. BETSY: How much caffeine is too much? @ Evansville Courier & Press
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/may/09/dr-betsy-how-much-caffeine-is-too-much/

Is Caffeine Making Us Crazy? @ YouTube
http://youtu.be/xngUYiht-hE

Medical & Drinks: Coffee seems to lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2011/05/medical-drinks-coffee-seems-to-lower.html

Health and Fitness: Healthy Coffee?? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2010/01/health-and-fitness-healthy-coffee.html

How Do You Decaffeinate Coffee and Tea? @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhAJ-zL5-QU&feature=share&list=UUiefLm_nIz_gOH7XHbgpdCQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine_intoxication#Caffeine_toxicity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAT_diet
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/twitch_1?q=twitching+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/rambling_1?q=rambling+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/wear-off?q=wear+off+-
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/kick-in?q=kick+in
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Red%20Bull%20hangover

News & People: Angelina Jolie's First Public Post-Double Mastectomy Appearance

It is indeed a very very brave act for Angelina Jolie to share her very private decision of  undergoing a double mastectomy in order to lower her chances of breast cancer after discovering she had inherited a risky cancer gene from her mum, who also suffered from breast cancer.

Overnight, the world has been awaken and awareness of genetic testing has gone sky-high. I dare say everyone around the world is more worried about Jolie than being nosey or fault-finding, which usually is. Today, she came out to meet the world for the first time after her surgery, and this is what she said,

What Jolie has done might have just saved thousands of women from death! She deserves our salute!

One thing's for sure, everyone now wishes Jolie great health and be able to grow old with her lovely family.

Vocabulary:

double mastectomy -- (n)[U] the medical term for the surgical removal of both breasts, partially or completely. 

sky-high -- (adv) To a very high level

nosey -- (adj) too interested in what other people are doing and wanting to discover too much about them:

salute -- (n)[C] a sign of respect made to someone by raising the right hand to the side of the head:

Resources:

Mastectomy @ Wikipedia 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastectomy

In Her Own Words: Angelina Jolie on Recent Life-Saving Decision @ YouTube

http://youtu.be/jAlLYFtQBds

Can a Double Mastectomy Really Prevent Cancer? @ YouTube

http://youtu.be/A0douHcJA08

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sky-high

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nosey

Food & Dining: BurgeRoom

Image from Locky's English Playground

McDonald's is cheap and convenient, but it will never be tied with the words "quality" or "taste". Unlike other countries, it is not easy to find a place with good burgers in Hong Kong. Luckily, fans of burgers now have a decent eatery to satisfy their taste buds, and that place is called BurgeRoom.

View Larger Map

I have already been here 3 to 4 times and every time I return home with a happy smile and a happy stomach.

The eatery is not too big, can only fit about 20 people in it at the same time, which is why there is always a queue outside. The normal waiting time for a seat is 20 minutes, and then another 15 minutes for the food to arrive after you order, so yes, the logistics are exactly top-notch, but if you are not in a hurry, it is not a big problem.

Posters outside the windows
Image from Locky's English Playground

While you are waiting outside, you are advised to pick the food you want such that you can place your order once you are lead to your table. Prices start from $80 and goes all the way up to $140 depending on how big your burger is and how expensive the ingredients are.

Menu
Image from Locky's English Playground

 If you managed to place your order before 2:30pm, you can order set lunches with fries and drinks.

Bottled drinks included in the lunch set
Image from Locky's English Playground

 My favourite so far is this portabello cheese burger, so huge, so 'fungally' juicy!

Potato rings with chedder cheese and portabello cheese burger
Image from Locky's English Playground

 It just looks too amazing not to take a view more photos from various angles.

Portabello cheese burger with ginger beer
Image from Locky's English Playground

 There is a kind of charm about the burgers that I still cannot describe fully, but I think, maybe,

Portabello cheese burger close up
Image from Locky's English Playground

 that this appearance of a burger was just too good to be true after years after years of mental bullying by the delicious-looking McDonald's burger posters and the cruel 'McReality'.

Sole finger burger with fries
Image from Locky's English Playground

As a child, I was taught by the McPhilosophy that "what you see is not what you get", or even, "what you see is barely 10% of what you get". But this burger from BurgeRoom, suddenly broke this "law of nature"!

A dissection of the sole finger burger with fries
Image from Locky's English Playground

Their à la carte burgers are massive in size but they are absolute beauties!

Foie Gras Beef Burger with Fried Egg
Image from BurgeRoom

The last time I went with my wife we managed to try out the tea time set which begins serving at 2:30pm. We added $10 extra for the bottled drinks.

Image from Locky's English Playground

the burgers are about 50% of the original, but the price too is halved. Quality-wise, the burgers are just as fresh, beefy and juicy.

Mini class burger with potato wedges
Image from Locky's English Playground

It was BurgeRoom that first gave me the experience of having the juice of beef in the mouth with every bite, a feeling that I can never enjoy from eating any burgers from any fast food chains in Hong Kong. It's just not possible! But here in BurgeRoom, it's real!

Mini class burger
Image from Locky's English Playground

The look of the burgers is a joy to behold, simply because what you see from the posters is what you get. There is no cheating, no faking, no lies, just the simple truth. You might get something that is not shown on the posters too, that is the heat and smoke coming out from the freshly fried burger meat!

Mini sole fish burger (left) and mini clasic burger (right)
Image from Locky's English Playground

At $45 each, you get a set that is big enough for a lunch for an average lady in Hong Kong. For an average man, a tea set is a tea set, but the lunch set is surely enough to fully fill your stomach.

Image from Locky's English Playground

After trying the burgers at BurgeRoom, I have fell in love with that rich taste of beef patty, so I went to AEON supermarket, previously known as JUSCO, to buy some Japanese Wagyu patties and make my own burgers. At $80 for 3, the Wagyu patties beat BurgeRoom's patties quite a bit in taste! Since my standard has gone up, I cannot give BurgeRoom the full mark for taste, but it's not far from it.

Wagyu patties from AEON
Image from Locky's English Playground

Definitely give it a go if you have time, I mean, lots of waiting time!


Scores:

Look:            ★★★★★ 5/5

Taste:            ★★★★☆ 4/5

Smell:            ★★★★☆ 4/5

Textures:       ★★★★★ 5/5

Temperature: ★★★★★ 5/5

Overall:         ★★★★★ 23/25

Vocabulary:
eatery -- (n)[C] informal a restaurant:
logistics -- (n)[plural] the careful organization of a complicated activity so that it happens in a successful and effective way:
top-notch -- (adj) informal excellent:
'fungally' -- (adv) a word created by Locky, from the adjective 'fungal', related to fungus.
'McReality' -- (n)[U] a word created by Locky, the disappointing reality presented by the McBurgers after looking at the posters and at the actual burgers.
à la carte -- (adj) [before noun] If you eat à la carte, you choose each dish from a separate list instead of eating a fixed combination of dishes at a fixed price:
behold -- (vb) [T]  old use or literary to see or look at someone or something:
patty -- (n)[C] a piece of food made into a disc shape that is then cooked:
Wagyu -- (n) refers to several breeds of cattle, the most famous of which is genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.


Resources:

BurgeRoom @ Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/BurgeRoom/29807994937?fref=ts

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/eatery?q=eatery
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/logistics?q=logistic
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/top-notch?q=top-notch
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/a-la-carte?q=%C3%A0+la+carte
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/behold?q=behold
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/patty?q=patty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu

Food & Dining: Lan Fong Yuen

Image from allabouthongkong

The lengthy queue outside Lan Fong Yuen is one thing, the taste of the food is another thing. Some say that if a restaurant is popular enough, there is surely something great about it. As for this Lan Fong Yuen, I don't see how this statement makes any sense.

Packed with people
Image from Locky's English Playground

Maybe that rule only applies to restaurants and not Bing Sutt, or maybe it is just the price that attracts people, for less than $50, you can have a meal that is enough for an average office lady, but other than that, I really cannot find another explanation why there are so many people in this place.

Owner is an Alan Tam die-hard fan
Image from Locky's English Playground

Are they all serious fans of Alan Tam? Well, I'm not for sure.

Iced milk tea
Image from Locky's English Playground

For about $50 dollars, you can order a lunch set with iced milk tea, which is literally ice + milk + tea. How was the taste? I can't even remember it, this is how good it tasted. I have seen the milk-tea-ice cube that is provided at the branch in Tsim Sha Tsui when I tasted their Kaya Hong Kong-style French toast, but that didn't show up in my cup.

Spicy pork cubes (from can food), 3 chicken wings, a fried egg and noodles
Image from Locky's English Playground

I ordered spicy pork cubes (from can food), 3 chicken wings, a fried egg with noodles while my wife ordered chicken chop with noodles.

Image from Locky's English Playground

The look, looks like a world of mismatch has fallen upon the plates, it doesn't take a genius to see that they don't go well with each other. The taste, plain as water. The texture, well, I do know I was eating meat, so that's not bad, the spicy pork cubes freshly out from the can earned back a star, but the rest are mediocre.

So really, unless you want to experience the unexperienced, or you are a person who prefer retro style and have the ability to ignore food quality, then Lan Fong Yuen will be fine for you.

Will I ever return? I guess not. I've already given it two chances, and I have earned nothing but disappointments and some photos of Alan Tam album covers.

PS: the price of the food has gone up by 3 to 4-folds, as indicated by the old magazines stuck on the wall.


Scores:

Look:            ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Taste:            ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Smell:            ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5

Textures:       ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Temperature: ★★★☆☆ 3/5

Overall:         ★★☆☆☆ 10/25

Vocabulary:
Bing Sutt -- (n)[U] provides a lighter and more limited selection of food than cha chaan teng
mismatch -- (n)[C] an occasion when people or things are put together that are not suitable for each other:
mediocre -- (adj) disapproving not very good
retro -- (adj) imilar to styles, fashions, etc. from the past:
four-folds -- (n) 4 times

Resources:
Hong Kong's best bing sutt: Guide to old-school diners @ CNN
http://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/none/bing-sutt-588428

Lan Fong Yuen @ Openrice
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=1814&tc=bc

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 2 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/01/food-search-for-great-hong-kong-style.html

Bing Sutt @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Sutt#Variations

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mismatch_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/mediocre?q=mediocre
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/retro_1?q=retro