oh that piece keeps on going.

(upbeat music)

- Good morning everyone it's Mark Wiens

with migrationology.com in Hong Kong.

I just took the metro to Sham Shui Po

and on our way to have a quick breakfast this morning.

(upbeat music)

(customers chatting)

- Only one.

- [Mark] Scrambled egg beef sandwich for one

and then lemon tea and coffee.

This is a classic and they serve a number

of my tea has just arrived.

It was just about a five minute walk

from the metro station and this place is famous

for their breakfast especially their sandwiches.

So we came here to have a tea and a sandwich

and it's kind of right within a market area

and luckily there was a table right in the back

with available seats.

My tea and sandwich came out literally seconds

after ordering and this is one of my beverages

of choice in Hong Kong which is a lemon tea.

I love how they just slice up,

that's at least half a lemon just sliced up

and put into a cup of dark black tea,

and what you do, if you really squish down

that lemon, release all of that lemon juice

and that lemon peel, get all of that goodness out of there

into the tea and then I think a lot

of people would add sugar to this,

but I like it just black tea, no sugar,

and just that strong lemon.

(gasps)

Oh that'll wake you up in the morning.

Oh that's sour, really really sour!

It will almost make you squint

and then it's really strong black tea that,

yeah, it's delicious and it's so soothing

on the throat.

The main thing I came to eat here though is the toasted beef

and egg sandwich and again, this came out

literally in like seconds.

Let's take a look inside.

I think it's like a oh, oh it looks awesome on the inside.

I wasn't expecting it to look that good on the inside.

There's minced meat, there's egg in here,

and then just toasted bread.

Oh that looks fantastic.

The beef is so tender and then just coat it in egg

and then with that white bread toast,

it has maybe a sesame oil flavor to it.

That is a very good delicious breakfast sandwich.

And I think it goes fantastic with lemon tea.

For my next half, I think I'm gonna bump up the taste level

by adding some of the chili oil to it,

but it is really good.

It's remarkably simple and good.

This is the chili oil that's used

for the noodles that they serve here,

but I'm gonna take advantage of it.

All right, I'll add maybe a bit more.

The dried chili oil maybe

and some kind of sesame oil or something.

Mm!

That steps up the level of flavor one more notch.

I don't need too much oil

but that dried chili is just stunning.

You just add it to that bite there.

I'm gonna put away the chili

before I consume the entire bottle.

This is like a five star omelet sandwich.

Thank you, thank you.

(people speaking in a foreign language)

The tea was good, but that beef egg sandwich

was the real reason that it was well worth coming here

so simple but so good, perfect amount of butter

and he whips up all the sandwiches

and cups out the tee

and the drinks from just a little tiny like kitchen

within the cafe and they have been doing it since 1968

and, yeah, just a classic little cafe in Hong Kong

and by the way they do also have bowls of noodles

and they have a pretty good selection

of different dishes on their menu but I just came

for that toasted beef and egg sandwich,

and I wasn't disappointed.

We are just walking around this market area.

There is a lot going on around here

and a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Ying is about to buy some more cherries.

(women speaking in foreign language)

We are coming in here to the fresh wet market now.

That is a lot of meat

and we're gonna just walk around here for a little while.

Oh there's seafood there's meat

and visiting fresh wet markets along with eating

is one of my favorite things to do when I travel.

(upbeat music)

You can get any type of food at this market

and we just passed through the meat and fish section,

seafood section, and now moving on.

Well lot's of tofu and preserved vegetables

and moving on into more of the fresh vegetable section.

There's some stalls that are so busy it's hard

to even get a glimpse of what they're selling.

So many people are fighting to get the fish and the meat.

(upbeat music)

It's starting to drizzle again this morning.

It's been very rainy so far this trip to Hong Kong

but it doesn't look like it's gonna rain too much today.

We are walking over to a place now to eat noodles.

I don't know a whole lot about this restaurant

but when I was doing research

for where to eat won ton noodles,

I came across this place and what I like about it

is that they still made the noodles using a bamboo pole

to press the dough, and so I'm hoping

that I'm gonna get a chance to see them making the noodles,

not fully sure but gonna go check it out and see.

(men speaking in foreign language)

We made it to the restaurant just as they opened

and this restaurant has an interesting story.

It's actually a newly opened restaurant in 2010,

but the owner got his recipe for making the noodles

from his grandfather who had a restaurant

or a shop in Macau and made the traditional style noodles

and kneaded the dough with a bamboo pole

and so they still make the noodles the traditional way here

and unfortunately, I don't think I'm gonna have a chance

to see them making the noodles,

but they have a room in the front

you can see the bamboo poles.

So when they still need to make noodles,

they still make them that way,

and so I'll have a chance to try the noodles

but maybe not see them being made.

Ying and I got two different dishes to share

and they have come out.

They look fantastic and these are bamboo kneaded noodles.

This is the classic bowl of won ton on noodles with soup

and shrimp dumpling.

Let me just taste the broth first.

(slurps)

Mm!

Oh that is a richly flavorful broth.

I think it's fish based broth

and then you can taste kind of like the flower

of the noodles within there are well.

Grab chop sticks and before doing any seasoning,

I just gotta taste those noodles.

And this is very light and you can just see the beauty

of these noodles.

Yeah, look at that individual-ness of the...

(laughs)

Okay, I don't know if that made any sense,

but they do look good.

Mm!

It has like a little bit of a rubbery texture to them

but then at the same time they chew very easily

and just sort of like almost dissolve in your mouth.

Mm!

It's awesome, like a slight rubbery al dente,

not really al dente more of like a very tiny elasticity

like almost like your chewing on a rubber band,

but then it just breaks.

Probably go for one of the won ton.

Mm!

Filled with shrimp!

Oh that's delicious.

The owner said he used the dry chili oil for the soup

and then there's a different chili sauce

for the other noodle.

Okay let me add some of this chili.

This is the dry chili oil.

Oh this looks fantastic.

Oh and that smells just so good.

I'll just add a little bit to start with.

(customers speaking in foreign language)

Mix this around, oh oh yes.

Follow that with some soup.

Mm!

That adds some nice heat to it

and then I can feel that chili oil down my throat.

Oh that's a wonderful burn.

The texture of those noodles is amazing.

It really has a little like rubbery factor to it,

but it's fantastic.

They're bouncy, that's what they are, they're bouncy

and this has probably gotten a little bit dried out.

These are like tossed noodles

so I'm gonna re-toss them a little bit

and this is with beef brisket.

Oh, you can immediately smell that like braised aroma

to that brisket.

Now let me just taste a few strands of noodle

before adding anything again.

There's just a very light sauce to it.

The bounciness and they don't really have a strong

like starchy taste to them,

and then he gave me some of this chili sauce

to add to these noodles he said.

I'm gonna scoop it on, or maybe wipe it all out.

I didn't want any of it to go to waste.

All right, toss them up a bit

and on the noodles, it's just a very light glaze

but I think it's some of the broth from

that beef brisket has a beefy,

a very light beefy taste to it.

That chili sauce is a little bit sour

and it has like an amazing like almost nutty flavor to it.

And it's a little bit spicy.

Oh yeah, that is tender indeed,

and it has that wonderful like star anise flavor to it.

It is, that's good.

I'm really enjoying these noodles,

but I really love this soup.

Oh man it is so good.

(slurping)

(man speaking in foreign language)

But normally it's every day.

- Uh, not every day, maybe three or four times a week.

- Oh okay, but all of the noodles

are made with the bamboo pole?

- Yes.

- All right, thank you.

Those were some serious good quality noodles.

I enjoyed that and I was just talking with the owner,

he said that all of the noodles that you'll eat at the shop

are all made with the traditional way, using the bamboo

to knead the dough, but if you come,

he said about three or four times per week

they make the noodles and sometime in the afternoon.

So if you are lucky not only will you get to eat the noodles

but also see them being made.

And also I should just quickly mention that the bamboo pole

kneading method for noodles is becoming very very rare.

It is a traditional way to make noodles

and it's very very hard to find these days in Hong Kong.

We're heading to the subway station

and going down a couple stops to Mong Kok.

(carefree music)

This is one of the busiest areas of Hong Kong,

a big shopping area.

The streets are just clogged with signs and stores

and lots and lots of people.

One of the things that's just crazy about this area

of Hong Kong is the signage.

There are so many billboards and so many signs