This is my last Hong Kong post and it begins with my former roommates Bernard and Juliana, along with their son Liam meeting my son and I after we checked in at the Airport Express in Central to have a final meal with us.
If you’ve never been to Hong Kong, you won’t know that there are spots set up in convenient areas everywhere on the territory where you can check-in your luggage and get your boarding passes on the day of your travel. Your luggage then is transported to the airport while you can go about your day in a leisurely manner. And when you’re ready to head out to the airport, you hop on the Airport Express, the highly efficient subway system which takes about 20 minutes to get you from Central Station to Chek Lap Kok airport.
After we checked in, we met the O’Driscoll family at Crystal Jade which is located directly above the check in at IFC. There was a bit of a wait, but we were still waiting for them to arrive, so I put our name down and as luck would have it, were given a table about a minute after they got there.
The restaurant serves Shanghainese food so to speak. It is essentially a “mian shir” restaurant — serving “doughy” products, or, a high carb meal. This always seems to delight the children for some reason but I guess carbs are beloved by all.
We started off with Vegetarian Rolls (HK$48/US$6.15) which were really good. The crispy exterior of the dried tofu sheets with the myriad of shredded vegetables were absolutely delicious.
Xiao Long Bao (HK$30/US$3.85) were decent and my son enjoyed them immensely.
The little fried buns called Sang Tseen Bao (US$26/US$3.35) were perfectly fluffy on the top with the crunchy bottom and a nice pocket of ground pork filling inside. I like how they weren’t too heavy on the bun with a good amount of moist filling.
Stir Fried Rice Cake (HK$62/US$7.95) is a Shanghainese dish I cook often at home and most of the time, I’m not happy with what I get at a restaurant. Here, they did it the right way, with dark soy and tons of vegetables.
Soup Noodles with Pork Chops (HK$48/US$6.15) were a bit strange. The noodles were nicely al dente, but the pork chops had to much coating and tasted very westernized to me.
My favorite dish was the Twice Cooked Pork (HK$62/US$7.95) which had thin slices of poached pork belly stir fried in a thick, spicy sweet sauce with vegetables. This is served with flour pancakes which you wrap the pork with and eaten like a little parcel.
Amaranth with Broad Beans HK$52/US$6.70) was surprisingly good. Amaranth is one of my favorite vegetables but I’ve never had it cooked with broad beans before. Note to self — try to make this when you get home!! The veggies were tender and the broad beans added a different textural component to the dish.
Vegetarian Steam Dumplings (HK$24/US$3) were beautifully prepared with a light wrapper and a nice pocket of chopped vegetables inside. I could’ve eaten more, but we were already pretty full by now.
The kids got an order of Fried Rolls (HK$16/US$2) you can get them steamed as well but what fun is that?
For a restaurant located at Airport Express, it is seriously good and not expensive. It is a great place to have a last meal with friends. However, if you are traveling alone and are eating on your own, you can also check out the various eateries located at the airport. They are incredibly good even offering wonton noodles, dim sum and siu mei (roasted/barbecued items). For me, eating with friends is always the best way to go.
Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
at International Finance Centre (IFC)
Tel: +852 2295 3811
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