Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

North Point Famous Egg Waffles aka ‘Gai Dan Jaai’

Best way to eat around in Hong Kong? Embrace the plethora of street foods and indulge in snacking round the clock. Seriously, you don’t want to stuff yourself silly with the conventional 3 meals a day. Oh no …. 6 might be stretching the limit slightly, but the snacking in between meals should be cherished as much.

After all, how else can you fit in egg tarts, ‘but zhai gou’ (Chinese style of mini rice puddings flavoured with red bean, brown sugar or plain white sugar) and ‘gai dan jaai’ (mini egg cakes/waffles) into that packed-like-sardines itinerary of yours?

Fragrant whiffs of a mouth-watering egg batter cooked on the special waffle-maker. Much like our ‘Dai Gau Min’ (Chinese pancakes with peanut and corn)

An interesting snack where you can break them into smaller, bite-sized pieces like this for consumption.

These 3 gems are not related to one another, and the North Point’s famous ‘gai dan jaai’ stall is situated at North Point (duh), six MTR stops away from Central. So either you’re in North Point for some factory outlets shopping on Wharf Road (which we did, but seriously don’t bother), or come here on a solitary purpose for the egg waffles.

Anyway, you can easily find ‘gai dan jaai’ stalls around Mong Kok and elsewhere in Hong Kong. This North Point outlet specifically, has branches (more than 7 outlets) all over the place. But of course, where else but to come to the source of this egg waffles madness to sample the real deal?

If you’re lost, just follow the queue. Or look for the shots of superstars having their egg waffles from this stall.

LEE KEUNG KEE NORTH POINT EGG WAFFLES (Openrice page)
492, King’s Road,
North Point, Hong Kong Island
Opens from 10am – 11pm daily.
HKD 15 (RM6) for half a portion, HKD 28 (RM11.20) for a full portion.

*Read this article from CNNGo on ‘gai dan jaai’ for the other famous stalls selling this local delicacy.

Notice the rail tracks that run through the neighbourhood? Trams run on them, servicing the residents and tourists wishing to experience the ‘ting ting’ tram experience.

NIKE FACTORY STORE @ SHOP G3 & G5, G/F, HOMEWORLD, PROVIDENT CENTRE, 21/53, WHARF ROAD, NORTH POINT  – Collection not as extensive as Citygate Outlet @ Tung Chung MTR Station, and not very cheap either.

Tai Cheong Bakery’s Egg Tarts – Beautiful sunshine for a perfect tea time!

I have written much about Tai Cheong Bakery’s egg tarts during my last visit in 2008. But we could not resist strolling our way over to Lyndhurst Terrace again for some freshly baked egg tarts encased in a buttery, cookie pastry. At HKD 5 (RM2) only each, go crazy and buy 10 if you can.  Some heaped praises; highly commending Tai Cheong for baking what could possibly be the BEST egg tart in Hong Kong. Some may beg to differ, especially those accustomed to the flaky pastry version like this one at Honolulu Coffee Shop. But why the hostility? Don’t fight dear egg tarts aficionados …. why not try them all?! Kam Fung in Wan Chai serves a reputable version too, but comes third when compared to the former two.

TAI CHEONG BAKERY (Openrice page)
35, Lyndhurst Terrace,
Central, Hong Kong Island

If you’re lost and can’t read Chinese (like myself), feel free to ask this lady on what the individual items are.

One with brown sugar, the other with conventional white sugar. Both with red beans.

Wanted to do this picture a caption, but to avoid inappropriate censorship, I’d better not.

Last but not least, do you recall the etched memories of watching TVB dramas when you see the actors buying round-shaped, pudding-like snacks on a toothpick? The wobbly creation is named “But Zhai Gou”, a favourite street snack amongst the locals. Made predominantly from rice flour and sugar (brown or white), usually studded with intermittent bites of red beans, biting into one of these brought back endearing memories from the younger days.

No, I did not grow up in Hong Kong, mind you. But you know lah … how you would urge your parents to buy the steamed ones in porcelain bowls from random stalls in the market?

Read from somewhere on this corner stall in the heart of Central; this aunty selling a variety of snacks from her stall parked at a very strategic junction on Wellington Street. She had brown and white sugar steamed cake (pak tong kou, wong tong kou) and several other unrecognizable items on display too, aside from the “but zhai gou”.

About HKD 5 each, and did not ignite an electrifying pulse through my system (read : not too sweet) but a warm sensation of standing there amidst civilization yet biting into an age-old classic of a street snack.

PUSHCART STALL AUNTY (But Zhai Gou & Various Snacks)
Corner of Wellington Street and D’Aguilar Street (Lan Kwai Fong)
Central, Hong Kong Island

Make a wild guess. The queue stretched for more than a good few hundred metres!

Take it from me. Spare a day or two completely devoid of tourist attractions (you know lah… the usual haunts like Disneyland, Ocean Park, Lantau Island, etc) and go on a food hunt. Take the bus, train, tram or cab … but most important of all? Your ability/willingness to trudge for miles on foot. How does breathing in the (fresh?) air of the real Hong Kong sound to you? Or the adrenaline rush riding on the Central escalators during peak hours? Amidst the seas of people, you’d be hard-pressed not to be thankful that KL has yet to reach that level of congestion.

There are so much more to the snacking scene in Hong Kong that I have barely scratched the surface. The sheer number of bakeries, modern patisseries, the Mong Kok’s classic curry fishballs and stinky tofu stalls, the various ‘tong sui’ outlets, etc.

Damn. I successfully tempted myself into a revisit in the cards.

“HAPPY MONDAY!”

**Lost? Refer to the Hong Kong Food Map