Wednesday 14 January 2009

Kyo Hachi - Hong Kong

On our second night in Hong Kong we headed up to The Peak. And were turned away at the tram station at the bottom by the two-hour wait just to buy a ticket. Curse the appeal of twinkly lights. So the next day we set forth again.This time it was only about a 15 minute wait before we were on a tram and ratcheting up the steep incline.

We had a coffee (despite the proliferation of Starbucks - or perhaps because of it - drinkable coffee is a bit hard to come by in Hong Kong but there is a pretty decent coffee shop on The Peak), admired the view, bought some tourist tat (beaded cotton velvet slippers for £2) and took loads of photos.

And then it was time for lunch.

Kyo Hachi, a Japanese restaurant, had a nice looking menu and was certainly more appealing than the wildly popular Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Given that London also isn't too strong on Japanese food, I didn't feel too bad about eating something that wasn't Chinese. We sat in a booth by the window and gazed out at the view.

My sore throat had developed into a feeling of full-blown cruddiness, and I thought the grilled pork sounded light and tempting. And although it turned out to be a huge meal of delicious tender slivers of meat, chilled tofu in a tangy sesame dressing, seafood chawan mushi (steamed, savoury egg custard), rice and miso soup, it really was tempting. I managed to give everything a good go.

I don't think Paul had quite realised that his "mixed sushi with rice" was going to be chirashizushi - all of the usual fillings and toppings scattered over a bowl of vinegared rice. It didn't take him long to recover from the shock and dive in. The chirashizushi looked so pretty with all of the bright cubes of fish and omelette interspersed with pearls of salmon roe, slivers of nori and scattered snipped chives.

For inexplicable reasons, Paul is not much of a custard fan, so he only had a polite spoonful of that. He did, however, hoover up the crunchy crab salad garnished with tobiko, and the miso soup.

It wasn't a cheap lunch, but for an infinitely civilised respite from noise, crowds and tinny piped Christmas music, it was just the thing. Definitely worth a visit.

15 comments:

HH said...

Looks and sounds fantastic FC! THe mixed sushi looks great!

Alicia Foodycat said...

It was - I wish I knew what was in the sesame dressing for the tofu - it was so delicious!

NKP said...

You are quite the culinary explorer! I really like the sound of that crab salad at the end... plus the groovy bowl.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Natashya - the crockery was so pretty! I loved the bowls the chawan mushi came in too.

kat said...

I eat up that bowl of sushi!

Heather said...

Oh god I projectile-drooled at the chirashizushi. Even the uni.

mscrankypants said...

I am sitting here laughing, thinking of the coincidence of you posting about a beautiful Japanese meal and my mind-numbing tribulations trying to find some Japanese food last night. Some days only Japanese will do -- I must start my hunt again today!

Foodycat, when you're preparing these posts, do you remember what you ate from the photos, the memories or do you keep notes as well?

Alicia Foodycat said...

Kat - I don't like uni, so I'd have to dodge that.

Heather - I thought you'd like that one!

Cranky - The photos jog my memory, but I have a scary memory for food. I can forget who I was with or what I was wearing but I remember what I ate.

Dee said...

I just had Japanese on Thursday night, and the crab chawan mushi was fabulous but hideously expensive. So was The Peak worth the two-hour ticket wait?

Anonymous said...

How exciting to go to Hong Kong! The food looks really great. And I love the dishes they serve the food in. They are little works of art in themselves.

Meryl

A-Mao said...

Restaurants on the Victoria Peak mustn't be cheap, but the view is really spectacular! May visit this restaurant next time. By the way, I am uni fan.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Dee - luckily we didn't have to wait that long in the day time!

Meryl - it was exciting, my first visit to an Asian city.

264 - it was worth it for good food with a lovely view! Next time I will try the uni.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, anybody with a sense of taste in good sushi will find ALL of the sashimi/sushi at Kyo Hachi severely disappointing. In fact, you're looking to pay about $400HKD+ for lower-than-mid grade sushi. You're only paying for the view.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Fucking rude, given that I already said we enjoyed it.

However, mediocre or not to your lofty palate, it's still better than any Japanese food I have had in London.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Fucking rude, given that I already said we enjoyed it.

However, mediocre or not to your lofty palate, it's still better than any Japanese food I have had in London.

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