Beef Ho Fun, Hong Kong

One of my favorite Cantonese dishes is Dry Sauteed Beef Ho Fun, a tasty greasy concoction of stir fried thick rice noodles, bean sprouts, and tender beef. It's fairly common (both in the US and in HK), but I made the effort to go to this particular place as it was particulary good (read: greasy). It was recommended to me by a cab driver one late night in HK (tip: always ask taxi drivers in a foreign city where they go for the best food - they will always know the late night kick-ass dives at the dirt cheap prices). I honestly don't know the name of the place since it's in Chinese, but it's in Wan Chai (188 Johnston Road, between Wan Chai Road and Hennessy Road), and it's open until 3AM, I think, so it's perfect for a post-drinking grease bomb.

One of the other keys to making this work is the Cantonese chili sauce, which is actually composed of just dried chili pepper flakes in a red oil rather than a "sauce." This is one of my favorites, and it seems to be common around Hong Kong, but I have not been able find it very frequently outside of HK (or Cantonese places in California).

I'm also a bit amused by the "lemon tea" that is commonly served in HK, which is a very strongly brewed Lipton tea combined with four slices of lemon. The lemon fragrance is so overdominating that the rind makes the tea very bitter (you're supposed to add sugar, but I don't), but I still kinda like it as it goes well with the noodles.

Again, you can get this Beef Ho Fun practically anywhere in HK for probably just the same quality, if not better (in fact, there is a place in Tsim Sha Tsui that I also like going to when I stay on the Kowloon side), but this place is really good too, so I like coming here when I can. Get a guilty greasy serving yourself for HK$35 (US$4.50).