Sunday, January 6, 2008

Maxim @ City Hall: Hong Kong, 01/03/08

Four people went to a place called Maxim in City Hall. This is a well-known place and during lunch they serve yamcha(small lunch dish with tea); you always have a line unless you arrive at opening hour, 11AM.

It is a pretty big place and the ladies pull the carts around calling out the name of the items they carry. It is nice if you know several dish names in Chinese, but usually foreigners uncover so that they can see what is in. Sometimes the ladies inform you briefly by saying "shrimp" or "pork" or such.

Some carts looks like this; it is easier to pick out.


Table setting and hot pepper sauce to dip
*
So here is what four people ate:

A pork dish


Shiumai, A type of Shrimp Dumpling, one of the most popular

A Different one with shrimp and other ingredients


With mushrooms and vegetables

Shaorungbao, another popular one: You usually put it on a spoon and eat because this pork dumpling is suppossed to be full of juice- beware, because it can be hot.

Rice dish - not my favorite

With barbequed sweet shredded pork

Rice cooked with leave cover

Fried Squid

Hagau, probably the most popular and my favorite too: the delicate thin outer layer and the chewy whole shrimp inside is simply the best.


Well, chicken feet!

One of the dessert, custard too sweet for my taste

So everytime you order they give you a stamp, and later on they use it for the bill. With the 10%service charage the bill was 510HKD(65USD) for four. Though the individual dish are small, we were quite full. Maxim in Central City Hall is one of the popular yamcha places in Hong Kong and I would say it is pretty good. It is nice to go in group of three or four to try lots of different stuff, though if you are not accustomed to this type of food, it won't be "fantastic." I still say it is worth trying as a tourist, since yamcha is a part of Hong Kong culture.