Hung Lee - Chinese, Congee, Hong Kong

2A Hau Fook Street, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Nearest MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui - Cameron Road Exit
Tel: 852 2721 6606
Hours: Open 7am until late

Last Visited: November 2010

Food: 4 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $

Hau Fook Street is so close to Nathan Road that it has started to show up in Lonely Planet and other tourist resources as a place to try dai pai dong (street food) places. A lot of people (me included) are turning to the web, in addition to tour books, for local accounts of what is good and where to go get that good food.

Most of my breakfasts in Hong Kong are spent on Hau Fook Street where I alternate between Hung Lee and S&P Kiosk. Hung Lee was recently remodeled about a year ago. While the style of food is the same, you can see that the cover that shield the florescent lights are nothing like those found in the United States - these are light blue and look like a fish tank. The open kitchen streams steam so you know they're constantly cooking some fresh stuff back there.

At Hung Lee, the specialty is congee. Often called rice gruel or rice porridge in English, it's rice that has been cooked in hot water until reaching an almost creamy consistency. Once this plain base has been made, meat is added to customize the dish. While it's healthy, it's also considered Chinese comfort food - when Chinese people get sick or have a stomach ache, a lot of them turn to rice porridge. The long porridge cooking time over a flame is said to replenish the body of its nutrients. While mostly popular for breakfast and lunch, you still find people eating it for dinner too.

Hung Lee has a wide variety of congee or porridge - Sampan Congee, Pork with Preserved Egg Congee, and much more.

- Ground Beef Congee - While I don't know for sure that this is the name on the English menu, know that if you ask for beef congee here, they offer two kinds. One kind has slices of beef -this is not the one I order. The one I like has ground beef that has been mixed with fried rice noodles. Pieces of this mixture are then put into a bowl of hot rice congee and topped with a sprinkle of cilantro and green onions. Once it arrives at the table, you stir it all together and break up the pieces of meat to finish the cooking process. Don't be scared if some of the meat is red when it arrives at the table - it will cook through after stirring it in the hot porridge. $16HKD (about $2.50 USD - quite the bargain)

- Fried Sweet Doughnut - The picture ot the right shows what a Chinese fried sweet doughnut looks like. It's covered with sesame for that extra flavor. The literal translation is cow tongue pastry. It sounds odd, but it makes sense - it does look a bit like a cow tongue. Sweet, but not as sweet as American donuts, it's a nice item to enjoy with your congee. $10HKD (about $1.50 USD)

Other items that we frequently order while at Hung Lee are soy sauce noodles (a small plate of stir-fried noodles with vegetables), rice noodle rolls (you add sauces to them to customize them to your favorite flavor - peanut sauce, plum sauce, soy sauce, and top them with sesame seeds), fried savory doughnut (more crispy in texture than the fried sweet doughnut), and more.

They also offer a variety of western breakfast combinations. While we wouldn't call them American, they are more western in style. An example would be buttered toast with a bowl of macaroni and ham in broth. This is very typical of western breakfasts in Hong Kong.

Try Hung Lee for some delicious congee for breakfast some time! It's one of my go-to places in Hong Kong.