lin heung lau 蓮香樓 - part 2

I had been wanting to complete my post on Lin Heung Lau 蓮香樓 and it's sister restaurant Lin Heung Kui 蓮香居

I visited this restaurant for dim sum and later it's sister restaurant daily when I was in Hong Kong recently. They have the most complete selection of authentic dim sum and retains the relatively plainer traditional Cantonese tastes. All too often dim sum dishes today tended to be adulterated with sugar and MSG to impress palates dulled by eating too much sweets.

this is a chicken wrap 雞扎 half eaten so you see the inside

 the fluffy white thing is fish air bladder

 a piece of shitake and a piece of chicken

this is a beef shiu mai 乾蒸牛肉; it is very similar to the steam beef balls except the minced beef is in a wrapper

 this is the common shiu mai 燒賣 made of minced pork and shrimps

this is pig stomach shiu mai 豬肚燒賣; it get snapped up as soon as they leaves the kitchen; everyone in Hong Kong love pig stomach

 

this is the much dreaded chicken feet; it is by far the best I had; it is not the common over-the-top sweet nor laden with MSG; what really set it apart is it is cooked just right so you get to enjoy the different textures; instead cooked to melt in your mouth they left it so you get to chew the cartilage; the skin too is a bit chewy

this is pig liver shiu mai 豬潤燒賣; it is a classic and difficult to make well as the pig liver tends to taste too dry from overcooking; this dish was overcooked so the liver tasted like cardboard

this morning I decided to join the lineup for a bowl of porridge - they only serve one batch early in the morning so you snooze you lose

 of course there is bits of thousand year eggs in there

this is fish paste shiu mai made with a fresh water fish with a bit of watercress; it is a classic and is one of my favorite

this is steamed taro cake; normally I avoid this dish as most places do it very poorly; not here; it is very tasty, readily melt in the mouth and not dry

this is the familiar haw gao ; the skin is too mushy as you found at most places; however the filling is good

 still more chicken wrap 雞扎

this is one rare dim sum 淮山雞扎; it is similar to chicken wrap 雞扎 but the is wrapped with a piece of herb called 淮山; I wanted to try it as I never had it before; the 淮山wrapper is too powdery dry though

if you like to explore dim sum you job is not complete without experiencing the bowls of steamed rice; many older dim sum connoisseur, especially those on a tight budget like them; it is a meal in a bowl

this one has a piece of salted fish on top of delicious pieces of pork; by itself the salted fish is only so so but paired with the pork and ginger it is delicious

it is common for the patrons to rush to the cart as soon as it leaves the kitchen to snap up the most coveted ones - the one with Chinese sausages and cured meat

this gets snapped up very fast - one day I had to go to the kitchen and beg for one; the black piece is cured pork belly; it is heavenly good so are the sausages; for me Chinese cured meat of this quality is simply inaccessible here where I live

steamed rice with Chinese sausages and cured pork - you cannot judge the book by the appearance

 even the rice is crazy delicious because of the dripping

 glutenous rice in lotus leaf

 this is the most disappointing dish

instead of whole pieces of chicken called for in tradition it just have half-heartedly made minced chicken

 this is duck feet sui mai

 steam pork baby ribs - very good

 there are pieces of Asian grapefruit skin in there - the thick light brown piece in the photo

 hardly anyone order the deep fried dishes

greeted by the hello kitty tram outside

 
It you are interested in seeing a very complete list of dim sums this Chinese Wikipedia site has the most extensive compilation. It is however in Chinese language only. If you choose other languages it would take you to a different site which does not has the extensive list.