Kinda Like a Big Deal

This place is Kinda Like a Big Deal in HK. Its probably one of the oldest cha chan teng in HK, and it also claims itself to be the first inventor of the silk stocking receipt of making milk tea.

Love it or Hate it. 蘭芳園/Lan Fong Yuen conveniently sits on the edge of Soho and Graham Street, the oldest street market in HK, so a tourist exploring in central will probably cross paths its path a couple of times.

Everytime a tourist comes to town, its usually one of the first places i take them. The classic outdoor kitchen, the cramp tiny seating inside, the rude waiters that teases your chinese, it pretty much has HONG KONG written all over it. And after the meal, i usually bring them a walk around the street market, before it gets torn down by the govt., have the famous egg tarts around the corner and a trek through the soho district. Awesome place for sightseeing. If you feel a little adventurous, you can also dine outside on the outdoor kitchen, u literally squat on those little wooden chairs.

Anyway, Han was in town, what better way to show my Ningbo friend around than to show him some local food cultural. I was also starving cuz i didnt eat the whole day.

I got myself a 蒜蓉雞肉撈丁/garlic & onion chicken with fried instant noodles.
I explained before, HK people love eating instant noodle for the texture. Fried instant noodles is also the place's speciality. Cooked not too soft or too hard, giving it an awesome chewiness. The noodle doesnt come with soup, just a swallow dip of soy sauce. So it kinda gives a weird feel of a mix of italian spaghetti with chinese spring onion sauced chicken ahhaha. PRetty damn unhealthy, but reeally a must try.
This is what han got, 港式豬扒包/pork chop bun, another speciality fro the place. Its always sold out in the later afternoon. Its a tiny bitesize burger of porkchop, tomatoe and special cream sauce, perfect for girls or people looking for a light snack for tea. Different from the famous macauinese 豬扒包, the ones here uses normal burger buns. The boss claims that he hates the macauinese style because the bread is too hard and scratches his mouth alot.

Anyways, very tender and chewy, nice and bitesize. Their cream sauce gives it a bit of flavour. Good Snack.
The Main Course. The sole reason why you would come to 蘭芳園 in the first place. It's one of the smoothest lai chai HK has to offer. It has a good mix of tea and condense milk, and it doesnt have that horrible coarse tea aftertaste texture that other noob cha chan teng has. This place boils the tea and pours it over a silk stocking looking net, this is to filter out any remaining tea leaves, keeping the tea smooth and clear. Sometimes they even served cold milk tea with froze milk tea ice, to prevent normal ice in diluting the tea when it melts.....serial stuff.

Final Verdict: MUST TRY. I didnt even mention other signature dishes such as French toast and salted lime 7-up. Good place to go for a true taste of HK, either you are just a tourist, or a person wanting a trip back to memory lane....

http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=1814