One of the perks of moving to the West is that the North is a bit closer. Having been a south-sider for most of my life, the northside of the city was something that I hardly explored. Me having a love for HK cafe's decided to try a little shop called Little Bee BBQ HK Cafe tucked in the central-north.
They actually had a huge menu, which is common for family-owned Asian eateries. As is also common, some of the menu items were a bit difficult for me to figure out what it was exactly. Partially due to me not being completely familiar with the dishes, and partially due to the English translation. But not seeing the familiar HK cafe dishes (like pasta, porkchops, etc.) I decided to try their Shanghai noodles and Hainese chicken + rice which are my common go-to's for Chinese food.
One item that caught my eye was the Deep Fried Tofu in Salted Egg Yolk. I quite enjoy tofu in general but I had never heard of it with salted egg yolk so I was very curious as to what it would be like. We were served triangles of deep-fried soft tofu that were tossed in an egg yolk sauce, of sorts, after. First thing I gotta say is that these are one of those items where the outside can seem cool enough to eat, but the inside will scald you. I definitely burnt my tounge on my first bite LOL. The next thing I noticed was that they used soft tofu, so despite being deep fried, it was not as firm as I expected. The salted egg yolk wasn't as salty as I had hoped, being the lover of salty things that I am, however the flavour was still very prominent. Overall it was not quite what I expected, and a little bland (think mostly tofu flavour) but I enjoyed it none the less. Enough so that every time that I have visited since, I got it as an appetizer.
Next up was my ultimate go-to for all Chinese food: The Shanghai noodles. I almost always will get this or (fried) chow-mein whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant if I see it on the menu. The dish was served in a mini wok, which not only looked cute but helped it retain it's heat throughout. The noodles were firm and had a great balance of flavour between the noodle and the sauce, but the real star of the show was the faint smoky taste that the noodles got by being cooked on an open flame.
Finally we have the Hainese chicken + rice. Honestly Hainese chicken is something that I only discovered within the last couple years but I find each place prepares it slightly different and it's always interesting to see what I will get at each new place. This place served the chicken at room temperature, which is my preferred temperature as opposed to serving it traditionally cold, or hot as some people prefer.
Being a lover of Hong Kong Cafe-Style restaurants, I will definitely be back to try more of their massive menu!