Ching Ting

If you want to have nice Vietnamese food in Hong Kong, you must not miss Ching Ting, one of the most popular restaurants in Causeway Bay. Previously a small and always crowded noodle shop, Ching Ting is now inside one office tower, two blocks away from its original position. With a much bigger place, there is finally no need to wait for a long time for a seat.

The reasons why you need to come is first, the food is good and second, cheap. Of course, it is not cheap like those Dai Pai Dong but you know you are not spending like a fortune like in those high-class restaurants. At least in here, you are paying for quality not for some beautifully decorated food which tastes strange in your mouth.

I got some appetizers first when I was waiting for my companion, and it was one of the famous dishes from Vietnam, the deep fried shrimp cakes.

It was served hot and still tasted so good after trying this for more than five times before. The good thing is that it was not over-fried. It was crispy on the outside while spongy inside. You should not miss the sour-sweet sauce coming with the cakes because the taste of the shrimps was brought up much with it. Then my main course came. It was called "huo che tou" (火車頭), which means "locomotive engine" literally. I have no idea how they relate to each other, but it is a bowl of flat rice noodle with four main ingredients: beef meatball, ox tender, ox stomach slices and beef.

It was very good especially the beef because it was thin and soft. Sometimes you might get big slices of beef which are hard to chew but that won't happen here. The noodle was great too as you can tell from the thickness of it.If it was put aside for too long, the noodle absorbs much of the soup and becomes "thick". That affects its texture and you can tell immediately when you put it in your mouth. The time my noodle was just right.

Finally the famous dish from this restaurant came. It was the deep fried butter chicken wings!

Instead of using flour or other things for the deep frying, they use butter. That's why the chicken wings smell so good! It may be too oily for some of you, but the crispy surface just makes you drool! This dish is always served hot, right after they were out from the frying pans. You can still hear the sizzling on them!

They also have some good dishes including the rice paper rolls and skewers, but we were too full for more. Go visit when you are looking for some good and fast Vietnamese food. This is the place!

Happy Easter too!