In HK, Tsui Wah is a well-known cafe chain which started in 1967 serving local favourites such as french toast, milk tea and noodles.  It opens early and closes late and on Fridays and Saturdays, one can find the late-night party goers coming in to replenish energy before hitting the party scene again.  Been there myself ;p

Toronto's Tsui Wah is situated next to Chiu Chow Boy recently sampled.  They have an all-day breakfast menu and an afternoon tea menu as well as regular food menu.  Today, we went to sample their afternoon tea.  I love my milk tea but have decided to forego it this time and went with hot lemon tea, the other all-time HK favourite.

The fried chicken wings and fries were nice and golden and not burnt to a crisp as with some places.  The wonton noodles were as expected.  Overall, the place is all rright, reasonably priced, bright and clean.  However, in terms of chicken wings, the ones at Hollywood Cafe is still the best price...3 for $2.99 and a drink!

Deciding on a quiet afternoon at home; we re-heated some egg tarts (flaky ones of course!) and made home-styled milk tea.  Whilst the English have their teas and scones; we have our milk tea and egg tarts or pineapple bun with butter.  All very yum to me depending on the mood. 

Mom has found that the use of two whole red tea teabags together with condensed milk helps create the richer colouring and texture of cafe-ordered teas.  Though not exactly up to standard, it's a close second. 

Recently, we went back to Red Tea Street Cafe (previously blogged) and we each indulged in a cup of their tasty tea.

Fushion food is fun...You get mix-matched items and the pairings can be endless.  It either suits your personality or not...And since I'm a 'Bamboo Girl' (mish-mesh of Western/Asian upbringing) fushion is me!  Though I must say, of the three bamboo girls in this family, I am probably the one who would most often opt for asian fare...Give me a HK-styled milk tea over a latte any day!

Perhaps more accurate to describe this as Hong Kong-styled breakfast; it usually includes or a variation of: choice of eggs, choice of breakfast meats (ham, luncheon meat, bacon or sausage), toast and bowl of soup noodle (Macaroni or vermicelli with ham, satay beef or minced pork with peserved vegetable.  This all gets washed down with a hot drink, lemon tea, coffee or Hong Kong-styled milk tea. 

Pros: Very filling breakfast at around $5-$6.00.  Much cheaper than a western brunch and healthier than a fast food breakfast.  Love the mix of dry, salty food (eggs and bacon) with a soupy noodle (this is the Asian side of me coming out).  Love milk tea!

Cons: My pet-peeve...They use the word 'sausage' but it's really hot dog wieners which leaves me disappointed.  Places that serve this food tends not to be a place where decor and comfortable seats are priority.

But here at 'Made in China', the place is relativey clean and they've got some interesting bird cages going on as their ceiling decoration.  The booth seats are much too wide to eat comfortably though and we changed to regular tables/chairs.  It's an interesting restaurant; it shares the kitchen in the back with their sister restaurant next door, a Korean BBQ.  Made in China is a hot pot lunch/dinner restaurant but they're clever to draw in the morning breakfast people.  The staff are young and can be a bit abrupt but I'm here for good food and value. 

Dad was in the mood for HK-styled milk tea and so we went to one of our usual haunts to satisfy his craving.  HK-styled milk tea is made with English red tea, evaporated milk and sweetened with sugar.  It's thick, creamy and oh so yummy but a big no-no for the tummy.  One of my favourite expressions come to mind: What's yummy for the lips, is dangerous for the hips."

For such a cutely named cafe, it delivers poorly in design.  Simple chairs and tables and large hand-printed menus instead of pictures decorate the walls.  But what they lack in style, they make up in price and of course, their milk tea!  Dad and Mom swears the tea here is the best.

Their afternoon tea menu starts at $2.50 for a number of different breads or toasts and a drink.  For a bit more, you get French Toast or soup noodles.  We went for their deep friend chicken wings, 2pcs and fries for $3.99 and Singaporean Fried Vermicelli (stir-fried vermicelli with ham, bean sprouts in a light curry paste).

Looking for an afternoon left us frustrated this day.  The first place (Red Tea Cafe) was crowded which has never been in all the times I went...The second place (Pacific Mall)  was a nightmare to drive into due to heavy traffic...So we ended up in New Mongkok Plaza.

We did a walk-around of the plaza and ended up at  'Power King Restaurant'.  A few tables were already taken but it wasn't too crowded.  They had two specialty 'lunch boxes' for $5.99.  (a.) Short-ribs, fried rice and a spring roll or (b.) lemon chicken, fried rice and two deep-fried wonton.  We choose set (b.) and beef fried noodles.  Both came with a drink.

The food was tasty and the portions large but it was your usual congee & noodle stops.  We probably won't come back because there are so many more similiar ones to try.  

We couldn't finish the noodles and asked for a take-out box and found out that take-out boxes for afternoon tea costed an extra $0.25.