“A feast on fresh Seafood in Lamma Island, Hong Kong. Tender, fresh & delicious.”
Mini abalone in shell. Tender, fresh and delicious. Where to go? Lamma Island, of course.
In Hong Kong, there were two main areas to go for fresh seafood i.e. Sai Gong (西贡), and outlying Island of Lamma (南丫岛). We decided to go Lamma Island this time, just to experience an excursion to one of the three largest islands in Hong Kong. Lamma Island was segregated into two parts i.e. Sok Kwu Wan (索罟灣) and Yong Shu Wan (榕樹灣). Both bays were linked, and it took roughly an hour to walk from one bay to the other.
If you preferred a more tourisy sight, go to Yong Shu Wan area. Many pubs, cafes and even motels were available.
Since we did not have much energy to walk across the two bays after long day of shopping and exploring, we headed straight to Sok Kwu Wan, just for the seafood dinner.
Taking a ferry from Hong Kong Island, the Central Ferry Pier 4, was a breeze. This 40-minute ferry ride cost HK$18 per passenger, payable by cash or Octopus card (八達通).
Tin Hou Temple (天后庙) were commonly found almost every district in Hong Kong. There were two temples here in Lamma Island. If you wished to visit one, come early. The temple situated at Sok Kwu Wan area was closed when we were there at about 6pm.
There was nothing much to tour around here. Pick a restaurant along the stretch, get a table, sit down and enjoy the sea breeze and sunset. And of course, choose your seafood.
It offered a beautiful seaview looking out from the shore.
The restaurants here seemed really competitive. Every restaurant crew would try very hard to sit you down.
As we did not want to go with the flow to the seemingly overrated Rainbow restaurant (even when they claimed to provide free ferry rides), we settled ourselves at Tai Yuen (泰苑), located somewhere in the middle of the stretch. The restaurant was equipped with tanks of live fish and many other seafood for customers to choose from. I thought the selection were eclectic. Oh, they also claimed that service charge and ‘tea charge’ of about 10% would be waived.
The restaurant served both the set menus and alacarte dishes. We ordered a set menu of HK$380 and a live fish.
First course of the set menu was the mini abalones. Each pax only got to enjoy one petite piece. I really wished there were more…..
Set menu, ranging from HK$198 to HK$380, Chinese tea and soda drink or beer were included.
Randomly picked from the wide selections of live fish, I did not really know what type of fish was this Bao Gong Yu 包公鱼, in fact. Just settled with the recommendation, I trust it would turn out great.
Well, the fish was truly fresh, and well executed.
Since it was an additional order on top of the set menu, we were given a small discount on the fish, paying only HK$110 (S$22), instead of HK$120 ($S24).
I loved this lobster & Ee-Fu noodle dish. The lobster was springy, tasted so well when eaten with the accompanying sauce. The Ee-Fu noodle was flavorful and moist, by soaking up all the essence of flavor from both the lobster and sauce.
These steamed prawns were expectedly fresh and tasted naturally sweet, but the size of the prawn was relatively small. Thankfully, the serving was generous, enough to satisfy our craving.
The taste of this stir-fried clams with black beans sauce (豉汁炒蚬) wasn’t too impressive, merely passed the benchmark of a seafood dish.
Well, to the uninitiated, shrimp paste was The specialtity of Lamma Island. I decided to try it on a vegetable dish, stir-fried Kang Kong with shrimp paste(蝦醬炒通菜).
First experience with the shrimp paste, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be quite palatable. Nothing bizarre, it tasted just mild, with the shrimp paste. I thought it would taste better with a spicy lift, though. :)
We were offered a plate of 2-pcs fried squid balls foc, which supposed to be complemented only if you pay your bill by Hang Seng (恒生) credit card. Thank you, anyway.
We paid a total of HK$500 (S$100) for 2 person. Simply loved the freshness of the seafood there!
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