Tan Yu Tou ( 谭鱼头）at TST

Me and friends wanted to go to the famous hotpot place in TST ..but we waited and waited...and finally after 1 hour of waiting, we gave up and went to Tan Yu Tou.....compared to Xiao Fei Yang, I have to admit the soup is much more tastier, but our hotpot is too slow to cook and we were hungry...

It is a 2 hour eat all you can...but after an hour..it gets a bit tough..good hotpot in general..but it is not the king of hotpot like i envisage...good on a winter's night.. I really wouldn't mind going back again when HK have the chills

the sauce which you have to put a bit of soup inside

Not showing the raw food ingredients, but this is interesting, it is beancurd roll ( with meat inside) deep fried and which you cook it till it becomes hot and soft..I like

Fish Paste - this one turn out to be quite like Fish Balls Singapore Style

Fried Fish Skin - really so good to put it inside the hotpot, I think Xiao Fei Yang doesn't have that .

There is the most important picture - the white fish soup is delicious and the spicy soup is great too...and not too spicy that you won't taste anything after one sip..

Da Ping Huo @ Hollywood Road

Da Ping Huo is one of the first private kitchens I have been to when I first came 2 years ago...today, the food is still good ( I think it has gotten better), and the singing is still the same. It is a great place for parties with a Chinese theme...not a bad selection of wine as well.....

First appetizer - shredded carrots, cucumbers and bean sprouts in a fine fresh spciy sauce

2nd Appetizer - Cucumber in sweet soya sauce with sesame paste

口水鸡 with a twist , they added lots of peanuts and sesame seeds, so the chilli oil actually is flavourful..with a nutty taste.

Soup 1 - because the chicken was so spicy, a soup was served to manage the tempo...this is cabbage soup with mushrooms and chicken was deliciously home-made, and the minced chicken on top was a nice smooth texture.

Prawns with chilli and parsley, still spicy but very good

Beef brisket in spicy sauce

I think this MaPo Tofu..but its not the usual sweet and slightly spicy mapo tofu, it is very strong, very spicy and very very tasty......best with rice.

Sweet potato braised pork ribs.....unusually not spicy....but rather sweet..it pales in comparison to the other hot dishes.

Soup 2- a spinach soup to cool off from the deluge of spicy dishes

Final dish - dumplings in chilli sauce

The Manchurian Candidate ( Winner's Building @ LKF)

When I got into the elevator of this private kitchen, which is tucked between two very rowdy bars in LKF, I thought I was going into an alternate universe - where the LKF strip is posh and full of expats, and this building above is filled with local, raw and rough Sham Shui Po-ish ambience.

Anyway, I was glad that the private kitchen was way better..... It is very unpretentious and rather raw in their furnishings, but its a real experience, of a real private kitchen. It was probably 2 small apartments converted into a single eating zone...and you can still see the beams and walls of the "bedroom"..very interesting. Food was fabulous, and they did not overdo the spiciness at all. The dishes was flavourful, and the chilli and peppers enhanced the flavours of the dish...yeah!

Chicken in spicy sauce- I really dunno the name, just that it taste really good...theres the traditional Szechuan peppercorns, chillis and peanuts...

cucumber in chilli oil

凉拌粉皮- the fen pi's texture is actually Q.

this 干扁四季豆 is wonderfully fresh and spicy

the only non-spicy dish in the entire set - it is a stif-fried potatoes ( very old-school :)..) with eggplants and some other funky veges

This is a rather interesting twist to Gwei-Lo Chicken. They use Shrimp here, and they are sweet!

回锅肉- it doesn't seem to look too good in the photos, but the spicy cabbage with meat thingy actually does taste pretty good.

The Grand Finale - 口水鸡

The anti-spiciness cure-all dessert, no more tongue numbing feeling afterwards..

San Xi Lou (Coda Plaza, Garden Road)

San Xi Lou, which I have read in some blogs serves some of the best Sichuan food in Hong Kong. I went there twice, and order different dishes. Most dishes are great, and taste of the rich sichuan peppercorns, but the hotpot is just ain't worth the price.

House Specialty - Chicken in spicy oil

Dan Dan Mien was delicious, but the white pork with garlic in the background is worth trying , even for people who doesn't like to eat fatty meat.

Mafo Tofu

Gwei Lo Chicken - basically deep fried chicken with red chilli , very hot, very good