What I Ate: Hong Kong Food Street (Houston, Texas)

For our mid-day meal, we decided to try out Hong Kong Food Street on Bellaire Blvd. We ordered a few dishes that caught our eye (and we hoped we could finish since we couldn't take leftovers with us; we weren't heading back to the hotel for a number of hours).

Congee with Pork & Preserved Egg ($5.50). We had never had congee served to us this way before. It came in a large clay pot so hot that the circumference of congee was splattering and sizzling. The texture of the rice was excellent - liquidy porridge with soft rice (not completely mushy but still in discrete pieces). I felt the pork that was in it was a bit on the fattier side and was fairly strong tasting when compared to other examples of this dish. The pidan tasted pretty good with just enough of its strong flavor to contribute positively to the congee. Tina did not like a "lardy" flavor that (to my taste was subtle but seemed to be quite strong for her) permeated the congee. She is typically the one between the two of us that enjoys congee the most, but she did not like this one because of that flavor she was overwhelmingly tasting.

Stir Fried Leek & BBQ Pork with XO Sauce ($13.99). We actually ordered the Stir Fried Leek with Duck Tongues but they were out of duck tongue and recommended the BBQ Pork. The "leeks" were not the typical flat leaf garlic chives as we originally assumed (most Chinese restaurants translate jiu cai as "leeks" even though they are more properly referred to as "garlic chives"). Instead it was actually segments of the flowing stalks of the garlic chive plant (which is tubular and milder tasting than the flat leaves of the garlic chive plant). Tina read the chinese name of the dish and confirmed that it said jiu cai hua (garlic chive flowers). I really enjoyed eating the garlic chives but found the BBQ Pork to be overpowering. Tina started with the BBQ pork and the flavor was so strong she couldn't even taste the garlic chives initially and she thought they had given us a completely different vegetable/herb entirely since there was not perceived flavor. I hadn't tasted the pork yet and so could assure her that it was indeed garlic chives. We ate all of the chives and about half of the pork (which was not stale - something I, unfortunately, feel I should mention as many Chinese restaurants I've been to have a tendency to serve old BBQ pork in dishes that incorporate that ingredient - and actually quite tender and fresh tasting).

Crispy Noodle with Pork ($8.99). This third dish was also fairly large. I found the appearance unappetizing with its pale sauce which was dominated by large chunks of onion (I have an issue with kitchens that do not properly cut onions - I'm not going to eat a large chunk of it, so don't serve it to me like that!) and bean sprouts, but turned out to be decently flavored.

On the whole, the food wasn't bad (aside from Tina's dislike of the congee) but we didn't really enjoy it. The dishes were so large that with the two of us dining, we eventually stopped eating because we got tired of our dishes. Perhaps if we had more diners the meal would have been better. We finished our meal with an order of red bean ice cream (which was icy, grainy, and nearly devoid of red bean flavor) and a milk tea (which didn't have enough milk or sugar). We might go back again in the future to try their clay pot rice bowls, but probably not any of the dishes we tried today.

Hong Kong Food Street
9750 Bellaire Boulevard
Houston, TX 77036
(713) 981-9888