Going Local on Java Road

Daily specials, perhaps? Signs lined up outside the Java Road Cooked Food Centre.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, here's another food-related post.

My houseguest C. and I tried yet another place featured in No Reservations (see here and here). This time we went to the Java Road Cooked Food Centre. It's in the more off-the-beaten-path district of North Point, which has none of the fashionable expat glitter of SoHo, Wan Chai, or Causeway Bay. If you want a more "local" restaurant experience, a cooked food centre like this is a good way to do it.

These centres house dozens of what used to be dai pai pongs: outdoor food stalls selling things like noodles, rice dishes, wok dishes, and beverages. In recent years, the government has tried to clean up the streets by putting limits on licensing and moving dai pai pongs into soulless municipal buildings. The result is a definite loss of ambiance, but I don't think it affected the food.

The Java Road centre is a vast, open floor, harshly lit with fluorescent lights, crowded with tables and plastic chairs. A large sign on the door warns you to be careful of slippery floors. Beer girls in gaudy miniskirts and white go-go boots stroll about, trying to get you to buy their particular brand. You have to almost shout to be heard above the din of clattering plates and conversation.

We chose the one place that had fragments of English on its menu. Immediately after sitting down, a waitress brought us a big metal bowl and a pitcher of hot tea.

The tea is not only for drinking, it's also to wash your utensils. You pour some of the tea into the bowl, then you dunk your chopsticks, spoon, and glassware into it and swish them around. I don't know if people really think everything is so dirty that they need another wash in hot tea. I think it's just tradition.

Now came the hard part: choosing what to order. Neither C. nor I speak Cantonese, so there was a lot of gesturing and pointing. We pointed to a neighboring table and tried to say we wanted the same thing. The chef appeared to have understood, then beckoned us over to a set of fish tanks to choose our dinner. C. chose a fish and several other things, with the expectation that they would all go into one pot. But what came out was this:

OK, so it wasn't what we expected, but it was pretty good anyway. A whole fish, steamed, then dressed with a light brown sauce and spring onions. We guessed that the fish was grouper, but I can't say for sure. Two cheeks on the fish meant that we didn't have to fight over who would get that part.

The chef recommended this as an accompaniment, along with rice:

Various vegetables were chopped and fried together into this savory pancake, served with some fresh cilantro and a soy sauce dip. The batter was crisp and flaky, but not thick like tempura. Absolutely delicious.

In a place, like this, it killed me to not be able to read or speak Cantonese. I would have really enjoyed learning about everything on the menu. Next time I'd like to go with someone who can translate for me. But for folks who don't mind an element of surprise in their dinner, this kind of place is a great adventure.

Java Road Cooked Food Centre
2/F, Java Road Municipal Services Building
99 Java Road
North Point