Not everyone will appreciate the texture of Royal Family green tea cake from Taiwan (HK$31.90 for 300 grams at Great in Pacific Place, Admiralty, tel: 2918 9986). It's not your usual sponge cake - the kind that's cut into layers and iced with whipped cream or buttercream. This one is made from glutinous rice and tapioca starch and flavoured with green tea and walnuts, so it's heavy, sticky and chewy. If you like the texture of mochi (Japanese rice cake) or neen go (the Chinese version), you'll enjoy this treat, which is delicious served with hot tea.
I used to buy sizzle platters from the shops on Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei, where I get many of my kitchen tools. Recently, though, I've found a cheaper source: the Jusco $10 Plaza Plus shops (the Wan Chai branch is at M/F, Wing Tak Mansion, 15 Canal Road West, tel: 2892 1812). These small, low-sided stackable metal plates can be used in the oven, to bake individual portions of meat or seafood, but they're just as useful for holding raw prepped ingredients.
I love to go to the competing typhoon-shelter crab restaurants that line a short strip of Jaffe Road, Wan Chai: there are branches of Hee Kee, Under Bridge Spicy Crab and King Crab. The garlic and chilli mixture piled on the meat is addictive and served in such quantity that we usually take the leftovers home, to eat with rice or congee, or to flavour our own stir-fried seafood dishes. The mixture used at Hee Kee is now sold in jars at City'super and contains garlic paste, crab oil, chilli, soy sauce and flavour enhancer, it's not as oily as the type you'd get at a restaurant, but a little goes a long way. It's HK$50 for a 130 gram jar from City'super (Times Square, Causeway Bay, tel: 2506 2888).