19/10/2013
新藍塘餐廳麵包公司 New Blue Pool Restaurant & Bakery
半山堅道71號
71 Caine Rd,, Mid-Levels
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/old-chinese-superman-legend-cited-here-e2326382
After seeing the pictures at this place, there was something old and interesting that drew me here.
The name New Blue Pool was unique enough.
As well as this restaurant, there is another Chinese joint down the road famous for their "Not so good curries".
In the end the photos of this restaurant won me.
At the entrance of this restaurant, there is a bakery with some interesting items too.
New Blue Pool is quite an interesting restaurant, the decor has remained how it was since it opened and the vintage air conditioner is still working.
The restaurant has an old smell too!
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Please skip to the food section if you do not want to read about Superman
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When I got there, there was a super skinny grumpy old man taking orders who had a bit of a stroppy attitude.
He later softened up and became really cute!
The tea sets were the usual fried items but the fried spring chicken was the best deal for $28 so I ordered that and requested some curry sauce from that old man.
He seemed quite annoyed and told me to order it later.
(As he was old, I thought to myself, he is probably going to forget).
Anyway, while I was waiting, I went to take some photographs. It was so funny watching that stroppy old man realigning the tables and chairs because if they moved a millimetre he would get annoyed!
He then came over and said the spring chicken was sold out, so it was changed to fried chicken leg.
After a while, he brought toast to the table next to me who ordered after me.
I reminded him that my toast was yet to come and he tried to snatch it from that table which was hilarious!
Moments later, he was bringing over two sets of chicken legs and said mines a big fat one, and the other table got the skinny one.
(This was his super cute way of making up for the toast incident).
Then I was shocked he remembered about the curry sauce.
For one of the sets, there was milk still to come which I did not remind him, but he remembered that he forgot to bring it, and he said he had bad memory because he was old, so I asked him how he was in a quiet tone and he said he was 65 in an unsuspected tone.
To be honest, I am sure he was lying, but it proves he has super hearing!
I believe he is much older because he seemed quite frail with walking difficulties, he had a bony face yet his tattoo seemed freshly done.
Every now and then, I thought I was hearing things when I heard him utter some English such as "Thank you" and "very good".
Then he brought over the curry sauce which had some black bits, and he told me to pick it out with a toothpick which was funny, he kept insisting me to take it out which proved he had Super eyesight to see such a small black thing in the sauce!
As well as that he had super observation skills because he seemed to observe my puzzled look on the milk cap, so he showed me how it should be opened!
I was even more flabbergasted when I was taking photos of the milk, he saw what I was doing and pushed the other dishes out of the way to give me a clear background for that shot!!!!
This old man is real smart with photographic sense too!!!!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chinese old superman:
I could be wrong and he is probably not that old because Chinese people all look the same, just the same way Chinese people think all Westerners look the same!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried chicken leg and chips:
The fried spring chicken was sold out, so it was changed to this, there were a few chips scattered on the chicken leg which were perfectly golden, just the way I like my chips.
The chicken leg was juicy and not too salty, great with the curry sauce as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Walnut pie:
I have never seen anything like it in Hong Kong, so I can't say whether it is a retro style walnut pie or it is their unique style.
It looked like a thin lattice pie with walnuts and it was basically made with shortcrusted pastry with walnuts and lattice strips of pastry on top and baked.
There was a thin layer of paste in between the walnut and pastry too.
The taste was really nice and buttery with delicious walnuts, perfect with a real cup of English tea, but since there was no tea, the plain milk was good enough.
It was a bit like eating malted milk biscuits with milk.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Curry sauce:
The curry sauce was great for dipping the chips (A British thing).
As said earlier, there was a black thing (which you can see on the picture), most probably burnt bits from the pan, and the old guy with his super eyesight told me to use a toothpick to take it out and stressed it again and again because I did not do it immediately!
The curry sauce did not have a strong flavour, but it was nice.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dairy milk:
Milk is just milk and I do not normally drink milk on its own, but for some reason, the milk tasted nice with that walnut pie, and the bottle seemed special, so I kept drinking it.
I just had to post this photo and not waste the old mans effort moving the plates out of the way to give me a better shot!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I will probably come here again for the walnut lattice and check on the old Chinese superman .
Hopefully the fried spring chicken is not sold out again because its cheaper than fried chicken elsewhere!
