Pork Chop Noodles in Soup (排骨湯麵) - Hao De Lai (Jordan) 好德來 (佐敦)

Pork Chop Noodles in Soup (排骨湯麵) - HK$46

The Hungry Nobody score - 6/10

Filling and decent value, noodles aren't bad but not sure I'm a fan of the pork chop

Hao De Lai (Jordan)

Shop A, G/F, 1 Tak Hing Street

好德來小籠包店

九龍佐敦德興街1號A地下

(+852) 2377 9498

What I did like was that the pork chop had some heft to it.  It was bigger than most other places and was also tender.  The breading on the pork was also not too thick or oily, which can often ruin your appetite.

What I didn't like was that while there wasn't anything terribly negative about this dish, there were quite a few things that caused me to raise my eyebrow once or twice.  The noodles, typically are 拉麵 or pulled noodles.  Although they don't have an open kitchen to show off that their noodles are indeed hand pulled, the noodles (at least were not overcooked) seemed to lack that chewiness (al dente) that you expect from fresh made noodles.  They were still actually decent, but disappointing nevertheless.  Whatever they used, it at least was void of any soapiness, and they served a decent sized portion.  The biggest and strangest issue I had was the pork itself.  It seemed to have been scored across the grain and been 'bloated' with some sort of filler.  It was as if they soaked it in a starch solution to give the pork added volume.  You can see what I mean in the picture below.  It altered the texture of the pork overall and gave it a heavier feel to it, although you'd normally attribute it to the grease.  I'm not sure I like it, but then again, I happily finished the whole pork chop.  I think $46 is on the higher side of acceptable price, I was expecting something more like $42-44.  So suffice to say this dish has it's weird problems, but overall, I'd say the large size (maybe artificially inflated size?) of the pork chop saved the dish both in terms of satisfaction and value.