Spaghetti House @ Off Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Early Dinner Set Meal

• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Macaroni Ham Salad
• Nai Cha

There are two types of pasta dishes in this world. The first type is where the sauce is "infused" with the pasta by frying the sauce and three-quarters cooked pasta together in a pan before serving. The second variation (which I like to term the Mafia style, because it reminds me of how the American-Italians made their version of pasta) is the slacker version, whereby sauce is poured over a bed of cooked pasta. This spaghetti bolognese was the latter kind; although I think almost all spaghetti bolognese fall under this category.

Spaghetti House is a popular chain of restaurants in Hong Kong which have been around since forever - or close to that. It was there when I was born (according to my mom); it was there when I moved away; it's still here now. We got there early, because we'd been walking all afternoon around Tsim Sha Tsui and were quite famished by then. So we took advantage of their early set dinners, which were from 5pm to 7pm; and you had to get the check by 8pm or so.

I ordered the spaghetti bolognese, not because I liked it, but because it was the first item on the menu, and all the other items where rather complicated and I couldn't really make out what they were exactly. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't actually like spaghetti bolognese very much to begin with.

The problem with spaghetti bolognese is that you have to eat it fast, while it's hot. If you don't, the sauce "leaches". What do I mean by "leach"? If you imagine the sauce as a solution, comprising of a solute and solvent, "leaching" is when the solvent from the sauce separates itself from the solute. For some odd reason, spaghetti bolognese is very prone to "leaching" - it probably has something to do with the bits of meat in the sauce. This is made worse by the bed of pasta below the sauce. Left on its own for too long, the water (solvent) inside the sauce drains out and drips down through the bed of pasta to the bottom of the plate, while the less fluid tomato paste and ground beef remains on top, held up by the bed of pasta. When this happens, the entire thing becomes really disgusting to eat. The beef becomes rough and dry, the tomato sauce becomes cakey, and the pasta becomes soggy from soaking in the solvent below. And it's almost impossible to mix the sauce back together again.

But I decided it was worth a try - at least here.

The salad arrived first. It was actually a very simple salad, made with macaroni and chunks of apple, celery and cucumber, tossed in miracle whip, garnished with an elegantly cut piece of ham rolled into a cylinder holding a splotch of roe in the middle and half a strawberry on the side. It was served in a rather small goblet-like cup, so it was a bit tedious to eat, but it tasted quite okay - a refreshing start to the meal.

My entrée took quite a while to come, but that didn't really bother me much as it did them (and when I say them, I mean the restaurant people), because they were the ones forcing us to leave by a certain time, and my hunger had been somewhat satiated by the salad and 'nai cha'. As you can see, it was a typical plate of spaghetti bolognese. Nothing special.

I removed the piece of parsley, stuck my fork into the middle and started to twirl. As expected, the sauce, with its generous bits of beef, refused to stick to the strands of noodle. So, I proceeded to use both spoon and fork and lifted the spaghetti slightly off the plate, mixing the two elements thoroughly, as if tossing a salad. It had to be done.

It was much better after that. Not only did it taste better and prevent "leaching" (or at least delay it), but the problem of having too much sauce or plain noodle left over after disproportionately eating one or the other was solved as well. And although I haven't had many spaghetti bolognese in my lifetime, for reasons stated above, I must say that this has to be the best plate of the stuff I've had yet.

Total cost: around HK$45 to 50 (I just can't remember exactly)
Rating: aaaaa

http://www.spaghettihouse.com/