HONG KONG FOOD & SHOPPING THERAPY

Thursday, 12th June 2008
Trip to Hong Kong 12-14 June 2008
Address: 193 Prince Edward Road West,
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Phone: (852) 2928 8822
We stayed at Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok, a Sun Hung Kai 4* property but I would rate it 5* . The rooms are clean and big, the pillows (Hopeful) are very comfortable and we were given a family room with a sideboard kitchenette since there are no queen size bed room. It is connected to Grand Century Place, a big shopping centre with 8Floors and 200 retailers and across the road is flower street, bird street and Ladies Nite Market .

We stayed at Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok, a Sun Hung Kai 4* property but I would rate it 5* . The rooms are clean and big, the pillows (Hopeful) are very comfortable and we were given a family room with a sideboard kitchenette since there are no queen size bed room. It is connected to Grand Century Place, a big shopping centre with 8Floors and 200 retailers and across the road is flower street, bird street and Ladies Nite Market .


Grand Cafe
Grand Hyatt Hotel Hong Kong
reservations: +852 2584 7932
1 Harbour Rd.,
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Phone: 2588-1234
This place is within easy walking distance of Wanchai MTR.
Had Dinner at Grand Cafe and it's not your usual buffet affair. The ceiling glass windows offers you the sweeping views of Victoria Harbour and neon lit skyline of Hong Kong. The international cuisine does not come cheap tho but at SGD88++ pp you get good choice of baked cheese lobster and baked cheese oysters, home-made liver pate on thin crispy wafers which I truly enjoyed, both the local soup and western soup was satisfying, an array of cold cuts like parma ham, coppa ham, airflown cold beef and salami, sashimi and sushi counter (the thick cuts of salmon sashimi is very fresh and smooth), abalone gravy for the Chinese noodle section and the desserts which includes pancake with a variety of fruit is so light and delightful. I had my pancake filled with a lot of blueberries and the fresh cream and vanilla topping is so satisfying and that makes it an enjoyable evening.QI JI
Level 4A, Langham Place
Mongkok, Hong Kong
Tel: 3514 4000

STREET FOODGlutinous Rice Roll at Jardine Bazaar, Causeway Bay
My favourite street food in Hong Kong is the smelly fermented tofu and the glutinous rice roll with meat floss altho I have given up on the latter as the standard has dropped. The stall owner was once so arrogant when we first patronise the place but now seats are more scantily filled and I find the rice not as soft and the crueller hard and if I am not wrong they introduce diced preserved radish recently which is a mismatch. However, this goes well with the bean curd drink served in a bowl and you can see office workers having this as their dinner.

STREET FOODGlutinous Rice Roll at Jardine Bazaar, Causeway Bay
My favourite street food in Hong Kong is the smelly fermented tofu and the glutinous rice roll with meat floss altho I have given up on the latter as the standard has dropped. The stall owner was once so arrogant when we first patronise the place but now seats are more scantily filled and I find the rice not as soft and the crueller hard and if I am not wrong they introduce diced preserved radish recently which is a mismatch. However, this goes well with the bean curd drink served in a bowl and you can see office workers having this as their dinner.
STREET FOOD
Glutinous Rice Roll at Jardine Bazaar, Causeway Bay
My favourite street food in Hong Kong is the smelly fermented tofu and the glutinous rice roll with meat floss altho I have given up on the latter as the standard has dropped. The stall owner was once so arrogant when we first patronise the place but now seats are more scantily filled and I find the rice not as soft and the crueller hard and if I am not wrong they introduce diced preserved radish recently which is a mismatch. However, this goes well with the bean curd drink served in a bowl and you can see office workers having this as their dinner.
Maxim's Palace Chinese Restaurant (Mong Kok)
8/F, Grand Century Place,
Mong Kok, Kowloon
This restaurant is just at the adjoining shopping centre of my hotel.
Morning Yum Cha at Dim Sum restaurants in Hong Kong are crowded with retirees passing their morning reading papers and enjoying their small talks with friends or families and it's particularly busy during the weekends. The restaurants are usually with big halls and you order your dim sum from the passing trolleys. However, altho the dim sum is tasty, I still find the standard not quite refine but for the atmosphere, we do enjoy the experience having dim sum breakfast whenever we are in Hong Kong. (The basket of paus are from another restaurant in Tsimshatsui)

TSIM SHA TSUI
Lunch at Chinese Restaurant kicks off with a nice soup. This "PO TONG" which is slowfire boiled soup is certainly very tasty as it has an unusual addition of red bean that is cooked soft besides other ingredients like lotus roots, lots of pork bone meat with the meat cooked till tender, red dates and I bet Hunan Ham.Lunch at Chinese Restaurant kicks off with a nice soup. This "PO TONG" which is slowfire boiled soup is certainly very tasty as it has an unusual addition of red bean that is cooked soft besides other ingredients like lotus roots, lots of pork bone meat with the meat cooked till tender, red dates and I bet Hunan Ham.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts have not landed in Singapore but it's popular overseas. It's first shop opens in Hong Kong in August 2006 and it offers 28 doughnut varieties. Krispy Kreme started in 1937 from North Carolina and has since expanded over to Asia. Though I do lugged them home, I do not enjoy it as it is too sweet for me.

Had to wake up at 4+ due to the early morning flt to Hong Kong. It's a rainy season here in Hong Kong and it turned stormy on the 2nd day when we took a day trip to Macau, the sea was choppy leaving many of the passengers nauseous with seasickness during the one hour long trip. Arriving in Hong Kong, you will already realise how crowded this city is but the beautiful sceneries of sea and the moutains on the way to town makes up for the serenity of the place. Hong Kong is still a shopper and food paradise but I have yet to taste good refined Dim Sum. The day tour is always interesting to us with Cantonese commentaries tho we have visted most of the places before. The tour guide is a good looking handsome chap with actor 's looks (he's actually from the same drama class as Stephen Chow in the early days) who generously foretells the fortune of most passengers in the bus. We were given the miss as he knows we are Christians. The tips were quite interesting and the faces and features of the faces were giveaway signs for him to give advice.

Royal Plaza Hotel





This is the second time we returned for the Crab Congee, the first during the last trip. The porridge comes in a big wooden tub and it serves piping hot crab with hard orange roes. The porridge is light and smooth. The crab however is small and meat is hard to dig but overall it lends to the taste.

CHINA STAR SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Krispy Kreme