Macau Restaurant @ Lokville, Tsim Sha Tsui

# Read trip summary here

Didn't plan to wake up so early, but day here is really "early", 6:15 am already sunny like 7 am in Malaysia, so better wake up and have some morning walk. Must blame myself because didn't reserve time to schedule activity weeks ago, ended up we just flipped through the books and decided to visit the nearest place from here - Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀).

I personally not interested in those Hong Kong Space Museum, Hong Kong Science Museum, etc., once we exit at Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station, we straight away head to Avenue of Star (星光大道) and take a short walk along the promenade. Not sure is all the "stars" feel proud to be "printed" here since everyone just step on it when they walk by. (Btw, I'm not a fan of Andy Lau)

It's really refreshing with the wind blowing directly to your face, the only problem is when you want to take photo, your hair will be like a mess. Walk until the end (or the beginning) of Avenue of Star, you will see the Star Ferry Pier (天星码头), not sure is this the one that proposed to be demolished but if you ask me, I will say keep this, forever.

Start feeling hungry and while searching for food along Lokville (乐道), we found this nice Macau Restaurant.

Our breakfast, Macanese Crispy Roll with Pork Chop and Scramble Egg (HKD 23) + Portuguese Tart (HKD 7).

Maybe some words about the tea first. The taste is not the same compare to what we have here, somehow I find it hard to love this taste even after few times I tried this in Hong Kong. Think I will need more time, just like when I first tried Penang's curry mee, also couldn't accept it but it's one of my favourites now :-)

The pork chop is juicy and I love the scramble eggs. I know I might not have enough time in Macau to try this, so it's good that I can try this in Hong Kong. This restaurant is under management of Macau Regency and they also have outlets in Central, Causeway Bay and Shanghai. By putting "Macau" as their name, it is impossible they do not sell Portuguese Tart.

This is so far the best Portuguese Tart that I ever had in my life (see how little my food experience :-(), if you drop by this place, try one and let me know what you think.

More attractive places:
Shopping - Harbour City (海港城) (although I don't enjoy it, except city'super inside), Park Lane (柏丽大道) and Kimberley Road (金巴利道) area.
Nightlife - Knutsford Terrace (諾士佛台) and Alfresco Lane.
Other food - 源记 "cha chaan teng" and High tea at The Peninsula HK.

Direction
Avenue of Star
MTR exit Tsim Sha Tsui F and just follow the signboard.

Macau Restaurant
MTR exit Tsim Sha Tsui A1, Lokville just at the junction opposite.

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Tsim Sha Tsui

Chicken Hot Pot @ Mongkok

# Read trip summary here

After I came back to Malaysia, then only I realized they should have an outlet in Kuchai Lama... but I'm not too sure.

This is our first dinner in HK after we walk whole night at Sai Yeung Choi Street and Tung Choi Street. In fact, there are lot more choices but I found this looks "fun", and partly because they've stuck Tsai Lan's review at their entrance.

You can check out their company at Chicken Hot Pot (重庆鸡公煲). What makes them so special? It's something like our dry Bak Kut Teh but with chicken and added a lot more spices, taste spicy (you can choose the spicy level) and gravy. After you finish the chicken, you can optionally add soup into the claypot to continue with steamboat.

So is this fun? We can't really finish the whole pot as it is quite big portion, but we do add soup to cook some glass noodles. The taste is not bad and I think their first shop should be really good, but after so many franchises, I doubt the one I eat today is as good as the original one as they cut the chicken into too small chunks, hard and it's not juicy, overall not too excited.

Not really a fan of prawn but this Spicy Prawn is quite good. I didn't completely peel the shell and just eat everything together, every bite also full with strong aroma and I like the fries and cucumber at the bottom.

That's all for the first day, really tired and went back to YWCA after this. This dinner is not something HK's specialty, more posts coming :-)

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Mongkok

Dessert @ Tai Leung Pak Kee and Honeymoon

# Read trip summary here

Do you like dessert? Think eating dessert already become a culture for Hong Kong people, you can see dessert shop almost everywhere, sometimes even few shops in a row, especially 许留山, started about 40-50 years ago from selling only herbal tea and Guilinggao to almost everything that you can mix now.

Somehow, we didn't try 许留山, instead, we've walked in some plain old dessert shop, like Tai Leung Pak Kee (大良八记). 大良 has been around for 14 years and quite famous with their paste form (糊) "tong sui", like sesame paste soup, walnut paste soup, almond paste soup etc., therefore they also known as 食糊专家. We only try a small bowl of walnut soup (核桃糊 HKD 14), smooth and rich but personally I'm more prefer peanut soup.

Not too far away from 大良 is a shopping mall called Langham Place. It's not a spacious mall at each floor but it's really tall and nicely designed.

Saw Honeymoon (满记) somewhere after this escalator and it's packed with youngsters, must be another good place for dessert. We've ordered Snow White Sago (白雪黑珍珠 HKD 25) and 杨枝甘露 HKD 25. If you like bubur cha cha, pretty sure you will like the Snow White Sago too. They use fruits as main ingredient therefore you can easily finish the whole bowl without feeling greasy. Their 杨枝甘露 is just okay to me (missed 利苑 this round, origin of 杨枝甘露).

Night time Mongkok area is even more crowded but I really enjoy it, the only thing not so impressive is the item sold at the Ladies Street, it has no different with our pasar malam.

Grab some snacks (fish ball, not so nice) whenever you feel hungry, you will never run out of food here ;-)

大良八记
MTR 旺角 exit D2, turn left and go straight along Sai Yeung Choi street.

满记甜品
Level 10-S23, Langham Place, Mongkok.

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Mongkok

Lok Yuen Beef Ball King @ Mongkok

# Read trip summary here

We stayed at The Anne Black - YWCA, but if you ask me where to stay next time, I will definitely recommend YMCA, not because YWCA is not good, but location not as convenient as YMCA, which is just next to MTR and lot of buses stop right in front of YMCA. We've no choice this time because YMCA already fully booked.

Along Waterloo Road (窩打老道), can see YWCA? :-)

Our first lunch settled at Lok Yuen (乐园牛丸), a restaurant specialize in beef ball. Clear soup but taste good, overall quality cannot be rated great, but I don't mind to have this once a week. I've ordered their signature dish 招牌酱爆花膠牛肉丸河 (HKD 28), it's really springy as what you've seen in Steven Chou's movie - God of Cookery, where they play table tennis with beef ball ;-).

One thing didn't meet my expectation is the soup inside the beef ball, because I'm expecting a gravy sauce and stronger taste, but it turned out just some hot soup that can easily burn your tongue. No mantis prawn as ingredient but I suspects they've added pork lard. It's a big bowl therefore we only sampled one type.

Mongkok area always busy with cars and youngsters, night time even more crowded and you will see a lot of restaurants promoting their food on the road with big signboard and pamphlet, as compare to our Petaling Street, sigh...

Location
香港九龙旺角花园街11号
9am - 3am
MTR exit 旺角站 D3, go straight along 亚皆老街, reach 花园街 turn right.

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Mongkok

30 Sept - 6 Oct @ Hong Kong Macau

Hi all, back to Malaysia... but first few days really feel like I'm still in Hong Kong :-), think I love to stay there already. The trip is good, although not much planning and preparation except some books, luckily all the books that I bought are really useful.

This is not an "eating" trip, but somehow naturally we do eat a lot, you can expect all the coming posts will be related to Hong Kong or Macau. For the first post, I would like to summarize the activities in each day, so this post will be like an "index" page with links to all coming reviews, also hope this can help you if you are visiting Hong Kong, Macau but no time to plan for it, keep this as a reference although this is not a fantastic schedule.

Day 1

• Early morning from LCCT to Macau, afternoon from Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier to Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal and reached The Anne Black - YWCA around 3pm.
• Late lunch at Lok Yuen Beef Ball King (乐园牛丸) and dessert at Tai Leung Pak Kee (大良八记).
• Shopping at Langham Place (朗豪坊), dessert again at Honeymoon Dessert (满记甜品).
• Walked around Sai Yeung Choi Street (西洋菜街), Tung Choi Street (通菜街, 女人街) and 波鞋街, dinner at Chicken Pot (重庆鸡公煲).

Day 2

• Visited Avenue of Stars (星光大道) and Star Ferry Pier (天星码头).
• Breakfast at Macau Restaurant (澳门茶餐厅).
• Shopping at Harbour City (海港城), Park Lane (柏丽大道), Kimberley Road (金巴利道), Granville Road (加连威老道), etc.
• Lunch at 源记茶餐厅.
• Continue shopping and back to YWCA for a break after that.
• Explored Temple Street (庙街) and dinner at Hing Kee Restaurant (兴记).
• As usual, dessert again at 义顺, joint the crowd for China National Day's fireworks and this ends the day.

Day 3

• Woke up early just to breakfast at 莲香楼, after that spent an hour around Central Hong Kong.
• Visit Wan Chai (湾仔) by tramway and had some snacks at 金凤茶餐厅.
• Shopping at Times Square, Causeway Bay (铜锣湾) and a break at Pret a Manger, continue with 渣甸坊 and Sogo.
• Back to Causeway Bay thought can lunch at Yung Kee (镛记) but roasted goose already sold out, so we switched to Honolulu Coffee Shop (檀岛）.
• Spent some times at Lee Yuen Street East (利源东街)
• On the way back to YWCA, dropped by Pioneer Centre (始创中心) and finally dinner at 大救驾.

Day 4

• This was a shopping day, started with breakfast at Fairwood (大快活).
• Visited Queensway Plaza (金钟廊) and Pacific Place (太古广场).
• Finally managed to lunch at Yung Kee (镛记) ;-).
• Another 2 big shopping malls conquered: Festival Walk (又一城) and apm.
• Dinner at 红蚂蚁, apm.
• Bought some Kee Wah's (奇华饼家) biscuits and went back with exhausted body.

Day 5

• Dim sum as breakfast again, but this time at 陆羽茶室.
• An egg tart immediately after breakfast from 泰昌饼家, that's really full.
• Spent almost a day at Hong Kong Disneyland!
• Really tired and dinner nearby YWCA - 南华茶餐厅.

Day 6

• Had some Mak's noodles at Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal and leaving to Macau early morning.
• Reached Masters Hotel around 1pm and lunch at Restaurante Fat Siu Lau (佛笑楼).
• Habit to have dessert again, this time at 杏香园.
• Walk along Rua da Felicidade (福隆新街), Largo do Senado (議事亭前地), Igreja de São Domingos (玫瑰堂), Casa de Lou Kau (盧家大屋), Ruínas da Antiga Catedral de S. Paulo (大三巴牌坊), etc.
• After shower dinner at 祥记, lost some money at Lisboa (葡京) and that's it for today.

Day 7

• Last day in Macau, experienced old dim sum place at 龙华茶楼.
• Checked out and visited Lotus Square (金莲花广场) and Macau Fisherman's Wharf (澳门漁人碼頭).
• Lunch at 坤记.
• Lost some money at Lisboa again, tried some Margaret's tarts (玛嘉烈) and finally, bye bye to Macau!

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong + Macau