Ladies Market

The weather here has been pretty miserable the past few days. It's been raining on and off since I've got here. Oh well, who am I to complain? London is not far off anyway.

Determined not to be put off by the rain, I made my way out to Mong Kok - the heart of Kowloon Peninsula. I have always enjoyed browsing through the many stalls but never seem to buy anything apart from food! ;) Anyway, it was sheer bliss to know that they are so many different types of markets in HK. Exploring them would definitely keep me occupied for awhile.

Die-hard shoppers braved the rain in search of cheap bargains.
The market have something for everyone... bags,
... ornaments,
...attractive hair clips,
... chinese paintings,
..jade trinkets.

Hong Kong Food

Yung Kee, a restaurant in Wellington Street near Central is a popular restaurant among locals. There's an average waiting time of 20-30 minutes if you do not have prior booking (in fact I've heard they sometimes do not even take bookings). We were here once before and didn't think too much about the place - it wasn't bad but not much to write home about. Since my brother highly recommended this place ( colloquially quipped "Die die must try!") - we thought we'd give it a another go.

The starter: a tasty century egg served with pickled ginger. It's an acquired taste (legend has it, it used to be buried in the ground for a century and wrapped in horse urine to help the aging process- I am sure - or at least I hope - this is no longer practiced). Very similar to cheese, I suppose. It's either you like it or you don't!
Deep fried soya chicken - it wasn't that special. In fact, I thought it looked better in the photo! I actually had cravings for chicken baked in rock salt, another delicacy but was informed that the dish had to be pre-booked 2 hours in advance.
Choi sum stir fried with scallops. I really thought this was one of the nicest dish I have had since we arrived in HK. We've never tasted such sweet and juicy choi sum ever!! And, the scallops just gave it the extra uummphh! ;)
Last but not least, the restaurant's pièce de résistance - roasted goose. A true delicacy for us, as this is something we are not able to get in the UK or Malaysia. So KL had his sumptuous feast, and excellent alternative to his usual Four Seasons' roast duck in Bayswater.
Darn it.. all these posts on food is making me hungry! Time for supper (again!). :P

Goldfish Market

Chinese people are into feng shui but I did not know the full extend of it until we got here - the Goldfish Market. I've never seen so many shops selling fishes along a street ever!


Ornamental fishes were known to bring good luck and wealth when properly positioned in the home. Just imagine having both sides of the street lined up with colourful fishes of different species and it was fully packed with people even on a rainy day.

It's a skill and takes time selecting fishes for the tank and this guy took his time in picking out his! Comparing one bag to the other... I guess you would too if your happiness and wealth depends on it! =)

Local food in Causeway Bay, HK

I do know this blog is more for our travels but thought I'd include the local food that we have tried. I've gotten a list of 'must-eat' places from my brother when he was here for work (did I mention that my family loves good food?). We ventured out to the one closest to where we were staying.

KL wrote down the name of the place and showed it to the concierge and he kindly pointed the place to us and at the same time added that it has the best tofu in HK. Can't say I agree more!

Looks simple but the fried tofu with a thin layer of fishcake at the bottom is very mouth watering. Its accompanied with sweet sauce and chilli sauce. When you bite into it, it's juicy and succulent and leaves a really nice (and oily) after taste! We had some fried noodles and 'tou foo fah' (sweet soy pudding -below) and KL swears it's the smoothest and nicest tou foo fah he had eaten.

So. whenever you are in HK and want to try this place out - here's the link. Best bet is to print it out and show it to a local as I'm sure they will be able to tell you where the place is.

http://www.openrice.com/big5/sr2.htm?shopid=15258

Welcome to HK

Phew, talk about bad timing - I flew into Hong Kong on Friday only to be greeted by a typhoon. As there were no announcements made on the plane, I was clueless about the storm. Concerned text messages from KL and Esther (KL's good friend) were completely ignored. Little did I know that it was a "grade 8" typhoon which was in fact quite severe - offices and schools were effectively shut down for the day and the majority of public transport had stopped working!

At any rate, thankfully, I managed to meet up with KL (he was got off early work due to the warning) and managed to get on a taxi, albeit with an additional HKD20 surcharge for "high risk driving conditions".

The boutique hotel KL stayed in was rather nice - Lanson Place close to Causeway Bay MTR station. The place was pretty unassuming from the outside but the interiors were pretty classy and the people friendly and helpful. The only niggle I had was the breakfast they served - I could have done with some local chinese food instead of a selection of continental breakfast. Yogurt, fruit salad and muffins do not look as attractive when you are surrounded by local shops next door offering some mouth watering sliced-pork congee, 'cheung fan' with 'yau-char-kwai' and all sorts of other delicacies.

Oh ... did I mention that the bathroom has a completely see-through glass design?? Definitely unique in terms of design . I get the idea that couples share 'everything', but I do think this is pushing it a little too far! Can't a girl get some privacy??

HK adventures to be continued... it's 12am here - time to hit the hawker stalls for some supper! As the old saying goes, gym session starts tomorrow!

Since I'm on a roll, I thought I'd might as well put these photos up for my mum. My parents left London back in May but mum has been constantly asking me about the family of swans near our home. It's not how am I doing but have you seen the swans? Have the cygnets grown? Hmmmphhh....

The family back in April
In June
...July
I'd probably be taking a couple more photos before heading to HK with my brand new camera =) So, watch this space.

KL's heading to HK for a project this coming week. Guess who's tagging along?? Me!!! The timing is just perfect - my contract job finishes tomorrow so I'm flying over to join him. As he's going to be working his ass off (excuse the language) - I intend to fully utilise the nice boutique hotel the company has booked him in and take the time to explore Hong Kong. We didn't do much of sight-seeing the last time round since we were there for only a night. So I hope to change that this time round.

A couple of weeks ago, I've met with an old buddy from school, Reena who was in London for work. I haven't seen her for ages ... so it was nice to catch up. A lovely dinner by the Thames with Tower Bridge nearby, followed by a tour of Canary Wharf and a brief visit to our home. We ended up chatting until 3am in the morning until we sent her home. Boy..were we tired! Can't even remember the last time we stayed up so late. I'm definitely getting too old for this!