Archive for January 2008
fancy tea at the four seasons
Our flight home to San Francisco was not until 10:30 in the evening but we had to check out of the hotel by 2pm. How to spend those hours in between?
Shopping. And tea. More fancy tea.
After no less than 3 hours at our secret shopping spot where I bought 5 more coats, we MTRed it over Central to try our high tea luck at the Four Seasons. While the Peninsula is regal, the Four Seasons is new school bougie. We got a big table with velvet couches and arm chairs right next to the piano.
the house of mango delights
Hong Kong is a mango lover’s dream. You wouldn’t think it but WOW. If you love mango you are going to be a happy camper here. I present to you… Hui Lau Shan.
a serenade for victoria harbor
Not allowed to visit Hong Kong without hitting the light show over Victoria Harbor. After an afternoon of fortune telling and high tea on the Kowloon side, we walked to the promenade to watch the show. The next night we picked a restaurant with a view of the harbor to celebrate our last night in lovely Hong Kong. Our pick? Serenade Restaurant located on the first floor of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.
hk eating for no reason
We were real troopers on our first day in Hong Kong. Jet lagged be damned we trekked our way through the city as best we could. We wanted to turn in early so even though we were still stupidly full from a bakery stop, we forced ourselves to eat dinner so that we could go back to the hotel and call it a day.
On yet another recommendation we taxied over to American Peking Restaurant on Lockhart. We’ll blame the fact that we walked up the stairs even though the restaurant is on the first floor on jet lag. Hahahaa. The place was completely empty. A sign of a bad recommendation? Not quite. It was only 5pm. Super early for dinner by Hong Kong standards – most restaurants are open until 11pm!
yun kee, central, hong kong
Yun Kee is a Hong Kong institution, not only was it recommended by friends it was also in every guidebook we could find. Its claim to fame? It was noted as one of the Top 15 restaurants in the world by Fortune Magazine… in 1968. Less impressed by the 4 decades ago thing, huh?
We didn’t do enough homework on what to order at Yun Kee and it was one of the more disappointing meals of our trip. The place is quite nice with plenty of tourists filling the 3 (or maybe 4) floors of tables.
fried chicken wings in noodle soup
We passed this place on our trip back to a clothes shop that we first found on our way to Stanley Market. There was a line out the door so we figured the place had to be good. Before seeing MG and Julia off on their shopping adventure (I was going to putter around Times Square and then rest at the hotel to help recover from the cold I had) we stopped by here for lunch.
No English here but plenty of pictures on the walls and other diners slurping huge bowls of soup that you can point to. We did the ‘I want that one, bottom one, on the right, yah the right, no the bottom, thick noodles, yah, uh huh, yup’ thing. It seemed to work. This is what HKD26 will get you.
australia dairy company
We got this as a recommendation for a good Chinese breakfast. Because we’re lame, we expected soy milk and pastries. Whoops. That’s Taiwanese breakfast not Chinese breakfast. Let it be known that I’ve never had such fear at breakfast before.
The food here is good but I’ll warn you if you’re a tourist, this is not a tourist-friendly establishment. It’s a neighborhood eatery frequented by locals. We’re talking grandmas sipping milk tea and younger types running to work. If you can’t speak Cantonese or read Chinese, you will be struggling. Luckily, we had both the Mandarin speaker/reader and the Cantonese speaker to guide us.
We were seated and the waiter pointed to two combo items on the menu that is sandwiched under the glass table top (pictured above, thanks MG). He pointed and left. Predicament. The menu is entirely in Chinese and there are no pictures. We looked around to what other people were eating as Jlin read the Chinese and spit out random translations. He came back and we asked him a few questions. He told us to hurry up with the order. Jlin and Julia confused him with both Mandarin and Cantonese instructions and questions. Scary? Yes. Funny? Yes.
wasabisabi, hong kong
Another recommendation, this time from Jeff, to check out Wasabisabi led us to dinner on the 13th floor of the Times Square Center. Now don’t make the same mistake we did by going around in circles trying to get to the 13th floor. Use the outside elevator to go straight there. If you try to get in through the elevators inside, you’ll end up everywhere but the 13th floor. If you’re taking the MTR take the Island line and get off at Causeway Bay. Exit A will lead you right to Times Square.
when in hong kong, eat dim sum
Our first trip to Times Square’s Food Forum brought us to Chung’s Cuisine. No recommendations here, we stumbled on this place after getting lost trying to get to the 13th floor. Plus it was one of the few restaurants still open between that strange eating time between lunch and dinner. So if you find yourself looking to eat at around 3pm, this might be the place for you.
MG pretty much lives on these and, if allowed, will ask for them every day. She prefers the baked version but enjoys the steamed siopao-style variety as well. This time around we got mini steamed bbq pork buns. The bread part was super soft, the inside was runnier than I like and sweeter than usual.
tea for three at the peninsula
Every guidebook will tell you to head The Peninsula Hotel for high tea. You can thank the British for this tradition. Tea for two will set you back HKD388 (divide by 7 for the USD equivalent). We ordered that plus a slice of chocolate cake which was more like chocolate mousse. For max satisfaction stick with the tea service.
Feed your reader! 
