48 hours in Hong kong

I have been to Hong Kong before, however it was the year 2002 and I was on a budget. I can’t remember where I stayed then, but it was seriously dodgy. I remember lying in bed at night and thinking if there was a fire I would be in serious trouble. There were bars on the windows and there was a shared toilet down the hall and all sorts of dodgy people lurking about. Anyway I did all the regular tourist stuff then and I don’t think I was as serious about food as I am now. So fast forward to now. I find myself in Hong Kong on a two day stopover and it is all about the food. I have no desire to be traipsing up mountains in cable cars or taking photos of giant buddhas.

I usually like to research my food options before I start as with only 2 days, life is too short for bad food. As I am travelling solo, I don’t fancy sitting in Michelin star restaurants on my own so decide this is a fun, street foodie type of stopover. Asian countries are best at this type of food anyway.

I set about googling such things like “Quirkiest places to eat in Hong Kong”, “Hong Kong’s best street food”, “Cute dim sum places in Hong Kong”. Then I plan my itinerary.

This time round I’ve splashed out a little bit more than the hostel I stayed at in 2002 and am staying at the Prudential Hotel. It is the perfect location, right on Nathan Road. I arrive at about 2.30pm and after a quick nap and a s shower I head out for my first bite. DIMSUM ICON at 100 Nathan Road. This is on the third floor of The ONE shopping centre. The dumplings are cute characters that change every few months. I ordered the Lychee and yoghurt special beverage and the cartoon custard buns. They were pretty tasty but more cute than anything.

Today I was having my dessert before my main, so now it was time for my real dinner. As I was pretty close to the Temple Street night market I thought I would try some of the local cuisine there. This part of it, I didn’t research and I think they saw me coming. A friend had told me about a place on the corner with plastic chairs . However they all had plastic chairs and they all seemed to be on a corner. I chose the one that looked the busiest and was rudely shown to a table. They seem to have single persons prejudice here as you are wasting space when you are just one person. They squeezed me in next to another couple which was good because I could nosey at their food before ordering. Everyone seemed to be ordering the Spicy crab. I decide this is what I will have. After trying to attract the waiters attention and being rudely ignored for about ten minutes and also seeing a debacle with the bill at another table I quickly got up and snuck out. Now what? I really wanted that crab. Then I realise all three restaurants next door are the same restaurant so I go into the third one where they seem a bit friendly and order the crab. The crab is the only thing on the menu without a price. It says “market price”. When I order it the lady writes on a piece of paper $300 for one or $400 for two. I order one, not really thinking what $300 is in English money. It wasn’t until I go to pay with my beer included and the couple sitting next to me are staring at my bill. I think they saw me coming. I later google the price of a typhoon crab and for £30 I think I can safely say I got ripped off. It was delicious though, very spicy and I tucked in like the locals do sucking the meat out of each leg and getting in a right mess.

The next morning I head out along Nathan road in the direction of the Mong Kok area. It’s about a half hour walk to my first stop which is for the pineapple bun. From my googling the best place to apparently have one of these is from Kam Wah Bakery, Bute Street, Mong Kok. There is actually no pineapple in these buns but they are called that because of the texture on the top. They are served warm and soft with a large stick of butter melting inside. Again I am squeezed in with another couple and I order a lemon iced tea to wash it down.

The next place on my list is also in the area but I am not ready to eat again just yet so I browse through the flower market, the goldfish market and the bird market to make way for stomach space.

The next stop is a place called “More Eggettes”. Eggettes are like a bubble waffle and I chose the matcha and red bean paste filling. This was according to google the best place for eggettes. However, I was the only one there and later that day I saw other places with massive lines outside. Maybe I was just early or maybe I should just follow the crowds next time. It was fine but I wouldn’t rush back, I only had a few bites as I didn’t want to waste stomach space.

Now I headed to Fei Jie snack shop. Also in the Mong Kok area. I had scribbled it down on a piece of paper in the morning and I thought this is where I was getting fish balls on a stick. When I arrived it was 12.50. There was a sign which indicated it opened at 1pm. I walked around a bit and thought about giving it a miss. As I passed it again a queue had begun to form, so not one to miss out I joined it. As I got to the counter I panicked. I couldn’t see the fish balls on sticks so just pointed at what the girl in front had ordered. She squirted mustard sauce on top. I snuck around the corner to eat them. They were delicious. I was expecting them to be hot but they were cold and fresh and spicy. But what were they? Were they pigs intestines? I had seen something on one of the signs about turkey hearts and pig intestines. I went back to the original article and realised it was octopus.

I was getting really full by now, but conscious of time ticking by I still hadn’t had the curried fish balls on a stick. Luckily, just around the corner was another street food stall with little balls bubbling away in a rich curry sauce. I ordered a little pot of these and ate them on the street with a tooth pick. Apparently these days they hardly contain any fish at all. They were soft and spongey and spicy and I wish I could have finished them all.

After all this eating and with Jet lag kicking in I decided to go back to the hotel for a quick nap and recharge and make way for more food antics.

Only a five minute walk from the hotel is Kowloon Park. I don’t remember this from last time if I did come. This is a lovely peaceful oasis right off the main street. In the middle of the park is a lake with a whole flock of pink flamingos. Quite bizarre.

It was now time for another refreshment break. I had nipped into the ONE shopping centre to get out of the heat and ordered myself a bubble tea. It was black sesame flavour with delicious pearls to suck up through the straw. As it was cheaper to get a dessert included it felt rude not to order the jasmine tea gelato on the side.

I now needed to walk off some of the calories so I headed down the harbour and the avenue of stars. I don’t remember this from last time as well but it also looked fairly new and developed and offered good views out across the bay of the skyline.

By now it was dinner time and I had been recommended by a friend to go to “Yum Cha”. Harriet knows how I love Hello Kitty and cute Japanese characters. I don’t know what it is about being in Asia when you suddenly think it might be okay to buy a hello kitty phone case or a Miffy umbrella. I guess it’s like when you’re in India and the elephant pants look kind of funky until you get back to London and you realise you look like a hippy from the 70’s. Anyway, I had made a reservation at Yumcha as there was no way I was missing out on this. I needn’t have worried as there were plenty of empty tables. Maybe people have cottoned on that cute is not always tastiest. I was pretty excited anyway at least for the photo opportunities. The problem with travelling on your own is that you can’t order very much. At one point a table near me ordered nearly every cute thing on the menu and I wondered if it was rude to ask to take a photo of their food. I managed to bite my tongue and stayed seated. I ordered the steamed cabbage and pork bun and a prawn wonton soup. The girl sitting next to me had the yellow custard ones. As she got up to leave I managed to sneak a photo of her last one that she had left before they whisked it away. I was feeling pretty stuffed by this point but I had serious food envy of the family nearby. I really wanted those cute little pineapple birds served in the cage. I ordered one, I’m on holiday, I told myself. I’m so pleased I did, it wasn’t a dumpling but a sweet shortcake similar to the mooncakes in Taiwan. The birds sat in a little pile of bird seed “aka coconut”.

That was all I could handle for one day so it was then time for bed and time to plan tomorrow’s meals.

The next day I had until 12.30pm before I had to head to head to the airport. I still hadn't had those beef brisket noodles I had heard about. A quick google revealed the best place for these was at Sister Wah in Tin Hau which is over in the western district. I figured I could catch the Star ferry across and get there for the opening of the restaurant at 11am and then slurp down a bowl of noodles and catch the underground back in time for the airport shuttle. I got there just before 11 and a small queue had begun to form. It is a small, simple restaurant where you share tables with fellow diners. On the wall there are Michelin bib gormand awards for about 7 years running. I order their signature dish, the beef brisket noodle soup. It was sweet and salty at the same time and the brisket melted in your mouth.

So that was my 48 hour foodie adventure in Hong Kong. I could have easily had another week. There were so many more things I wanted to try and not enough meals in the day.