Rewind to February 2020 and me and my good friend JB aka Janette had booked to go to Hong Kong for a foodie trip as we are both massive lovers of Asian food. Of course that got cancelled as it was just as Covid was hitting China. We looked into going a few other times during the past year but the price or time was never right. JB sent me a few instagram posts about a month ago and said "why are you not getting the hint?" A few hours laters we had booked.
We only had a few weeks to plan, but we managed to plan out all the restaurants and all the things we wanted to eat over the 5 days.
Temple Street Night Market
As we landed at about 6pm it made sense just to nip to the Temple Street night market for a few snacks before bed. A couple of places on our list were here but being Chinese New Year they were closed. Never mind, we found some snacks and the best for me was this imitation shark fin soup. Fear not, eco warriors, no sharks were harmed in the making of this soup. Instead a concoction of ham, chicken and mushrooms played the part, weaving a taste tapestry to be proud of. Back in the day, when Shark fin soup was a luxury, they did make the imitation one with the scraps of shark fins but now, even that is too expensive so this is the cheats version. It was a creamy delectable treat, simmered to perfection bursting with rich flavours of the sea and land that delighted the palate. (Can you see AI doing its magic here lol)
Breakfast of Champions
We had wanted to go to The Australian Dairy Company for breakfast, (nothing Australian about it at all). However, when we turned up the shutters were down and a sign in Chinese was posted to the door. Google translate basically said it was closed for Chinese New year, what we couldn't decipher was when it would re open. We walked up to the Mongkok area and found somewhere that had the same things on the menu. We of course had to have the ubiquitous pineapple bun. Imagine a soft fluffy bread bun baked to perfection, its exterior boasting a delicate golden hue. The bun was tender and light with each bite and the cold butter contrasted against the warm bun.
Daiso
For those unfamiliar with Daiso. Everyone loves a Daiso. Daiso is a Japanese chain store probably similar to a pound shop although not everything is a poundish. Daiso is amazing if you love everything Hello Kitty, Miffy, Cutie Kawai kind of stuff. Or, for anything you wish you ever needed. We stumbled across two Daiso shops. Okay, I admit, the first one we didn't stumble upon but actively sought out and was on the agenda. The second, in Macau we did actually stumble upon. The thing with Daiso, you go in not needing anything specific but come out with all the things you didn't know you needed. I managed to get a press that makes your boiled egg come out in the shape of Hello Kitty, a hello Kitty potato peeler, various bags for baked goods with cute stuff on, a pair of tongs, a shark suit for Gregg the sausage dog, some wasabi style crisps amongst other things.
One Bus and a trip to Macau
So, we decided to go to Macau, dubbed as "The Las Vegas of the East". A quick google, told us the cheapest and easiest way to get there was by coach and it just happened to be departing from our area. "The One Bus" seemed the best bet. The night before, we had a brief conversation about wether we needed our passport and then forgot to follow up on this. A casual fifteen minute stroll got us to "The One Bus" head quarters. I turned to JB and said "Did we need our passports?", I then asked the lady who looked at me like I was dumb and said yes, of course. Memories came flooding back of the time I forgot to get a visa for Vietnam and spent the entire plane ride worrying about getting handcuffed and marched off at immigration. Luckily that was Vietnam and I was just marched to a money machine which solved the problem. Anyway, I digress, we had about twenty minutes before departure at this point. JB sprang into action like a galloping Gazelle with her small toe bundled up like a tiny mummy from yesterdays marathon walkathon (Creds to AI again). She zipped back to the hotel and snatched up our passports and bolted back to One Bus with five whole minutes to spare. I stayed at One Bus, tapping my watch and pointing in the distance trying to communicate that she was nearly here.
Macau was one thing we hadn't researched very well for our trip and not sure what we were expecting. About an hour into our journey we all had to get off the bus and complete the whole customs procedure. The driver announced we had twenty minutes "otherwise travel is by own arrangement". We raced through and out the other side to meet the waiting bus.
Macau was jam packed with tourists. Probably from mainland China because of Chinese New Year. Luckily it was only like that in the very centre and near the ruins of St Pauls which were pretty amazing. We had a Portuguese custard tart which is what you do when in Macau. The custard tart seemed to have missed its sugar appointment and went a bit over board on the egg front, not quite hitting the sweet spot we were hoping for.
I also had some sugar cane juice which was basically like sipping on frogs pee with a generous dash of sugar. We then sought out The Goat Bakery which was away from the hustle and bustle, down a small side street in what looked like a trendy part of town. We had seen the amazing cronut style pastries on Instagram and of course had to see what all the fuss was about. There was a small following of wanna be bloggers outside on the street all trying to snap shots of their pastries while pistachio cream was oozing out onto the foot path. Of course, when in Rome/Macau we also tried to join in.
We shared a cheesecakey one and a pistachio one which we ate the next day. Both were incredibly tasty and our raspberry lime iced teas served as the perfect palate cleansers cutting through the sweetness with crisp refreshment.
Since we were in Macau and it is the Las Vegas of the east we had to have a little flutter on the machines. We walked into one hotel but it seemed to be only Poker of which we knew nothing about. Luckily the second hotel had pokie machines so we spent half an hour making small wins and then loosing it all. JB managed to snap a photo of me and then when I tried to get one of her the lady came and told us off. Who knew it was such a sin?
A quick coffee and a walk around Fishermans Wharf and it was time to catch the one bus back to Hong Kong. Again, we arrive at the border and again we are told "twenty minutes or by your own arrangement". We raced through and then realised we had to fill out a departure form. No pens available, luckily I managed to find my Miffy pen with 4 different colours from Daiso so we quickly filled these out then got in the longest slowest queue. By the time we were through we knew it had to have been longer than twenty minutes. We could see several other people in our line who were from our bus, noticeable by proudly displaying their one bus green stickers. Surely they would wait with so many still not through. No, we were wrong. We ran to the designated meeting point to be told it had gone. Here we were, stranded at the border. How could they do this to us? "By own arrangement", the cheek of it. We saw some buses that were headed to Kowloon but they were packed and the queues were long. There was nothing to be done except get a taxi.
Dud Meals
On any trip you are always going to have a few dud meals. These usually come about by three main reasons.
Either one (usually me) or both of the parties starts to get hangry when trying to find a place that was carefully researched and you cant find it. It is closed for Chinese New Year or closed down since the trip advisor reviews and no one bothered to update. You walk past several places and look at the menus, nothing seems quite right and you keep going and everyone is getting a bit tired and a bit scratchy so you decide to go to the next busy looking place.
You see something on Instagram and its gone absolutely viral because it looks so cute/delicious and dreamy. When in reality anyone can make something look great, it doesn't necessarily mean its going to taste great. (See previous posts about cute foods with faces etc).
The language barrier, sometimes you don't know what you are ordering and you are trying to be all cultural and pretend it doesn't really matter but it all goes horribly wrong.
On this trip, we were lucky to only have two dud meals. This is not bad considering three x meals per day x 5 days so 15 meals so thats 13% worth of duds. The first was a number 1 reason. We were Hangry, and in hindsight it was probably the equivalent of going to an Angus Steak house in Leicester square but it was noodles. JB got a wonton soup which the broth tasted like dishwater with a quarter of an oxo cube thrown in. I had some big thick noodles jelled together in a big thick blob with some tough bits of beef sitting on top. Oh well, you live and learn (which you don't really as we will surely do it again and again)
The second disaster was a combination of 2 and 3. "Woo Cow Hot Pot" restaurant was dolled up on Instagram to look like the funnest place to go. We also love hot pot and it looked amazing. As JB is not a big meat eater it was decided that we would get the divider so we could have our own separate broths. After discussions with the waiter this was possible and he gestured for her to have the mushroom broth and me the spicy one that he pointed at in the picture. It was agreed. They came and poured the two broths into the pot. Mine was bright red with massive whole chillies bubbling around in the inferno. Our various bits and bobs came out which we launched into the soup. Mine topped the charts as the most spiciest and most scorching dish I have ever encountered. I guzzled down two full bottles of beer just trying to nibble a couple of mini corn cobs. It was inedible and I am one not to shy away from hot foods. On my way to the toilet I checked out everyone else's tables. They had lovely calm, cooling creamy broths. Why did he talk me into having the equivalent of a Mount Vesuvius lava pit? I didn't know there were other options. JB's again was not dissimilar to dishwater with fungi thrown in for good luck. Oh well, you live and learn (but do ya?).
I am throwing in this photo here of something that could have gone terribly wrong under number two but was actually really yummy. Mango and coconut shaved ice which we had seen on instagram and just had to have. The cute little bear was made of a mango jelly ice type substance. We found this in a food court in Quarry bay.
Michelin Madness
I don't know what the Michelin man was doing when he was in Hong Kong but I think he was throwing out accolades left right and centre. I think he also turned a blind eye to some of the requirements of what a star is. Most restaurants we came across had some kind of Michelin mention, not necessarily a star but a mention or Bib Gourmand. On our list of must eats was Tim Ho Wan which is the cheapest Michelin star in the world. There are several branches in Hong Kong as well as a few other countries in Asia. We chose the Prince Edward branch. They are famous for their dim sum and it did not disappoint. I know it looks like a lot of food but we are two growing girls and we had to try everything. Not to mention it was the cheapest Michelin star restaurant in the world (one star). Not sure how they passed with the toilets though.
Another Dim Sum restaurant we went to was One Dim Sum also in MongKok also amazingly cheap and one star as well. Again we ordered up a storm in the manner of research.
Cute Things
Anyone who knows me knows I love Hello Kitty. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard there were an array of celebrations going on for a) Hello Kitty's 50th birthday and b) Chinese New year. I don't know what it is about being in a foreign country that makes you think some things are acceptable. Its like when you are in Thailand and you think it is not only acceptable to buy but also wear elephant trousers. Luckily I had JB there to tell me under no circumstances could I purchase a Hello Kitty back pack or a Miffy phone case. I did however get away with buying some Miffy pens and a hello kitty powerbank and a Hello Kitty purse which I am so chuffed with. Of course I was also able to take photos. There wasn't as much cute food as I had hoped. I tried to take JB to Yum Cha where I went in 2019 that had dim sum in the shape of little animals. Surprise surprise it had turned into another restaurant and the owner said it closed down after Covid. Probably people actually realised although cute, the dumplings still tasted like dishcloth.
We also had Fridays 3D coffee on our list but unfortunately that was closed for Chinese New Year.
Snack Safari
Our final day was a whirl wind snack safari. We still has so many more things on our list to eat and places we wanted to go. We also wanted to catch the cable car up to the Giant buddha so today would have to be a day of snacks.
We had seen amazing pictures of french toast on menus but it always said available from 2-4pm or something like that. We got sternly told in one restaurant at breakfast when I enquired about the french toast that it was not available at that time of day. The waitress went off while we were deciding and I had the cheek to pick up another menu that was on the table. She came running over and snatched it off me, fuming and shouting. How dare I Iook at the dinner menu. At that point we got up and stormed out in true Lyall fashion.
So you can imagine our delight when we stumbled across a cafe with a picture of the French toast and it was 3pm. Perfect! In we went and ordered it. Okay so it didn't look like the picture, not quite as fat and high but it was good, oozing with condensed milk and other general deliciousness and to top it of, it was cheap as chips.
Another place on our list was a place called Fisholic in the Wan Chai area. We found it nestled in the corner of a food court in a shopping centre. This also had a Michelin mention and was famous for doing "playful" snacks involving fish. We of course had to order the chips made from fish and the fish dog. Both were awesome.
Next up was a Korean hot dog place we had seen on Instagram called Chung Chuns rice dogs. Just googling it now, I see there is a branch in Streatham so we didn't quite need to go all that way. However, we ordered the Ramen one which had crunchy noodles embedded on the outside. It was nice, but I've had better at the Greenwich market.
Another little street snack is the century old egg which is salty and scrumptious and a quick breakfast on the go. Not that we ever only had that.
I feel like I need to mention 7eleven, the convenience store. Me and JB love a 7eleven. We have been known to have entire meals from there in Japan, Korea and America. So, you can imagine our disappointment to find they are not as well stocked in Hong Kong as other countries. Most of the ones we found had no hot foods or things on sticks but seemed to be mainly for drinks and crisps etc. However the one at the top of the peak we managed to get these custard buns which were not too bad considering it was a 7eleven.
Apparently the internet said "If you ever see a Hong Kong Mr Whippy you must try it. You can even buy little souvenir trucks of Mr Whippy or fridge magents and key rings, it's that famous! So you can imagine our excitement when we spotted one. However, once we got closer we clocked how long the actual queue was. It snaked a couple of blocks back up the road. It can't be that good so we left it. Luckily we saw another one a few days later and there was probably only about ten people in front so we queued up. We were expecting it to taste like creamy white rabbit sweets. It was nice and it was creamy but not sure about all the hype.
So thats a wrap on our five days fabulous foodie fiesta in Hong Kong. Fabulous time had by all and the diet starts now.
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