Another Hongkong’s Street Food

Before midnight, I feel so hungry. Because I stayed at Causeway Bay area, I get around in there to get my comfort food before sleeping time. Finally I found a small place like a stall selling dumplings & soups. They only have 4 small tables and almost all have been occupied. Only the table behind kitchen that remains, so we had to join the table with other visitor.

I order a bowl of Spicy & Sour Soup. Price HKD 15 or 20 K. Quite nice! Shredded veggies & chicken topping with scallions in spicy sour soup is suitable to eat at night. The soup taste is different from Chinese restaurant at Indonesia. Taste lighter in here. Because we also order their dumplings, they gave us an extra soup. So, HKD 15 for 2 bowls of soup is very cheap!

For second dish, I order Vermicelli Soup with Meatball & Pork Intestines. Price HKD 15 or 20 K. Taste quite nice.

For dumplings, we bought the steam & fried version. Price HKD 20 or 25 K. With generously pork fill in, we feel so fully tummy. Satisfied!

At MTR Central Station, I found this ‘interesting’ stall. Many kinds of soups, pig/pork dishes, also they sell chicken dish. This time I tried their Marinated Pork Knuckles. Price HKD 33 or 42 K. The pork knuckles are marinated first with their special herbal sauce. After the seasoning has soaked inside, they’re ready to eat. I added it with chili. Taste very delicious!

Avenue of Stars

The Avenue of Stars is located at the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. It was opened to the public & visitors from all over the world from 2004. This place was established to pay tribute to outstanding professionals of Hongkong’s film industry, to promote tourism industry, and to consolidate Hongkong’s position as Asia’s World City.

This place is divided into several parts, such as: glittery welcoming, milestones in the development of Hongkong cinema, hand imprint & statue of Hongkong film award.

In the evening, the weather is quite windy and that causing me of craving for snack. At the mid of the avenue’s street, I saw a stall selling Shredded Squid. Price HKD 30 or 38 K. The squid was thinly sliced, then grilled it for a few minutes. After that you put into a shredded machine. Fresh from the oven. The squid meat is tender & chewy. Quite savory!

Mongkok

Mongkok is the place where you can find any goods or food with cheap price. Its traditional markets, small shops and food stalls has become their characteristic.

There’s a few streets in Mongkok that have interesting names, such as:

–         Sai Yeung Choi Street South

A street full of shops selling consumer electronic products, cosmetics, and discount book

–         Temple Street (Men’s Street)

The area famous for the Hongkong specific goods.

–         Yuen Po Street Bird Garden

Packed with booths selling birds. The garden is open from 10 am to 6 pm.

–         Fa Yuen Street (Sneakers Street)

There’s many small retailers which sell sports equipment and clothing.

–         Flower Market Road

This street selling flower & houseplant.

–         Goldfish Street

There are dozens of shops & hawkers selling various tropical freshwater or marine fish.

–         Tile Street

More than 50 retailers selling materials for construction or renovation.

–         Photocopy Street

Having remarkable number of photocopying shops due to the number of schools in the vicinity.

–         Kwong Wa Street

It’s famous for shops selling airsoft, RC racing, modeling & other hobby’s equipment.

–         Dundas Street

This is the shopping area in eastern Mongkok. Ho King Shopping Centre, Ka Lok Shopping Arcade & Trendy Zone are major shopping centres on the street.

–         Ladies’ Street

This market specializes in women’s clothing, accessories, cosmetics and also food stalls selling noodles, seafood, and congee for mid afternoon or late night snacks.

Mongkok is the heaven of streetfood. All food seemed taste delicious, I feel like I wanna try it all. Just look what I’ve posted below. Drooling huh? Haha…..

I bought Assorted Fried Food such as eggplant, tofu, veggies fritters, etc. For 5 pieces I pay HKD 12 or 15 K.

I also choose Bean Curd w/ Spicy Peanut Sauce. Price only HKD 12 or 15 K for one portion. Very tasty! I like it!

I tried Mussels w/ Spicy Taucho Sauce. Price HKD 15 or 20 K. Scrumptious! Must try if you’re a seafood lover!

Many spots in Mongkok that you can find street musicians. From a young age to elderly, and also they sing various music genre. Very festive atmosphere!

After getting around in this place, I became so thirsty. So I tried the famous Gong Cha. I order their Ice Toffee Bubble Milk Tea. Price HKD 17 or 22 K. Well, I think it’s too milky for me. I’d rather choose the fruity flavor.

You can’t separate Chinese people from dish made from pig, haha…. We really love it. I must try their pig/pork dishes in this market. Usually they cooked & marinated it in herbal soup. They took almost all part of pig, from intestines, tripe, lung, ear, tongue, etc. Disgusting but so ‘freakin’ delicious at the same time ;p For one portion of Pig’s Soup I pay HKD 25 or 32 K.

Hui Lau Shan

Hui Lau Shan is a chain of dessert shops based in Hongkong, specializing in dessert soups called tong sui, snacks and desserts. Hui Lau Shan is known for its prominent use of mango in its entrees.

First time I tried their Ice Mango Jelly when I getting around at Mongkok. Long queue before my turn is come. For price about HKD 26 or 33 K, I’ve got a glass of sweet mango juice, with mango chunks & jelly. Taste very good! This is their specialty menu, you must order it!

In Causeway Bay area, I also tried Ice Mango Aloe Vera & Ice Strawberry Mango with Jelly. Both are incredible and so refreshing! I really like it!

On the other day, after I have my lunch at Delicious Kitchen, I’m craving for dessert. So I’ve stop by to dine in this place. Because mango is become their famous menu, I choose Glutinous Rice Balls in Mango Juice with Extra Mango. Price HKD 55 or 70 K, very expensive for dessert, just saying. But thank God it’s taste awesome, haha…..The same taste with the glass version, the mango juice is so sweet & a little bit sour. They give us a lot of mango chunks. The rice balls is chewy in texture and one scoop of  mango ice cream perfected all together!

For other dessert I tried Green Tea Ice Cream topped with Red Bean & Peanut. Price HKD 35 or 45 K. I thought at first this is a kind of pudding or jelly. Because we ordered based only on the picture. The menu has written in Chinese language. And the waitress can’t speak English. Huh! The green tea ice cream is too hard, it can not dug it all, and what make me so pissed off, they give us a plastic spoon. WTH! How can we able to dig it out that “stone” ice cream? We can’t wait until that ice cream is getting soften, because I’m in hurry to catch my flight on my way back to Jakarta. So we only ate the ice cream surface which covered by peanuts & the red bean’s garnish. This is ridiculous!

Hui Lau Shan

58-60 Sai Yeung Choi St, Mongkok

Phone: 2385 2256

Yee Wo St, Causeway Bay

Phone: 2972 2292

No.31 Haiphong Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui

Phone: 2730 0703

King’s Cuisine

Yum Cha is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes. Dim Sum is a varied range of small dishes which may constitute or replace breakfast, brunch or afternoon tea. Dishes are usually steamed or fried and may be savory or sweet. They include steamed buns such as char siu bao, assorted dumplings, siu mai, and rice noodle rolls, which contain a range of ingredients, including beef, chicken, pork, prawns and veggies. Typical desserts include egg tarts, sai mai lo (tapioca pudding) and mango pudding. Yum Cha restaurants usually offer plates of steamed green veggies, roasted meats, congee porridge and soups.

This morning I really wanna have Yum Cha. So I went to King’s Cuisine, located at Causeway Bay Area. The decor is in white with flower motifs, kind of romantic? This restaurant is still fairly new, so the carpets, wallpaper, and chairs are still fresh. I give two thumbs up to their bi-lingual order card. It’s really useful for the tourists who can’t speak or read in Chinese.

For Dim Sum, I order 5 different dish. Shrimp Dumplings or Har Kau is the must order. The shrimp is fat & so juicy. Incredible!

Their Siu Mai Topped with Fresh Crab Roe is also tasty. They are really generous on giving shrimps fill in.

I also tried Steamed Glutinous and Red Rice in Lotus Leaf. This is similar with Ba Chang. The glutinous rice is cooked very well, and the inside ingredients is perfectly balance in taste. I like it!

Next dish is Steamed Pork Spare Ribs w/ Bean Sauce. It’s taste so savory. I really love it! Yummy!

Many people may feel disgusted to eat this kind of food, but not me. I always order this dish every time I have my dim sum. Chicken Feet! So delicious!

I also order Steamed Rice Rolls with Barbecue Pork. The Rice Rolls is not too thick, I like it. Taste very good!

For Deep Fried section, I choose Deep Fried Sesame Ball. Crispy outside and softly sweet taste inside. Awesome! Perfection!

And last but not least, I order Deep Fried Pork Croquets. The same method like Sesame Balls, but this is the savory version.

I’m speechless. I can only say that Hongkong is the Paradise of Dim Sum. All taste so scrumptious. And for all dish I’ve ordered I only pay for HKD 150 or 190 K. I think it’s quite affordable for heaven’s taste like that!

King’s Cuisine

6/F, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road

Causeway Bay

Phone: 2332 9090

Nam Kee Spring Roll Noodle

My inability of speaking Mandarin/Chinese language, become my weakness when I’m traveling to the Asian country,including Hongkong. Mostly the Hongkong’s residents can’t speak English. So I forced to use sign language to deliver my intention. Unfortunately, many restaurants in here only provide menu list on Chinese language & their waitress unable to speak or understand the communication with English language. Wew!

It also happened in Nam Kee Spring Roll Noodle Restaurant. I came here based on my friend’s recommendation. They said this is the most delicious  & best-selling noodle in Causeway Bay area. I spend my time looking for this place almost 2 days, because it’s quite difficult to find. And one thing for sure, they put a restaurant signpost in Chinese written. Oucchh! I really eager to try their dish, so I getting around once again in this area to find that place. After asked my friend again, he gave me the clue, that Nam Kee has a “bright orange-yellow signpost” outside their restaurant.  Only based on this clue, finally I found it! Yeah!

My arrival was greeted with a long queue. So, it has proven that they sell a good food with an affordable price too. I have to try their famous Spring Roll Noodle. They came in big portion. With unique spicy soup mix with beef brisket, spring roll & curd; they declare that “no other place sell this kind of noodle except us”. For me, the soup is not too spicy, so I added more chili on it. The beef brisket is succulent and the spring roll is tasty. I like it very much. FYI, there’s so many Indonesian people dine in this place too :)

I also tried their Sukiyaki Beef Noodle. The soup is spicy but it has a different version with Spring Noodle version. The beef is fatty and thinly slices, delicious!

You can also added their noodle with many variation topping like egg, mushroom, additional beef, veggies, etc. Price range between HKD 30-40 or 38-50 K. Must visit place for spicy food lover!

Nam Kee Spring Roll Noodle

1F – 3F, San Kei Tower, No. 56-58

Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

Phone: 2553 0084

For other locations, you can directly browse to http://www.yp.com.hk/Dining-Entertainment-Shopping-Travel-b/Catering-Services-Eateries/Congee-Noodle/pl/en/

 

Tsim Sha Tsui

Tsim Sha Tsui is an urban area in southern Kowloon, Hongkong. It’s a major tourist hub in metropolitan Hongkong, with many shops and restaurants that cater to tourists. Many of the museums in the territory are located in the area.

The area has the highest concentration of hotels in Hongkong. Prominent and renowned hotels include The Peninsula, Shangri-La & Intercontinental. Other hotels in virtually every price range and level of luxury can be found throughout the area. Chungking Mansions is well known for providing cheap lodging for backpackers.

In this area, you can find many variety of restaurants. Hillwood Road concentrates on restaurants of different national dishes. Knutsford Terrace is a terrace of pubs. Kimberley Street is famous for the Korean cuisine restaurants and grocery stores. Located on Nathan Road, the Chungking Mansions is a major tourist attraction in Tsim Sha Tsui. They are full of inexpensive guest houses, Indian restaurants, and money changers.

This area is also one of the main shopping centre in Hongkong, include: Harbour City, iSQUARE, K11, Miramar Shopping Centre, New World Centre, Silvercord, The ONE. The Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard is located along a section of Nathan Road. The flagship stores of several luxury brands are located at Canton Road.

After getting around in there, I choose Cafe de Coral for my late lunch. Cafe de Coral is the largest publicly listed Chinese fast food restaurant group in the world. Locally here in its Hongkong headquarter, Cafe de coral is the market leader of the fast food sector, catering to over 300,000 customers per day. They offering quality products to their customers at affordable prices. They are also innovative in their new product, with over 100 items on their menu list on any one day, and regularly rotated to maintain variety of choices.

For first dish, I order Pork Barbecue Rice. Price HKD 22 or 28 K. The pork taste is so yummy. The meat is tender & well caramelized. Good choice!

Second dish, I choose Noodle with Pork Bacon & Dumplings. Price HKD 22,5 or 30 K. The soup is less salty. Maybe a little bit of soy sauce will be perfected that dish. The dumpling skin is quite thick, but they generously give shrimps inside it. Quite okay.

Roast Duck & Steam Chicken Rice for final dish. Price HKD 37 or 47 K. Everything is cooked well & taste quite scrumptious!

Cafe de Coral

2/F, Chungking Express, Chungking Mansion, 36-44

Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

For other locations, you can directly browse to http://www.cafedecoralfastfood.com/shops.php?lang=en

Victoria Peak

Victoria Peak is a mountain in Hongkong, located in the western half of Hongkong Island. With an altitude of 552 m, it’s become the highest mountain on the island proper. It is a major tourist attraction which offers views over Central, Victoria Harbour, Lamma Island & the surrounding islands.

To reach the Peak Tower (at 396 meters above sea level), we must get in the Peak Tram. Price ticket HKD 65 or 85 K (including Peak Tram ticket & Sky Terrace). If you don’t want to go to Sky Terrace they also sell the Peak Tram ticket only, for HKD 40 or 50 K.

One attraction that I’m curious of besides Disneyland is Madame Tussauds. It’s also located in the Peak area. Madame Tussauds is a unique celebrity inspired attraction that connect guests with famous people, famous events and famous times. Featuring nine group figures (kung fu stars, character, asian stars, hollywood stars, cultural figures, sports stars, pop stars, royalty, world leaders), it provides guests with the opportunity to meet their idols and do the things that famous people do. Entrance ticket HKD 190 or 245 K. It’s cheaper if you online booked at their website, price HKD 171 or 220 K. I prefer to buy 3 in combo (Madame Tussauds + Peak Tram Return + Sky Terrace) for HKD 260 or 330 K.

After having fun at Madame Tussauds, I go upstairs to the Sky Terrace. The Sky Terrace standing at 428 meters above sea level, is the highest viewing platform in Hongkong offering a stunning 360 degree panoramic view across the Hongkong. In January, the Hongkong’s weather is still cold, the temperature for about 10 degree, and the wind is blowing very strong. I can only stand outside for 15 minutes only, haha…..brrrrr….I’m freezing…..

Wew, it’s already 1 PM, and I skip my breakfast today, so I’m getting hungry right now. I don’t want to eat heavy meal in here, because I have plan to visit Tsim Sha Tsui after this. I decided to chilled at Pacific Coffee. The Pacific Coffee concept was inspired by the coffee culture of Seattle, where coffeehouses were community hubs, serving great Italian espresso-based coffee in generous American sizes, with informality and a friendly attitude. It has provided world class coffee to satisfy Hongkong’s growing demand for specialty coffee beverages since 1992. For coffee, I order Hot Caramel Latte. Price HKD 38 or 48 K. Very relaxing….For meal, I choose Butter Croissant (Price HKD 14 or 18 K) and Spinach & Mushroom Quiche (Price HKD 24 or 30 K). They heated it for a few minutes in, then serve it. Fresh from the oven! The Quiche is delicious :)

Pacific Coffee

Unit G10, Level G, The Peak Tower, 128

Peak Road

For other locations, you can directly browse to http://www.pacificcoffee.com/eng/store/fulllist.php

Disneyland Hongkong

Disneyland! Hearing that word my mind is flashing back to my childhood moment. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are suddenly appeared in front of my face. I like to see their movie in television, until now (I’m a cartoon movie lover, fyi, haha….). So, when I plan my trip to Hongkong, Disneyland become the 1st place must visit on my list!

I use MTR transportation on my way to Disneyland. It’s so easy to figure out the route, you can print it out the MTR map from internet. The special design MTR to Disneyland destination is really represent its ambience. From the window design, chair, mini statues inside describe that train is belong to Disneyland. So cute!

Hongkong Disneyland is located in Penny’s Bay, Lantau Island. The park opened to visitors on 2005. The park has a daily capacity of 34,000 visitors. It’s currently occupies 22,4 hectares; it will be expanded to 27,5 hectares when three new themed areas are completed.

The park consists of six themed areas: Main Street USA (designed to resemble an early 20th century Midwest town), Fantasyland (bringing to life characters & places from Disney’s movies for children), Adventureland (featuring jungle-themed adventures), Tomorrowland (an optimistic vision of the future), Grizzly Gulch (reminiscing an abandoned mining town set amidst mountains & woods) and Toy Story Land (based on the Disney-Pixar film series Toy Story).

When I walking through the Main Street area, there’s a Brass Section played the Disney song medley. The players are so skillful. I stand still to watch them until their last song.

If you want to buy confectionary or goodies, they provide it at stores and cart at Main Street and all Land.

After 2 hours walking through all the section & tried their rides & attractions, I became so hungry. Because one day before I ate Chinese food all day long, so today I want to eat Western food. We find it at the Disney Map, there’s a Burger Restaurant located at Tomorrowland area. The restaurant’s name is Starliner Diner. For first dish I choose Fish Burger with Cheese Combo. Price 70 HKD or 90 K. The package came with French Fries and Beverage such as Soda or Lemon Tea. Their french fries is so crunchy. The burger size is quite big enough for me. Fish meat is tender & they give a lot of lettuce inside with mayo. You have to bring your own chili sauce, because in here, they only provide the tomato sauce. Over all the taste is quite okay.

Second dish, I choose Jumbo Hot Dog Combo. Price 68 HKD or 87 K. A huge beef sausage with slices of tomato, zucchini and they sprinkled it with shredded cheese & onion, and topped it with bolognaise sauce. Quite delicious!

With fully tummy and felt so hurt in my foot (because of too many walking), I decided to travel around Disney area with their train. I feel so exhausted, but I don’t want to get out from this area right now, because I wait for their parade. The parade started at 04.30 PM. People flooded along the Main Street area to watch that parade, including me.

Very entertaining parade! I love it! Well, I think today will be one of my unforgettable experience. The happiness of my childhood memories has coming back and I don’t mind to bring them back again in the future :)

For further information about location, map & ticket reservation, you can directly browse to their website: http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com

Ocean Empire Food Shop

Ocean Empire started their business since 1992. They focused in selling the traditional Cantonese congee. The vivid image of its scrumptious food, well proven sanitary, first rates quality and impeccable customer services, they has applied the up to date management skill to the conventional congee business, and becomes the first congee chain shops in Hongkong.

Congee is usually consume for breakfast, dinner or supper. Congee is also called rice porridge. The characteristics of congee are that it’s easy to digest and very simple to cook it. The key point for good congee  is the cooked rice should be aromatic and smooth. There are various ingredients for Cantonese congee, such as pork, preserved egg, beef, sliced fish, blood jelly, squid, pig skin, etc. While the most important thing is to use fresh ingredients, only doing so, the freshness of such ingredients can be maintained.

On my first coming, I tried their favorite congee menu : Ocean Empire Congee. Price 38 HKD or 48 K. It contains of fresh fish slices, shrimps, crabstick, shredded chicken  & twisted donut. The congee is savory. Really delicious!

I also tried their Fresh Shrimp Ricesheet Roll. Price 32 HKD or 40 K. Taste very good! The ricesheet roll consists of piecrust and fillings, for the piecrust to taste savory and slippery, the secret lays in the right proportion of the mixture of the rice slurry. The sauce being poured o the ricesheet roll is also a key factor to decide the taste, sweety sauce, peanut butter and chili sauce are good choices, and finally add some sesame. It will be fabulous!

Ocean Empire Food Shop

G/F, No. 472 Lockhart Road

Causeway Bay – Hongkong

Phone: 2891 1902

Shop No. 1-2, G/F, Causeway Bay Centre

No. 15-23 Sugar Street

Causeway Bay – Hongkong

Phone: 2894 8848