Kittie
無題 (whatever) May 30th, 2006
Took this picture when I was in Yuen Long, Hong Kong. On the same old road that I used to walk to elementary school… the good old days. Simple and Clean.
Vacation 4 - Japanese Food (a)
一遊 (m-footprint), 日本菜 (japanese), 飲食 (m-food) May 30th, 2006
I thought I’ve already had a lot of Japanese food in Toronto… til I went to HK. When I went out with relatives, it was usually Dim Sum; but if I was going out with friends, most of the time we went for Japanese food. I think if you’re in HK, you should have been to these places since some of them are chain restaurants. The first one that I went to was Watami (和民居食屋) @ Tsuen Wan. Obviously, this restaurant has been expanding during the past few years as I can see it everywhere now. That night, my friend CF and I went to this place and were seated at a two-person table. After looking at the menu and chatting for a bit, we know for sure that little two-person table wouldn’t be enough for us. (you know… we are not the bony “on-diet” girls and we were gonna be ordering A LOT! I really mean it.)
So here’s what we ordered that night: Roasted Squid, Assorted skewer, Assorted sashimi, Pizza, Maki, Sea Urchin sushi, and plum wine on the rock… , plus another two dishes (Baked scallops with butter & Beef Steak) that are not shown here.
The family at another table was very surprised that we could be eating more than they did. The only thing I wasn’t satisfied was that the service was just too slow. It took us a long time to get the bill, pay the bill and even at the end return the survey form to them. Survey huh? I hope they would really take a look at our comments and do something about it.
During the trip, I didn’t do a lot of shopping until almost the end. I think I spent like 3-4 days of intensive shopping (by that I mean from 11am to 8pm). If you ever go to HK and wanna do some shopping during the summer, you definitely gotta go to Harbour City in TST ’cause you’ll be able to find almost all the brands there (or near that area). More importantly, it’s air-conditioned… so you won’t be sweating a lot. Of course, if you wanna get some good stuffs @ a better price, you must go to the Granville road areas. Lots of accessories!!! e.g. nice earrings @ HKD30/pair. OK OK back to my food journal… Yea, one of those days I was just so tired after a whole morning of walking. Then I thought… what should I eat. I wondered… ’cause I usually had someone to eat with and I would just let them decide. Unexpectedly, I found out my comfort food was actually… the Japanese RAMEN! This one looks quite greasy… and it tasted so-so *got it at the food court*
It’s always good have see some old friends. Especially during this trip I got to hang out with 1-2 friends at a time…and we could really TALK. That night… KH and I went to 魚一丁 刺身居酒屋 Iccho Japanese Restaurant @ Harbour City (again!) One of the reasons why we went there was because of the parking. Secondly, you can get a pretty good harbour view @ the parking lot and in the restaurant. That night, the sky was really clear.
Originally, we wanted to get the Special Beancurd Steak with Cheese, but they said the stove was out of order! So, we ordered the Amiyaki Grilled Steak, Iccho Ramen Salad, Hokkaido Iccho Seafood Sashimi on Vinegar Rice and a Rainbow Roll. For two people, it was MORE THAN ENOUGH. I was so full after that. The Sashimi rice was really huge although it didn’t look like it. I have to say the quality was good, but it wasn’t cheap. Thanks KH for that.
Close up…
(Late at night… and I’m tired. My Japanese food eating journal to be continued :))
Vacation 3 - Fast Food & Other
一遊 (m-footprint), 其他 (other), 飲食 (m-food) May 25th, 2006
There were several things that I wanted to try in HK. One of them is the McDonald’s rice burger (Fan-tastic). Therefore, on the third day of arrival, I went to M and checked this out. As you can see, the package is quite nice. When we were there, M was very busy (as usual). I could also see M has opened up the “cafe” section, where you can get sandwiches, cakes, coffee, etc. The thing is… the “cafe” area is designated for the “cafe customers” - i.e. unless you buy from the cafe, you can’t sit there (even if you’ve bought a fan-tastic combo).
I didn’t really look at the price @ the cafe, but I’m sure M’s gonna increase its profit by segmenting this market.
Take a closer look at the rice burger…
It just doesn’t seem as big as the one in the ad. The taste wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t too disappointing neither. The way the rice stick together is actually quite cool… I think it’s Japanese rice (similar to sushi rice - stickier than the Chinese/Thai ones), and it’s not too soggy/dry. Of course… it’s McDonald’s! They must have done lots of research and testing before launching this product. I’d say, if I were living in HK, I’d buy this burger 1 out of 5 McDonald’s visits.
How can I not get the fish balls in HK?! Yummy :p
Got this Japanese plum candy from my friend, RS. It was very good!!! Really tastes like plum:) I think there’s real plum in the ingredient. I don’t snack a lot, but I really like it. You gotta try this if you get a chance!
And… I gotta thank CF for letting me to stay at her place. She’s one of the few girls that I know who can be party animal and a good housemaker. She bought these wax-apples (蓮霧) along with a lot of other fruits for me when I was there. I love the wax-apples! Not too sweet, but they’re very tasty in a special way.
Vacation 2 - Chinese Food
一遊 (m-footprint), 中菜 (chinese), 飲食 (m-food) May 25th, 2006
Back in the 70’s, when my parents first came to Toronto, there were only a few Chinese restaurants here. Most of them were located downtown Toronto. I could imagine they must have missed Hong Kong/China a lot back then. I guess since the 90’s, Toronto has become more and more multicultural. (Should I say more and more Chinese?) Instead of Downtown Chinatown, you can see Chinese malls and restaurants everywhere in Scarborough, Richmond Hill (along Hwy 7) and along Steeles.
Back to my trip… During the 3 weeks, I obviously and inevitably had lots of dim sum. Some of them were good, some of them were so-so. One of the surprises was from the “Bamboo Garden” Teahouse in Shenzhen - It is a pretty old Teahouse since I remember going there ~15 years ago. There was a wide range of dim sum and the service was good. We (4 people in total) had dim sum that morning and I paid the bill. Since it was relatively cheap (~RMB 60), I gave them a RMB100 bill and didn’t check the changes. They returned to me after and said they’ve given me less change. The manager then gave me back about RMB15 - wow! It feels really good that moment - Honesty is what everyone appreciates. (The picture above was taken at another Dim Sum place in Yuen Long. It’s changed name, but it used to be the favourite restaurant of my great-grandma and grandma.)
Should I call these Chinese pastrie? These traditional snacks/pastries made from glutinous rice were my favourites back in the primary/secondary school years. As we were living in the New Territories, many old ladies hand-made and sold these pastries on the street. There was a period of time when I found less and less of these were sold (maybe the old ladies were getting too old?!) However, I can see these pastries are made and sold in some small stores again these days. Don’t know if it’s just me or what… I found they now taste different - not as good. e.g. you can’t taste any 雞屎藤 (a special herb(?) that has a distinct flavour) in the 清明仔 (the 2nd from the right at the bottom).
Vacation 1 - Arrival
一遊 (m-footprint), 中菜 (chinese), 飲食 (m-food) May 22nd, 2006
April 28, 2006 - I’m in Hong Kong again. Last time I was in HK - it was about 1.67 years ago. Just like the many times that I’ve been to HK, the first immediate feeling I had when I stepped out of the airport was “humid”. Friday evening, it was raining in HK - kinda greyish. Greyish marz… Listening to my iPod nano, I couldn’t help thinking about how short this vacation would be compared to all the previous trips. I know I shouldn’t think that way, but I just couldn’t help.
This trip is gonna be very physically tiring - so much to do, so little time.
The first thing that I had to do was to get my Smart ID card. Originally, I was going to do it on Saturday. Since I wasn’t too tired, after a bowl of beef ball rice noodle, I left all my luggages in the apartment and went straight to the ID center. This is the first meal of the trip ($17 @ a noodle place in Kwun Tong) - Not as good as the ones that I used to have in Yuen Long - maybe I just didn’t really feel like eating at that time.
The next day, Saturday morning… went to Telford - Guess what I saw? STARBUCKS!!! I felt that I kinda miss Toronto already (I actually didn’t expect this - after these years in Toronto, I think my love for Canada is more than I thought). I went to the small Starbucks near the escalators. They didn’t have the white moca - so I ordered the Latte instead. Went to the banks - LONG LINE-UPS!!! alas, I hate banking. I don’t understand why HK banks have so much paperwork. The mechanism seems to inefficient to me. Online banking sucks too. After all the waiting, form-filling and waiting… it’s already lunch time.
So… we had Dim Sum time @ Maxim. I think I’m already used to having segregated non-smoking areas in Toronto, I was surprised when I saw the “smoking” area was just beside the “non-smoking” area and not having a seperate ventilation. Anyhow, that was OK to me since I’m used to the 2nd-hand smoke these days already. (I gradually realized how un-HK I am - I gotta re-adopt to the HK culture if I ever come back to work…) Ordered some dim sum and a BBQ pork rice - the BBQ pork @ Maxim is still as good as the old days 
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