Food in Hong Kong 2.- The Hits and Misses.

Since "T" had largely described the awesome food that we had in Hong Kong in the previous post : Desserts, Tea and Eggs!, I thought I'll share a little bit more on  our accomodation, the street food as well as what NOT to eat/do over there !

1. Where we stayed - The CityView Hongkong

"T" and I stayed at The City View Hotel in Yau Ma Tei during our trip. In our opinion, despite it being pretty small and a tad old, the location of the hotel is pretty awesome! It comes will complimentary wi-fi too! So thumbs up on that. 

Location wise, we are located right in front of the MTR stop, Exit A1. 
Surrounded by Fire Station, School and Hospital. ( Very safe)
We are also right smack in the middle of MongKok ( 5 minutes walk away from all the food, crowd, shopping -
Sic: Nu Ren Jie ( lady's market) , Fa Yuen Street ( Sports Street) , etc  ) 
and 10 minutes walk away from Temple Street. 
In fact during our stay in Hong Kong, "T" and I walked hell a lot. 
There was this afternoon where we walked from Tsim Tsa Tsiu all the way back to Yau Mei Tei. That's a total of 3 MTR stops. 

In short, Hong Kong is pretty accessible and walkable. When you walk, you discover stuffs. So why not? 

Tip: If you are travelling in large group, you might want to reconfirm your booking early, so that they are can try to arrange for all of you to be on the same level.
For us: They upgraded our room for free! 

Couples:  Good to get the premier room, it's a tad more spacious, even though it's smaller than many of the hotels in Sg. 

There is no complimentary air port shuttle in Hong Kong, especially for the Hotels on Kowloon's end. 
It is really very accessible via the MTR, if you don't intent to take the expensive air port shuttle or taxi. 

To get to CityView : Buy your Octopus Card. Make sure you have at least 100HKD inside it. Take the airport express to Tsing Yi. Change on to the red line and stop at Lai King. Change over and stop at Yau Mei Tei :) 

2. The "Famous" Dessert Place - Hui Lau San. 

First Word: Passable. Not Fantastic.

When you google "famous hong kong dessert" - you will  no doubt see the name Hui Lau San appearing in your results page and they are literally every where in Hong Kong. 

In short: A lot of franchise. 

As do all franchise, poor quality management will only give you passable food. "T" , me and his parents ordered a platter of sort to try out some of their more popular desserts. 

As you can see, it is largely mango-based. I absolutely love their mango - sago dessert. It is similar to the mango-pomelo back here in Singapore, except that it is extra chilled. Hence, a total thirst quencher in summer. 

"T"'s parents absolutely love the mochi. So much so that we had another serving of it after this order! The mochi doesn't sticks to your mouth, and is extra chewy! The best part is, it oozes out mango filling with each bite. Hence, definitely a thumbs up from us. 

Erm, the mango ice -cream thinggie? It is just so forgettable. I thought King's Mango Ice Cream was much better. So yeah, you can give it a try to satisfy your curiosity. 

2. Street Food!

 - Mong Kok's Curry Fish Ball + Fried Cuttle Fish. 

- Burger King's Sweet Potato Criss Cut Fries                         

 - Mong Kok's Che Zai Mian! 

First Word: DIE DIE MUST TRY. 

Alright. What is Hong Kong Without Street Food right ? 
Babe and I love to explore the night life of the places we visited.
Especially the street fares that comes alive at night. 

For aspiring visitors to Hong Kong,
it is truly a city that never sleeps.
Even on Week Days, 
the activity along the streets of Mong Kok only ceases after 11pm. 

This Stall Featured here is located at the end of the Mong Kok/ lady's Street. 
It is across the road from a mall that has a  Haggen Daz and Starbucks.
You definitely won't miss it, because it also sells smelly tofu? The smell is very distinctive. 

We absolutely adore the curry fish ball and the cuttle fish. It is a must have and we had them every single night since we discovered them!. 

Whenever we are overseas, "T" and I are always curious about their fast food and how it can be different from ours. However, this encounter in BK was like a lucky find. 

We were craving for some coke around 11-ish and thought we'll pop in and get a drink, when we saw these lovely criss-cut fries. 

They are extremely sweet and crunchy. I can't stop munching on them! 

Note: They very seldom carry chilli sauce in HK's fast food chain, and they speak little English. So do learn to read the Chinese words, it'll make things easier for you to both speak and read what's on the menu:) 

**
On one of our days out alone without the family, "T" and I decided to go in search of Che Zai Mian or coolie noodles in Hong Kong and we found a pretty decent one right at the start of FA YUEN STREET or Sports Street. It is opposite the Hong Kong's Turf Club Betting Station. 

I was initially apprehensive about it's taste and man, I was totally blown away after tasting it.

The concept is similar to our Yong Tau Foo in Sg, except that the soup base is darker but sweeter. 
Babe and I chose their Pork Balls, Radish, Pork Intestine and Fish ball. We pair it with thick rice noodles or our laksa noodles. I tell you : IT IS HEAVENLY.

There is a lot of variety to choose from. 

MUST ORDER: Fish Ball + Radish 

This is the place we ate at. We couldn't get a proper shot because I was taking it across the road in front of the Turf Club Betting Station and the security guard was staring down at me. The place of interest is the one with the bright sign board. 

3. Dim Sum at Wong Tai Sin. 

First Word:  Best Service + Best Dim Sum, Better than Tim Ho Wan + Best Local Feel. 

When in Hong Kong, one will definitely want to eat Dim Sum, right? "T"'s family went to Tim Ho Wan for dinner one night and was sorely disappointed by it. The dim sum were either served cold or were too salty. 

The next morning, we went to pray at the famous Wong Tai Sin Temple. We alighted at the Wong Tai Sin MTR stop and walked through the public housing, above, ( HDB in SG) and found ourselves in front of this dim sum place. 

The place was packed with elderly having their morning tea. Yet, when the lady boss saw our arrival, she shifted everyone just to clear a table for 10 for us, despite us telling her we can always sit outside. 
She insisted and to our surprise, none of the elderly complained! I tell you, this sort of service standard is very rare in Hong Kong. 

Anyways, what must you order over there? 

MUST TRY: Steam carrot cake. - It is very fragrant and sweet with very little taste enhanced by the shrooms or char siew. This is very rare. In Singapore, most of our carrot cakes are pan fried or otherwise, bland unless the taste is further enhanced by friend shrimps and char siew. 

 Misses:  

1. Seafood - Lai Liu Har. ( Pissing Prawn) 

If you watched a lot of Hong Kong Drama or Variety Show like we do, you will definitely hear of Lai Liu Har. 

On our last night in HK, we visited a seafood place along Temple Street to try out their Da Pai Dong, similar to our Tzi Char. 

First Word: EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. 

We were in a group of 10 and the shop owner gave us 2 choices:

3 for 120HKD

1 for 120 HKD. 

Naturally, the size of the prawns will differ. Yet, we decided to order 9 of the 3 for 120HKD to try, since we are going to order other dishes right? The shop owner tried to dissuade us and push us for the 1 for 120 HKD one and when we stood our grounds, she showed us attitude. =_=

Anws, the prawn is really too crazy. It looks like a cray-fish but have meat that is only a quarter of the normal prawns I have for steamboat. 

At least when I ate a wanton, it has much more prawns!! 

We paid around $90 for this meal of prawns, vege , fried rice and a stewed lotus with pork dish. It was definitely not satisfying at all. 

 2. Dining at City Gate Outlet Mall - Federal Palace. 

I just want to drop a short word on this. When you are in City- Gate to do your shopping and wondering where to eat, please avoid Federal Palace. 

Despite their nice interior. Their service standards are low. They throw their dishes around and when clearing the table, they will just splash hot water on the lady susan and wipe it clean. =_= 

 Their dim sum is worse than some of those that we have in Singapore. If you really have no choice, order their hor fun or fried rice. It is pretty interesting. :) 

alrighty, I think that should be all from me I guess. In short, we really did enjoy Hong Kong very much despite the misses. Please be mentally prepared for bad service, it is normal. But the good food and shopping will make up for it definitely. 

Just a few last word from me for all couples or people intending to visit Hong Kong : 

• They have no toilets in their malls except for their international big malls : E.g. IFC and Langham palace. If really in need, ask where is the nearest washroom, they will gladly point you to the public toilet, fast food restaurant or in the case of some malls, one can wait out the toilets meant for tenants and when someone exit, you enter. Simple:)
• Minimum top up on your octopus card is HKD 50
• Book the crystal cable car ride to Lantau island before your intended trip. They have specific timings and you don't have to queue for long.  When on Lantau island, MUST eat their beancurd. It is silky smooth.
• When in Disneyland, prepare to queue. There's only fast pass for 3 of the attractions. The food is pretty yummy, but it can be very expensive.
• You can check in at the airport really early and shop inside. Their food is pretty good! Also allow yourself ample time to get to your departure gates. Some of those departure gates requires one to take a shuttle train to the departure gate:)
• It is always good to read up on the place before you visit, there is a lot of helpful links on line. Otherwise,Hong Kong is pretty safe, interesting and trust your gut feel when it comes to food! It worked really well for us. 

We really enjoyed Hong Kong, and we can't wait to be back to explore more! 

love,
Snail.