What I Ate in Hong Kong

In this post I just want to share a little bit about what I ate in Hong Kong back there. Since I had quite a lot of photos I decide to make one specific post for this. Enjoy the picture and sorry you can't enjoy the taste. *smirk

To the point! 

I bought this VLT once I reached Hong Kong. I remember last time my friend whose a local bought me this and from there somehow this VLT brand becomes Hong Kong trademark drink (at least in my mind). 

Honestly I think this drink is very sweet. Tried the less sugar one and wahhh still too sweet for me. I don't know. This drink kinda didn't work out for me. All the Japanese brand tea were not sugared one (Japanese think that putting sugar in your tea is VERY weird) so I think I've get used to it and one reason to be blame for too. Bravo for the size, though!

Next was the One Star Michelin wanton noodles with shrimp dumplings by Ho Hung Kee. Ordered the small one, around 40hkd If I correct.

It was.. OK.  I don't knooooow. I just want this food to blow me out but somewhat It fails to impress me. The other day I tried the very cheap street wanton noodle also and If it were to be compared with Ho Hung Kee's one, definitely this one is the winner. However it still not until the point that you wanna visit and eat here over and over again. End of story.

Let's move on.

The next thing that excites me is Hong Kong super unique desserts and so far I'm not disappointed by what I ate at all. However, due to their (mostly) ugly appearance, the photo won't be as delicious-looking as the taste :(

The one that I managed to try was Sweets Dynasty's Mango Sago something. Didn't quite remember the name but It was so refreshing!

The picture was sooo... bland looking hahaha.

Ordered this egg-filled fried sesame balls too to balance the sweetness of the dessert. This one is yum!

Tried the other sweets at Honeymoon Dessert too. I had it in Indonesia before, but it was an honor to taste it in their real origin place; however I forgot to take picture of it. Tried the sesame and almond dessert with nut mochi balls (the name.. I forgot. My bad) and it taste great too!

So far thumbs up for Hong Kong desserts! 

Now next to the worst one in this post:

Yat Lok Roast Duck Rice-Noodle. hkd80. Overpriced and such a pain in the a** to eat.

Looks delicious right. See all the shiny parts here and there HOWEVER the experience of eating this was, what, craziness.

Let's get to the points: Yat Lok is very hard to find for me, as a single tourist please prepare to be moved around even when you're in the middle of eating even when you say n0(happened to me, they just grab your bowl with no mercy and moved me around), no tissue (want tissue add 3hkd, please), the rice-noodle was so slippery and hard to catch with chopstick and what makes it worse was the rice-noodle was chopped here and there so you kinda can't slurp it altogether.

Chopped and slippery rice-noodle + chopstick = you're worst nightmare. Maaaaan I can't believe I went to this place! Wish I order some other stuff rather than this.

I don't even want to comment on the duck anymore. Give me back my hkd80 I can buy 4 bowls of desserts for sure.

Luckily, from there, it seems that my over expectation of HK food drop drastically so from here on point the food taste better and better.

The next "big" thing that I tried was the famous Tai Cheong Bakery egg tart.

Shiny shiny egg tart............

...however not my most favorite. I've tried several egg tarts that was definitely better than this. The pie was not crunchy enough; and the middle part was too bland for my liking.

Maybe all HK style egg tart is like Tai Cheong one? Anybody can explain?

I went to Macau and definitely LOVE the Portuguese egg tart more, crunchy and sweeter; just the same as my expectation. I think this is a matter of personal taste already; not that Tai Cheong one was bad. It was nice however not my most favorite.

Moving to the next one was a hot bowl of soy milk and sticky-rice bun that I had for breakfast in Mongkok area. 

When I went here the owner was a very traditional lady in her mid 50 with ZERO english. So I only say "good one, good one" to her and I think she catch it (?) and she brought me this! and DEFINITELY not dissappointed!! You go auntie!!

The hot soy milk was literally the king of all of it; the sweetness was just right and combined with the salty sticky-rice filled bun, everything was just, heavenly morning. 1 thumb up for the auntie, another for the taste, and the rest of my (feet) thumb added because of this healthy style of a breakfast :)

The next before the last one was this recommended French Toast (?) from Mido Cafe near Tin Hau temple.

Love the cafe ambiance, love the taste too.

I never had this kind of food for whole my life to be honest! A bread dipped in egg and fried, eaten with maple syrup and butter. A Little bit oily but it was nice! The milk tea balance the sweetness and washed away the oily feeling. Perfect combination. 

I tell my Singaporean friend about this food and he shocked; he told me he ate this stuff almost everyday as breakfast when he was in Singapore. Seriously. Indonesian didn't know this stuff at all how can hahahah.

And this is the last recommended food that I can remember eating (and the last photo of food that I had) which is HK famous Polo Bun by Kam Wah Cafe.

Taste nice, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, perfect paired with (again) the milk tea. One is enough to make me full until lunchtime. 

The one thing that concern me with this cafe was the service: zero English and very understaffed, and even some of the staff can scold customer in some ways. Consider I'm used to Japanese way to service customer (which customer is the KING), this one was a mega culture shock for me! Well, what an experience, I have to say.

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For overall, my food-adventure in Hong Kong was quite fun! Got some disappointment and shocked about several things here and there but on the other hand the good one was really good so It kinda balancing everything out in the end.

I've tried to follow people's recommendation here and there using travel books, blog reviews, and stuff, some works for me, the others not. On the other hand when I tried some stuff randomly at some points, it turns out to be better then what I expected it will be. Strange, indeed, but I realized that's the exciting part of a new experience. 

At least I know that I didn't regret trying every single thing that I have tried back there. Well, except the Roast Duck one, sorry. However I still wished that I have much more time (and another stomach) to try several food that I didn't have time to try back there (such as their dim sum, and hotpot rice). 

Maybe I will be back there again someday; definitely won't miss the dim sum and hotpot rice next time!

See you on the next one!

Ticking My Bucket List: Hong Kong

Finally realized one of my postponed 2015 wishlist; to visit Hong Kong this year. Decided to fly there 2 weeks ago, and spent 5 days in Hong Kong and 2 days in Macau.

And this, was my first solo overseas trip! I'm kinda proud of myself!

My one week Hong Kong Itinerary was quite simple: 

• Day 1 spent mostly arriving in airport, searching for sim card, check in and went directly for Victoria Peak,
• Day 2 used to explore Repulse Bay, Stanley, and spots between Sheung Wan and Causeway Bay,
• Day 3 and 4 went to Macau,
• Day 5 spent exploring Mongkok to Victoria Harbor,
• Day 6 for Lantao Island and shopping for souvenirs around Mongkok area,
• Day 7, purely spent at airport.

So for overview I spent 2 days on the hipster Hong Kong Island, then 3 days on Kowloon Island. While Hong Kong Island is on the modern and western-ish side, Kowloon is a little bit more traditional. Loved the contrast from both of it.

As the photo were a little bit too much for me to upload; let me share several highlights that really impressed me on point!

The first one was taken at the famous one dollar million view from Victoria Peak, cost me hkd83 to ride the tram up here.

Snap these gigantic building along the walk to The Peak Tram.

Went on the outer side of Hong Kong too on the second day; Repulse Bay and Stanley. I can say I LOVE these two spots the most! TOTALLY my HIGHLIGHT of the whole trip ever!

Who hate beaches. Everybody love beaches! Except nobody is here at that time as it was quite cold to go to the beaches during Hong Kong winter. Not as cold as Japan though.

The walk continued to famous spots on Stanley; the Murray house and Stanley Markets.

Finish with these two, went back to the center of the city and walk from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay.

Photos taken randomly in area around near Central Station.

Too much photo wtf can't share all I'm sorry.

Moving on to the Kowloon Island, it gave me a nostalgic feeling of a kind old Chinese movie setting where everything is so crowded, lively and more traditional compared to Hong Kong Island.

Impressed by how they can build such building in such small spaces.

My visit to several the Tin Hau Temple. I visited several temples around there and the style of each temple were almost the same.

And not forgetting the Avenue of Stars and Victoria Harbor!

Met the legendary Uncle Bruce Lee. My dad say hi.

And the finish point from my one day walk from Mongkok was this Victoria Harbor. Oh yes, I walked the whole day.

The Symphony of Lights show was a little bit underwhelming, but it was alright. I expect some crazy perforance though, such as firework and everything.. yeah.. You don't get your expectation so high for some reason.

To be honest I planned to explore Kowloon area for 2 days but it seem to be cleared in one day only, so with an excess of 1 day left (the sixth day) I decided to have a short impulsive trip to Lantao Island via Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car to see the Big Buddha and Po Lin Monastery which on the same area altogether . It was freezing up there!!

after that I just spent the day hunting for several souvenirs and a little bit of shopping. 

What I love about Hong Kong is that it was pretty safe for a lone women traveler like me as long as I pay attention to common sense of safe traveling. 

However what I love the most was it is very walk-able everywhere!

I walked from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay one full day with stopping in several points such as Hong Kong Park, Cathedral etc and it was damn fun! I think I walked more than 25.000 steps at that day! Talking about being healthy. Moreover in Kowloon Island I felt that it was even closer to walk from one point to one point, I walked from Mongkok to Victoria Harbour which several stops too along the walk. Totally love it!

Hong Kong has been so totally nice with me and I'm soooooo glad I went there. I'm not gonna say it was my favorite place on earth but I wouldn't mind to go there again If I have some "empty" holiday period. Well, I will probably choose to go to new places though :)

Will talk about the food and moreover, Macau in the next post!

I hope I didn't postpone my post just like several months ago, again, hopefully.

Cheers to a great holiday I had!

Fujiko F. Fujio Museum

Recently since one of my friend had a holiday and had a chance to visit me here in Japan, I had a chance to go with her to one of the famous tourist spot in Japan known as Fujiko F Fujio Museum.. or most of us called it Doraemon Museum!!

It was located in Kawasaki Area (about 30-40 minutes train plus bus ride to the place) with Noborito Station as the nearest station from the main spot.

I was astonished by how cute the bus to the museum itself (it was all decorated with all Fujiko Fujio thingy, illustrations here and there on the bus wall interior etc) aaand I forgot to take the photos. Damn sad.

However, reached the place, camera is ready!

The staff there guarding the visitor's flow based on the time of entrance. Since my friend and I visited other place in the morning we picked the last entrance time, from 4 to 6 p.m. 

Have to pay attention though, that several points in the museum were closed even before 6 p.m. for example, the cafe last order was on 5 p.m., so have to be very careful on time management since several spots will be very crowded such as their infamous photo spots and souvenirs shop.

When we were waiting for our turn to the main entrance, I managed to take several photos of the figurines that were displayed there.

below is so cute OMFG.

Then before we enter the main museum we were gathered in one spot to be briefed about the do and don'ts. Some spots were prohibited to take photos because several of Fujio's real artwork were shown there. It comes with English subtitle too so no worries :)

The main purpose of the museum is indeed to be dedicated for Fujiko F. Fujio who dedicated his life to create artwork that can be enjoyed both from a kid's POV and from adult's POV.

Doraemon, is just a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit of Fujio's whole artwork. 

That's why some of the tourist were disappointed with what's inside; they expect it will be some kind of museum that really explain all of Doraemon's magic tools etc, but in the end what they see is different from their expectation.

Most of the things showed here (to give you a brief image) are something like sketches of Fujio's art, his technique on drawing his art, his life and his family, etc. (Come to think of it) That gave us another reason why the museum's name is not Doraemon Museum, But Fujiko F Fujio Museum.

However however!

There are so much interesting spots to be enjoyed too such as this beautiful-version-of-Giant well! 

All the kids pumping the lever there and the beautiful-Giant will show up for several seconds and before it went down again they took photos! Since the queue were so long I decided to just peek and go.

After enjoyed ourself touring the main hall, we reached the spots which (finally) photo were allowed:

The Reading Hall.

Leisure Hall.

It was just a normal leisure hall with tiny door as a bait for kids!

Next to the leisure hall were the theater. Since we didn't have so much time at that moment we decided to skip the theater. It plays 10 minutes special movie for several times in a day however it came only in Japanese audio which resulting in why my friend skipped it since she can't understand Japanese at all too. 

Then we just walk a little bit more and found an open space that leads to the main photo spot!

P-man enjoying life...How nice.

And here are the main spot!! 

From here pardon my oily face and hair; its a little bit too humid and hot that day since the week before were always raining quite hard.

The field that Nobita and the gang always play.

The famous pink door hahaha ( didn't go nowhere though.. pass the door arrived on the same field -___-)

And the dinosaur.

Have to pay attention that even though I managed to get some "clean" photos without all the crowd, to be honest, it took me and my friends THAT MUCH of an effort to took these photos. The crowd (and the kids) were running everywhere it's crazy. It was a mental battle between embarrassment and eagerness to take cute photos!! 

See this if don't believe me:

See ah. All the parents and the kids. Wahhh. 

And it's only one small part of the battle. Small part. *sigh*

Finish with the photo battle (glad it's over!) we went straight to the cafe and ordered meal as soon as possible since the order hour are soon to be finished. We ordered karaage set (fried chicken set meal), the cheese risotto (?, forget the name) and art coffee latte (standard taste. Again, only for the sake of its cuteness!) 

The meal's taste is OK, not like WOW but very acceptable. The price ranged from 1.000 yen for standard meal to 2.000 yen the really fancy one, I didn't quite remember. The karaage set is around 1400 yen, forgot about the risotto, and the cafe latte were around 400-500 yen.. memory blur but it was around that price I'm sure.

Satisfied and finished with our meal, we have no other time besides rushing directly to the souvenir's shops. 

It was near closing time so the souvenirs shop were so crowded sorry can't take proper photos. I managed to take this photo only! 1.080 yen.. not buying.

All the kids wear this on the museum!! What a hype.

Finished with our shopping marked as the end of our trip here. We went back to the station by the bus and reached Noborito around 19.00. Then from there we went to Shinjuku to go back home.

And this is my shopping spree result for that day! Take a look at it once again I realize it's quite a lot actually (ooppss!)

The blue box and the bus can were cookies for my work colleagues since they know i'm visiting this museum that day and allowed me to take day off so I splurge them a little bit alright. The Dorami Doll for my boss' little daughter. And the rest is for myself hahaha. The coaster are free souvenirs from the cafe though! 

Well, for overall, I really enjoyed it a lot!! 

Since my expectation about this museum were not THAT high (I didn't expect it to be ALL Doraemon from the start) it was really a fun experience!

Me myself quite enjoyed the moment of when the museum showed me how Fuji's artwork being processed, what kind of tools he used to draw his comics, how did Fujio's enjoyed his everyday living etc. It was worth a visit; seeing how amazing one person can share so many happiness to all the people through things he love the most: art.

The question is, like him, how can I share happiness to people through things that I love the most?

Still, an unanswerable question indeed, but I always believe that I will find the answer someday.

Fujiko F. Fujio, thanks for all the fun today :) You will always be remembered.

See you on next post!