Monday, August 22, 2005
china trip 2005 - hong kong
as i started on my six-month long foray north to china, i could not help but wonder how i am going to be affected by being away from my family for so long. yes; this nus-sep trip is be my first overseas trip for such a long duration. before arriving at beijing, where i will be spending one semester at tsinghua university, i would have been to hong kong, shanghai, suzhou and hangzhou, and eaten at a few "famous places". hong kong was my first stop before venturing into china proper; besides the shopping and food, it also offered a cheaper way of getting to shanghai - i'd be taking a 55%-discounted flight from shenzhen there.
it was really not a good idea to visit hong kong during late august, for the monsoon season meant that it rained during all three days i was there. fortunately, i wasn't in hong kong to sightsee in the traditional touristy sense, having done that last year. no; my aim this time was to go check out some of the more famous eateries and restaurants. and succeed i quite did; opia must rank as one of the best restaurants i've ever dined in (not that i've dined in a lot of restaurants; i'm only twenty three and three-quarters like mousketeer-scott from the video rental store).
the mtr system in hong kong is like the mrt in singapore, though little details here and there make the former somewhat better than the latter. such as the announcing of station names in three languages (cantonese, english and chinese). or the trains not being as crowded in singapore during rush hour due to the higher frequency of arrival. or the offering of free internet access at some of the stations (and with proper computer terminals that worked). things like that that singapore still doesn't get quite right.
i eventually got to my hostel (i.e. finally figured the direction to head to while wrestling for space at the mtr exit crowded with people taking shelter from the rain - thank god it was near) - wing fat hostel in causeway bay. took a single for the rack rate, since 1. i'm hopeless at bargaining and may as well give up right from the start and 2. have i mentioned that it was raining? i suppose the price was not too expensive though for hong kong, and it was one lane away from the middle of a big shopping district.
my first dinner was at 满江红, a sichuan restaurant that has gotten pretty good reviews over at egullet. and with that began my three weeks of dining alone in restaurants (lunch was a vegetable-mushroom wrap from citysuper - a super-duper fantastic supermarket which combined the atas sensibilities of jason's and the scale of carrefour).
the service was very good; the waitress, on seeing that i was alone, hearing that i was foreign (i.e. neither hongkonger nor china-chinese), and learning that i did not really know what i wanted, except for the mandatory 担担面 (heh), chattered with me for a while and helped me decide on another dish. in the end, i ordered a bowl of 担担面, as well as a 牛腩煲. her choice of the 牛腩煲 was excellent - the brisket all tender and melt-y, and the potatoes soft but not mushy. the stock was also very tasty : not too salty, and hot - perfect for a cold rainy day.
the 担担面 was also pretty good; not as peanutty as the crystal jade's one, but nevertheless very enjoyable. i guess my only mistake was to tell her not to make it too chot; for the dish was not chot enough for me in the end. this would be my second-last bowl of decent 担担面 for a while, too; though i'm slightly ahead of myself here =p
the next day, i had to literally pull myself out of bed in order to not miss a dim sum brunch (not having any travel partners, one really has to be self-motivated enough not to stay in a room and stone, especially when it's pouring cats and dogs). headed over to city hall maxim's palace (no affliation to the french maxim's), since i've already been to the other place in admiralty that people in egullet rave about (can't remember the name of that place, though the dim sum there was really excellent). comparatively, maxim's was not as good, though definitely competent, although i do have to qualify that i've only tried their 凤抓, 虾饺 and 虾肠 - it's really really difficult to be eating dim sum by oneself!
the first two were good, if normal (not that i'm complaining); the 虾肠 not so, due to the skin of the 肠粉 being too thick (though definitely not as thick as the gross singapore type with icky sweet sauce). and i didn't have room for 粥! i still can't get over the fact that i did not once have 粥 in hong kong, and how much i will be craving for a bowl of that hong kong ambrosia in beijing.
oh, and they served 密瓜西米露 from the trolly by having it in a large glass container (with an estimated diameter of 60cm), and ladling it out into bowls only when people ordered it. very interesting.
headed for the hong kong art museum after brunch by taking the star ferry, my one and only time taking it due to the rain. the hong kong art museum's entrance was quite difficult to locate, as it was one out of three buildings, the others being the cultural centre and science centre. no calligraphy works on exhibit, though there was a small exhibition set up by a calligraphy society in the lobby of the cultural centre.
the art museum was very enjoyable; especially the part with modern chinese art (installations and paintings). a few favourites were 天书, 第一号议程 and 双燕, in particular the last work, where the momumental high white walls of suzhou houses with a bit of the curved eaves of chinese roofs peeking through are juxtaposed with a pair of flying swallows.
dinner at opia, but that's a whole post by itself.
the rain waned somewhat on the third day; no longer was it pouring buckets, though it was still drizzling. oh well, better drizzling than pouring. went to 镛记 for brunch, though i couldn't order the whole works (烧鹅, 烧鸭, 叉烧,) since i was by myself. had to settle for a simple plate of 烧鹅饭. sat on the same table as another elderly man who was reading the newspapers the whole time; apparently it's very normal to be sharing tables like this in hong kong and china, at least when eating in eateries - 镛记 had four floors, and the first floor, where i was seated, was really more eatery-style even though the decor was still very upmarket. the other floors had proper tables for individual groups, like a proper restaurant.
apparently, one has to pay service tax for the higher floors; should be true since there wasn't a 10% tax tagged to my bill, unlike the last time when i dined with my family on the fourth floor.
after brunch, i made my way to the hong kong exhibition and convention centre, since that was the only major sight i missed during the last trip. a large-scale computer fair was being held there, and tons of people were out in force. decided to forgo the fair, as much as i was interested, since i really did not want to 人挤人, 挤死人.
anyway, the exhibition and convention centre was also where the golden bauhinia statue stood, a commemorative statue for the return of hong kong to china in 1997. the only other people there besides me were chinese tourists busy taking photos with the statue, as well as the china flag and the obilisk-like monument of the return of hong kong.
my third dinner in hong kong was simple - a bowl of hearty 牛肉饼面 in a little eatery near to my hostel. the 肉饼 had a springy bite to it, and the texture of the noodles was not half bad. it's really quite easy to be eating well in hong kong =)
photos here
it was really not a good idea to visit hong kong during late august, for the monsoon season meant that it rained during all three days i was there. fortunately, i wasn't in hong kong to sightsee in the traditional touristy sense, having done that last year. no; my aim this time was to go check out some of the more famous eateries and restaurants. and succeed i quite did; opia must rank as one of the best restaurants i've ever dined in (not that i've dined in a lot of restaurants; i'm only twenty three and three-quarters like mousketeer-scott from the video rental store).
the mtr system in hong kong is like the mrt in singapore, though little details here and there make the former somewhat better than the latter. such as the announcing of station names in three languages (cantonese, english and chinese). or the trains not being as crowded in singapore during rush hour due to the higher frequency of arrival. or the offering of free internet access at some of the stations (and with proper computer terminals that worked). things like that that singapore still doesn't get quite right.
i eventually got to my hostel (i.e. finally figured the direction to head to while wrestling for space at the mtr exit crowded with people taking shelter from the rain - thank god it was near) - wing fat hostel in causeway bay. took a single for the rack rate, since 1. i'm hopeless at bargaining and may as well give up right from the start and 2. have i mentioned that it was raining? i suppose the price was not too expensive though for hong kong, and it was one lane away from the middle of a big shopping district.
my first dinner was at 满江红, a sichuan restaurant that has gotten pretty good reviews over at egullet. and with that began my three weeks of dining alone in restaurants (lunch was a vegetable-mushroom wrap from citysuper - a super-duper fantastic supermarket which combined the atas sensibilities of jason's and the scale of carrefour).
the service was very good; the waitress, on seeing that i was alone, hearing that i was foreign (i.e. neither hongkonger nor china-chinese), and learning that i did not really know what i wanted, except for the mandatory 担担面 (heh), chattered with me for a while and helped me decide on another dish. in the end, i ordered a bowl of 担担面, as well as a 牛腩煲. her choice of the 牛腩煲 was excellent - the brisket all tender and melt-y, and the potatoes soft but not mushy. the stock was also very tasty : not too salty, and hot - perfect for a cold rainy day.
the 担担面 was also pretty good; not as peanutty as the crystal jade's one, but nevertheless very enjoyable. i guess my only mistake was to tell her not to make it too chot; for the dish was not chot enough for me in the end. this would be my second-last bowl of decent 担担面 for a while, too; though i'm slightly ahead of myself here =p
the next day, i had to literally pull myself out of bed in order to not miss a dim sum brunch (not having any travel partners, one really has to be self-motivated enough not to stay in a room and stone, especially when it's pouring cats and dogs). headed over to city hall maxim's palace (no affliation to the french maxim's), since i've already been to the other place in admiralty that people in egullet rave about (can't remember the name of that place, though the dim sum there was really excellent). comparatively, maxim's was not as good, though definitely competent, although i do have to qualify that i've only tried their 凤抓, 虾饺 and 虾肠 - it's really really difficult to be eating dim sum by oneself!
the first two were good, if normal (not that i'm complaining); the 虾肠 not so, due to the skin of the 肠粉 being too thick (though definitely not as thick as the gross singapore type with icky sweet sauce). and i didn't have room for 粥! i still can't get over the fact that i did not once have 粥 in hong kong, and how much i will be craving for a bowl of that hong kong ambrosia in beijing.
oh, and they served 密瓜西米露 from the trolly by having it in a large glass container (with an estimated diameter of 60cm), and ladling it out into bowls only when people ordered it. very interesting.
headed for the hong kong art museum after brunch by taking the star ferry, my one and only time taking it due to the rain. the hong kong art museum's entrance was quite difficult to locate, as it was one out of three buildings, the others being the cultural centre and science centre. no calligraphy works on exhibit, though there was a small exhibition set up by a calligraphy society in the lobby of the cultural centre.
the art museum was very enjoyable; especially the part with modern chinese art (installations and paintings). a few favourites were 天书, 第一号议程 and 双燕, in particular the last work, where the momumental high white walls of suzhou houses with a bit of the curved eaves of chinese roofs peeking through are juxtaposed with a pair of flying swallows.
dinner at opia, but that's a whole post by itself.
the rain waned somewhat on the third day; no longer was it pouring buckets, though it was still drizzling. oh well, better drizzling than pouring. went to 镛记 for brunch, though i couldn't order the whole works (烧鹅, 烧鸭, 叉烧,) since i was by myself. had to settle for a simple plate of 烧鹅饭. sat on the same table as another elderly man who was reading the newspapers the whole time; apparently it's very normal to be sharing tables like this in hong kong and china, at least when eating in eateries - 镛记 had four floors, and the first floor, where i was seated, was really more eatery-style even though the decor was still very upmarket. the other floors had proper tables for individual groups, like a proper restaurant.
apparently, one has to pay service tax for the higher floors; should be true since there wasn't a 10% tax tagged to my bill, unlike the last time when i dined with my family on the fourth floor.
after brunch, i made my way to the hong kong exhibition and convention centre, since that was the only major sight i missed during the last trip. a large-scale computer fair was being held there, and tons of people were out in force. decided to forgo the fair, as much as i was interested, since i really did not want to 人挤人, 挤死人.
anyway, the exhibition and convention centre was also where the golden bauhinia statue stood, a commemorative statue for the return of hong kong to china in 1997. the only other people there besides me were chinese tourists busy taking photos with the statue, as well as the china flag and the obilisk-like monument of the return of hong kong.
my third dinner in hong kong was simple - a bowl of hearty 牛肉饼面 in a little eatery near to my hostel. the 肉饼 had a springy bite to it, and the texture of the noodles was not half bad. it's really quite easy to be eating well in hong kong =)
photos here
beAr | 12:00
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home