Monthly Archives: November 2010

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The One With Florinda Cafe – Macau Crispy Buns

30 November, 2010 8:00 am | Leave a Comment |

If you have set sail for Macau from Shun Tak Ferry Terminal, one of the two in Hong Kong with ferry service to the land of casino fortune, chances are you would have noticed this char chan teng, which seems a little different from all the other that you may have encountered before.

Florinda Cafe Macau Restaurant (澳門茶餐廳) is somewhat a teaser of what awaits you at the end of your 45 minutes journey by sea… no, it’s not the casino; do you mind! But of its food.

Florinda Cafe At Shun Tak Centre, Sheung Wan

After all, this eatery, which can seat some 140 patrons comfortably, offers a wide selection of Macanese and Portuguese fare in a char chan teng setting. I was in the mall one Sunday looking for a photo shop in frustration (it’s a short story too boring to be told here, even as a P.S.), and as it was about brunch time, I decided to regroup my down spirit and have a bite.

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Posted in: Chinese, Sheung Wan | Tagged: , , , ,

The One With The Lamma Island Hiking Trail

29 November, 2010 8:00 am | Leave a Comment |

To say that hiking is the third religion in Hong Kong – after eating and shopping – would be kind of an understatement. When I was tasked to plan for a hiking trip to Lamma Island, my research unearthed a mind-blogging amount of resources dedicated to this activity; a testament on how much the locals love a good trek up and down the hills (mountains?) of Hong Kong.

Here’s a summary of my findings:
1) The hiking trail in Lamma was said to be one to four hours long, depending on your circumstances. Losing sleep worrying whether you planned too-tight an itinerary for a day trip like this, in all honesty, would be utterly pointless
2) Doing a hike in autumn is always infinitely better than risking it under the wrath of summer. I have yet to come across a blog post about a pleasant summer hiking experience in Lamma thus far
3) Just because you live a five minute cab ride away from the terminal would mean you can leave the house 10 minutes before the ferry depart

The Ferry Ride

Hiking Excursion to Lamma Island

I embarked on the trip one Saturday afternoon with my Hong Kong buddies – Fanny, Maureen, Mandy, Billy and Faifai. It was first of the some of our outdoor group outings and hopefully it heralded more such events in the future.

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Posted in: Daily Diary, Lamma Island, Travelogy | Tagged: ,

The One With SoHo Street Fair & Wine Walk 2010

27 November, 2010 8:00 am | Leave a Comment |

Did you know that SoHo in Hong Kong actually stands for South of Hollywood Road?

I didn’t know either, until I was doing some background research on SoHo Street Fair & Wine Walk 2010, on which I had the fortune to stumble across while wondering around my ‘hood last Sunday. You can always count on me to bump into unexpected events and unfamiliar circumstances when left to my own devices.

Mostly good, of course. The bad ones were often unbloggable ;)

Soho Street Fair & Wine Walk 2010

It was a bustling Sunday afternoon. I was actually out to buy a book and perhaps grab some lunch when the festive props caught my attention. The weekend crowd, the wine booths, the handicraft stalls, the performing jugglers, the serenading trio… I need little encouragement to dive headlong into the festivity.

I’ll let the photos do the talking.

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Posted in: Daily Diary | Tagged: , , , , ,

The One With Balalaika – A Russian Experience At Knutsford Terrace

26 November, 2010 8:00 am | Leave a Comment |

It’s someone’s birthday. Someone special. So of course you can’t do a half-hearted at (God forbid) char chan teng or just order a cake, can you. You need to do something different.

So what do you do? Here’s my three-steps fail-proof guide to choose an appropriate restaurant for a birthday dinner:
Step 1: Get a globe. Give it a good twirl, close your eyes, and jab with your finger.
Step 2: Look at the country, go to OpenRice.com to search for a corresponding restaurant (i.e. if you jabbed at Mongolia, you go for Mongolian food, see?)
Step 3: Call up the restaurant, make a reservation and start saving

Inevitably an exotic meal will cost you an arm and a leg, though I have to say that perhaps Balalaika Russian Restaurant is one of the few exceptions.

The Ice Bar

The Ice Bar

A visit to Balalaika would be incomplete without visiting the Ice Bar (the inverted Absolute Vodka prop wasn’t a photoshop mistake, mind you). The small bar without seats, which can comfortably fit about 6 – 7 standing adults, was famous for the subterranean chill of almost zero degrees Celcius, probably all to make it a Russian experience (side note: do you know the Russians have one of the most severe winters in the world?). Prior entering the chilled room you get to choose a huge fur coat, a fur cap and a pair of furry ear muffs.

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Posted in: Russian, Tsim Sha Tsui | Tagged: , , , ,

The One With First Impressions Of Hong Kong

25 November, 2010 8:00 am | 3 Comments |

It has been more than two weeks since the Novotel Bloggers Hong Kong 2010 event… and it certainly felt much longer than that. Had it only been two weeks? It felt like it had been months since that night when I met up with so many different bloggers all in one night.

Being a somewhat newcomer to Hong Kong (I moved here for slightly more than a year), I was curious to know the kind of impression these bloggers had on my new home. It is easy, even for someone like me, to feel a teensiest bored with Hong Kong, if you fell victim to mindless routine and endless rat race in the day-to-day life in this city.

So I snooped around a little to discover just what Hong Kong meant to these folks.

After a few years’ break since she last visited the city, Minh Giang was fascinated how the Hong Kong she remembered transformed right in front of her eyes:

It’s been almost six years since my last visit to Hong Kong and almost inevitably I’m told this every time someone asks if I’ve been to Hong Kong before. I’m a little stunned as I take in the skyline on the ride into the city, it’s one thing to remember the densely packed skyscrapers but another thing altogether to see towers lit up at night.

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Posted in: Blogging, Daily Diary | Tagged: , , ,

The One With Ten Thousands Buddha Monastery – Delightful Vegetarian Cuisine

24 November, 2010 8:00 am | 2 Comments |

As an avid fan of Lonely Planet which preached the spirit of spontaneity, I am always about straying into uncharted (or, in this case, unreviewed) territory as I explore new places. Sometimes, the mere act of hunting down a place to have dine out at a particular area is so exhausting, it took more time then the meal itself.

So during my Sunday’s excursion to Shatin and Taipo, imagine my surprise to discover a vegetarian restaurant right at the top of hill, in the midst of the complex of temples.

Shatin Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Then again, why should I be that surprised? With the number of tourists thronging around, someone gotta give them food, especially after the hike up the 400 odd steps. It can be grueling during summer days.

But to my (other) surprise, this place has not been reviewed on OpenRice.com. And not even on vegetarian websites. So here I am to introduce you to the pleasant discovery of Vegetarian Restaurant At The Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery at Shatin.

(Yes, I don’t know the name of the restaurant. I suspect they don’t have one)

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Posted in: Chinese, Vegetarian | Tagged: , , , ,

The One With Espressamente Illy – Dessert On The Go

23 November, 2010 8:00 am | Leave a Comment |

When in doubt, go for coffee. That’s my solution to the eternal problem of oh-I-still-want-to-eat-but-so-full-after-dinner.

So after our dinner, Ms. Khoo (otherwise affectionately known as The Gal Who Shop Too Much) dragged me to Espressamente Illy at K11, loudly proclaiming that they have the best dessert ever.

And who I am saying no to FREE dessert, right? ;)

Chocolate Brownie, HKD34

Dessert at Illy's (K11, Tsim Sha Tsui)

Her choice. Apparently it wasn’t heated enough to her preference, so she returned the brownie to the friendly barista for a reheat. I was pleasantly surprised that the brownie was heated to the point of melting but without getting it burnt. Nice job! It must have been heavenly as Ms. Khoo was rendered speechless for the first couple of mouthfuls. I didn’t try because I have my own sin to indulge in.

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Posted in: Dessert, Tsim Sha Tsui | Tagged: , , ,

The One With The Sunday Day Trip To Shatin & Tai Po

22 November, 2010 8:00 am | 2 Comments |

There are only so many weekends a man could spend bar-hopping and club-dancing before he feels totally washed out and in need of a break in routine. It all sounded glamorous when one’s weekends are filled with dancing, drinking and merrymaking but, trust me, it gets stale. Sometime.

So in a bid of Doing Something Different, yours truly ganged up with some lovely friends to go up north towards the New Territories of Hong Kong, making a healthy day trip one fine Sunday.

Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Shatin Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery

Otherwise known as Man Fat Tsz, this is not an actually monastery as there are no residence monks. Located in Shatin, the monastery is some 400 odd steps up a hill at Pai Tau Village. The name, as you may guessed, come from the thousands of life-sized and small Buddhas at this place.

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Posted in: Daily Diary, Travelogy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

The One With Skyline; The Good Bad Movie

20 November, 2010 6:18 pm | Leave a Comment |

I contemplated for a grand total of 12 hours if I should be blogging about this movie. The sci-fi fanatic in me caved in to my more critical side, so excuse me if the piece seems somewhat incoherent to your own experience watching Skyline, the latest B-grade movie with a “modest” budget of 10 million bucks.

The One With Skyline; The Good Bad Movie

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Posted in: Screen Talk | Tagged: , , ,

The One With The Culinary Whirlwind That Was Bangkok 2010

19 November, 2010 8:14 am | 1 Comment |

I have been meaning to write about my Bangkok trip in September, detailing what happened day by day. But after a lapse of some two months and, coupled by the fact that how my seven days in Bangkok blurred into each other, it would probably be more worthwhile for yours truly to focus on the more blogworthy aspects of my trip in September.

Of course, top of my list is FOOD!

To my surprise, Bangkok has more to offer than just the good old Thai food. Perhaps that’s because the last time I visited was in 2006. My spending power was considerably less, so I don’t get too many options to spoil myself with.

But this trip was different. I get to try, try, and keep trying.

Seafood Dinner @ Bangkok’s Chinatown

Dinner at Chinatown

Easily the best meal for the trip was the first night when we headed down to Bangkok’s Chinatown for a huge dinner of seafood. The wait wasn’t that long, the crowd was jolly, the service was friendly, and all of us were in great spirit.

All those, of course, would be pointless if the food were less than spectacular. For about HKD100 per person, every dish was good till the last drop.

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Posted in: Bangkok, Thai, Travel - Bangkok 2010 | Tagged: , , , ,