Tag: food

HK: very tasty walled village lunch in New Territories

This fish (woo tau or gray mullet) was incredibly moist and very tasty. Fried rice was good too. I took some of it back to my hotel in a takeaway box.

This resto (Tai Wing Wah near Long Ping MTR) specializes in walled village food, as well as dim sum. Very large restaurant on 2/F – I shared a 4 person table – and again I was the only Caucasian/foreigner in the room (which I consider a good thing when eating in another country).

Bill came to:
Fish HK$72/US$9
Fried rice HK$37/$5
Tea HK$7/US$1
10% service charge HK$12/US$1.55
Total HK$127/US$16

HK: breakfast (as it happens) and sweet soy sauce?

I try to have meals at different restos each time, so I walked the neighbourhood looking for a breakfast place (that wasn’t noodles with ham). Found a place called MK on the first floor that was very busy with nary a tourist in sight – jackpot!
The menu was actually quite similar to yesterday’s cafe, with a similar setup: look at a menu on the wall with pictures (and English), order and pay up front at the cashier (can use Octopus card, much easier and faster), take paper slip to another line where staff take it and set up your tray with pre-prepared food. Fast and efficient.
HK$22.50/US$3 for a Chinese breakfast set: congee, turnip cake and milk tea (or coffee)
Congee was good, turnip “cake” not my cup o’ tea, so to speak – weird taste, and more like thicker porridge than a cake; for that matter, I should have had coffee instead of the milk tea, but I figured I’d be heading to St@rbucks to do some more blogging.
For that matter, I thought Chinese were lactose intolerant – maybe it’s lactose free milk, or soy milk. I do enjoy hot Chinese tea with meals, but not this milk tea.
It also came with a packet of Sweet Soy Sauce: water, white sugar, salt, soybean, flavour enhancers, wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup, preservative
Not surprisingly, it’s sweet, which is not how I like my soy sauce, which is salty by definition :-)

HK: Day 2/Sun summary

Here’s what I managed to do on my second day (a Sunday), with more details and photos to follow in later posts.

  • Did some research and blogging over breakfast and coffee at Cafe de Coral (a chain); the millet porridge was surprisingly tasty but the sandwich and coffee were disappointing (I was expecting a fresh sandwich, but maybe not for HK$20/US$2.60 for the set breakfast)
  • Tried to go to the Peak (as you might imagine, it’s the tallest point on Hong Kong Island, just south of Central), but didn’t want to wait in line an hour for that tram
  • Meandered around Central a little, including Hong Kong Park next to the Peak tram (random: the park also houses the HK Squash Club)
  • Noticed the large number (many hundreds? a thousand?) of F Filipino maids hanging around Central, especially Exchange Square, anywhere they can find shade (this is Sunday, remember, so it’s their day off it seems)
  • Hopped on a ferry to Cheung Chau Island for seafood, a temple (home of the annual bun festival coming up), a beach and a long scenic walk ending with a pirate’s cave and a “resting” (perilously perched) boulder (and a surprising amount of trash, mostly in the form of discarded water bottles);
    it’s also the childhood home to HK’s only Olympic gold medal athlete (windsurfing in ’96 Atlanta games).
    Definitely recommended (thanks Yin)!
  • Saw some of the nightly Festival of Lights, where buildings in Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui are lit up in a “moving” light show

HK: Day 1/Sat summary

Here’s what I managed to do on my first day (a Saturday) after the late arrival the night before:

  • Walked around my immediate area (near Causeway Bay MTR), including a light breakfast (not that many options at 8am!), purchasing and activating a SIM card and wi-fi plan, stumbling on a St@rbucks (pros and cons for that one :-), and a light lunch of squid ball soup at a hole-in-the-wall resto in Jardine’s Bazaar
  • Rode the double decker tram (streetcar) westbound to a loop terminus at Chun Yeun St Market near North Point MTR
  • Walked around North Point area, finding the pier where my dinner cruise will leave from later this week, a little seafood market, little a waterfront promenade, a cement dog run park, a green park and another cement park with (Chinese) Checkers players
  • Hopped on the tram to the next westbound terminus at Shau Kei Wan MTR (not much to see there); the south/inland side of the road/tracks starts going uphill right away
  • Met a nice local traveler named Yin for a veg dinner
  • Walked around Wan Chai in the evening – lots of bars, many with “bad” bands, and hostess bars (apparently this is where the sailors used to go, but the area has cleaned up some)

Singapore vs Taipei street food

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/singapore/travel-tips-and-articles/77041

“Though without question a festival for nose and tastebuds, visually speaking most of Singapore’s centrally planned communal eateries have only slightly more charm than your average parking garage.”

Hmm. Well, I was a little disappointed with Taipei street food, but in a few weeks I’ll be able to compare Singapore (and Hong Kong) street food.

Update: having returned from Singapore now, I definitely give Singapore the win over Hong Kong, which in turn wins over Taipei, for street food.

Seoul: food items and photos

Some typical food items:

  • kimchi: pickled spicy cabbage (served with every meal)
  • banchan: side dishes that accompany meals (inc. in price; excludes the soup, kimchi and sauces)
  • bibimbap: rice (bap) bowl with colourful veggies, meat (or seafood) and egg on top (can be ordered without meat/seafood)
  • dolsot bibimbap: bibimbap served in a stone hotpot (keeps the food warm longer, and you get some crispy rice at the bottom)
  • gochujang: spicy red pepper paste
  • galbi: beef ribs (I didn’t eat any, but including for semi-completeness)
  • bulgogi: thin slices of beef (or pork)
  • samgyeopsal: streaky pork belly
  • jjigae: like a stew, usually orange-coloured and served in a stone hotpot
  • jeon: savoury wheat pancakes
  • bindaetteok: savoury mung bean pancakes (heavier than jeon)

Notes:

  • Meals usually include kimchi, soup and several banchan (how many of the latter depends on how fancy the resto is)
  • Taxes are included in the prices (or there are no taxes?)
  • Tipping is not expected (and would be insulting), though apparently some high end restos add a service charge
  • Water is served free (it was always safe in Seoul) or is available self-serve from a water filter machine; sometimes tea is served
  • Chopsticks are usually stainless steel (and rectangular at the narrow end, instead of round, which also helps grip food a little)
  • It’s hard to get truly vegetarian meals (except at Buddhist temples/restos) as most meals include some kind of meat, and even kimchi is often made with fish sauce

Here are a few photos of food and meals I had around Seoul (I pretty much enjoyed all of them!):

Istanbul: Day 4 Summary – Topkapi Palace

Strange day – sights very crowded, e.g. Topkapi and Blue Mosque, but Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar closed (due to muslim holiday). But Eminönü still very crowded, with traffic jam going northwards over Galata Bridge.

So all I managed today was:

  • Topkapi Palace (overly crowded today – took 3.5 hours, and I skipped some things like the thrones room). The harem was interesting – contrary to popular western belief, it’s where the sultan and his family lived, not just the girls. And the sultan’s mother cracked the whip, so to speak, even telling the sultan which girl he would sleep with when.
    Great building and vistas, but tough place to photograph.Tiring crowds.
    Tip: remember to bring ID for the self-guided audio tour, or an extra 100 TL (I had no ID and only 85 TL extra and had to beg the guy into treating that as enough of a deposit)
  • Took a closer look at the obelisk in the hippodrome
  • Ate (deep)-fried hamsi (anchovies; better than expected with arugula, raw onions and bread) and çerekop, a small blue fish that’s currently in season.
    Hamsi was TL6/$3.50 for a big plate (normally 8 TL) next to Galata Bridge in Karaköy;
    Çerekop was TL10/$5.75, though really, the hamsi was enough of a meal (well, not enough veggies of course).
  • Visited the Blue Mosque (small line this evening) but really need to go back in the daytime
  • I tried to go to the Grand Bazaar but it was closed
  • I tried to go to a hamam but decided on the full monty (inc. massage) and didn’t have quite enough cash with me for that (TL117/$67)

Coming up tomorrow: A cruise up the Bosphorous!