I'm on MC today. Oh well, instead of lying on the bed the whole day, I decided to do some blogging! Growing "rusty" liao, so let me start off with the easier part - Hongkong & Shenzhen. ^_^
After Korea, I continued my trip in HK for another 4 days, which was good enough for me to do shopping and eating. No sight seeing since this was like my fourth or fifth time to HK? And still my Cantonese sulks like anything. Compared to years ago, I think now you can communicate with mandarin and english. I even saw one HK cafe offering a specially made menu - pictures of the food with english & japanese wordings for the foreigners. Pretty tourist friendly, I must say. Anyway, if you wanna read about sight seeing in HK, can read my previous posts.
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For me, the single journey airport express works best and I just need to "loan" the octopus (MTR) card with a HK$9 fee, and I was good to go anywhere, including to Shenzhen. Simply, just pay HK$150, consists of HK$100 stored value and HK$50 refundable deposit, at the Customer Service Centre available at all MTR stations.
My hotel near Olympian Station. I cant really say the location is good. Hmm, it is walking distance to Olympian Station, Mongkok Station, Mongkok East Station, Fa Yuen Street, Argle Centre etc. Then again, it requires a lot of walking to everywhere but taking the MTR will involve changing to different lines and takes up a longer time. So bo pian lah, we almost walked everywhere. The good thing is the hotel offers free shuttle bus to Kowloon Station, Langham Place & China HK City and probably the best part, it's near Olympian City (about 15 mins walk), so I managed to have brunch at Tim Ho Wan before my flight home. Keke
Hey hey, my hotel room number was my birthday 16 September! Keke
Here is a quick run through of the places that I went:
1) Luowu Commercial City (Shenzhen)
Direction: Take the East Rail Line to LuoWu MTR station (took about an hour from Mongkok East Station and cost about HK$33 for single trip). Follow the crowd to clear the customs. Once you cross over to Shenzhen, you will see LuoWu Commerical City in front of the rail station.
What I did here was to do tailoring at the Cloth City (布城) which is at
Level 5 recommended by a friend. You can choose the cloth and
design and just let the tailor do his magic. There are many tailor
shops at that place. The one that I went, workmanship costs about S$30+
and after that, just need to add on the cloth's prices. My dresses
cost me about S$50 on average and my husband's shirts cost S$30 each.
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2) Eastern Garden International Food & Spa (Shenzhen)
Direction:
福田区金田南路文化中心2009号.
Take the East Rail Line to Lok Ma Chau MTR station (yes, this is another station to go to Shenzhen). Similarly, just follow the crowd to clear the customs and there, you reach Shenzhen. You can then either take a cab or the spa's shuttle bus.
Opening Hours: 24 Hours
I dunno where to board the shuttle bus since I went to LuoWu Commercial City to collect my dresses first (Yup, can collect after 3 days, otherwise the tailor can also arrange shipping to your country but at your own risk lah). The cab from LuoWu to the spa was about RMB $30, so I reckon the cab fee from Lok Ma Chau / Fu Tian Custom should be cheaper than that.
Oh ya, the spa provides shuttle service to 2 customs, namely Fu Tian and Huanggang. If you wanna take the MTR, go to Fu Tian Custom.
This is probably the newest spa in Shenzhen, opens for only 3 or 4 months. Even the Luowu taxi driver was not familiar of this place when I told the driver I wanna go "东方园".
Here, you can choose from a whole list of services ranging from partial body or full body massage, body scrub, manicure, pedicure etc. Although there is a cover charge of RMB$99, this would be waived if you have incurred services of RMB$149. Trust me lah, it's easily "achieveable". As a gauge, I ordered 5 services and in total, I spent less than S$100.
There is also free flow of drinks, fruits and ice-cream. You choose your favorite reclining armchair, turn on your favorite channel on your personal TV and sit back, relax. The staff will bring you your drinks and fruits. You can also call for the massage service, while you enjoy your favorite show. Really shiok, live like a King/Queen. I spent like 4 hours there lor...
Btw, for every services that you have done, you are expected to give tips. The staff will ask you to sign off on a form, indicating the amount that you wan to give, minimally RMB $30.
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3) Tim Ho Wan, Olympian City (Hongkong)
The unit number in the Olympian
City is quite screwed up, the numbers dun follow the sequence! Ya, so we
took some time to find the exact location of Tim Ho Wan. The easier way
is to find the Concierge Counter at ground floor, who will guide you to
the cafe. You have to go to this exit door behind the Concierge
Counter, which will lead you outside of the building and there you will
see a super long queue.
We took a queue number from the counter near the door, and waited for 1.5hour. Please dun dumb dumb and wait outside of the cafe, people already got their queue number and were waiting for their number to be called.
If you are not there where the staff calls your number, you can still try your luck when you are back. If the queue number already exceeded 30 counts, you got to re-take your queue number. Hey, that's what the chinese notice says, I tried my best to do the translation....
Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (HK$19)
The super famous Baked Bbq Buns, who can miss it?
The baked skin reminded me of Po Lo Bun (aka pineapple bun) somehow and I must say it was really good. Eaten best when freshly made and still good, when it was eaten cold. Erm, we liked it so much that we tabao and brought it back to the hotel for supper.
And guess what, I tabao back to Singapore as well... =p
Credits to these shi-fu working hard in the kitchen! Kudos to them!
Pan-Fried Turnip Cake (HK$14)
The carrot cake was another die-for. It was really addictive, and I missed it so much that I went for a second time in my 4 days trip in HK. The pictures here were a collection of 2 visits lah, I cant eat so much at one go. On average, we spent about S$30 for 2 pax per time.
Back to the yummy carrot cake, I like the fact that I can see/taste small little slices of radish/winter melon in it. It was so good that you can totally ignore the chili sauce.
Glutinous Rice Dumpling (HK$26)
The glutinous rice was really fragrant having steamed in the lotus leaf, and I cant help but went for another serving of the rice although we were suppose to cut down on the starch in-take. The meat filling was also tender and tasty.
Steamed Egg Cake (HK$14)
The Malay Cake was suppose to be another signature dish. It was fluffy & soft alright but I think it's just personal preference, so I dun find it remarkable.
Steamed Fresh Shrimp Dumpling (HK$24)
Simple dim sum with no frills. Just thin skin and fresh prawns filling, it was indeed satisfying.
Deep-Fried Beancurd Sheet Roll with Shrimps (HK$24)
The bean curd sheet was crispy without being too greasy and the fillings were just nice.
But of coz, not every items was fantastic, which I think should order as last options to save the tummy for the better ones! LOL
Pan-Fried Beef Dumpling with Black Pepper Sauce (HK$20)
This was not beef dumpling lah.. more like pan-fried beef fillet. Lousy translation on the english menu. Anyway, the beef fillet was okay lah, just that probably it should not be considered as a dim sum item.
Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin (HK$16)
This was a no-no for me. It tasted so weird that we didnt even finish it.
Vermicelli roll stuffed with shrimp (HK$22)
Nothing to rave about this. I suppose we should have chosen our of the 4 Heavenly Kings - vermicelli roll stuffed with pig's liver.
Steamed Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (HK$24)
The siew mai also tasted funny. *Frowned* I think it was the minced meat...
We cant bear to leave the place.... COM'ON, we queued for 1.5hours, I was not going to leave after 20mins! Keke
Tonic Medlar & Petal Cake (HK$12)
Normally know as osmanthus cake lah, served cooling.
Sweet Pumpkin Cream with Sago (HK$15)
Surprisingly, the dessert was served warm. It probably felt kinda weird at first as we are used to the taste of melon or mango sago. It was a pleasant change with lessened sweetness.
Direction: The Olympian City is located beside the Olympia MTR Station
Address: Olympian City, Block 2, Unit No G72
Opening Hours: 10.00am - 930pm daily
4) LAW FU KEE CONGEE AND NOODLE SPECIALIST 羅富記粥麵專家 (Hongkong)
The porridge was super good lor, highly recommended. Why cant we have such porridge cafe in Singapore?? Uncle from HK, please come Singapore to open one? I will patronize your shop frequently, promise... >.<
I tried the sliced fish & pig liver combination, since you dun find pig liver porridge in Singapore. I finished the porridge in record time, with the ginger and spring onions (which I dun take usually) coz it was really good! I'm drooling now just by looking at the photos!
Direction: Hong Kong MTR Station, Exit E1 / Sheung Wan MTR Exit E2
Address: 144 Queen's Road
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5) Tai Cheong Bakery (Hongkong)
Direction: Mongkok East MTR Station, Shop No MMK6
This was really passable. The custard was okay but the pastry was nothing to rave about. I preferred KFC's egg tart, anytime. Dunno why other people is recommending this... Hmm
6) Tsim Chai Kee Noodle (Hongkong)
We ordered the King Prawn Wanton Noodle & Sliced Beef Noodle. I think this place was really passable although it seems popular with the locals and has some awards pasted on the glass panel.
The only thing I think not bad is the King Prawn Wanton, which was really big with fresh prawns inside and there was 3 or 4 wanton in a bowl.
On the contrary, the noodles had this powdery yellow noodle taste which I dun like, but there is other noodles options like vermicelli. The soup was very oily and peppery, dun bother to drink. And the sliced beef tasted weird, in fact it didnt taste like normal beef. After 2 times of eating beef in HK (first at Tim Ho Wan), I decided not to eat beef liao in HK... LOL
Btw, this place was near to the flagship H&M store (located at 70 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong, Crawford Hous), so you may want to go shopping!
Direction: Central Station, Exit D2
Address: 98 Wellington Street, Jade Centre, Ground Floor
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7) Kwai Chung Plaza (Hongkong)
I read about this shopping plaza from blogs and so decided to check it out since I've never been there. My opinion? It's like People Park Shopping Centre. It's not quite trendy lah, make up of many small shops,and the items are just so so.
If you have exhausted all the shopping places, maybe you can come here. Otherwise, I think can skip this place. I spent like just 15 - 20 minutes "scouting" the shops, and couldnt find anything that fancy the eyes and so hopped back to the MTR to other shopping places. LOL
Direction: Kwai Fong MTR Station, Exit A. The Plaza is located just across the road from the station.
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8) Yuan Lang Lo Po Bin (Hongkong)
The red boxes in the glass panel are containing the fluffy pastry with sticky winter melon filling, aka "Lo Po Bin" or "Wives Biscuits". The ready-packed ones (e.g. wing wah selling at the airport) are nothing comparable to these freshly made ones!
Hey, never go for the alternatives when you can easily get the best. There are quite a number of Hang Heung Cake Shop in other locations, so just google to find the most convenient location.
Direction: Hang Heung Cake Shop, Counter at Sogo Department Store, Basement 1, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, Exit E/F or L
Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm daily
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Part 2 to be continued.....Stay tuned!
