Hong Kong: Day 2

By Esther Rachel Lai. - 9/29/2016

Last month I shared about my first day spent on vacation in Hong Kong back in June & I'm sorry it took so long for me to blog about day 2 but finally, here it is!

Day 2 saw us walking A LOT to hunt for more good food!

We started the day as early as 8am just to head out for good old Hong Kong Dim Sum breakfast! Because what is a trip to Hong Kong if you don't have dim sum right?!

Our group's itinerary brought us to Sham Shui Po just for that!

Selfies while waiting for our food to be served!

We've a pretty big group but the awesome thing about travelling with a larger group is that you can order an extremely wide variety of food to try and not have to worry about wastage!

(This was just half the portion of what we actually ordered).

My favourite dim sum is Har Gow and I'm very particular about my Har Gow (e.g. Skin cannot be too thick, prawn must be big and fresh, insides must be juicy) & I must say, the Har Gow that they served was really not bad! SO much better than the one we had at Federal Palace in day 1.

Hong Kong's Chee Cheong Fun differs slightly from the ones we have in Singapore. The skin is very smooth and silky and slightly thicker. For some of us, our taste buds were not accustomed to the new texture.

But when it came to the Zha Leong (Chee cheong fun with fried dough fritters (aka you tiao) ), all of us fell head over heels with this. It's SOOOOO good we ordered another two more plates of this! It's soft on the outside yet crispy and packed with wholesome juicy prawns on the inside. I gave this one a definite 5 stars! Anyone knows where can I find zha leong in Singapore???

粵廚點心專門店

(Yue Chu Dian Xin Zhuan Men Dian)

96 Nam Cheong St, Hong Kong Sham Shui Po Exit A2

After having our tummies filled right up to the brim, we took a walk to our next food hunting destination and was greeted by a peculiar sight...

(WARNING: Not for the faint of heart!)

BUTCHERED PIGS STACKED UP WITH THEIR INNARDS PILED ON TOP AT THE WET MARKET.

The best part was that they'd just hook the pigs and drag them on the floor into the stall. The stench was needless to say, overwhelming. But it was an intriguing sight nonetheless!

& of course, no trip is complete without a daily

#OOTD

Our next stop led us to an apparently renowned cheong fun stall for more eating!

When we got there, there was already a short queue of people waiting to get their cheong fun fix from this particular stall!

Unlike Singapore's chee cheong fun that's usually only paired with sweet sauce, the ones in Hong Kong are topped with both sweet sauce and peanut sauce!

& as you can tell, the rolls are much thinner and tightly rolled too, much like the Korean rice cakes giving it a much more chewy texture!

To be honest, we tried another street stall near our hotel selling the exact same thing and all of us agreed that the other one we had the night before tasted better than this one! This is pretty easy to find anywhere in the streets of Hong Kong but if you're around Sham Shui Po you can drop by this stall!

I think Hong Kong is a really interesting and vibrant country compared to Singapore. As we were walking to our next destination, we came across a "gambling den" or rather a place just to play mahjong!

& they've like an old school gaming arcade where you can find those classic computer gaming machines with the joystick and buttons.

Didn't get to try the Mobile Softee cause the rest walked solo fast and there was a queue, looked good though!

Our next stop was a soya bean stall selling all things soya bean! hahaha!

Okay so this stall is also apparently a famed stall, famous for well, soya bean.

I don't know but some of us noticed that the soya milk has a pungent after taste to it.

In fact, even the soya bean curd had that same odd, pungent taste.

Apart from soya milk and bean curd they also sell deep fried snacks like tofu which was not bad!

Kung Wo Dou Bun Chong

118 Pei Ho St,

Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

& just farther down from the soya bean stall, us girls found a gem! This bakery sold THE BEST egg tart I've ever eaten! Too bad we didn't buy any back home! This is even better than the renowned Tai Cheong ones that we bought back home on the last day!

The biscuit pastry on the outside is baked to a perfect thickness and has a slight buttery salty taste to it. It crumbles when you bite into it and melts in your mouth! & the egg custard? Soft and warm with just the right amount of sweetness and flavour, not too over powering yet neutralises the salty biscuit tart!

Red Cherry Bakery

No. 60 Fuk Wing Street,

Sham Shui Po, Kowloon

Hong Kong

Exit B2 of the Sham Shui Po MTR Station

Our next destination on the itinerary brought us to SOGO at Causeway Bay.

Basically your regular departmental store where you can find beauty and cosmetic products, Japanese food etc. much like the Isetan we have here in Singapore.

& I never knew Agnès b. has their own line of choc/candies?

Super not-worth-it peach jelly that costs 16 bucks a cup. LOL.

& here's also where you can get your BAKE cheese tart cravings fixed!

SOGO

555 Hennessy Rd, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

From there, we headed uptown to Central, Hong Kong for some Michellin star awarded dinner and conquered flight after flight of endless stairs!

& came across a heterosexual cow costume. HAHAHA WHATTT...

Mak's noodle, a Michelin Star awarded eatery that served up the heaviest noodles in the world - Wonton Mee!!!

Mak's Noodle

G/F, 77 Wellington St,

Central, Hong Kong

It's pretty costly for bowl of wonton mee though...about SGD 7 for a really small bowl that's not even the size of your hand.

I think if Shane was with us, he would need at least 5 of these bowls to fill his stomach. We found the wonton me to be quite "meh". nothing special BUT...

The zha jiang mian (above) and beef brisket noodle (below) was SO GOOD. The sweet and fragrant minced meat sauce coupled with the springy noodles had us yearning for more!

& the beef brisket soup noodles has a delicious broth with very tender meats!

A definite thumbs up for those two dishes!!

When we left the eatery, I spotted another stall right across the street that had accumulated the Michelin star award for several years running so needless to say, we hopped in to try a bowl of the famed Wonton mee!

Tsim Chai Kee 沾仔记

98, Wellington St. Central, Hong Kong

Comparatively, the wontons prepared by this eatery were much larger and juicier, it made all of us go "mmmmmm!!!" and the broth was much tastier too!. So if you're looking for a good bowl of wonton mee, than dine in here but I can't say the same for their beef noodles.

The beef noodles was pretty bland and the meet wasn't tender, was pretty bad if I may say.

The verdict? If you're looking for beef brisket and zha jiang mian, Mak's Noodle shop wins hands down! But if you're looking for wonton noodles, then go for Tsim Chai Kee's. But frankly speaking, I think the wonton noodles isn't anything extraordinary that can't be found in Singapore - then again, I never really fancied soupy wonton noodles and always preferred the dry, Singaporean version so I guess it all boils down to your own taste palates! Would definitely go back to Mak's for the beef brisket and zha jiang mian though!

& if you're looking to grab the famous Tai Cheong egg tarts, there's one just around the corner but you've to get there early. When we arrived at the shop, they were already all sold out.

Tai Cheong Bakery

35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong

Just beside Tai Cheong's a really adorable vintage candy shop where you can get all sorts of interesting candies and chocolates! Perfect for buying a souvenir back home?

Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe (Central)

37 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central,

Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong

& after eating soooo much of unhealthy, oily and "heaty" stuff. we made a stop at this shop within the vicinity that sells herbal drinks and herbal jelly (aka liang cha & gui ling gao) to rid the guilt and "pai qi"!