Tag: travel

Hong Kong is known as a food haven in Asia and if you Google it, it has the highest density of restaurants in the world and once labeled as “Food Paradise” of the world. It’s listed in our countries to visit bucketlist and was able to tick the box last December 2023. I know… I know, it’s a bit late for my post but HK is the recent country we visited that I feel exhausted (in a good way) because there’s so much activities we had. And even if Macau is just a ferry away, we didn’t have time to visit it. We spent 4 days and 3 nights in HK trying different dishes as much as we can. Most of our meals are within reach from Tsim Sha Tsui where we stayed and it’s a good location for first timers in Hong Kong, by the way.

Our first meal (lunch) was memorable because it’s not part of my checklist. We just navigated nearby Tsim Sha Tsui and found a less crowded place which isn’t normal when it’s almost lunch time. Their roasted pork belly and duck is worth trying. The crispiness of the skin and softness of the meat are always the best. Even without the sauce, it’s really tasty. Usually, crispy skin of the pork belly are hard to chew but this one is on the softer side so you can forget about breaking your dentures. It costed around HKD 55 and HKD 45, respectively. The Tea is also a good pair to push down big servings of rice.

The picture above is where we had our roasted pork belly and duck. A tourist giving two thumbs up for the food and experience. I don’t understand the restaurant’s name so please do comment below when you happened to know it. Hubby remembered it’s within Temple Street, #89 stall.

For dinner we were able to scout the place and found the barrel-shaped building which is along the Woosung Street -Temporary Cooked Food Hawker Bazaar. I think the tables are color coded for each stall because after sitting, an auntie approached us with the menu list. The table is outside the roofed building so we’re not actually sure which stall is it.

Big groups of people are dined per table and we’re the only couple during our visit. Hubby ordered three dishes – 1 rice and 2 viands. We were surprised by how big the the serving sizes were. I can’t remember the price range for these but it’s not that expensive for big groups considering its serving portion.

We had the sweet and sour pork fillet – the sauce has a hint of spiciness which added a kick and the meat is not coated with too much flour.

You can never go wrong with fried rice. And you’ll know that it’s cooked on big open fire because it has this distinct taste, aroma and texture that’s really tasty. The ingredients were generously added like shrimps, pork cubes and egg which made this dish “ulam+kanina na”. The photo may not say it all but this is a huge serving and we’re not able to consume everything on the plate.

Last but not the least is the seafood dish – it’s an elongated seashell but can’t remember its name. We just pointed out the photo on the menu – I think it’s stir-fried. Hubby enjoyed this with a can of local beer. It’s fresh-tasting seafood and alot of meat is already removed from the shell, that whitish texture on the photo below.

Our second day was spent in Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) and we availed the Klook Vouchers both for our entrance pass and food. We chose the Royal Banquet Hall for lunch as they have positive reviews from other posts we read. Since it’s already past 11:30am, the hall is already crowded so we end up at the Korean Stall. We chose the Samgyetang because it looked like a Chicken Tinola Dish. The soup has Korean jujube, ginseng, garlic, and other spices with a clean taste. Even if you use a chopstick, the meat was so tender that it literally fell off the bone. The spices are inside the chicken but it’s not showed on the photo below. We appreciate that they served the whole medium-sized chicken that’s already good for two. This meal comes with a cup of rice, a glass of iced tea and a dessert. I was only able to save this photo but we also tried the rice bowl which is also surprisingly good. It came with a drink and a dessert if I remember it correctly.

For dinner, we tried the Beef Rendang at the Tahitian Terrace, unfortunately, I didn’t liked it so no photo was taken.

On our 3rd day, we visited the Haiphong Road Temporary Market Cooked Food Hawker Bazaar but the stall we wanted to check was closed. I ended up ordering a veggie-less stir fried noodles (looked like a regular pansit bihon in the Philippines). I thought it would taste somehow authentic but it’s not. The noodles and the meat were a bit dry.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it on my earlier posts but hubby has this luck on picking good-tasting food from the menu. So as expected, I exchanged my order with his – it’s an egg noodle soup with beef and pork balls. This tasted more Hong Kong-like noodles. If I’m to compare it with my beef and pork balls noodle soup with my previous post (Indonesia), I like the Indonesian version better. Aside from the price and taste, the serving size is way better. But since I’m in HK, I’d pick this over the stir-fried noodles.

The rest of our 4th day in Hong Kong was more on food tripping so below photos are randomly picked while just strolling around the hotel’s neighbourhood. It’s always good to try foods that you seldom read or being featured on other blogs as they sometimes miss the good stuffs or you just accidentally discover a hidden gem.

One of this is near the Jordan Station – it was the only stall opened as early as 7am. Another good-tasting noodle which looked like a “pinapaitan” in the Philippines because the main star is the beef’s innards. It’s beefy taste noodle with generous beef innards meat. Add a little bit of chilli oil and that sealed the deal.

This Pork Dumpling Soup is a surprise because we were expecting it with noodles but this one is pure dumplings. I’m really not sure what’s inside because the taste is more like a combination of pork, shrimp and vegetable. The size of each dumpling is twice/thrice as big as what we usually have in Manila. You can eat this bare or order an extra rice.

This is how it looked like after taking a bite of the dumpling:

Next is the pork/beef-knuckle noodle soup. This is always on my husband’s order whenever he sees it on the menu. He said the strong taste of the the pork knuckles make the soup tastier – the fat and tendon when combined. Here are two orders of pork knuckle noodle soup from different eateries in HK:

We also tried the Tim Ho Wan in West Kowloon Station – it’s like a grand terminal with bus and train trips to nearby islands. This is difficult to find using Google Maps because it’s a multi-level transportation terminal complex adjacent to Kowloon train station. We were actually looking for the old Tim Ho Wan branch but we were directed by Google Maps here. We’re so tired of walking that we almost gave up. The map displayed we already reached our destination but in reality, we’re surrounded with construction buildings, equipments and workers. When we almost lose our hope, that’s when we realized there’s a complex below us.

Anyway, the food tasted similar to what is served in Tim Ho Wan SM Megamall so no notable difference at all, atleast for me.

The pork & Shrimp Dumplings’ shot is not clear because the steam just came out when I took it. One thing I observed is it’s bigger and tastier than in Manila.

Another discovery was the glazed fish belly – please do correct me because most of the food name/captions I used here is how it tasted or looked like. I don’t understand Chinese characters and most of the menu are only pictures with numbers. The fish meat is so soft and melts in your mouth. The saltiness and spiciness makes you want more rice.

On the same restaurant, I ordered what is picture-perfect on the menu but the taste is more like the “Laing” with pork meat. It’s a bit salty on my palate. The upper part of my plate is like soy pork then the lower part is like taro leaves although I’m not sure. I actually didn’t finish my order.

A dessert will always have a place in my stomach even if I’m too full to eat. I finally overcame my curiosity about this small ice cream shop that we always pass by, going to our hotel. It’s just a take out counter and can only serve two to three customers at a time. Also, the staffs cannot speak English well even if there’s English translation on the menu so you just point the pictures to order. We often see students and teens frequenting this shop even if the weather is really cold. I ordered one of their best sellers yogurt ice cream which is HKD 55 – priced like one meal already. It tasted simple but it ticks the right spots in your mouth. And that’s when I understood why alot of customers visit this place. It’s a matcha-flavored yogurt ice cream with generous serving of blue berry bits, cashew nuts and cubes of pudding-like jellies. The heart-shape bread topping has the texture and saltiness of a croissant that added flavor to every scoop of this ice cream.

Again, most of the dishes you read on this post are named based from the taste and appearance since we don’t understand Chinese characters from the menu. I’d appreciate any corrections. 🙂

Notes from our Hong Kong Trip: (1) If you’re not in a rush from the airport going to your hotel or vice versa, try to ride the bus so you can save a little and see so much of the city on your first day instead of train. (2) When going to Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) and other activities (e.g.Madame Tussauds), avail the passes and food vouchers via Klook, it’s cheaper than buying inside the park. (3) If you can take long walks, choose this over commuting especially if you’re visiting during cool months. It’s free exercise to burn your calories from the food trips you have. (4) Try to visit the tourist spots on weekdays (except Fridays) like HKDL to avoid too much crowd and long lines. Btw, HKDL is open all days of December since it’s expected to accommodate more tourists than any other months of the year. Make sure to check their website’s calendar. (5) Bring your most comfortable footwear. (6) Always check your octopus card’s balance via 7-11, the most convenient way if not online. (7)Check the conversion rate – we found it more practical to withdraw money from our Debit Card (Philippine-issued card) using ATMs in Hong Kong because the conversion rate is better than in money changers.