Food, Lifestyle, Travel

Hong Kong Food Trip Day 1

06/25/2015

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Some who follow me on my instagram (@maxieissuper) would know that I recently went to Hong Kong. Hong Kong used to be such a popular shopping destination for Filipinos because of brands such as H&M, Pull and Bear being unavailable in the country. But these brands have been setting up shops in Manila over the past few years which is why Hong Kong to me has ceased to be a shopping destination. But since Hong Kong was once a British colony, it has accumulated a wide mix of various cultures. I find that parts of it are so hard core Chinese while other parts are so beautifully influenced by Western culture. I say this because of the endless traditional/local and modern restaurants available all over Hong Kong. I really had a difficult time trying to balance Cantonese food and modern/fusion restaurants but I did my best, given the time constraint. Here’s a photo diary of everything we ate!

Hing Fat

This restaurant was actually located right outside our hotel! We had nowhere to eat because we had a very early flight so we went ahead and tried it out. To be honest, this wouldn’t be the best first meal to have in Hong Kong. Everything was just so-so.

Salted egg custard bun

This was interesting. The only thing I enjoyed.

My favorite dimsum in the world, Hakaw. This looks so pretty but it didn’t taste as good as it looked.

Asado Roll.. The roll was too thick.

Roast duck.. Wasn’t very tasty.. literally! It’s as boring as this description.

Overall: I wouldn’t return. It was an edible meal but far from satisfying.

Rating: 2/5

Reservations: no need

Adress: G/F, 8 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

How to get there: Exit L5, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station

Takomaru at City Super Food Court

Having my favorite takoyaki as the first thing I eat in the City Super food court at Harbour Square has always been a tradition for me. This time, it would be the second thing I ate on my HK trip but it’s fine.

Overall: These pretty balls are the reason why the only takoyaki I can eat in MLA is from Hana at Little Tokyo. Because everything else fails in comparison. But, I haven’t actually had my taste of authentic takoyaki so I’ll have to wait for a few weeks ’til my trip to Japan and finally try authentic Takoyaki. My impression on these MIGHT (but hopefully not) change by then.

Rating: 4/5

Address: Shop 3001, 3/F, cookedDeli by city’super, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Godiva

This Godiva soft serve has graced my Instagram feed more than a million times already, it’s reached Iconic-Instagram-shot level on my books. I knew I had to try it. I can’t remember the exact price but I found it quite expensive for a soft serve. It’s a good thing that it tasted as good as it looked! I went for just dark chocolate soft serve vs the vanilla-dark chocolate soft serve because I wanted to get my money’s worth! Haha. It was very rich and I loved the chocolate on the edge of the cone. It was a delight to nibble on.

Overall: It was worth the try but it didn’t also change my life so I probably won’t return because I know that there are still a million other places to try in HK! But I think everyone should try it once in their life.

Rating: 3.5/5

Address: Shop 3222, 3/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Spring Deer

I discovered this restaurant from Leslie of Shoot First Eat Later but was convinced to go by my friend, Nats. I asked our hotel receptionist to help us get a reservation and he told me that he thought it would be impossible for us to eat there for dinner but he tried calling anyway. He called around 7:25pm. We were fortunate enough to have had a chance to dine at Spring Deer given that we arrive there before 7:45pm! It was a good thing that it’s only located a few minutes away from our hotel. I was so excited.

Some steamed white chicken soaked in Chinese wine served cold. The oldies liked it.

Super fresh veggies. Is the bok choi or pechai? I’m not sure…. I’m not the biggest fan of veggies. Hehe.

I was told that we absolutely had to order the pecking duck, and so we did!

The skin and meat were very succulent and tasty. I approve!!

But I did not like the very thick, homemade wrapper. My mom said that I was already used to the Filipino-Cantonese style of pecking duck which used thinner wrappers while Spring Deer uses authentic wrappers. Fine, I’ll take it. The oldies, again, enjoyed it a lot. We also had some lettuce for the minced duck. However, the minced duck had a lot of celery bits which I did not like so I only consumed one lettuce wrap.

Overall: The dinner was satisfactory for me but the oldies (Mom, Dad, Grandma) all seemed to enjoy it. I would still go back though, to try the different dishes they offer. The place was packed and I was able to see different delicious-looking dishes!

Rating: 3.5/5

Address: 1/F, 42 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

How to get there: 1-min walk from Exit P3, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station

Some random snaps

Lab Made

While doing research for my foodtinerary, I came across Lab Made a couple of times but did not get the impression that it was worth trying. But I chanced upon a small store located near The One Mall and I just knew that I had to try it. A lot of the flavors were sold out by the time we arrived (9:45-10:00pm). I tried the most interesting one that was available: Salted Caramel.

To be honest, I was already sick of salted caramel but Lab Made was defintely able to make it interesting because of the cinnamon-sugar (oops, I’m not so sure if it was just sugar or cinnamon sugar.. feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken) coated honey stars! The consistency was so silky and creamy. I was going home happy. :)