Hong Kong Day 3

Today (26/8/08) was a perfect day. Out of all the days we were here, I enjoyed today the most because we had no appointments and no schedule. 6th Aunt will be operated on tomorrow, and she was in good spirits when we spoke on the phone. I made a wise decision not to race against time like I always do when I'm in HK, covering all the major malls. So I picked Festival Walk, a classy mall that is not overly high-end (although by Malaysian or Singapore standards it would be) or impossibly big. Festival Walk is located in Kowloon Tong, an upscale area. You get off at the Kowloon Tong MTR stop and the mall is upstairs.

Before we headed for Festival Walk, we ate at a restaurant (name to be provided later when somebody can decipher it for me) behind our hotel. We had no idea if they were good, and as it was early, 11 am, there were no crowds. Like most restaurants in HK, roasted meat like chickens, ducks, pork and GEESE are hung in the front window, calling all carnivorians in for a feast.

My lunch was this: roasted goose drumstick served with a sweet plum sauce and 'white cut chicken' (which is boiled chicken) served with oil-scalded ginger and spring onions sauce over a plate of rice, with some roasted meat gravy and blanched kai lan.

What can I say?? I use a point and shoot camera that allows some manual modes, nothing fancy like an SLR. But the picture says it all--that goose drumstick seems to call to me. If there's no roasted goose in heaven, I don't want to go there (not an original line I know, but you get the point).


Hub's choice of roasted goose drumsticks and crispy pork (which he found crispy but I found hard-crispy--I could hear the cracking in my head as I chewed on it) was just as good.

Those plates of ambrosia for ONLY HK$28/RM13/US$4 each!Who says HK is expensive?! As far as food is concerned, prices are just like those in KL and Singapore (in fact, you can't eat roasted goose rice for that price in both those cities) and I found many food items cheaper in HK than Singapore, which was recently rated 5th most expensive city in the world (by which study I'm not sure; I heard it from a friend in Singapore. Singaporeans are very kiasu about all their achievements--I guess this ranking is an achievement??). The prices of property is where HK 'tops' Singapore, because cost per sq ft of new upscale apartment space is HK$10,000+ (US$1,400) while in Singapore it is about S$1000+/sq ft (US$750).

To complete our roasted meat meal, we ordered a deep-fried pigeon. I was surprised by the size. It was nearly as big as our kampung chickens. Well, nearly.


Fried pigeon, HK$60/RM27/US$8.50.

The pigeon was big, meaty, moist, tender, sweet and of course, had that smoky wild pigeon flavor. So yummy! I was wishing my kids were there because I don't think they have eaten pigeons before. I considered seriously about cracking the bird's head to get at the brains, which is what we did as kids, but Hub was horrified so I thought I wouldn't spoil his image of me. Yet.

I have this thing for fried pigeons because my father used to rear some in our backyard. Once in a while we get enough 'spring' pigeons and Dad'd marinade the birds in sugar, brandy and dark soy sauce and deep-fry them and those meals were memorable!



Inside Festival Walk. This mall has major labels like Vivienne Tam (where I tried a beautiful crocheted shift dress and tried to convince Hub it was a good buy--even at half price it was nearly RM1000--by saying I could use it as a 'mother-of-the-bride dress' and he rolled his eyes), Max & Co, I Blues, all the major designer handbags stores, and even See's Candies (See's almond brittle was HK$380 per can! Crazy!).



At Kookai, I tried this white dress (I love white summery dresses) and Hub asked, "Sui yee??" (nightie). All sales girls lie, telling you how great you look in their clothes. If Hub had not secretly taken this picture, I'd not have known how silly I looked, and I am reminded again to pull my shoulders back and not slouch, and perhaps see Dr Lee for an arm liposuction. In the end, I bought other tops and skirts but not the dress even though it was very comfortable. At my age, I may very well be mistaken for a surrogate grandmother when I wear this. The whole fashion world is conspiring to make all women look 8 months pregnant! Give us back sexy clothes with waistlines!



Talking of sexy, HK school girls wear cute short skirts. In Malaysia, these girls would've been arrested by certain authorities. Notice their designer (school) bags.

After some shopping (and I was both happy and uneasy to have Hub along; we used to split ways in shopping malls but this trip he seemed to not have anything to buy), we got hungry again. I nearly wanted to eat at the classy Italian patisserie-restaurant Cova (remember my delightful meal at Cova, Paragon Singapore?) but thought we should try something different so we walked into Simply Life, at Shop L2-42. Now I was a little perplexed by the name--did they mean to say "Simple Life" or "Simply Live" or were they trying to sound like those weird incomprehensible Taiwan T-shirts slogans?





With the coffee, this portobello mushroom beef burger was only HK$42/RM19/US$6.



Hub's excellent choice of soft freshly-made bun with a thick, 'home-made' all-beef patty and slices of meaty portobellos, supplemented by very thick fries--what's there not to wax praises about? I never want to eat another McD burger!



My choice of bacon and egg sandwich could've been more satisfying if they had used a softer bread. Much as I like to pretend that I have continental tastes, I have to agree (with Ming, who hates hard dry bread) that baguettes are generally too chewy and hard and they tend to lacerate my mouth...



... was good that my sandwich came with a lovely ice-lemon tea for only HK$38/RM17/US$5.40. Btw, Simply Life serves everything on a wooden board. So clever, there's no need to wash.


Blueberry danish with creamy center, HK$14/RM6.40/US$2--fresh, soft, buttery pastry with a creamy custard and tarty-sweet blueberries and preserves. Ahhh..

To top off the simply (or simple?) yummy afternoon tea, we had a blueberry danish which even Hub, who's not into sweet pastries, was willing to raise his GI level for.

Note: My friend H just informed me that Simply Life is owned by Maxim (thus the broken English), that HK cake bakery you see in all the subway stations. Despite that humble connection, I still think Simply Life's food is very good and the prices are very reasonable. Who says HK is expensive? For the same quality, Singapore is wayyyy more expensive.