48 Hours In Hong Kong (Part 2)

What did we do after all the walking and shopping in Hong Kong? Of course we need to replenish our energy with some food right? When we are in a foreign land, we must try the local food. The street food in Hong Kong was so good that we kept going back for more. 

These were some of the food we tried and loved. There's stinky toufu (臭豆腐) , eggettes (ji dan zai), grilled squids, HK fishballs (魚蛋), hotdog wrapped with bacon and many more.

In Hong Kong, we also tried various types of roast meat. Its really yummy~~

We tried to eat at one of the local eateries along the street. Since we are clueless which one was good, we randomly chose one that was quite crowded. Hb ordered the congee with lotus leaf glutinous rice and he commented that normally he don't like to eat lotus leaf glutinous rice but this one was real good. I had my pork chop noodles "gong zai mian", its basically instant noodle with pork chop and a fried egg.

We actually tried one of those "zhi char" stalls along the Ladies Market. It was a bad choice, we ordered the praying mantis shrimps and the quality was not fresh. The stir-fry vegetables too oily and salty. The only consolation part was the claypot rice was yummy and the beer was very nice :)

Of course, I got to try my favourite "lao po beng"!

48 Hours in Hong Kong (Part 1)

We went a very short business trip to HK over the weekend and at the same time was trying to remind myself not be too ambitious to do "so much" over there. The last time I came to HK was almost 30 years ago with my mom and I was pretty excited about this short trip. Not so much on retail therapy but actually to spend some quality time with hb since this was the 1st time we were travelling together without the kids...wahahaha! I did my own research on the Internet beforehand but realised that we did not have much time to venture around so basically we will just roam around free and easy.

With my half past six Cantonese language, we managed to eat and shop like locals. Learning to bargain like a local took me some practice and glad we managed to buy stuff that the children will like. Don't fret if you can't speak even a bit of Cantonese, most of them are well versed in Mandarin & English (for younger generation). 

We took a budget airline to HK

We were pretty clueless what train tickets we should buy, after looking at the machine for about 5 minutes, we gave up! We proceeded to the MTR information counter to purchase directly.

There's a list of tourist attractions on the various MTR stations stated on the board. At least you will now what you are expecting to see if you alight at these individual station.

We purchase a "group of 2" ticket from Airport to Tsing Yi Station. Then we need to buy tickets to take from Tsing Yi station (in between transit at Lai King station) to Yau Ma Tei station which was very near to the hotel we stayed.

The MTR system is pretty much the same as our MRT system in Singapore. The map is very user friendly and after a while we pretty much know how to get around on foot or by MTR.

We spent quite a bit of time at the ToyMart looking for toys. I reckon this will be a toys haven for toy collectors.

It is located at CTMA Centre, 1N Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok, Kowloon.

Knowing YS loves to collect toy figurines, I managed to buy an Iron Man figurine from Hot Toys (name of the shop) and that series of figurines were solely designed by them.

Due to the lack of time,we could not check out many places. In the end we decided to take an hour ferry ride from the Star Ferry's Harbour Tour. We paid HK$90 per person and inclusive of refreshment on board the ferry.

Interior of the ferry quite warm and cosy

During night time, we walked to the Temple Street & Ladies Market for more shopping. Basically, its something similar to the bugis street in Singapore or Chee Cheong Kai in KL. Most of the stalls were selling similar items and be prepared use your bargaining skills to bargain for the best prices.

There is a street solely for street buskers to perform along the stretch of road.

Why am I putting a picture of the lift panel here? Ah...good question!

People in HK can be quite "pantang" (superstitious), can you see what numbers are missing from the lift panel? >_<

On the 2nd part on our HK trip, I will share what local food we tried. Please do not expect any fancy restaurants or michelin star restaurants coz we are trying to eat like locals there, lols!

DC Comics Super Heroes Cafe

We brought the kids to MBS for a skating session on YS's birthday. You know...after a great workout and everyone was feeling so hungry. We chanced upon this cafe full of super heroes characters and were enticed to go in to take a look. The cafe was located just beside their retail outlet and so we decided to have our dinner there.

There was a short queue and we waited quite a while to get a seat. I'm not sure if the timing was a bit late but most of the food we wanted to order were not available. Anyway, we ordered what was available and waited quite a while for our food to arrive.

Everything in this cafe including the food menu is related to DC Comics. We were seated at the Wonder Woman section :)

The Dynamic Duo's Double Choc Craack!

A very sweet drink but the kids loved it.

Aquaman's Fish & Chips. Just fish and chips lah! Pretty normal...nothing to elaborate on.

Batman's Dark Knight. My boy gave a thumb up for this burger. There's wagyu beef with grilled portobello mushrooms, vege and cheese.

Superman Has Gone Bizarro For Bolognaise. Linguine with minced wagyu beef and bolognaise sauce. I reckoned the beef made everything nicer.

I forgotten to take a picture of another main course coz we were so famished...lols! I would not say the food was super fantastic but still acceptable in my opinion.

DC COMICS SUPER HEROES CAFE

2 Bayfront Avenue 

#01-03/04/05 Marina Bay Sands

Singapore 018956

September Is Over

September just gone in a flash!

The 1 week school holiday was over and haze took over, wondering when this haze problem will start to improve. So many people are panicking over the PSI level everyday, N95 masks and air purifiers are selling like hot cakes now. Our life still goes on whether the haze is good or bad.

I finally moved my butt to put up some of the kids' artworks (which they have done in the past), there are still a whole lot which I'm still keeping. At least, their artworks brightened up the boring corner of our white wall. 

We have been making full use of our 6 months USS passes for the past few months. We managed to go there during one of the better haze free day and we had so much fun due to lesser crowd.

We celebrated Mid-Autumn festival the same day following after our USS outing. This was the first time they tried the old school lanterns with real candles inside (no weird music). We had fun walking around our estate with those lanterns.

It was a month which I tried to be more adventurous and prepared some food for the family.

We also made some last minute decision to change the childcare for Junior YS. I think this decision will be good for him and good on our wallets..lols! I should have made this decision ages ago. Hope he will enjoy and learns more in a new environment.