We woke up this morning to pouring rain. Thankfully the weather had only started to take a turn for the worst during the last leg of our trip. My dad was feeling a bit lazy to venture out so my mom and I decided to brave the weather and walk around to find breakfast.
After walking ten minutes through torrential downpour and huge puddles that went up to my knees (I'm short, okay?), I never felt more relieved to arrive at the restaurant. We had decided on a place closeby called Sea View Congee Shop.
Nothing warms you up quite like a bowl of steaming hot congee. Looking back, it was actually one of my favourite meals of the whole trip! (Probably because it was an ordeal to get there.) We also got a side of youtiao (Chinese long doughnut) and ja leung (Chinese long doughnut wrapped with steamed rice roll).
When we were finished, we packed up the leftovers and ordered another congee bowl for my dad. We were thinking of taking a taxi back to the hotel but thankfully the rain had stopped by then.
After changing out of our wet clothes and waiting for my dad to finish breakfast, we officially started our day on the MTR to Causeway Bay.
Causeway Bay (CWB) is another bustling area of Hong Kong, famous for its shopping. It was here that we had our first sighting of the Hong Kong trams, otherwise known as "ding dings" to locals.
Not counting the multiple trips to Uniqlo and Muji stores, I actually didn't go too crazy with the shopping in Hong Kong (surprisingly). Although you could easily spend the whole day in CWB, we ended up only going to SOGO department store and Hysan Place.
I swear I didn't even plan it but we stumbled upon a small Hello Kitty cafe in Hysan! It wasn't quite open when we found it but looking at their menu, they served mainly desserts.
Giant gold statue of Rilakkuma anyone? Must be nice to have this much disposable income.
On the household goods floor in SOGO. I found it hilarious that there was so many makes and models of rice cookers. You know you're in Asia when ...
For lunch, I thought it would be nice to take a break from Chinese food. That is why we ended up at kikusan, a Japanese fusion restaurant in Hysan Place.
Considering the decor of the restaurant and how Japanese cuisine is typically on the expensive side, everything was quite reasonably priced. The item that seemed to have the most value for money (ingredient wise) was their signature kikusan roll ($68 HKD = ~$11.50 CAD). The base was a simple cucumber maki, but they layer on minced fatty tuna, sea urchin, and salmon roe.
Assorted sashimi -- salmon, red tuna, scallop, yellowtail, and sweet shrimp. Quite fresh and beautifully arranged.
The shrimp tempura was also decent with a light crispy batter. Instead of individual vegetables, it also came with a tempura fritter of sorts, a mish mash of different julienned vegetables.
Another signature dish of theirs is the chili sesame & peanut soup ramen with minced pork and layered pork cutlet ($72 HKD = ~$12.18 CAD). The soup had a good kick to it, especially after mixing the chili oil in. It was also my first time seeing tonkatsu prepared in such a unique fashion. Unfortunately serving it right in the bowl made it a bit soggy.
Apparently our initial order wasn't enough to fill up my dad, so we tacked on a few of their grilled skewers. The pork belly skewer was understandably fatty, with a simple seasoning and a light char.
Our last item was yakitori. Chicken skewers basted with teriyaki sauce. Simple but always delicious.
As we were preparing to leave after lunch, we happened upon an event taking place in the mall. A few celebrities were there promoting some sort of virtual reality game. We had no idea who these people were but after a quick Google search, we found out later that one of celebrities was Fred Cheng, who is a Canadian-born actor and singer. He seemed to have the biggest fan base there, as evidenced by all the people donning red shirts.
Our last CWB destination before we called it quits was Elephant Grounds located in Fashion Walk. Elephant Grounds is a popular cafe chain with six locations across Hong Kong. It's a pretty cool (ie. very hipster) spot that serves an extensive food menu along with coffee and other drinks. They're also quite known for their ice cream. We got two flavours to try -- Thai iced tea and Japanese taro. I really liked how all of their ice cream flavours came with their own unique topping or garnish. There was candied ginger for the Thai iced tea and a taro chip for the Japanese taro. Although the ice cream was a bit icy, the flavours were strong. We all agreed that taro was our favourite.
For dinner later on that evening, we actually had plans to meet up with one of my parents' friends. She decided to bring us to Tai Fung Lau Peking Restaurant located in Tsim Sha Tsui. The restaurant is definitely old-school but quite popular with the locals. They had lots of large tables with quite a few groups celebrating birthdays or other special occasions. The restaurant serves northern Chinese dishes and is famous for their Peking duck.
When people ask me what my favourite food is, it's hard to give them an answer because the list is just too long. But I will say that Peking duck is definitely up there.
Crispy duck skin + thinly sliced vegetables + (a generous amount of) Hoisin sauce, all wrapped up in a thin pancake. It's perfection in a bite really. The only thing I didn't like about the Peking duck at this restaurant were the wraps. They were made in-house but they were a bit too thick and tasted like uncooked flour.
Can't go wrong with dumplings of any kind! These were filled with pork and simply boiled.
I'm not very familiar with northern Chinese cuisine, so I have no idea what the other dishes were. I'll try to describe them anyways. The first one was a cold appetizer with sliced cucumber and jelly-like noodles. The other two in the back were meat dishes. The left dish was a saucy ragu topped with egg white and the other was a simple stir-fry.
We were stuffed to the brim and ready to roll ourselves home, but we were each given a sweet bean paste filled donut at the end.
With dessert, you don't have to ask me twice.
- CT
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