优玩 Bespoke Traveller: Missing Hong Kong (27-30 Nov 2014)- Day1

Day 1 (27 Nov 2014)

Had not been to Hong Kong the whole of this year and was eagerly looking forward to the short getaway.

We reached HK in the wee hours and had lots of time on hand after depositing our luggage with the concierge. We abided by our plan and did all our "heavy" shopping on the 1^st day, shuttling between kowloon and hongkong several times since we bought the excellent 3-day value pack (HK$220 Airport Express Travel Pass) with unlimited MTR rides and a 1-way airport express trip (HK$300 with 2-way Airport Express). U can get a refund of HK$50 at the customer service counter after 3 continuous days of usage or you can top up and continue to use it like a normal Octopus card. If you wish to get the HK$50 refund you must do it within 3 months. If you visit Hong Kong often, you can keep the stored-value card for future use

The very first thing we did was to sprint to Sham Shui Po 深水埗. Between the 3 of us, we had some 10 different dim sum dishes at the 1 Michelin-star Dim Sum restaurant Tim Hou Wan 添好运and the total bill was only S$26 or S$8.65each!

After refueling, I had a very fruitful day stocking up on my dried seafood supplies from Hung Shing 红城 and savoury snacks from 么风 (Yiu Fong) in Causeway Bay 铜蘿湾and even had an unplanned but ultra happy purchase of a jacket, and the supposedly best century eggs and salted egg yolks from a famous but nondescript shop 顺兴行 in Sheung Wan 上环

The hauls back to the hotel totalled >6kg!!! The only disappointment was with the famous mango dessert eatery Hoi Lau Shan (许留山). We checked out 4 different outlets in Causeway Bay and after more than an hour, and very late at almost 1pm then did we manage to step into one outlet. So much have changed, especially the menu and the quality of the dessert. The price has gone up by some 20% since my last visit >1 year ago but the quantity remains the same and the quality, below par. I can now bid goodbye to one of my favourite dessert stalls in HK and have room for the other sumptuous desserts that are readily available throughout the country.

Ended the day very early after an early dinner (6pm) at a tzechar stall 强记鸡粥 in Tai Wai 大圍in the New Territories. We had the very succulent and tasty grilled pigeon, silky smooth chicken porridge, fragrant fried noodles, fried rommaine lettuce with loads of garlic and braised razor clams. By the time we were on our way back to the hotel, we were all walking like zombies having been deprived of sleep for 37 hours! I was asleep by 9pm and had a good 10-hour sleep!