Hong Kong 2006: First 24 Hours

A lot of people who travel to Hong Kong come to shop. I came to do one thing only - eat massive amounts of really good food.

For breakfast, we headed around the corner from our hostel to Happy Garden Noodle & Congee Kitchen. This restaurant quickly became one of our favorite spots. It's fast, friendly, clean, and cheap!

Hong Kong has a population of nearly 7 million people. When you're in a city where the population is so dense, you learn to share the same space. In a busy restaurant like Happy Garden Noodle & Congee Kitchen, you are expected to share a table or booth with other strangers. For most travelers, this might seem uncomfortable at first. There are a few Chinese restaurants in NYC that seat their customers this way. I grew up eating in these restaurants so I am completely used to it.

Restaurant etiquette: When you are ready to order, don't expect a waiter to come over to you. You have to be aggressive and call for their attention.

Here are a few samples of some of the dishes we had during our entire stay in Hong Kong.


1. Egg Noodles in Broth with Shrimp Wontons - Less than $3 USD. Holy moly, what a bargain! They didn't skimp on the shrimp either. Most shrimp wontons have a minced shrimp filling inside but these wontons were stuffed with three whole pieces of shrimp.
2 & 3. Beef with Ginger and Scallions over Dry Noodles, Soup on the side - The ginger and scallions were amazingly fresh. This dish is a good alternative when you don't want soup. Oyster Sauce and Chinese Broccoli are on the side. I like to mix everything together so that the flavors are well incorporated before diving in.
4. Congee - This is a classic Chinese breakfast dish. It's white rice cooked over a very long period of time. Salt pork and ginger is used to add flavor to the dish while cooking. When served, it's garnished with shredded scallions and roasted peanuts.
5. Rice Rolls with Shrimp - A classic Dim Sum dish. Three large pieces of shrimp are encased in steamed rice rolls, drizzled with soy sauce. I used to eat this everyday for breakfast in NYC Chinatown. Memories, at the corner of my mind...
6. Braised Pork over Rice - We walked in one afternoon and noticed that more than half of their customers were eating this dish. It was a packed house! When we asked a waitress what the name of the dish was, she told us that it was a house specialty and that it was not listed on their menu. To make matters more complicated, this dish was also available only during lunch hours or until supplies run out. I'm a big fan of braised meat dishes. This one was no exception. The pork was tender, juicy, and super flavorful. If you don't mind picking out the bones while eating this dish, it's well worth the trouble.

After breakfast, we immediately headed over to a mall across the street to meet up with our friends Judy and Vivian for dim sum. I wasn't kidding when I said that this trip was all about food.



We had dim sum at Super Star Seafood Restaurant. Many people consider it to be one of Hong Kong's top Cantonese restaurants. I was hoping to get my mind blown but I though that their dim sum was just slightly above average. Because they didn't have an English menu or dim sum carts, we had to order by memory. Luckily for all of us, we were all pretty familiar with a typical dim sum menu. I had a feeling that we might have ordered the wrong dishes. They had a line of cooks on the side in the front section of the restaurant, throwing fresh ingredients together right before your eyes. Since we were seated in the back, we missed out on a lot of great dishes. Here is a sample of some of the dishes we ordered.


1. Steamed Rice Noodles smothered in Brown Sauce with Chili Dipping Sauce.
2. Steamed Shrimp Dumplings (Three Varieties) - This is probably the best presentation I've ever seen for shrimp dumplings.
3. Crispy Roast Pork - One of my all time favorites.
4. Fried Turnip Cake and Crispy Shrimp Rice Roll - The Turnip Cake was cold and didn't include Oyster Sauce that is usually served on the side. Maybe this is a Chinese-American thing? On the other hand, the Crispy Shrimp Rice Roll was friggin' outstanding! Minced shrimp is stuffed in a crispy dough and wrapped in a steamed rice sheet. It was awesome.
5. Classic Steamed Shrimp Dumplings.
6. Shumai
7. Hot Soft Tofu Dessert with Ginger and Simple Syrup - My all-time favorite dessert.
8. Mango Custard Dessert

But, wait! The eating does not stop here. We headed over to Hui Lau Shan, a local dessert chain for more dessert!


1. Take out counter.
2. Interiors
3. Kitchen.

This dessert chain specializes in mango desserts. My friend Rona kept on raving about it. I thought, "I like mango but how good can it be?" Holy moly. I wish they had this in the states. I'd choose this over Jamba Juice any day.


Glutinous Rice Balls in Mango Juice with Extra Mango

I was about ready to explode. We decided to head on over to the new IFC building to meet up with one of Vivian's friends, Jimmy, who worked on the 42nd floor. He told us that there was a spectacular 360 degree view from up there, even better than Victoria Peak.


The weather was amazingly clear this day. The air quality in Hong Kong is usually bad and smoggy but on this day it was absolutely perfect. What luck!


To the left is the famous Bank of China building. At night, the building lights up with animated geometric patterns.

One of the things that stood out to me about Hong Kong was all the bamboo scaffolding on construction sites.


The scaffolding is entirely made up of bamboo sticks and plastic ties. They cover entire buildings of this stuff. It blows my mind!



In the evening, we met up with one of Rona's best friends, Jone. We drove up to Victoria Peak to see the view while he ate a McDonald's dinner. Ha! Ha! The view from the decks were crowded with tourists, so Jone took us through a hidden hiking trail to experience the view in peace.



For dinner, we went to another friend's apartment for a hot pot dinner. They had purchased all the ingredients from a local supermarket. I had totally forgotten to take pictures of our meal because I was completely overwhelmed by the freshness of the ingredients. We had whole shrimp, fish balls, crab roe balls, sliced beef and a ton of veggies (which everyone forgot about). The crab roe balls were so awesome. They were so rich in flavor. I could cry just thinking about it. I'll never find this in the states.

To cap off the evening, Jone took us to a tiny local dessert shop. I was about ready to burst from all of the day's eating. Still, I could not help myself. I had to try everything.


1. Jung and Rona in front of the dessert shop.
2. Mango with Tapioca pearls (left) and Hot Papaya Soup (right) - The Papaya Soup was nothing like I've ever tasted before. It didn't taste like papaya at all but more like a winter melon. I'm not a big fan of papaya but I really loved this soup.

It was 11am when we got back to our hostel. I couldn't believe that we experienced all of this on our first day. If only I could live like this everyday. I'd do it in a second, if I had the money.

Next up: Shopping in Hong Kong.