hmmyum

This city is undoubtedly one of the best places in the world to eat.

Get a local taxi driver to recommend his favourite dish (in writing) and someone else to suggest the restaurant where you could order it (in writing!). In my case it turned out to be thinly sliced squid in mild chilis eaten at a restaurant in Wellington Street (Central), and this is what it could look like:

The friendly gentleman who helped me find Yung Kee also recommended I try a more local favourite for Dim Sum and pointed me to Jade Garden, where I found myself for breakfast on the 1st of May public holiday, which seemed to be the occasion for daughters and their mothers to eat together. I was surprised how little the daughters and mothers had to talk about - but soon focused on the excellent dumplings - highly recommended. The delicious looking mango pudding turned out to be less impressive - and I would recommend sticking to the buns instead! I went to the Causeway Bay branch, apparently the Central branch is more lively, but (that’s a negative thing?) also attracts more foreigners.

Find the little seafood restaurants in the non-glitzy (and non-seedy) part of Wan Chai. Follow Wan Chai Road until you cross Morrison Hill Road. Then check out the little alley ways to the left and right and find a place you like. It’s roughly here.

I stayed at the Charterhouse Hotel, which is on Wan Chai Road just before you get to Morrison Hill Road. It’s not the cheapest (and certainly not the most expensive) but quite a good mid-level option on Hong Kong island. My room on the 19th floor overlooked the race course, which was perfect.

There is a food guidebook for tourist that you can pick up at the airport. I tried a few places and they were all great - but the local cab driver just sneered at what he considered a marketing scam.

Cafe de Goldfinch (see this review, from tastytreats.wordpress.com which has more good hong kong recommendations) is worth a stop if you loved In the Mood for Love (which I did, although I preferred the earlier Fallen Angel, and Chungking Express). I thought the Western-Chinese-Style food was pretty bad, but it was packed with locals during lunch time …

When it comes to tea, you will find the best views and some reasonably prized variety at Sunsing Teahouse on the 32rd floor across from the Time Square shopping mall. However, to have an in-depth conversation about the thermal characteristics of tea pot clay, and taste some of the finest hand-picked teas around (including Chairman Mao’s), check out Ming Cha and try to get owner Vivian Mak to share her philosophy on tea with you.

I stumbled upon Ming Cha after dinner at Xi Yan Sweets, where I liked the oil paintings, the spicy Szechuan Dumplings, the great ice teas, and most of all, the amazingly light and creamy coconut desert. Incredible! If you are eating by yourself, the projections of Agnes B. artsy fashion videos onto the building across on the street can be entertaining.

Other stuff:

Take the Star Ferry as many times as possible. Go out of your way, delay your dinner, take detours - it’s worth it.

If you have time do the 48 hours of cinematic Hong Kong - a movie based itinerary of the city.

Visit the Happy Valley race course, both at night, when it is open to the public as an exercise space and you might watch office teams battle it out in football, and during the race days to watch some serious betting - people who bring years worth of research to determine the next certain winner. Flaming Lamborghini turned out to be more of a VW donkey and I had to walk home.

There is a budget cantine-style place in the IFC Mall building, which offers reasonably priced food with an incredible view of the water amidst the luxuriously soul-less shopping experience.

Google Maps has Hong Kong streets mapped including chinese characters!

A friend from China also recommended staying Eaton Hotel, which looks much fancier than the Charterhouse at a similar price, but seemed a little out of the way from the places I was most interested in. Another recommendation is Chungking Mansions, but probably more for the Wong Kar Wai connection than comfort or convenience, although the location on Nathan Road is good and close to the Star Ferry.

Ming Cha
8 Shipyard Lane 8C
Quarry Bay, Hong Kong
www.mingcha.com.hk
closes around 21h, but if you lurk outside they might still let you in

Cafe de Goldfinch
13-15 Lan Fong Road
Causeway Bay. Hong Kong
Tel: 25777981
best to go for lunch (12-15h)

Jade Garden
1 Hysan Ave
Causeway Bay
(tel. 852/2577 9332)
open daily from 7:30am to midnight.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am and is filed under dishes, general, places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.