Hong Kong 2012 - Chapter 3: Dinner at Hu Tong Restaurant on Day 2

3 February 2012

O.M.G. I have dined at a Michelin-starred restaurant and never even realised it!! *hyperventilating* Only found out when I was researching the menu of the restaurant that we went to for dinner on the second day of my Hong Kong company trip - Hu Tong （胡同）Restaurant located on the 28th floor of 1 Peking Road.

Our boss found out about this place from the hotel concierge and we went there without realising that it was quite famous for its harbourfront view~

The very understated signboard downstairs (I realised that Hong Kong isn't very easy to navigate for people who don't know chinese/cantonese, so glad that I know both!)

Saw this on the way to the restaurant... wonder when we'll get customised number plates in Malaysia @.@

My first thought when we first stepped into the restaurant was that it was too dark and dimly lit, the overall lighting was more like the left and right sides of the picture above.. The decor was very nice by the way, since Hutong means alleyway in chinese, there were many antique-looking items all over the place, even in the toilets!

This was taken in the toilet by the way.. super eerie right? The toilet was dark as well and they were playing the upbeat version of 我等着你回来 (the song from the Hutong website, if you want to know what its like) which is an eerie song even on its own.. luckily I didnt go in alone!! The doors and tap were very special though, the doors had no actual lock but a small wooden bar to prevent the doors from opening like those you see in ancient buildings and the tap was a strip of bamboo with water coming out when you pushed on a small bamboo knob, we spent a long time in the toilet admiring the surroundings, hahaha...

The table settings, see the super thick spoon? The heaviest spoon I've seen so far..

Appetiser was edamame beans and some kind of pickled vegetable~

Chilli Spiced Bamboo Clams 圣旨到
This tasted quite good but was rather garlicky..

Crabmeat and Turnip Rolls 白云卷

Prawns Fried with Chilli Green Peppers 尖椒虾
This was super yummy!!

Me staring into space while my colleague was testing the lighting on her camera :D

Beef Tenderloin Wok Fried with Scallion 果木烧牛
This was yummy too!!

Spicy Minced Pork with String Beans 干煸四季豆

Hutong's Spicy Fried Rice 胡同米饭
This was too spicy for almost all of us, they fried the rice using chilli oil, felt like my tongue was on fire XD

Crispy De-boned Lamb Ribs 京城羊肉
This is apparently a very famous dish of theirs, but it was a bit too strong tasting for our liking, in the end we had to cajole each other to finish the dish!

Sauce and garnishing for the ribs, had to put a lot of sauce to mask the strong taste of the lamb

Chinese Pancake with Yam Filling 土饼

Double Treasure Box a.k.a. jellies and mango in glutinous rice wrap @.@

Vegetable and Mushroom Noodles 峨嵋素面

We kept ordering as there is a minimum spending of (i think) HKD400 per person and we just couldn't eat enough to reach the minimum.. In the end, my boss ordered a bottle of wine to go since we were stuffed to the brim and nobody could eat any more..

After dinner, some of my colleagues caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel while the rest of us took the MTR to Ladies Market to soak in the atmosphere~

Me in my Topshop jacket which I only bought the day before we left for HK, it was on sale for only SGD39!! what a steal.. Luckily I bought it.. Hong Kong at night during the end of January/ beginning of February is quite cold, loved the weather there!

The brightly lit and busy street at night~

Street performance~

Finally got to try 鸡蛋仔 after seeing people in HK dramas eating it all the time! Tastes like crispy waffle and I quite like it.. There are all sorts of fillings you can choose to put in it too, but I chose the original one... Got this from a stall that was selling all the standard HK street fare like curry fishballs and stinky tofu, wish I could have more curry fishballs, but don't come near me with stinky tofu, I can't stand the smell, so don't ask me to put it in my mouth :P

We walked around Ladies Market until the stalls closed at 11pm, there was so much interesting things to see, and all of us ended up buying lots of little trinkets even though we all said that we didn't have anything to buy when we started O.o...

(our boss even bought herself a fake branded bag.. Oooo, didn't expect her to be using fakes~) We wanted to take the MTR back to our hotel, but I think my boss couldn't stand the thought of experiencing public transport again, so we all took a taxi back, I don't remember how much it cost since my boss paid, so we just savoured the experience, muahaha...

Hong Kong money is so colourful :):):)

After the harrowing experience on day 1, day 2 was a very satisfying day, since I managed to do some shopping and eat some food that cannot be missed while in HK.. ended the day with a nice long bath and watching k-pop music on cable tv while enjoying my super lovely room.. aaaahhhh.... We'd made plans to visit Central Hong Kong the next day, so stay tuned for chapter 4~ :)

Hong Kong 2012 - Chapter 2: Citygate Outlets & The Happy Train

Day 2 was probably the best day everyone had in Hong Kong since it was before all the 'drama' began~

We started our day early as we wanted to have breakfast at Kam Wah Cafe （金華冰廳), a well-known shop serving HK style food that was very conveniently located near our hotel :)

Outside our hotel bright and early~

A view of one of the streets, there are just so many things squeezed into a narrow street that I always don't know which way to look first @.@~

Case in point....

We were so early that most of the shops hadn't opened yet, this was obviously taken at Fa Yuen Street-translated as 'flower garden' street where they sell lots of flowers, there was also Goldfish Street, Watercress Street and Kangkung Street nearby :)

The very familiar looking 小巴 or small bus, they are so famous because they always appear in HK dramas.. hehe..

Kam Wah's breakfast sets~ $30 = SGD5

ham, sausages and eggs waiting for their partners to make up the can dan noodle combo (餐蛋面)

My almond milk.. It was a bit too diluted, too bad... I prefer the one from Old Tea Hut near my office~

菠萝包 (Bolo bao) and 菠萝油 (Bolo yau) - This is what Kam Wah is most famous for.. the difference between the 2 is that one has a big slab of butter and is more guilt-inducing than the other.. we wanted to try both but of course the one that makes you feel guiltier usually tastes better T_T

西多士 (Thick toast) - Filled with peanut butter and also served with a slab of butter, sweet and oily and everything unhealthy.. hahahha... since there were 6 of us, we split into 2 tables. On my side, we shared the 2 buns and the toast and were super full already.. The other table got 1 set of bun+tea each and also ordered the toast and ended up not being able to finish, hahaha..

Taking a ride on the MTR after breakfast~

We wanted to go to the Citygate outlets which is on Lantau Island, so since we were on Kowloon, we had to change trains at Lai King station to transfer to the Tung Chung Line. On the way there, we made a detour to Sham Shui Po as it has a lot of shops selling cheap clothes but we were too early and most of the shops were not open yet..

The street that the TVB drama Hidden Treasures (鴨寮街的金蛋) was based on :D

Arghhh, people rest for 11 days during chinese new year, I only had a measly 2 day-holiday T_T

We finally made it to Citygate and then we all went crazy!! :) the shops there have real good deals and lots of nice stuff available, not like the stores in Johor Premium Outlets. my colleagues all went crazy buying CK, DKNY, MNG, Coach, etc.. Esprit and Giordano are super affordable there too as they are HK brands..

Had a short break for lunch at the foodcourt.. I had Macau style baked rice since I didn't have a chance to visit Macau this time *wasted*

A small part of our loot~

On the way to Tung Chung, we passed Sunny Bay station, which is where you need to go to change to the train to Disneyland! During lunchtime, all of us, except one hardcore shopper colleague, decided to stop by Disneyland to take a look since the theme-park wasn't part of our itinerary.We only had about 1 hour before we had to go back to the hotel to meet our boss for dinner..

The way to a happy place where everyone becomes a kid again *guaranteed* (Ooops, suddenly realised I haven't blogged about my trip to Disneyland in Paris during my Europe trip in 2009 XD)

Just looking at the windows of the happy train was enough to get us all excited!!

The whole train was full of Disney decor, and all of us were so excited over every little detail that we were practically squealing, lol...The seats are U-shaped by the way, how cute is that...

Even the hand grips were Mickey shaped :)


At the entrance to Disneyland! It cost us a freaking HK$11.80 to go from Tung Chung to Disneyland, which is technically 2 stops.. usually 2 stops only costs about HK$2 @.@~


The very cute fountain~ The Mickey figure on top of the whale moves up and down together with the water, ingenious!

Mickey ears appearing all over the place~

Everyone just couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear :D

We went round the exterior, up to the part with the turnstiles where you can only enter after purchasing the pass.. Hmm, maybe next time I visit HK, I'll include Disneyland in the itinerary.. heard that HK Disneyland is quite small compared to the others tho, wonder it that's true...

Don't know why, but the sight of the train tracks from the link bridge seemed gorgeous to me @.@

All too soon it was 5pm and we had to meet go back to the hotel to drop off our shopping bags and get ready for dinner.. We stopped at Prince Edward station instead of Mongkok station this time and ended up having to race to our hotel after narrowly avoiding getting lost in the streets.. heh... Dinner was to be at a restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge where we would have a great view of the HK skyline while enjoying our dinner.. The restaurant we went to deserves a whole post to itself, so stay tuned~

PS: Big thank you to Giordano at Citygate for letting me steal your wi-fi connection .. *I was standing just outside the door for around 15 minutes just to use the line, lol*