Hunger by the Harbour: HIP Katsu @ Harbour City.

After travelling all about Mongkok following the guide book, my sister and I finally decided its time to do something not visiting.  While my parents headed back to the hotel to get some rest, my sister and I headed over to Harbour City to do more shopping :D!  Pretty happy with my shopping bag although I only spent about 25% of what I would have like to spend during my trip to HK.  Tommy Hilfigher was having some pretty sick sales as well as Polo By Ralph Lauren, hmm some really premium brands like Seven for All Mankind were having sales as well. Hmm I think Diesel was on sale as well.  Sister got a pair of jeans from there.  The jeans at Sevens were rather disappointing considering the promotion the media gives it.  Saw a guy trying on a pair of Sevens which were disgustingly similar to what Obama wore in some event that gave him bad publicity the next day as the press compared the jeans to “granny pants” ahah.  Along the way we also stopped by a massive I.T shop in Tsim Sha Tsui where I was looking at the clothes that they had. NBHD is a whopping 5000 HKD a pair. 1 word, SICK.  But I like my jeans raw untouched unworn untorn.  So yeah, I’m gonna get more Nudies! We were famished and the stores started to shut their doors about 8.  With my sister close to hitting her gastric limit, we were careful to have something asap.  There aren’t many food stall in the mall and one of it was HIP Katsu.  We got a number and waited for awhile before being guided by the captain to our seats. (that’s after me questioning why the waiting numbers are rolling back! Bitch!)

I was takened back by the prices on the menu really.  A bloody katsu for 130HKD? ohh ok @@ Its like 20+ aud Or 65 ringgit.  Damn!!  Luckily there was this other set menu which seems fairly prices @ 150HKD per person!  Not sure whether to consider ourselves lucky or not but yeah, take a look;

For starters, Miso, pickled radish, Chawan Mushi, and salad.

After that our mains took about 20-30 minutes to come so I waited an got myself a few more pictures!

The chef carefully preparing the crepes

And from our seats at the bar we had some view which was nothing to shout a bout for sure.

The view of Central.  These are the few picture worth noticing ahah.

And jeng jeng jeng, the food started pouring in one by one;

Thinly sliced beef with udon in Japanese Curry soup base.  I liked this because it tasted good but there wasn’t really a “wow” factor in this.

If presentation was everything, then this tasting platter of the menu really quite makes the mark. Its well presented, everything looks so neat on one plate.

Upon closer inspection:

I just love scallops.  Have a scallop with a small slice of mushroom and celery. Wow really nice aha.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for scallops ahha

Baked Oyster was well errr ahah ONE TO EACH OWN. I personally don’t like this fancy shell thingyy.  But I did scoop the cheese of the oyster.  When I asked my sister how did it taste, she said “OK”.  So then I kindly offered her the oyster and she said “Just because I said it was OK doesn’t mean I like it”. HAAHAHAHA fakkkkkkkkk

Lastly was this crispy pork from the USA. You heard me people the USA.  That is why this whole HIP Katsu thing is so pricy. But I have to be honest, I don’t like the USA.  They f*ck up the Reds, the World Economy, the Harmony, err what else did they NOT f*ck up?

Dessert was jelly with red bean paste.  Quite nice even though it was a bit too sweet!

All in all my dining experience here was nothing to shout about.  If this restaurant was supposed to specialise in serving Katsu as its name suggests, then I have to insist that this place is a failure.  Akira-san @ Kanta does his katsu at half the price, and doube the serving.

I’d go back to Kanta anytime rather than this place.

WenY

HK Trip Pt. 4: Olden day treasure preserved!

This is the next post which continues to narrate my trip to HK during Christmas!  It’s been four days since I first touch down and it feels that my time here is shortening.  But that is no illusion as I’m only 3 days from heading back to Malaysia and later, back to Australia.  Oh the reluctance is such a common feel..!!!

Breakfast was the Western Buffet served by the hotel but my sister was so ever diffident in eating the hotel food so she slept in until it was about 11 a.m.  We woke her up and headed to one of the small Chinese Coffee shop for a light meal.

 

Some dumplings!

Glutinous rice wrapped with lotus leaf.  It had a real fancy name in Chinese which translates into something like “multiple layered king wrapped glutinous rice” which really suits it once you’re tucked into the rice.  You get chicken wings, waxed meat, minced meat, sliced meat and oh my gawd the variety is amazing!

Mom wasn’t feeling very well that day.  Not sure whether she ate or not.  I think this noodle soup with fish ball is hers.  The food in this place is really cheap and good at the same time.  Good bang per buck!

After that we decided once and for all the be obedient and follow the tour book to visit the nearby tourist attractions in Mongkok.  We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves and go to far since mom had gastric flu.  The weather dipped to the low tens in the middle of our trip in HK.  Mom probably wasn’t ready to deal with the cold!  We headed to this very popular temple which was supposed to have been here for AGES.  O well at least it claims to be so.

I only got a picture of the outside because there was this large sign which says no one can miss saying NO TAKING PHOTOS! Suckerrssss! But my sister smartly placed her Iphone as if sms-ing to then take a couple of shots. Should be on Facebook.

After that I saw something which made me very happy despite all the gloom in the atmosphere!! :D

Now this doesn’t make much sense does it? It just some shop lot for goodness sake.  Not when you look into its current history.  This building hosts a two-story cafe called  Mido Cafe.   Why is this place cool? Well I took this from TIME  “much beloved by art directors for its well preserved '60s interior”!  This place is often featured in movies and dramas ;-)

How it looks inside:

 

Look at the tiles, look at the windows, look at the sits.  It all looks too familiar when I cross the images with the TVB dramas ahah.

 
 

After snooping all around Mongkok, it was time to chill and it was raining anyways.  We couldn’t really go anywhere!

Oh yea babehhh! You know you want one.  It’s all over the place and it’s all so yummy! Never gotten so addicted to this drink in Perth.  But I seem to get addicted depending on the culture I’m in.  Like how I downed coconuts in Bangkok. That was love.  And it was delish!

Lovely French toast which differs significantly from the other ones I had around HK, Msia and Perth.  This was plain egg whipped into a fluffy liquid before having bread dipped in it and kadoooooooooooosh! Boiling oil.  No peanut butter in this one.  Yet it was yummi-licious!

After having chilled for an hour or so, the weather settled down and we headed off to the jade market which was super dull.  Nothing to see at all :S! And later on we walked about some market in Mongkok. 

Night time to be blogged @ some other time!  Too tired already!

Regards,

WenY

HK Trip Pt. 3: The Buddha.

After having used more than half the day wait and eat the best dim sum in HK, the trip continues again.  Today’s plan was to go to Ngong Ping to see the Big Buddha statue.  To get there was pretty damn tedious.  Had to take MRT all the way to central before switching to the  Tung Chung  line.  I think the trip to reach the end of the line was about 30-40 minutes already! But when we reached, jeng jeng jeng! Got one really big shopping mall right in front of us.  It turned out to be the place where the direct factory outlets were.  They were having massive sales. 

Anyways, from there we took a cable car which cost $107 for a return trip.  If you’d ask me I would have to say that the money paid was well spent!  The cable car isn’t as scary as the one in Genting where you can feel uneven change of speed and altitude.

The cable car journey to the tourism settlement located at the foothill of the big Buddha took us about 25 minutes.  The place had a nice old China Town feel you would get when you see those olden day TVB dramas.  But with closer attention to detail, you would realise it really isn’t so old skool after all.  They had Starbucks and Euro Restaurant. @@!  We didn’t get to chill at any of the cafe’s because we were a bit short on time.  We reached the place @ 4pm and the last cable car back to Central was @ 6.30!  We quickly climbed up the err 200 steps of stair which I saw m both the fat and fit looking people struggle to get up there.  What’s wrong with you people lol.  I’m supposed to be the fat one ahah.  But the flight of stairs was a breeze.  Smoked it without much effort.

Talk to the HAND!

Mom was quite happy to be there since she’s a fairly religious person.  Wonder how did she manage to bring up 2 very unreligious kids. ahahah.  We spend half an hour walking about the Buddha said our prayers because mom asked us to.  But oh well, with 2010 around the corner I believe we all have many things to ask for!  After that we headed back down.

Bye bye Mr Buddha!! :D

After we got down we weren’t ready to go home yet!! We stopped for dessert;

Yumm! Tau Fu Fa ahha.  In Hong Kong they have a small tub of orange powder which turns out to be sugar.  You can just add it to you soy bean thingyyy if it isn’t sweet enough.  Quite yummy even though I dislike the ginger syrup @@!

Snacksssssss! Just some sausages ahah.  I also had curry fish balls again. Oh shit seems like all the pictures are in wide mode @@ Forgot to change it back to the normal mode dammit!

On the way back.  Couldn’t get a decent shot with the insane wind rocking the cable car on the way home :(! And of course with the poor lighting, a hell of a lot more exposure is required. 

Dinner @ the mall was the a Teppanyaki place.  It was ok-ok only.  But definitely better than all those Teppanyaki fast-food outlet in Malaysia! I sooooo remember the bad experience I had at Mr Teppanyaki @ Sunway Pyramid where the food was gawddd! So disappointing!! Not to mention the horrible one located in the KLCC foodcourt! All so fail ahahah.  Every since those bad experience I would try to abstain from feasting on non-buffet Teppanyaki.  Truth to be said, Teppanyaki isn’t difficult! It’s just stir fried meat on a hot plate omg.  I think it is more of the cook’s attitude that made previous experience shitty.  The total “lack of interest + I’m getting paid RM5 an hour so shaddup.” Blehhhhh!

In the process of being cooked!

Felt super healthy that day.  Had this whole heap of bean sprouts + another heap of green vegetables!

After that sister and I went shopping but we didn’t buy anything because hmm we were feeling a bit undecided.  And since most outlets were DFOs, you can expect the clothes to be very messy with a night market kind of crowd.  A bit too insane for my liking!  About 10 something I went back to Mongkok to get some rest.  All the walking was getting into me already! But of course before sleeping sister and I got on the streets to pick up some supper lol.

PS: YESSSS ITS THE WEEKENDS, BACK IN PERTH AGAIN  :D!!!

Wen