Taipei

Taipei MTR Station


Why is the fire extinguisher on the floor? In fact, they're all on the floor all over taiwan.





Ticketing Machine


Billboards








Spot the difference.


Wi-Fly??



Cheng Du Road. Nice freshly grounded coffee.

Curry fish balls, Temple Street, Hong Kong

We found this stall at the north end of the Temple Street (廟街) selling curry fish balls (and some other food) on our first day in Hong Kong (Oct 5, 2007). Good stuff for supper.

Food stall at Temple Street selling curry fish balls and other stuff

Curry fish ball used to be a common street food in Hong Kong. We used to see it on TV where people were selling it on street with a food cart…

However, just like many other street foods, most of them are now required to do their business in food courts or shop houses. Many of these street food sellers decided to end their business instead, and it is now becoming difficult to find some of these foods. Curry fish ball is still relatively easy to find though, we found this one and managed to spot a few more the next few days in other areas in Hong Kong.
We ordered a bit of everything… fish balls, meat balls, octopus and pork skin. Their curry was a bit sweet, it was like mixing curry with ketchup and a bit or chili oil… it was simple and delicious… and cheap (HK$40 if I remember correctly).

Curry fish balls, octopus, pork skin and meat balls

Mak Mun Kee, Parkes Street, Hong Kong

Mak Mun Kee Noodle House (麥文記麵家) is quite famous in Kowloon’s Jordan area for its dumpling noodles (雲吞麵; wonton noodle). It’s located at Parkes Street; just next to Australia Dairy Co. where we had our breakfast the same morning.

Wonton noodles

Australia Dairy Co, Parkes Street, Hong Kong

We had breakfast at Australia Dairy Co. (澳洲牛奶公司) on our 2nd day in Hong Kong (Oct 2007). I searched online prior to the tour for some famous foods around my hotel area, and this shop is one of the most popular for Hong Kong style breakfast.

Australia Dairy Company and our simple breakfast

ADC is located at Parkes Street (白加士街) in Jordan (佐敦); in fact Parkes Street is quite popular among local food seekers… try to find your way there if you are on Hong Kong gourmet tour. The eatery is famous for its pack customer, fast services, and their scramble eggs. We ordered 2 set of breakfast, each with scramble eggs toast, soup pasta and a cup of Yin-Yeung (鸳鸯； coffee-tea mix), which cost around HK$26 per set.
The food was decent. The scramble eggs were as good as it could be, toast was ok, but we had mixed opinions for the pasta… my eldest sis hated it, but I kinda liked it. The Yin-Yeung was just nice.
What really amazed me about the restaurant were the environment and its pace. It was packed as expected… we had to share our table with others, and some customers had to stand and wait for their seats.
The waiters and crew served customers with great efficiency, and those that were eating were quite cooperative too, finishing their food ASAP to give their seats… I guess the fast moving pace is part of Hong Kong culture, and this restaurant reflected it perfectly.
The name of the restaurant is quite weird though… they do sell milk and dairy products, but I guess it’s not what they are famous for.
Address: 47-49, Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland is located on a reclaimed land in Lantau Island and opened to visitors since September 2005. The theme park is part of Disneyland Resort which also consist of 2 hotels and the Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre. Disneyland was the highlight of our Hong Kong tour. My eldest sister was the only one who had visited a Disney theme park (Tokyo’s Disneyland) prior to this visit, so it should be a wonderful experience especially for my 2-year-old niece.
The theme park opened on 10am; we got there a bit earlier via a shuttle bus from Hollywood Hotel, which is just minutes away from the theme park.

Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

Mickey and Minnie’s fountain before the theme park entrance

Based on my eldest sister’s experience, we went straight to the Fantasyland to take pictures with the cartoon characters – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Winnie the Pooh etc. It could take some time to take photos with these characters if the crowd started to pour in… so it should be a good idea to get to Fantasyland as early as possible.

The Sleeping Beauty Castle, entrance of the Fantasyland

Adventure with Winnie the Pooh (kinda boring though…)

There are some (short) musical shows that are worth watching in Disneyland; we went to “The Golden Mickeys” and “Festival of the Lion King”, and both of the shows were good.
Golden Mickeys was a show mimicking the Oscar awards and introduced the cartoon characters (and films) such as the iconic Mickey, Minnie, Donald and characters from later stories like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Mulan” and “Lilo and Stitch” etc.
The Festival of the Lion King was a brief story based on 1994 animated movie, “The Lion King”.

The Golden Mickeys

Festival of the Lion King

The Tomorrowland… we didn’t spend much time there

Other highlights of Hong Kong Disneyland include the Disney on Parade in the afternoon and the fireworks show at night.

Merry-go-round at Fantasyland

Yung Kee Restaurant, Wellington Street, Hong Kong

Yung Kee (鏞記) is one of the most famous restaurants in Hong Kong. Founded in 1942, the restaurant is located on Wellington Street in the Central District; and is fame for its roast goose, barbecue pork, and perhaps for their expensive price as well.

Roast goose at Yung Kee Restaurant

Dined at Yung Kee in Oct 2007 during our Hong Kong visit. We already knew about the price, but we had promised ourselves to spend a bit more on one of our meals for fine cuisine, and we picked Yung Kee.

We ordered some iconic Hong Kong food… roast goose, roast quail, fried rice-noodle with beef (乾炒牛河; cau ngau hor), some veges and century eggs (皮蛋). The century eggs were served as starter and are the best I have tasted.
The roast goose was superb as well. The goose was served in typical Hong Kong style, with cooked groundnuts and fermented veges. The meat was tender and the gravy blended very well with the meat. Top class.
The fried rice-noodle was just ok.
I was quite disappointed with the roast quail though, which was dried and tasteless. I am not sure if roast quail should taste that way as it was the only roast quail I have had in Hong Kong… and I didn’t like it.
The bill was above HK$400 for 3 adults… a bit expensive but I think it’s worth the splurge.
Address: 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong. [Official website]

Yung Kee Restaurant… century eggs, roast quail and fried beef-rice-noodles

Cotton candy @ Hong Kong Disneyland

Cotton candy at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Cotton candy…

I am not really a fan of cotton candy, I don’t have sweet tooth. It brought back some childhood memories though… it’s always fun seeing the candy vendors making the fluffy candy floss.

Really Good Restaurant, Soy Street, Hong Kong

Really Good Restaurant is not a really good restaurant… it’s just a literal translation of its Chinese name which should be pronounced as Geek Ji Ho (極之好粥麵茶餐廳) instead.
Actually we went into the restaurant because I was desperately in need of a washroom when walking around in Mongkok. At first glance they had an interesting variety of food (lots of Hong Kong specials) and from their billboard it seems like they were highly rated by local papers.

Cart noodle, egg tart and pineapple bun

We ordered a cart noodle (車仔麵), an egg tart and a pineapple bun (菠蘿包). The food quality was quite a disappointment honestly… it was not too bad, but it’s the kind of quality that I would not be interested to visit the restaurant again.
Well, at least I managed to try the cart noodle and pineapple bun before I left Hong Kong… so I shouldn’t be complaining too much.
Cart noodle was one of the food icons in Hong Kong; it got its name from street vendors who used to operate their business on roadsides using carts (I think they no longer exist these days). This restaurant was supposed to be famous for selling this noodle.
There is nothing special about the noodles; the essence of cart noodle is actually the variety of toppings the customers could choose from… the common toppings are radishes, pig blood cubes, fish balls, pig skins, Chinese sausages and beef balls etc. The customers could choose according to their likings or simply include everything (like what we did).

Wing Wah wife cakes, Hong Kong

Wing Wah (榮華) is one of the two most popular wife cakes makers in Hong Kong. Their first restaurant-bakery (they are famous for Chinese preserved meat too) was opened in 1950, and has now expanded into a catering chain with over 30 outlets in Hong Kong.
Wife cake (老婆餅; lou po beng) is a Chinese pastry traditionally made of winter melons paste. Wife cakes these days came in variety of favours though; such as red bean, almond, coffee, green tea, sesame seed, lotus seed and cheese etc.

Wing Wah’s wife cakes

We found one of Wing Wah’s branches on Nathan Road in Mongkok area. There were all kinds of traditionally Chinese pastries, cookies and cakes available… some of those were freshly made, while some others were in nice packaging which were pretty convenient as souvenirs.
We only got to taste the wife cakes we bought after we were back to Malaysia. The cakes were quite good and tasty… I guess it would be even better if I got to taste it when it was fresh out of the oven. I can’t quite remember how I managed to forget trying some freshly made wife cakes back then.