What else to do in the city, but eat? Here’s one of the best waffle places in Tai Po, inside one of the malls:

Here’s another snack shop, in the middle of Tai Po Market, where we had fake shark fin soup and curry fish balls, chased down with lemon tea from a nearby convenience store:

I can’t link you to these places, because again, I’m a horrible blogger and did not note their actual locations.

On top of all the eating, we ate some more, this time with my cousin and her 1 year old (notice the baby food in the background and Ziploc bags to keep the utensils clean). I didn’t like this grapefruit salad (awkward dressing) or the gai lan with tofu (too salty):

This lobster spaghetti was not something I’d order again. The spaghetti was a bit too al dente, and the lobster was overcooked and chewy:

The pad thai pizza was not bad!

The tiramisu sundae was the best choice out of everything:

Don’t come to the Mango Tree at Causeway Bay, they have horrendous service, expensive and not very filling dishes, and the food is not cooked very well. Everything was way too salty.

Living in the big city with all the lights seems very glamorous, but the glitz isn’t really doing anything for me these days. The lights are an illusion to blind you from the layer of grime on the sidewalks, on the roads, on the people. People say it’s dirty in the woods, so they’d rather stay in the city, but I came home everyday with a layer of pollution on my skin and hair. It’s the city where you’ll find all the real dirt, and the people are the dangerous animals causing it.

One more day of Hong Kong... 

Hikes are one of the things I’ll wake up early for. Continuing on from the last post, I thought I’d elaborate on this a bit more (ie, I found photos that I forgot I took, and now I want to write more). We left the house around 7AM, and went for breakfast at a little cafe called BB開心茶座, located near the trail head to get to the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Pavilion (尤德亭):

Classic Hong Kong breakfast of sausage, sunny side up egg, and instant noodle, paired with milk tea:

H had the coffee + milk tea combo (yeen yeurng). His aunt and uncle had similar noodles and drinks. The quality at BB開心茶座 was really acceptable, despite being on the outskirts of Hong Kong. A steady stream of cyclists and motorcyclists stopped on the way up, and the parking lot was packed with expensive looking cars. Don’t forget it was only around 7:30 or 8AM… People in Hong Kong really don’t sleep.

I didn’t have to figure out how to get to the trail myself, because of our hosts (H’s aunt and uncle). They also took us to this waterfall/swimming hole, where there wasn’t much water at the time, because it hadn’t rained in a while. The trail was really easy to navigate, and not gnarly at all.

Go up past the houses in the photo above, and you will eventually get here: 

Two hours to get back to the car.

I know. Horrible directions, and not very informational, but hey, I was jet lagged. Easiest thing to do is just go eat at the cafe and ask around, if you really want to go!

Although I didn’t blog these past 2 weeks, I was still eating and hiking and coffee-ing - my weekend rituals. I flew with Hong Kong Airlines, which is a fairly new company for flights from Vancouver to Asia. The tickets were so cheap at just over $650 to go to Hong Kong and Taipei!

First thing after landing – EAT.

Well, actually, first thing was try to get on a bus to make it to the city to meet up with H and his family for dinner. My bus pass did not have enough money for the ride (like the Compass, HK uses the Octopus card that can be refilled with funds so that you just tap on and off the bus to pay), and I had no HK cash yet, because I was going to get some later on… Some kind lady with a baby actually paid for me, which was sort of nice.

Here’s the first coffee I had at Halfway Coffee:

Absolutely adore the decor in here. The owner collected all the Chinese style antique-like mugs and cups that they use, which is impressive because there was a large selection. They also had takeaway cups that cost about $10CAD for a full set, custom printed to look like antique cups:

Before the first cup of coffee, we actually woke up around 630AM for an early morning hike with H’s aunt and uncle:

They’re pretty cool folks, and pretty successful. I mean, being able to afford to live comfortably in Hong Kong and drive around in a Tesla is no easy task. More about this hike in this post.

Then, we went to visit my cousin and her 1 year old baby for lunch, shopped, and ate some more. Boring Hong Kong life?

Luckily, I’m not jet lagged now, but work is really sucking the life out of me. The first day back from vacation is always the most work. Tomorrow is another day… The rest of Hong Kong was still more eating, as you’ll see in later posts.

While waiting to pick up my father the other day, I had a few minutes for a coffee break. Where to go in Richmond for coffee?! It’s always a dilemma. I ended up at Zenstone Coffee:



I had their sesame latte, and a sesame waffle, and hung out with the ducks. Such an adorable little shop, with amazing latte art. The desserts are just sweet enough, but not too sugary. I’ll be back, I’ve seen some new pastries and drinks on their Instagram.

TWO MORE DAYS! I’ll be outta here, and into the storm. Apparently, it will be raining lots. What essentials should I pack? Glossier, probably.

This was the last weekend before H and I went to Hong Kong/Taiwan, so we had to have a meal together with his folks. We went to a Northern style Chinese restaurant in Richmond, called Northern Style Chinese Restaurant ( lol ):

The food is not bad, rather oily and full of MSG/salt, so don’t expect anything healthy. We had the leek scrable eggs, one of the fried noodles, a onion pan fried pancake, and another… Chinese fried dough thing. We also had dumplings with parsley: 

The food was cheap, which is always a plus. Horribly slow service, and I suspect if you speak only English, they’ll ignore you forever. The thing to order next time would be the tomato scramble egg and perhaps more dumplings.



This year started with so much hope, and it’s been fun, but I’m pretty burnt out now, really looking forward to the end. I had to take the day off today from the headache. Even had to go to a doctor to get meds to dampen the pain.. I haven’t felt this 9 out of 10 type of pain that brings tears to my eyes in a while.

The pain will go away (has gone away) and things will change again, I'm sure.

Ice cream cravings are real. H and I went to Glenburn for dessert on what one might consider a “date night”. We had the Fall Spice, which consisted of 2 scoops of their pumpkin cheesecake ice cream, graham crackers crumbled into butterscotch, and cinnamon whipped cream. This is the perfect way to end the night. I wonder what will be on their menu for winter and Christmas.

Before that, we visited the thrift shop, where I got a $10 pair of 7 for All Mankind. Date nights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Another life update… I’ve been trying these products from Glossier:

Inspired by these ladies:

I don’t know why this brand is so fascinating to me. I could watch videos about these producs over and over… The cloud paints especially are irresistible. Pat pat pat, smudge smudge – blend that cream blush in a few seconds, and it looks perfectly natural. I’m excited to try out all the other colours, I’ve only purchased Dusk and Puff so far. Puff has more colour, Dusk blends in too much and I like it better as an eye shadow.

We visited Hakkaku Ramen for some authentic, affordable noodles in soup:



I had regular Miso soup, with the fattier meat, and H had the rich Shio with the fatty pork. It was marvelous. One of the best bowls of ramen I’d had, the soup was full of flavour, even without ordering the rich version. Can’t go wrong with the pork belly! Reminder to add an egg next time because the Miso doesn’t come with one. I’ll try the leaner cut of meat next time too, just to see the difference.

 

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I’m really lucky to be able to live this way – eating ramen, going for dessert after dinner, driving from one destination to the next. It’s taken for granted by some people, the conveniences we have in this city (in this life). The other day, I finally gathered up all the plastic bags I had been hoarding and brought them to London Drugs to recycle. Doing things for the environment.