Hong Kong/ Macau: 14-18 Oct 2009 (PART I _ SLEEP & EAT)

Hong Kong - Macau - 14 - 18 October 2009

A trip filled with great hotel stays, lots of dim sums & combating my greatest fears!

Staring out of the airplane at the clear sky below makes my heart beat with immense excitement, I am going on a holiday again!
This is my second trip to Hong Kong, also known as the Pearl of Asia, famous for their local cafes (aka 茶餐厅/ Cha Can Ting) and beautiful night landscapes. Nevertheless, there were many new experiences on this trip that are truly memorable and enjoyable.

SPECTACULAR HOTELS!

W Hotel, Hong Kong
1 Austin Road West, Kowloon Station, Kowloon




This starwood group hotel is conveniently located just 2 stations away from the Airport via the Airport Express train service. Exit Kowloon station and take the escalator up to the Hotel.
How convenient is that!
Before reaching the entrance of the hotel, you would be welcomed by lingering scent of Lemon and Sage, W Hotel's range of spa products - Bliss.
(They provide this in your room as well, try it!)

W Hotel has a designer aura to all its furnishing, take note of their wall paper, lamps and cushions. The blinds and curtain are fully automatic at a touch of a button by the bedside!
You will love their bathroom too - modern stones bathroom tiles, a beautiful bathtub installed with a mini tv screen and great sound system!
Approx: SGD210/night







Sheraton Hotel Hong Kong
20 Nathan Road, Kowloon


Another starwood group hotel, the Sheraton keeps itself well with a beautiful lobby and an internet access corner for all in-house guests.
The location of this place is simply great, walking distance from SOGO shopping mall, Harbour City, Avenue of Stars and stretches of food places and fashion retail outlets. (Adidas, Esprit, etc)
A more affordable and recommendable hotel closeby you may wish to consider is Kowloon Hotel.

Nothing to complain about the room, the standard is comparable to the 5-star hotels in Singapore.






The Venetian^® Macao-Resort-Hotel
Estrada da Baía de N. Senhora da Esperança, s/n,
Taipa, Macao SAR, P.R. China
http://www.venetianmacao.com

Impressive architecture, shopping malls, huge casinos, eating places, it's a one stop place in Macau that many people would definitely drop by when they're there.


We were lucky to get a promo rate of HKD1088/night (SGD234) for the Suite room at the Venetian! (U.P. HKD2088!)
The room was really huge. Inspired by European design, I like the bed the most! Classy!












FOOD IN HONG KONG
We craved for porridge and dim sums the moment we landed on this perfect foodhunt city.
A common local cafe looks like the below, with big slips of food names written all over the cafe, that is if you understand the Mandarin. Don't rely too much on the English translation though, we've seen 'Beef' written as 'Deef' and worse, 'Minced' as 'Miced' - Don't freak out just yet!


Popular dishes ordered at a cafe are porridge, fried breadsticks (you tiao/油条) and milk tea.



This is blood jelly by the way. I know it sounds disgusting, but it's actually quite yummy!

For those who could afford more, try dim sums at their restaurants, they are comparatively less expensive than the dim sum restaurants in Singapore. Unlike in Singapore, the items on the menu comes in only one size. Nevertheless, each item is labelled as one of the following:
小 (small), 大 (large), 特 (special), 超特 (super special).
This has nothing to do with the size of the items, it is to indicate the price of the item.

Siu Lam Kung Restaurant
小杬公菜館
Just opposite the road from the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal (Sheung Wan station)




Prawn dumplings (Har Kow)



Super Star Seafood Restaurant (鸿星海鲜酒家)
Harbour City
We were told that the shopping malls are opened by around 9.30am and made our way to Harbour City early to see what food we can find. Unfortunately, most of the stalls in the food court were still preparing their dishes and we chanced upon Super Star, which was already crowded by the time we were there.


They served this delicious whitebait as an appetiser and it was indeed! Crispy and tasty!
They sell them in packets as well, they have original, chilli, garlic and seaweed flavours for you to choose from. 3 packets @HKD50. We bought them home of course!
It'll go very well with porridge as well.

Look at these cute dumplings! Yes, they look like 3 penguins saluting at you!




The dishes are very good, especially this plate of e-fu noodles! The serving was pretty big though, enough for 3 to share.


Hong Kong is not all about Yum Cha and Char Chan Ting, you can find many food stalls and small little treats as well.
- Here are some must trys!

Street stalls


Desserts!

Yummy mango with pomelo!



HK Goodies!
2 popular shops - Kee Wah (奇華) & Wing Wah (永華)
Must buy - Wife's Pastry/Lao Po Bing (老婆饼)
It is a flaky pastry with sweet winter melon pastry.
Legend has it that a daughter-in-law has to sell herself in order to raise money for her sick father -in-law. The husband began to bake cakes to sell, hoping to obtain his wife's freedom. The cakes were so well-liked by the people then that it was later known as wife's cake.

Kee Wah goodies
You got to get their pineapple shortcakes! It comes in very nice containers in packets of 4.
It is not too sweet and it has a very crusty outer pastry.
I got the cute panda butter cookies (great gifts for kids) and of course the popular Lao Po Bing.
I also got the coffee cookies to go with my afternoons tea. They sell tea cookies too.

Panda cookies -----------------Lao Po Bing---------------Pineapple shortcakes


Wing Wah goodies
They have Lao Po Bing in mini sizes, known as Cutie Wife Pastry- comes in 9 pieces instead of the original 6 pieces.
They have egg rolls in unique flavours as well - I got one with Lychee. Nice!




FOOD IN MACAU

A pity we did not try any portuguese cuisine.
Nevertheless, here are some good finds that you would like to try the next time you're there.

You must NEVER forget to try this in Macau. Portuguese Egg tarts!
These were hot when we bought them, crusty pastry, sweet and thick egg filling.
It was really good! Goes really well with a cup of tea.



Venetian Food Gallery - Fat Burger
Originated from the US, these burgers are grilled on the spot when you order.
Generous amount of ingredients, just as good as our familiar Botak Jones and Carls Junior, I would say.



Found this yummy Coffee danish puff at Hotel Lisbon while making our way to Senato Square.
Crusty sugar top and rather big piece, I like the taste of coffee in this Danish!


Instead of Portuguese food, we were brought to a dim sum place in Macau. Again another busy restaurant, food here is very good too!

金悦轩海鲜酒家 (Jin Yue Xuan)







Goodies in Macau
Famous gifts include the almond cookies which you will find in many shops at Senato Square.
You can try them before you make your choice too!


Koi Kei Bakery (鉅記饼家)

These cuttle fishes are chewy and tasty!-------------Their popular almond cookies


Choi Heong Yuen Bakery (咀香園餅家)
The packet of peanut candies is really good! I regretted not buying more of this.
It tastes like nougat but with added crunch from the generous chunks of peanuts.
Got their almond pastries and seaweed egg rolls too, my family loves it!



To be continued... where the fun begins!