Food and Laser Show

Wo Mei, Harbourside Buffet, Laser Show

August 19, 2016

Woke up to a clear morning of blue sky and white clouds. Looking out the window, we were hoping that it would be a drier day so we could use the swimming pool at the hotel. We had planned on taking advantage of the swimming pools at the hotels in those hot days but so far haven't been able to. 

Our plan for the day was to get to MOR's favorite restaurant in Jordan for breakfast. We have tried many places for porridge in Hong Kong throughout the years and decided Wo Mei is the best of all. 

I believe it was dad who brought us here first, years ago, and since then this is our go to place for porridge whenever we are in Hong Kong. We were also meeting cousin Mei and her husband for lunch at the hotel.

Right outside our windows is our next hotel stay--Hyatt Regency (the tallest building in this picture) which occupies the 3rd to 24th floors of the K11 building. K 11 is one of the tallest skyscrapers in Kowloon.

Front entrance of Intercontinental Hong Kong, right off Salisbury Road.

From the left of this picture shows YMCA HK (a good hotel, BTW), the Penisula, with Nathan Road right next to it and then the Sheraton Hong Kong and Sogo Department store. A lot of construction work going on at the Salisbury Garden and Space Museum area next to our hotel.

We decided that instead of taking the MTR for one stop, we might as well just walk to Jordan which is about a mile away. It was actually quite interesting as we walked along Nathan Road watching everything that was going on around us. 

Slope in front of the Intercontinental Hotel.

At the bottom of the slope right at the corner (the glass enclosure) is the elevator that takes you down to the MTR Tsim Sha Tsui East station J2 entrance. There is also an escalator further down to the right.

Wo Mei Porridge (Congee)
It was pretty easy finding Wo Mei since we have been there so many times, and the place was filled with customers already when we got there. A mix of locals and tourists, everyone seemed to be enjoying their breakfast. Their famous item is fish belly porridge (魚腩粥), which they fried the pieces of fish first before putting them in the boiling porridge. I am not good at handling fish bones, so I opted for their beef congee which was very good also. I believe this place is being recommended in many guidebooks which brought in many visitors for their share of porridge. Like any other traditional eating places in Hong Kong, service is not of top priority, but food is. Do not expect quality service even though the ladies tried their best serving in such busy and crowded environment. They only have a few small tables in there so chances are you may have to share a table with other customers.

The best porridge (congee) in Hong Kong.

Fried fish balls (鯪魚球) with special dipping sauce. Fried dough in the background.

Tri-lingual menu posted--in Chinese, English and Japanese. Yes, we saw Japanese tourists following their guidebooks joining us at this tiny eatery when we were there.

Exterior of Wo Mei Porridge on Woosung Street and Ning Po Street (75 Woosung Street). 

Woosung Street is still very quiet in the morning. This is a block away from Temple Street. A very old neighborhood. 

After our porridge breakfast, we took the MTR back to the hotel. 

Besides the pictures of Hong Kong history on one side of the underground walkway, there are also photos of important events in Hong Kong entertainment industry on display.

Definitely an interesting passage.

Back to the hotel.

We had to take this flight of stairs after we got off the elevators on the 16th floor...

...to get to the 17th floor where our room was.

"Handy" the courtesy cell phone provided by the hotel for guests use.

Harbourside Buffet Restaurant, Intercontinental Hotel Hong Kong

We just rested a little before going down to the Harbourside Restaurant for lunch. We found Mei and Si already waiting for us at the table which the front desk staff reserved for us when we checked in the day before. The restaurant is truly sitting right at harbourside, with the incredible view of the harbor. We were so busy talking and eating that I forgot to take pictures of the food and the place until it was time for dessert. Food was OK, with an international menu. I did expect more though for the price of the buffet. I guess we were pretty much paying for the view. They did have an extensive dessert display, I must say. All in all, we had an enjoyable lunch. BTW, a glass of red or white wine or champagne is included, plus coffee or tea at the end of the meal.

Some of the dessert items on ChC's plate.

My dessert choices. Loved that ice cream with mango sauce and almond. The other two items were decorated with gold leaves so I just had to try them.

This was good, a mixture of mango and pomelo, topped with a lychee nut.

This is a cake-like item covered with a coat of sugar. Very pretty!

Enjoying a great lunch with good food, fine fellowship and exceptional view of Victoria Harbor.

We were still jet lagged and with the hot hot weather outside, we decided to just stay in and take a nap in the afternoon. A nap that lasted longer than planned. By the time we got up it was after six o'clock and we remembered that ChC wanted to go out to the promenade and get some photos. As we walked out of the hotel, we realized that it was drizzling and probably not a good day for photos. With Avenue of the Stars being closed off for construction work, many people were still waiting for the laser show along the promenade on the misty, rainy evening. Fortunately, the rain stopped just before the start of the laser show. It was certainly better watching the laser show there than inside the hotel.

At first it was drizzling a little,

then it started to rain, quite heavily, everybody left the promenade.

Waiting patiently for the rain to stop at the cultural center.

A touring junk sailed by in heavy rain.

Finally cleared and the show begun.

Only in Hong Kong!

All I can say is, "Wow!"

After the laser show ended, we walked back to the Intercontinental not far away. Then MOR and I decided that we should go to Wo Mei for more porridge. ChC decided not to join us and he went back to the hotel on his own. Once again, we took the MTR to Jordan, which was very crowded at that hour, and enjoyed another meal of porridge. We just have to take every opportunity to savor our favorite food as we don't get to go Hong Kong as often as we like.

The busy crossing in front of the Penisula.

MTR station in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Roast Goose, New Territories, and Intercontinental

New Territories and Intercontinental Hong Kong

August 18, 2016 (Cloudy)

We woke up early again and decided to go out for breakfast. There are so many eating places nearby that it was kind of hard to choose what we wanted. Instead of walking out the main entrance of the hotel we tried taking the side entrance near the Convention Center, the entrance where we got off the shuttle on our arrival night. It was a longer walk but it's all indoor and covered walkways. Bumping shoulders with the crowd rushing to get to their offices nearby, we just leisurely walked over to Hennessy Road and found another restaurant called Sun Chiu Kee, which seemed to be quite busy even on that early morning. That's a good sign. They have quite a variety of items on their menu, both Chinese and western breakfast. Well, western here refers to the Hong Kong style western breakfast which is a little different from your real western breakfast. Craving for good authentic Chinese food, we both ordered our bowls of porridge, which were quite good.

My bowl of delicious porridge.

Chinese menu-Sun Chiu Kee, Wanchai

After breakfast, we walked over to Honolulu Cafe which is a couple of storefronts away, and bought some freshly baked egg tarts and chicken pies for ChC since he did not come with us for breakfast. Those were some amazing egg tarts with flaky crust and warm custard! 

Fresh egg tarts and chicken pies from Honolulu Cafe.

We checked out of the Grand Hyatt at around 10:30 and waited for JC and CeC to pick us up for the day. It was quite a ride for them to fight the morning traffic to get to Wan Chai. After meeting up with them, we took the cross harbor tunnel to Kowloon and went straight to pick up ChC's camera at the Nikon office in Mongkok. 

It was still cloudy but I got a better shot from the Nikon office than the day before. They were able to get the rest of the broken lens that was stuck off the camera and there seemed to be no damage to the camera itself fortunately. After paying for the reasonable repair we were able to leave the place with a sign of relief.

Taking the long escalator inside the mall. This mall is a very busy place, even on a weekday morning.

Off we went on our adventure to the New Territories. Our goal for the day was to go to Sham Tseng for some roasted goose. I suppose there are several restaurants in Sham Tseng specialized in roasted goose but JC thinks this one is the best. He certainly knows his food, so that was where we went--Rhine Garden Restaurant. Did we have a great meal! 

They also serve dim sum at this restaurant. Again, this is not a fancy restaurant and seemed to catered mainly to locals.

The goose in this picture looks a little bony, but actually it was very meaty and tasty.

After lunch, we continued our exploration. I have not had a chance to see some of the places we past through since I was a kid, like the beaches where mom and dad used to take us to in the summer. It was like going down memory lane but with quite a lot of changes through the years. Then we came to an area called Gold Coast, where JC and CeC have a property rented out. Properties are very expensive in Hong Kong. With the price of a tiny apartment, you can easily get two or three houses in the States.

Public area of the property, very nice!

The apartment building.

Kai Kee Dessert

Our next stop was a popular dessert place called Kai Kee Dessert in the town of Yuen Long. I have never been to this establishment before but have heard about it many times in the past. (http://www.yl.hk/b/). The place was practically full when we got there in the afternoon. 

Menu--these are all dessert items!

We ordered some durian pancakes (HKD$30) to try. 

Forgot what this is, some kind of sweet fruity soup.

Kai Kee's signature dish to share, B Boy Grass Jelly (HKD$75), with grass jelly at the bottom of the bowl and topped with many different kinds of fruit.

It was quite a treat and I was so afraid that I was going over the limit on my sugar intake that day.

After Yuen Long, we completed our circle around the New Territories passing through Fan Ling, Tai Po, and Shatin. We also made a short stop at the apartment where JC and CeC were staying in Sai Kung before taking us to Intercontinental Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Intercontinental Hong Kong

As IHG members, we get one free night hotel stay each year anywhere around the world at their chain hotels and this was where we decided to use our free nights for this year. I was hoping that we will get a harbor-view room on this stay but we were told that all the harbor-view rooms were sold out. They did upgrade us to a corner unit on the top floor with a city view. Room was bigger than the one we had at Grand Hyatt, well-designed but the problem was the elevators only get up to 16th floor and we were on the 17th floor. Which means we have to walk the stairs for the last flight which was fine except when tagging luggage along.

Staff checking us in was courteous and well-trained. I must say that it was a pleasant experience checking in and checking out of the hotel. Here are some pictures of our room.

Separate shower and dressing room.

We were given drink coupons when we checked in. We thought it would be great to sit at the Lobby Lounge and enjoy the panoramic view of Victoria Harbor during the nightly laser show. Unfortunately, that's really not the place to be for the laser show because they did not have the music synchronized with the show there. 

The view of the harbor was spectacular.

I had a glass of white wine, MOR had the red and ChC had an orange juice as we enjoyed the view of this beautiful city.

A million-dollar night view.

After the disappointing light show, we went back to our room.

Sitting area on the 17th floor.

Then the two of us decided we should go out and find some late dinner to go with the medications that we needed to take before bed time. Intercontinental is kind of away from everything but actually it is not difficult to get to places nearby. We walked out of the hotel, down the ramp and took the elevator to the MTR station (East Tsim Sha Tsui Exit J) walkway crossing Salisbury Road to Nathan Road which is the main artery of Kowloon.

This long corridor underground showcase some of the history of Hong Kong. Very interesting!

We thought it would be a good idea to check out Hyatt Regency while we were looking for food. We would be staying there on our last night in Hong Kong.

We found the Hyatt Regency which has an obscure entrance hidden away on Hanoi Road. Their check-in lobby would be on the 3rd floor of the K-11 Shopping mall. Then we found the restaurant called Kai Kee Noodle, which is a popular Chiu Chow noodle place famous for their squid balls. This place is very small with tight seating, but their food was very good!

I had the squid ball noodle.

MOR had the fish ball/fish cake rice noodle.

These veggies made a complete meal that was quick and inexpensive.

Walking along Nathan Road back to the hotel was quite interesting. This area seemed to be bustling with people from around the world. It was quite a sight to see, especially when passing by Chungking Mansion. It's fun just to be part of the night life here and feel the beat of the city.