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Showing posts from November, 2011

Day 7: Honolulu Cafe, YLK- Hang Hou, Hong Kong

After eating lunch at Zen Chinese Cuisine, a thirty-minute ride on the MTR whisked us off to our next destination, Hang Hou; that is the second to last stop to the right on the purple line in the picture. Having recently experienced other subway systems in the United States, I really appreciate the clarity and simplicity of the MTR system. Easy-to-hear prerecorded announcements are made between each stop, and the busier lines have interactive maps (as seen in the first picture) that make it easy to identify one's location. The purple line did not have these maps, but the clear announcements made up for the lack of those maps. When our friends met us at Hang Hou, they immediately treated us to egg tarts and milk tea at Honolulu Cafe, a chain that is quite famous for its egg tarts in Hong Kong. The egg tart and milk tea was a great starter to our Hang Hou visit. The Honolulu Cafe Egg Tart (4.5 HKD) had an eggy custard, and the crust was flaky while not being too o

R&G Lounge- Chinatown, San Francisco, CA

Driving back from Stanford and the event, we were met with a pleasant sunset; the sun made the green mountains shine even more so, and everything became even more picturesque. During our drive we made dinner plans; after crossing off one Chinese restaurant off the list to visit ( Koi Palace ), we decided to visit another one: R&G Lounge in Chinatown, which our friend recommended us to visit. Parking was easy to find; there is a parking structure that offers validated parking a block or so away from the restaurant. However, getting the seat at the restaurant was not. We forgot to make a reservation, which I highly advise making for any popular restaurant when visiting San Francisco such as this one, and as a result we waited for 45 minutes for an open table. What can one do in a loud, crowded atmosphere with no book? I spent my time taking pictures and learning about how the queue system works instead. Like some restaurants in Hong Kong, R&G utilizes a computerized queue

Cha for Tea (University Center)- Irvine, CA

Although we have stepped into Cha for Tea a couple of times, we have never actually eaten there until recently, after (finally) visiting the weekend farmers market at the University Center (see Monster Munching's blog post for more information). The employees though have enthusiastically greeted us and familiarized us with their line of products, which come from Ten Ren, as the Cha for Tea chain is a subsidiary of Ten Ren. Cha for Tea lures customers into their stores by taking a Tevana-eqsue sales tactic: offering small samples of their products. This time, we were offered cups of hot almond black milk tea, of which we enjoyed so much that we ordered a large portion, coupled with pearls. (3.89USD + 0.60USD for large size + 0.47USD for pearls). Cha for Tea is open to adjustments, so we asked for no sugar in the tea; this led to a creamy tea that was barely sweet, with depth provided by the black tea and fragrance from the almond powder used in the making of the tea. The

Bay Area Trip (1) 2011 Index

Here are all the posts from our Bay Area trip (work in progress): Driving Scenes: Los Angeles to San Francisco Koi Palace- Daly City, CA Stanford University- Stanford, CA   R&G Lounge- Chinatown, San Francisco, CA University of California, Berkeley- Berkeley, CA  Bistro Boudin- Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, CA  Eastern Bakery- Chinatown, San Francisco, CA  Far East Cafe- Chinatown, San Francisco, CA Hotel: Grand Hyatt San Francisco- San Francisco, CA

Day 7: Zen Chinese Cuisine (Pacific Place)- Admiralty, Hong Kong

We thought we would try an actual dim sum lunch while in Hong Kong, so we headed downstairs to Zen, one of the two major Chinese restaurants in Pacific Place. Zen is a solid Cantonese institution that has been in Pacific Place for more than ten years. Its location brings a more of a business-type clientele, but there are certainly plenty of locals and tourists that patron Zen (like I have during my past visits to Hong Kong). Seated at our table, we were handed two different types of nuts to munch on: candied walnuts that had a hint of seaweed flavor and salt and pepper fried peanuts. I really liked the candied walnuts, but it seemed as if the employees were too busy to hand us any refills; it was Christmas day after all. The special Christmas day menu had a wide selection of typical dim sum items as well as items not typically seen during dim sum. The bright red color in this red bean dessert soup signaled that the red beans in the soup were dried red beans, and not canned