Eat. Travel. Eat!

A visit to Hong Kong entails a list of places to visit-- Tim Ho W an, a Mic hel in starred dim sum restaurant chain also widely known as the cheapest Mic helin starred di m sum, was on that list. We found one outlet conveniently located at the MTR Hong Kong Station , nestled beneath the large IFC Mall in Central , Hong Kong, and chec ked it out during a weekday lunch. The ca veat of the weekday lunch, however, is t hat the office workers nearby head down toward s IFC Mall for many delicious eate ries. Tim Ho Wan, as a result, was pack ed, with long queues for sitting inside the restaurant. Unwilling to wait, we d ecided t o order to-go, and enjoy the food at our hotel room instead. After filling out a menu sheet, paying for the ite ms, and waiting fo r only a short period of time, we were on our way t o en joying some dim sum.

After some time in Beijing, I moved onto a visit to Hong Kong, given that I hadn't visited in several years. Time has flown so fast that I haven't even been able to post about lots of the restaurants I visited in Hong Kong last time! Check-in for Cathay Pacific is done at Terminal 3. This flight in particular was also a Air China codeshare flight, but check-in was was preferably only done at Cathay Pacific.

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...

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...

After a stroll in Hong Kong Park , we headed downstairs for a meal at Peking Garden in Pacific Place. We would have gone to Shang Place in Island Shangri-La (apparently where the mango and pomelo sago dessert was created), but since it was full, we headed towards Peking Garden, one of the two large Chinese restaurants in Pacific Place. Peking Garden, as the name may suggest, is famous for its Peking Duck; however, it does serve up a  plethora of fine Chinese food in an environment that Pacific Place says "resembles an ambiance of modern metropolitan America." It does certainly feel decidedly western; the crown moldings on the walls and comfortable chairs give a sophisticated, not tacky, Western feel. We were seated next to a wavy wood and glass wall that gives a modern touch to an otherwise classic environment.Yes, we could see the people in the elevators and vice versa, but this is undoubtedly a cool touch. Even the tea had a Western influence. The typical Chin...