we slept till around 10.30 am and got prepared.....
we arranged to meet Eva for the Tim Hou Wan.
while walking over, we shall this stall selling Put Chai Go...
to think that previous trips i specially went over to Wellington (The Central area) to look for this. But in terms of taste, the one at Wellington area is better.
we met up with Eva at Tim Hou Wan. Tim Hou Wan is like a legendary place of MUST VISIT for many tourists. Its tip top on my list of MUST VISIT for this trip simply coz i've been to Hong Kong about 3 times prior to this trip over past 2 years yet i've only heard about this after my 3rd trip!
I heard about this place from ah yee and i went on to google about it. WOW. its apparently the cheapest Michelin star restaurant around the world. Entries after entries that i round about this place is nothing but raves AND warnings of the average queuing time of 40 minutes to 4 hours.
was pretty concerned about the 4 hours wait. especially for tourists, to have to spend 4 hours queuing up is really a big waste of time. Diana had previously advised me to reach there by 9am coz they open at 10 am. Diana told me anytime after 9.15 am, i can be prepared to queue for 2 hours (*shudder at that thought*).
luckily for us, Eva got there much earlier to get a queue number....
the queue doesnt seem very long in the picture simply because many people have already took the queue number and left.
they work in a way that....
if u miss ur number by 5 calls, u need to retake a number.
if u suddenly decide to add/minus one pax, u need to retake a number.
they sit you according to the group size who left.. meaning if u come in groups of 3 vs a group of 2, its much easier getting seats if u are a group of 2.
but seriously, u would want a bigger group so you can try most of the items.....
we were number 79.
When 62 was called, we felt that we saw a glimpse of light!
and while queuing, we befriended a pair of taiwanese guys....
and an australian lady!
and as the man started calling out the numbers near to us and those people were not around, we were secretly chanting our number in our hearts... 79.. 79!!!
when he called out our number, it was like we struck lottery. or probably happier than lottery! haha we shouted out YAY and u can see everyone cheering us on like we were at the finishing end of the race!
a caucasian said to us as we were walking in to say " eat faster ".. hahaha
happy to finally have seats!
we ordered a long list of items! mainly wendy and myself because we have this perception that we really want to try like everything coz we duno when we will have the chance to try it again. i mean, even if we do come back to hong kong, we may not have the time to queue for it!
first to arrive was the century egg porridge...
its got salted egg and century egg. its nice. reminds me of what my mum cooks at home when i was young.
den was the chee cheong fun... excited to try this because they have pig liver chee cheong fun!! the skin for the chee cheong fun is soooooo thin....
i must say, the chee cheong fun is my favourite!
next is the usual dim sum we'd order when we have dim sum... har gao, siew mai, chicken feet and pork ribs...
i hate to say this but.. its all nice but they didnt exactly wow me. i mean it is nice but its not like i cant find this elsewhere.. i think a decent crystal jade one is almost there.
next is another of their specialty.. the char siew por loh bao like thingy...
this was pretty good but again i wasnt totally wow-ed by it.
and the milk custard bun and spinach dumpling...
some other dim sum...
steamed rice...
fried items...
dumpling rice...
desserts...
a whole table of items...
hmmm.. while it was nice, if u ask me, i don't think its worth a queue of 4 hours. But it was cheap for sure. i think we spent about HKD$300 odd for a table full of items which is only about SGD $50. Damn cheap!
did meet an irritating taiwanese couple who sat beside us. kind of rude coz they took pictures of our dim sum without asking (which is still fine) and it obstructs our dining and the stupid guy tried to mock and laugh at us for ordering too much. seriously, what business is it of yours? we already kept quiet when he kept targetting our food to take pictures yet he doesnt know how to bloody keep his mouth shut. we don't need your opinon and if we had really ordered too much we can always take away. stupid asshole. i think its so stupid to queue for so long and order only 4 items!
tim hou wan is just a street away from ladies street so we shopped as we walked towards Mongkok Centre....
i got my cute hello kitty frames!
we walked down the ladies street over to Mongkok Centre at Argyle Street area.
again, i shopped with much refrain!! clothes have always been my zhi ming shang for shopping and this time round, i restricted myself to not buy so much! so as a result, for this whole trip, i end up buying loads of earrings instead.. which was good also coz they are lighter to carry! haha
we arranged to meet back at the hotel to put down our shopping... which is again just a stone's throw away from the mongkok centre.
and we were told we can actualy help ourselves to the drinks in the fridge. although it says 2 bottles each, its actually free flow! haha.. and they have a variety of drinks! water, tea, beer, soda....
tried my luck with the receptionist to see if they have another room available. he showed me room 6.. and it was much bigger than our original room 11. i requested for a change immediately. its slightly more expensive at HKD$580 but well worth the money...
we were both happy with the change!
met up with Oka and Eva again who told us they want to bring us to Tu Gua Wan. on the bus, Eva also told me we can drop one stop earlier to walk around the Japan street. apparently this street has a story. it started off with one shop and the owner was at a point of being very broke. but this owner is a man with very good networking skills. it was during a period of economic crisis and the landlord was nice enough to offer 6 months rental free. so owner came along slowly built up by buying more shops along the same stretch and decorating it like its in japan....
we took a series of pictures along this street but didnt dine inside. we did see the servers carrying boat shaped sashimi.. looks damn good!
along the way passed by a pet shop ...
Oka bought us fried fish skin!
i love their fried fish skin! very yummy! crispy and a little salt.. yums!
and as we walked as we walked..
Eva warned us about walking through a dark dirty path....
and here we are!
G/F, 86 Lok Shan Road, To Kwa Wan
u get to choose the seafood live...
and they have both steamboat and BBQ. They call steamboat da bin lou and they use charcoal for the BBQ and the steamboat!
its all so exciting for myself and wendy. and hong kong is a great place for such things. the weather is soooo good unlike here in singapore. i think in singapore, before we start eating, we would have started perspiring already!
the charcoal they use...
the meat oka ordered...
the bottom right is drunken chicken. to be added into the steamboat later.
the seafood....
the seafood is damn good too! they have clams and bamboo clams and shells and huge oysters!
they always have fish roe!!
and this ....
initially, oka and eva didnt want to tell us what it is.. later she told us this is something which contains the sperm for the chicken or something and i must say, this is damn good. it almost burst into water when u put it in your mouth!
and check out the super huge prawns!!
and super divine yummy soup!!
its herbal and with the drunken chicken added in, the soup was SO DARN GOOD!!
finish eating the clams first and use the shells as a dish to cook the fish roe...
the fish roe is also really good!
really appreciate Oka and Eva for such a wondeful meal!
and it was great having them around because they can open up their mobile as hotspot for us to tap onto their wifi! so we could watsapp and surf facebook like we're in singapore!
i found a mini crab in my huge clam!!
the food here is damn good! and the whole meal came up to about HKD$1300 which is about SGD $216. not expensive considering its very fresh seafood and we had loads to eat AND ITS VERY YUMMY!
cheers!!
wendy's friend Zoie happened to be in hong kong for a business trip for one night as well so she joined us for dinner...
and Zoie and Wendy actually got to know hong konger during their phuket trip previously and he came to join us too.....
and actually, wendy and oka got to know each other along the streets of singapore when oka was asking for directions. so yeah, they are all strangers turned friends from different countries! my cousin is such a friendly person!
Oka and Eva highlighted to us that dinner tonight will be two places. after the very yummy steamboat and bbq, we headed over to Man Kou Fu.
G/F No. 14 Kai Ming Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
For reservations and directions, can call Bang Wong 2303-0978
they have their self made wine...
we tried their plum wine...
it was good. like choya but a little sweeter.
cheers!
and according to Eva, their speciality here is the hua diao wine steamed flower crab...
the wine was potent and strong!
they recommended having it with the udon..
the udon should be mixed with the sauce. i really liked their udon texture. its apparently self made. its very Q. the sauce was a little too strong for my liking though.
but the crab with the sauce was very good. luckily we had zoie who helped to polish off most of the crab coz the rest of us were pretty full.
centure egg with some spicy cuttle fish and sauce on top...
pan fried eel...
the eel was not bad. crispy on the outside yet soft inside.
after dinner, we headed for drinks near tsim sha tsui....
i gave the drinks a miss coz i was damn full and damn sleepy ... was sooooooooooo sian when wendy ordered a third round of drinks coz actually most of us were dead tired already.. sob my cousin is an alcoholic!!
we finally called it a night at around 2 plus 3 am... and we actually need to be in zhuhai early in the morning..
and as we reached the hotel, we realised that wendy's mobile is with Zoie.. we were all too tired to think and decided to arrange again the next day.
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