HK photoblog mid-June

First set of photos are taken in Lan Fong Yuen, Central, HK Island. The famous HK Milk Tea is shown (both hot and cold versions - having tried them, they're really milky sweet. Not with condensed milk, just fresh milk and sugar.) We also ate Chicken chop rice, Chicken chop noodles, and Macaroni in tomato stew with pork chop. I had the Chicken chop noodles. Nice, but nothing to shout about imho. Story about LFY is that it was in danger of having to move away from it's existing premises until the loyal customers rallied and helped to raise funds to secure rental or ownership of the shop. We ate at the "new" branch, few doors away from the original branch. Anyway i'm not too clear about the history, just remember bits and pieces from what my friends told me :P

Next set of photos are taken in Hui Lau San dessert shop. First photo shows bird's nest thong sui with fruit salad, Second photo shows coconut slivers in mango puree with side of fruit salad, and Third photo shows Mango pudding with fruit salad (top left) and Mango pudding with mango puree and sorbet (bottom right). I had the Mango pudding with mango puree and sorbet...let's say it was an overdose of mango. Besides mango-centric desserts, they do serve other types of hot and cold desserts too, and the chain branch where we had these is in Mongkok.

Photoblog #4 - Dim sum brunch in Shenzhen

After the walkabout in Hong Hu Garden, this was where me and my colleagues headed to for brunch; New Star Seafood Restaurant. It came highly recommended by colleagues who ate there before.


Chrysanthemum tea. RMB6 per head. There was a better grade of chrysanthemum but it was RMB12 per head. Am no tea connoisseur so we chose the cheaper grade. haha.


Pork porridge and "lor bak" cake (white radish cake?). Both were nicely scented with the aromatic smell and flavour of pork. YUM.



Some kind of char siew bao...but not the steamed or baked variety. This one came in a proper sticky bun. Not my favourite.



Custard bao...the piping hot filling spurted out a little when we opened the bao. Haha. Custard was savoury and fragrant. Best eaten hot.


Siu mai. Moist, flavourful, succulent pork topped with some fish roe in normal wantan wrapper. Also best eaten steaming hot.



Har Gow. This was a DISAPPOINTMENT. Looked so promising from the outside, smelt delicious, but one bite into it revealed less than firm/crunchy prawns. Not sure if it was the over-steaming or use of less than freshly caught prawns that made the difference. Prefer HK (and even Malaysian) Har Gow. Will try to have a HK dim sum photoblog sometime soon.



Dan Tat @ Egg tart. Filling was creamy, smooth, egg custardy and altogether tantalizing to the tastebuds. However, the skin/pastry was oily and slightly overpowered the delicate texture of the egg custard. Prefer the egg tart in HK (refer to recent post).


And...the result of the brunch? Empty plates and cups, full stomach, and the damage was only RMB 95. That's about RM 48. For the 7 dishes, not too bad i guess. But a weekend surcharge did apply on the bill, so it could have been cheaper if we went on a weekday morning.

If i were to rate the place, it would get 7/10 for food quality, 8/10 for service, 7/10 for ambience. It wasn't that easy to find the place, but after some searching, we found it. Just head to Shenzhen Metro (Dongmen) Lao Jie Station, Exit A. Come out, and look for the Holiday Villa Hotel. The entrance is somewhere around there. Can't miss it.

Photoblog #3 - Hong Hu Gardens, Shenzhen

Went with colleagues (they like taking pictures, have DSLRs, etc etc) to a local park in SZ, and armed with my new Samsung (yes, Samsung...i don't believe i bought a Samsung, but for the price...can't find anything like it in Malaysia. Panasonic and Sony are far too expensive in China.) 12.4Mpix digicam...i went along. And saw water lotus...not exactly my favourite activity, but got to spend time getting to know my colleagues. And managed to get some pictures, poetic or not. I particularly like the shot of the pink lotus, standing tall in the water. Can even see the reflection/shadow of the flower on the water surface. And a pic of me is shown too (photo taken down because i'm photo-lergic. So sue me.heheh). The Samsung digicam has 2 LCD screens, one in front and the normal at the back. Helps with self-portraits, thats for sure.

More updates coming soon, since i'm able to blog from within the Great (Fire)Wall of China. Yay! :)