7NNT25: Day 29 – Hong Kong

Soundtrack: “Kong Foo Sing”, Regurgitator

Monday, time to wander, eat, shop.

I’m not sure when the last time I managed close to 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep on this trip, but last night my body got the memo and came to the slumber party. I still felt tired when I work, but less tired than some mornings, maybe it was all the sichuan pepper coursing through my veins.

I was alert enough this morning that breakfast was a no-brainer, and I chose a different place a little further away from the hotel that was similarly reviewed. I think it’s a travel dilemma: do you go to the same place again because it was good, or do you try somewhere new because you’ve got a very finite time here and want to try everything? This morning there was no dilemma: yesterday’s dim sum place isn’t open Mondays (I found a few places don’t open Mondays here, not sure if it’s a standard thing, like museums in Germany). The first sign that today’s dim sum was going to be good was the general disinterested service: if a place has been open for many years and the service is average, you’re either dealing with a front for organised crime or a place with really good food. New Hing Fat Dim Sum is definitely the latter (maybe the former too, for all I know, but definitely the latter. They brought my pot of tea and a small bowl of hot water, which confused me, especially when they took it away after I poured some tea and squirted my hands with sanitiser. It was only later when I heard a noise at another table that I worked it out, it’s something often done here, where customers will wash their own bowl, cup, and spoon in the hot water before they eat, I remembered reading about it. I looked at the customer doing exactly this and smiled, she had probably seen my confusion earlier and was enjoying showing me how it’s done, having a joke with the server I think. File under remember for next time. My food came out one at a time: first the pork and prawn har gow, delicately wrapped and delicious; then the prawn rice flour rolls, which were wonderful and just like back home; and finally the sui mai that contained a quail egg, also delicious. I even liked the jasmine tea, it wasn’t the bitter brew often found elsewhere. Total was $101 HKD, and fortunately I had the $1 as I think the staff would have stabbed me rather than give me change from a $500 HKD note (as it was they looked long at the note to make sure it was legit).

Catching a Hong Kong tram is pretty easy: you climb aboard at the back, going through a turnstyle, then take a seat either upstairs or down. I didn’t see any mechanism to signal for a stop, I think they just halt at every stop on the route. To leave the tram you wait for a stop, then pay $3.30 ($0.65 AUD) on the way out, cash to driver, Octopus card (seems to be a public transport card but is also accepted at a number of stores, if I was staying longer I’d have a closer look), or a tap with the credit card. Like most trams, they aren’t fast, but on a sunny day they are better than walking.

I got off near Hong Kong park so I could do my token movie geeking, visiting the location of the skate park chase from City Hunter. The place used for the skate park has undergone a few changes, and is now called Olympic Square, and had some Olympic rings added, but the rest looks about the same. I followed the path of the chase, pausing as it would have taken me through a couple’s wedding photos as there’s a nearby marriage registry. While I’m sure Jackie Chan could have pulled it off, the large sweaty white guy wasn’t likely to. At a suitable moment I snuck through, offering my congratulations to the happy couple, before heading further down the chase path. Something about it wasn’t looking quite right until I realised the scenes were shot from the other direction. I’m also guessing some other movie making magic went into creating the chase, as the path wasn’t very long at all. It was fun to do, something different to my usual travels.

After a break at the hotel it was time to head out and tick a few more things off the to-do list, including a bunch more souvenirs. This time I went to the “ladies market”, not because they have ladies for sale but because it was traditionally the market for buying women’s apparel and things. Nowadays it’s less of that, and more souvenirs, electronics, and other random bits and pieces, the only main difference to the Temple night market appears to be the lack of food stalls. Apparently the market streets get closed to traffic in the evening, so occasionally vehicles will drive through the middle. Today a fire engine decided to have a go, so it crawled between the stall, with stall holders casually clearing any part of their shop that protruded into the street. I have no idea why the fire engine went through the market rather than any of the other parallel streets, but there it was.

Noodle 10.1: Jook-Sing (Kwan Kee Noodles)

A couple of MTR stops away from the ladies market is Kwan Kee Noodles, one of the few remaining shops making and selling traditional jook-sing noodles. Jook-sing noodles are a wheat noodle, the dough is pretty much wheat flour and egg, and they are then kneaded flat by bouncing a thick bamboo pole on them in a see-saw type manner. It seems that few vendors these days have the sense of fun it obviously takes to do this. The end result are an elastic, thin, chewy noodle which are then served with a coating of dried prawn roe. Or, at Kwan Kee, if you take the “Boss Lady’s Choice” (that’s what the actual menu item is called, and when I asked the boss lady for a recommendation she pointed straight at it) you also get prawns, crab roe wanton, and two shrimp roe dumplings. The noodles are amazing, to have elasticity and texture, yet so thin. The wanton and the dumplings were also divine, full-flavoured filling, there were a couple of older ladies in the shop making these by hand while I ate, and I couldn’t help but smile and and compliment.

Noodle 10.2: Either Shrimp Roe Noodles or Jook-Sing (Lau Sum Kee)

Not too far away, but far enough that I’d be able to at least digest a little, was another noodle shop that does things the old way. One of the challenges about trying to go deep into noodles is the language barrier, another are quasi-reliable sources. At one point in my reading I’m pretty sure people were talking about hand-made noodles that contained shrimp row as an ingredient, and they listed Lau Sum Kee as a place that does this. However, other sources talk about the shrimp roe aspect as being what they are covered in after cooking, and they list Lau Sum Kee as a place that does this. And I don’t even want to start digging into if the noodles that might contain roe are still technically jook-sing, or have another name. So I’m not sure if the noodles I had here were made with shrimp roe, or just served with it. The noodles themselves did appear a little darker than those at Kwan Kee, but otherwise were fairly similar, the shrimp roe a little more pungent, but a very wonderfully tasting plate of noodles.

So very full of noodles, I started wandering in the general direction of the markets, including through an area that must be the fashion district, lots of shops with piles of fabric swatches stuck to the outside of their windows.

I almost never go into food franchises when I travel — I made the exception for Jollibee as it’s a weird-Philippine exception and now I can have a conversation with pretty much every Filipino on the planet. I certainly don’t visit the colonel, the king, or the clown (nor the bell), not for food, maybe if I need a clean toilet. Today I visited the clown. There’s one right opposite my hotel that I’ve been avoiding, though I was amused that near the front entry was a little stall selling durian. Walking past another today I noticed there was the same stall, and on closer inspection it’s actually part of the franchise, and they’re selling durian sundaes, I’m guessing outside the main store for those sensitive folk who don’t like durian interfering with the stagnant greasy aroma of their beef patties and special sauce. So I had to try one — I’ve been taking it easy with the durian this trip, while I love it, there is a definite repeating tendency so moderation is the key, but I couldn’t pass up getting durian from the clown, just such a wonderful clash of worlds. Sadly, the sundae is just a cup full of soft serve with a big scoop of durian pulp on top. It was nice, but as to be expected, not the best durian I’ve ever had. It wasn’t like the durian was combined in the soft serve, or if there was caramel topping or anything like that. So while it was okay, I feel there’s an opportunity there to go bigger.

Then it was train back to the hotel to start packing all the souvenirs away. Ferry to Macau tomorrow.