Hong Kong Day 2

I think I have lost track of everything already! So much has happened already. It is hard to believe that it is already the end of Sunday here and coming onto Monday.

(Happy Fathers' Day too, by the way!)

We are currently staying at the Ramada in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is in the heart of many tourist spots and shopping in Hong Kong. The hotel is an old one and, therefore, has rather small rooms but is good enough, considering that we are out all day and only come back at 10 or 11 pm to clean up and sleep. The room has two twin beds pushed together to make it look like a large full or queen bed occupies the small space. The bed is rather hard, but we can still sleep fine in them. They give you a fruit basket (apple, orange, bananas) and some water. A small refrigerator and mini-bar is in the room as well, but drinks are for purchase (single-serve Bacardi, whiskey, vodka...).

BBQ pork bun

Shrimp in fried tofu

Late Friday (6/14) morning, we got dim sum at Star Seafood Restaurant near Amoy Plaza. For all these meals with my BF's family, I just let the adults do all the picking, because I cannot speak or read Cantonese and the locals know what's best. The spread is always generous and quite tasty. Everything is served in the center and you can pick and choose as you please, allowing you to eat as much or as little as you want. The two twos are the same as before: Ti Kuan Yum and Pu-erh.

Steamed meat and bitter melon rice

I got to meet the grandparents on my BF's dad's side of the family that day. Another aunt joined us. It's cool how fun the Hong Kong people are. The family chats a lot over the food, laughing and chatting away. The food may be in the center, but is only a side to the experience of people's company. The family always jokes around and even gets the waiters to join in the laughter. It's a truly jolly time.

Afterward, we went to Salon di Beauty (near Hollywood Plaza, I think) to get our hair done. This salon was recommended by BF's mom's sister. BF's mom and I got are hair permed (permanent curls) while BF and BF's brother got their hair trimmer. BF got a new style that I like, in addition to his usual haircut. I really like my new curls. This salon did really well, but I should hope so because the treatment took about 4 hours to complete. They even have really crazy looking machines inside to hot air dry your hair, or heat your curls, and such.

Once my hair was done, the boys and I wandered in the small plaza of the salon. We went into the Circle K (or is it "OK"?) convenient store and we got Vitasoy soymilks and cola candy. The Hong Kong people have such a wide selection of cola-flavored candies. I have to admit, these are pretty good. BF also got some curry fish balls and egg tarts from the little bakery next door. Pretty tasty, but the egg tarts were just decent (as he reports).

Finally, we went off to explore the mall. We wandered up and down, I got some new Reeboks (not much cheaper than in America, but I really liked the color and the feel of the shoes), looked at a couple bakeries.

Egg tart cup!

Asian savory baked goods

We went into a bookstore and I luckily found a cookbook in both Canto and English! It has a load of Canto dishes that I definitely want to learn and try out when I return to the US. The author is food blogger: Christine Ho from Christine's Easy Recipes.  Some highlights include  BBQ pork, egg tarts, shredded pork noodles. I am very excited and happy about this book.

 We got some snacks in the mall as well. There was this one bakery selling good looking egg tarts. One of them was an egg white tart. Highly intrigued, I got one. The BF said this one was really good, and by just looking, I could tell it was. I ate my egg white tart and was in heaven. The crust was buttery and slightly crumbly. It was also thin so that you get a lot of the egg filling. The egg white filling was light, fluffy, not too runny, perfectly sweet. It was the best egg tart I've ever had. I seriously want to go back and get some more.

After wandering down the mall, we stumbled upon the BF's favorite dessert place: Hui Lau Shan. We got the trio sampler.

The first is mango ice cream with fresh mango and some kind of jelly. The second is mango puree with fresh mango and tapioca balls. The third is fresh mango with mango flavored and filled mochi rolled in sweetened coconut flakes. They used sweet mangoes and everything was good. The curry platter in the background was standard packaged stuff and was fine. Tasty but standard, just like the instant House Curry stuff you can get in the supermarket. It comes with fish balls, white radish, and octopus/squid.

Cute cartoon candies at snack shop

BF looking at single-serving jerky in snack shop

They have a music store in the mall. I went inside and was enamored by the gorgeous pianos. It felt so good to brush the keys with my fingertips again and hear the full and beautiful resonating sounds come forth as I depressed the keys. I pulled out a piano book of 50 favorite songs and tried to play some. I want the book so bad. One song I tried was "Eye of the Tiger".

 There were so many amazing things I saw. Every thing and place was new to me and amazing and enticing. Hong Kong is really the City of Asia!

More excitement and pictures of the next days to come!