As we turned towards the lift, we got a shock! It was probably the lunch  crowd, but the queue going towards the lifts that would bring us up to the restaurants were a mile long. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but the queue was by no means short! In my life, I’ve never had to queue to get into a lift before. At least not such a long queue. For a moment, we contemplated if we should really go to Hunan Garden, but in the end, we decided we should. And Hunan Garden did not let us down. 

Hunan Garden Entrance

As we entered the restaurant, beautiful interior decor greeted us. The tableware were beautiful with motif of horses. As we looked closely, each plate has a different design of a horse. The silver teapot was reflecting the lights off the beautiful chandelier while the silverware were glistening in the light. For a moment, we felt utterly underdressed for the restaurant. We were like typical tourists in our shorts, tee, sandals, and backpack and felt really out of place at Hunan Garden. Every other customer were neatly dressed in suits and dresses. However, that did not deter us from our quest.

EAT! (we were super hungry after that long walk around Central).

We opened up the menu but our meal had been predetermined by my kiddo Shane, who had only one thing in mind.

“I want oodle!” he exclaimed.

So oodle it is. We ordered 3 bowls of noodles. Minced meat in spicy sauce, grilled eel and seafood noodle and so forth. Ordered some fried dumplings too. The taste? Excellent. The noodle texture? Soft and springy. It was absolutely wonderful. The broth from the grilled eel noodle was fabulous. Shane loved every bite of it. So did we.

Spicy minced meat noodle

Grilled Eel Noodles

Fried dumplings

The overall meal cost us only HKD$130. Not too pricey, but not exactly cheap as we only had 3 bowls of noodles, 1 plate of fried dumplings and chinese tea. But for the taste, Hunan Garden definitely deserved every cent. The service was excellent too.

We left the place feeling satisfied and happy. If you are ever around Times Square and can’t decide which place at Food Forum you want to go to, try Hunan Garden. You won’t regret it.

Address:
Hunan Garden Restaurant
13F, Times Square, Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tim Ho Wan - Queuing Up.

Call me exaggerated but Tim Ho Wan has the best dim sum I’ve ever tried. It’s worthy of the Michelin star. It’s a long wait. The restaurant (like a hole in the wall) is opened at 10am, but if you want to get a place to sit, be there by 915am – to queue. I was there at 920am and I was the last one to get a table when the door opened. If you missed the first batch of entry, you will have to wait until 1030am or so. And btw, it was a Thursday when I went.

While you are waiting, they will give you a menu chit where you just select the items you want to order. When you’ve gotten a table, quickly hand over the chit to them, or it could take a while longer to get your food.

Anyway, to get to Tim Ho Wan is very simple. Here it is:

Getting There

1. Take Exit A2 at Yau Ma Tei MTR station.
2. When you exit the station at street level, turn backwards to Pitt Street, which is like a few steps away. Turn right on Nathan Road. Landmark:, you will see  KFC/7-11 at this turn.
3. Walk until you see Bee Cheng Hiang on your right, then turn right into Dundas Street.
4. Walk down this road until almost the end of the road. You will come to a fork. Take left fork onto Kwong Fa Street. Tim Ho Wan is just a few doors away on your right. Opposite it is a carpark entrance.

Suggest items to order:

1. Pig liver cheung fan
2. Char siew pau
3. Beef meatballs
4. Lor bak kou
5. Teochew fun guo
6. Ham siu gok (deep fried glutinous rice dumpling)

Address:
Tim Ho Wan
G/F, Phase 2, Tsui Yuen Mansion,
2-20 Kwong Wa Street,
Mongkok

Opening hours: 10 am to 11pm.

Prior to leaving for Hong Kong, I have already done my research, browsed a bit and found out about a Prada outlet store called Space Warehouse in Ap Lei Chau, Hong Kong. I scoured the net for more information on how to get there and everything was rather iffy. I ended up spending 1 hour walking around Admiralty to find the bus that would take me there, and then ended up in Central also looking for the illusive bus.

So, I’m posting this to help all fellow Prada lovers find the place with as little hassle as possible.

You asked if it’s worth the trouble? The answer is Yes. This would be the best factory outlet store you can possibly visit in HK. Most items are about 45% off. I was only interested in Prada (bags, shoes, clothes, wallets, purses, etc) although there are Miu Miu stuff as well.

Getting There

1) Take the MTR to the Central MTR station.

2) Walk to the bus terminus at the basement of IFC (International Finance Centre) Mall. Kinda basement. The lower part of the building.

3) Take bus m590 to Ap Lei Chau. Sit on the right side of the bus.

4) It’s about almost 30 mins ride if I remember correctly. Once you cross the bridge, keep an eye out for the sign on the left side of the road that says South Horizon. Somewhere along Yi Nam street. Once you see it, ring the bell. If you miss it, it’s ok.

5) If you miss the first stop, look right. Soon, you will see the shop SPACE WAREHOUSE next to a yellow building which is the Marina Square East Market. There will be a 7-11 convenience store nearby as well. Now, ring the bell. The bus still go around the corner and stop a short distance away to the left. Get down, cross the street, and just simply walk back to Space Warehouse.

Space Warehouse

Address:
Space Warehouse
2/F, South Horizons Plaza (East Wing)
Ap Lei Chau, HK Island,
HK
Tel: +852 2814 9576

Happy shopping!

Some 9 mths back, I made a call to Domino’s to order a pizza for one of those rainy evenings. As it was my first time calling take out, I had to give them my details, e.g. phone number, address, name. The lady over the phone spoke good English; fluent and confident. When I gave her my name, I was extra careful as I know just how often it has been misspelt or mispronounced. However, I took for granted that since her English “sounded” impeccable, I assumed her spelling was OK too. So I gave her my name in a clear tone. She repeated it and it was fine.

When the pizzas arrived, everything was in order. We paid and the delivery guy left. We chomped down, and half way through the meal, I glanced at the box and out of habit, started reading the order slip… and I almost choked on my pizza….

Note: Not a great Order ID even… but I forgive her. It was Shrek season after all.

This came about when I was listening to a colleague (let’s call her J) rant about her dog’s birthday cake. How she ordered it from Singapore and specifically asking for vanilla flavor, then had to hand carry it back for him, to only discover that it was a wrong design and WORST, wrong flavor!! Oh the greatest of all crimes, the cake was strawberry flavored and the dog HATES fruit-based cakes. He’s a vanilla dog! The dog licked up the cream and spat out the strawberry cake.

J naturally went ballistic! Who dares treat her dog this way? She promptly called up the bakery, complaint about it to the owner, and managed to get a refund. Last I heard, she’s getting her dog a replacement cake to make up for his terrible experience and ruining his “birthday celebration”.

OK, I may have inserted too much sarcasm into that last paragraph, but that’s the story in totality. Naturally, I got a bit irked and could not resist throwing in a punch or two at her. I said, “Honestly, I feel it’s a sin to treat a dog better than a baby”. Why I said this was because this same Ms. J has told me many times that…

1. Babies should not be spoilt or treated so nicely 
2. Dogs must be treated better because they cannot fend for themselves (and babies could? duh!)
3. Dogs should be treated well because her dog saved her life before (and she added, “I doubt my child would ever give his/her life to save me, so why should I treat him/her as well as I treat my dog?)
4. Babies should be treated like animals so that they will grow up tough
5. The reason why we have kids is to have insurance for ourselves when we grow old, if not, what’s the point of having kids (she added)? Oh, and she thinks I must be the 0.01% of the world’s population who thinks that kids are not our insurance policies. For me, we are parents, it’s our responsibility to take care of our children. In the same way, when my son becomes a parent, it will be his responsibility to take care of his children and so forth. So when we look backwards, it is also our parents responsibility to care of us. Not merely give birth to us so that we will grow up, work, and give them money when they no longer work. I mean, I’m not saying I’m opposed to the idea of caring for the elders, of course not. My parents brought me up well to know that I’m to respect and care for them. But as a parent, it should NOT be their expectations. If my son grows up and does not make a lot for a living, I will understand and not pressure him to give me money from his meagre salary. If I’ve a major illness that will not heal without a lot of money, hell, I’ll go in peace rather than lay any burdens on my children.
6. When I’m old (she claims), my kid must take care of me and give me money and not throw me in an old folks’ home (I’ve got nothing against that, but that should not be the main reason why you have kids)
7. Kids can just wear pasar malam clothes (but dogs can have nice expensive items?)
8. The elders come first, kids next (this is in response to a question I threw her: I asked her, if you only have enough money to feed your baby for that particular month, who would you give that money to? Your mother or your baby? Who would you feed first? Without even thinking, she said “my mother”). Naturally, I was upset with that answer. How could anyone consider the mother before her own baby? Perhaps I’m selfish, because the only person that matters to me is my son. And if my mother is a good grandmother, she would ask me to feed my son first before her.  

But she doesn’t understand. Ms J is born with a silver spoon. I certainly don’t see her parents treating her like a dog, or buying her pasar malam clothes. She’s got the best of everything, so much so that I find her sadly spoilt, childish, and immature. It takes a certain kind of people to like her and accept her as a friend. I’ve known her for 2.5 years. Most times, I’ve tolerated her as I view her as a little girl. But this little girl is getting married in a matter of months, and she’s already at loose ends with the future sister in law and her idea of marriage is “as long as the guy is good to me and don’t whack me around, that’s all that matters”. Perhaps I’m a hopeless romantic, but where is love? I don’t hear it anywhere… definitely not when you go on dates and bring your mother along!

While I can only rant about her, at the end of the day, I know it’s all her decision. It’s getting difficult to maintain the friendship… but I’ve got to give it to her, she is a very good natured person and doesn’t hold grudges with her friends. She can sleep over it and by the next day, everything is the same again. Perhaps that’s why we debate over issues like these all the time. But for the sake of her kids, I hope she’s only saying all these NOW coz she’s not a parent yet. I’ve got a funny feeling when she’s a mother one day, her kids will be spoilt rotten… haha… I will see and hope to see that day!

I tell you, if I’ve taken a sharp object and poke a hole in the diaper, the “water” would gush out and drown me. I was tempted to take a picture of it and load it up, but I guess I shouldn’t gross you out.

This will be the 3rd time “celebrating” Christmas at KLCC. What I meant is… I’ve been working at the Twin Towers for quite a while, and this will be the third time seeing all the Christmas decorations going up at KLCC in December. And for the 3rd time, the center court is dwarfed by the gigantic Christmas tree that has become the trademark of KLCC Christmas decor. Yawn… the only thing that changes are the baubles, tinsels, bells, and the choice of colors for the theme of a particular year.

This year is as before. Same ol’ tree, same ol’ boring look. To make it different, there are actually “snow” at the top of the tree… for that white snowy feel I supposed. But really, it doesn’t have that feel at all!!! Actually it looked more like our “traditional” ice kacang with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Now, that’s a Malaysian Christmas tree for you!