Five Guys Olympian City (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We've been talking about the lack of exercise for the past 2.5 years while we live with the pandemic. Since the turn of the year, we have tried hard to create as much exercise for ourselves as possible. This month, we even put a self-imposed ban on taking public transportation during the weekend to get our feet moving more. This included an hour-long walk from home to Olympian City on a Sunday afternoon.

When we were still trying to catch our breath, little one was already storming over to Five Guys looking for his favorite milkshake. 

Five Guys' mushroom burger is one of the most filling hamburgers available in town. I have always liked it much more than Shake Shack's.

The double-deck beef patty was again very juicy today (sorry about the presentation, it was messy!) and the fact that we could add as much ingredients as we possibly could, made it even more appealing.

Little nugget thought he had his favorite vanilla shake but I accidentally passed him my salted caramel shake without neither of us noticing the difference. But let's be honest about it, their peanut butter shake is hands down the most decadent flavor of the bunch. 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop UG03, UG/F, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Olympic

Tel: +852 3616-0493

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily

Tin Lung Heen 天龍軒 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I promised mom I'd treat her to a scrumptious abalone feast as a token of appreciation for her hospitality during my 3-week stay. Almost at the same time, I came across a seasonal abalone indulgence menu at one of her favorite restaurants, Tin Lung Heen (天龍軒). Timing just couldn't be better. At least, that was the case at the time.

But when I rang mom up last night reminding her of our get-together, she decided to chicken out at the last minute. To her defense, she hasn't been dining out, well for a long long time. In fact, she's one of those who have followed the government's advice very closely by not dining out during the outbreak of Omicron. How could I not leave her alone? Fortunately, Jelloman was kind enough to be my partner in crime this afternoon as mom's replacement.   

I hated the weather in the past two weeks. Very very humid with dark skies starting early in the morning and throughout the day. It reminded me so much of the fall weather in Vancouver. Things got slightly better today with a little bit of sunshine (but not nearly enough) but still fairly foggy, even a hundred and two floors up.

As always, we were started off with two of Chef Lau's signature items.

Barbecued pork with osmanthus flower honey (桂花蜜汁叉燒) – The two pieces of barbecued pork were both really big today. I almost had to ask for a knife and a fork. 

These were again really tender and succulent. The glaze with osmanthus flower honey right on the money. The best part of all, I didn't have to share them with little nugget.

Steamed turnip cake and preserved meat topped with fish maw in XO chili sauce (XO 醬花膠蘿蔔糕) – I really like the texture of the steamed turnip cake today. Not too custardy and yet not too soft and wobbly. And there was just enough heat from the XO chili sauce to spice things up. 

Double-boiled pork shin soup with fish skin and ladybells (沙參公魚皮燉豬腱) – I am a big fan of Chef Lau's double-boiled soup. It never disappoints. 

Today's double-boiled pork shin soup came with these fish skin that looked a lot like "cheung fun" (腸粉). It got this really interesting texture that almost reminded me of Chinese yam (淮山). Most importantly, it worked really well with the sweetness of the broth and pork shin. Quite frankly, it's their soup that always brings me back here. 

Pan-fried scallop with red bell pepper served with crispy rice cracker (紅甜椒窩粑煎帶子) – The Hokkaido scallops were pan-fried to absolute perfection.

I thought the homemade rice cracker (窩粑) provided the perfect match for the scallops with its lovely crunch and the red bell pepper purée delivered a sublime finish with a brilliant sweet and sour note.

Wok-fried Chinese kale with ginger sauce (薑汁炒芥蘭) – Some veggies before the main course.

Braised Australian abalone (6 heads) served with conpoy fried rice (6頭澳洲鮑魚伴瑤柱炒飯) – Here comes the main event.

I didn't expect such a generous portion of braised Australian abalone. This was really nice and tender. 

Of course I had to send mom a photo of this to get her jealous. 😝

Sweetened black glutinous rice soup with Tari in coconut sauce (椰漿香芋紫米露) – I almost didn't have room for dessert but as people always said, we have a second stomach for dessert. I like this a little better than the usual mango cream with sago and pomelo (which is more suited for the summer I think). In a cool and humid day like today, I needed something heart-warming like this.

Deep-fried egg pastry with yuzu honey (柚子蜜糖黃金卷) – The mochi was again very good. The rest, well.......

I am so glad I ended up coming here despite mom's absence. It's my first-ever abalone experience at Tin Lung Heen and it almost blew me away. Almost. Definitely worth a return visit based on the bargain price. 

Food Rating: 7.5/10
Price: $$$$
Address: 102/F, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, International Commerce Centre, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon
Tel: +852 2263-2270
Website: www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/china/hong-kong/dining/tin-lung-heen
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 6:00pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Fri), 11:30am - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:30pm (Sat - Sun) 

Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel Harbour City 當文歷餅店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Finally, I gotta meet my hair stylist after nearly two months. In between those two months, I became a part-time half stylist (only for myself) and almost made a second career out of it. Of course, my hair stylist and I made a big laugh out of the whole saga and he made fun of my work (my hair-do) which I knew wasn't ideal but hey, I was just doing millions of Hongkongers did last month and that's cutting my own hair in front of a mirror.

After my haircut, I went over to Harbour City to check out the newly launched New York Collection (當文歷漫遊紐約) at Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel (當文歷餅店). Surprisingly, there was a modest lineup in front so I knew I had to act fast before the new collection was all gone.

This was not the first time that it happened. Everything just fell apart when I transported them home and I thought I did a heck of a job. They must do something with their packing or else they better make sure that the pastries stick to the card board on the bottom. This was simply a mess!

I did my best to put these back together.

Siu Mai (燒賣) - Something they brought back from the dead which does not belong to the New York Collection. 

I had these a couple of times before. It's a combination of milk chocolate mousse, pear gelée, moist flourless chocolate biscuit and crispy chocolate feuilletine. Now, I have always enjoyed the pairing of chocolate and pair in the past (not just here but everywhere) but this time, it didn't work cuz the chocolate was way too overpowering for us to taste the sweetness of pear. 

New York Slice (紐約披薩) – I randomly took two out of the four pastries in the new New York Collection, New York Slice and Bodega Coffee Cup Tiramisu while leaving Haute Dog and A Bite of the Big Apple for next time. But looks like luck wasn't on my side today.

The slice of “pizza” was actually a strawberry tart, with fromage blanc mousse, fresh sliced strawberries, strawberry basil jam, kirsch-soaked almond biscuit, and vanilla sablé. The fromage blanc mousse was obviously the key here but it was like having a milk custard without the cheesy flavors.

Bodega Coffee Cup Tiramisu (咖啡杯) – Slightly better was the coffee cup.

A nod to those iconic blue coffee cups at the corner bodega, in fact it was their modern take on a classic tiramisu.

This came with espresso and Kahlua-soaked almond biscuit, mascarpone cream and 66% dark chocolate mousse. The white chocolate “lid” on top was pretty cute.

Like always, these are just way too cute to eat. Fortunately this time though, they look much better than they really taste.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop OT G63A, G/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3-27 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2613-8618
Website: www.dangwenli.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Lung King Heen 龍景軒 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I got an unexpected call from Lung King Heen (龍景軒), the famed Chinese restaurant at Four Seasons Hotel two days ago asking me to re-confirm my table for today. Then my memories started to come back. Yeah, I have made a booking there a while ago!

It's been more than a decade since I last visited the first Chinese restaurant to win three Michelin stars in the world. Of course, there's a reason behind my deliberate absence in the past 10 years (check that 12 to be exact). Let's just say that I thought the three stars were a little too generous from the Michelin brass. 

I was hoping for some good weather this morning but it just wasn't meant to be.

In fact, I could recall my times dining at different restaurants in the hotel that the weather was always dismal. I could only hope that the food here would be more memorable than today's weather.

Starting things off was a small amuse, sweet and sour bean curd.

Steamed shrimp dumplings with bamboo shoots (筍尖鮮蝦餃) – Lung King Heen always has a rotating list of about 10 to 12 dim sums on their menu. I won't call the list very extensive but there are some really good finds including their steamed shrimp dumplings. 

Very lovely bouncy texture from the shrimps and nice crunch from the bamboo shoots. Solid start.

Steamed shrimp and pork dumplings with Yunnan ham (腿蓉蒸燒賣) – The har gow was immediately followed by a pair of delicate siu mai.

Love the fragrance from the Yunnan ham on top of the steamed dumplings.

Steamed vegetable dumplings with sweet corn (甘栗雜菌餃) – This came with fillings of diced vegetables, black fungus and sweet corn. While the bite was pretty nice, the only thing I could taste was the sweetness of the sweet corn.

Baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken (原隻鮑魚雞粒酥) – One of the restaurant's signature dim sum with a braised abalone sitting on top of a buttery puff.

This certainly wasn't bad. The abalone was very tender but a little less flavorful than I first anticipated.

Steamed lobster dumplings with water chestnut and coriander (香茜馬蹄龍蝦餃) – Another house specialty around here.

While the dumpling was absolutely packed with lobster meat, I thought the flavors were again more on the light side. The water chestnut and coriander did their parts in adding more textures into the mix but provided very little in terms of flavors to bring out the best in the lobster.

Baked barbecued pork buns with pine nuts (崧子叉燒菠蘿包) – These came piping hot as if they just came straight out of the oven.

The crispy bun meshed really well with the barbecued pork and the pine nuts surprised me with the additional texture.  

Crispy noodles with prawns and scallops (蝦球帶子炒麵) – Something never gets old! Like this old-school recipe of crispy noodles. 

These were finished off with a flavorful sauce along with prawns, scallops, mushrooms, carrots and kale on top. Very addictive.

We didn't order desserts but there was the complimentary sweet treat from the kitchen to send us home with a sweet ending. I thought the cookie with lotus seed paste really tasted a lot like a mini mooncake (and I am a sucker for traditional mooncakes!) but more successful was the wolfberry red date jelly (紅棗杞子糕) providing exactly what we needed to refresh our palate.

Surprisingly, a meal here didn't cost me an arm and a leg the way I thought it would. That was the good part. But something seems to be missing throughout this long anticipated lunch. I was searching for the right words and I guess, it's the wow factor. While the ingredients were top notch and the cooking was masterful, there was no wow factor from start to finish. Everything was just very very good but from a restaurant of its statue, we were really expecting far more than just very good.  

Food Rating: 7/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Level 4, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central / Hong Kong

Tel: +852 3196-8880

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily

S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 47th (2021)

Lucullus Cacao D2 Place (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We are going to spend the rest of our Sunday afternoon at home following some pretty good exercise walking over to Kam Shan Country Park (金山郊野公園). And no, I am not going to be satisfied with just a bag of chips for the afternoon. I needed more than that to get myself through the afternoon. With that in mind, I decided to venture over to Lucullus Cacao at D2 Place to see what they have in store for me. 



Yuzu Chocolate Mousse Cake – I have been here on a couple of occasions for their cruffins but never had the chance to check out their chocolate cakes. Better late than never right?

The chocolate mousse was pretty decent but according to our little foodie, the yuzu was a little on the strong side. 

60% Dark Chocolate Earl Grey Mousse Cake – I had their earl grey cake cuz I love anything with tea flavors!

Underneath the marble mirror glaze was layers of fragrant earl grey mousse, mixed with a bit of rich dark chocolate mousse, finished off with a base of sponge cake and crispy hazelnut chocolate.

The earl grey mousse was pretty delicate but I thought the dark chocolate did very little to complement the richness of tea flavors. 

As much as I have tried, I couldn't get the lighting right tonight. So the background of these photos looked very inconsistent which absolutely pissed me off.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop V1, G/F, D2 Place One, 9 Cheung Yee Street, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 3481-7750

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 8:00pm (Mon - Fri), 10:00am - 8:00pm (Sat - Sun)

Sinsa-dong Bathhouse 新沙洞澡堂 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Following a brief stay at Kam Shan Country Park (金山郊野公園), we ventured back to civilization looking for some takeaway lunch to take back home. A few weeks ago, I read about this Korean cafe called Sinsa-dong Bathhouse (新沙洞澡堂) in Cheung Sha Wan which has been drawing rave reviews since its soft opening. Knowing how addicted Jelloman is to Korean food, I knew for sure that I wasn't going to get any objection from her for getting lunch there.

Despite the relatively high number of new infections reported in recent weeks, there was no sign of business slowing down for this new cafe. 

It sure feels like I am in Sinsa-dong right now.

I had the pleasure of watching their chefs work behind the scene and he's working on one of the cafe's signature dessert, tiramisu croffle which is a hybrid of croissant and waffle. 

This is what it would look like when it's finished. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult to have it to go so perhaps, next time.

    (Photo credit: IG account of Sinsa-dong Bathhouse)

A very interesting take-away box for my Korean fried chicken.

Korean bibimbap – All of their take-away sets seem to come with this Korean bibimbap, or mixed rice.  

I tried to plate this properly but hey, what do I know about Korean food!?

Korean fried chicken – While the Korean bibimbap was nothing worth writing home about, the fried chicken gave me something to look forward to with my next visit. These were very nice and crispy; and if I am not mistaken, there was a nice hint of yuzu in there to give the chicken some lovely fragrance.

For $108, I thought the lunch set was a little expensive for what we were getting but I guess it's a good way to whet our appetite for Korean food before travel (to Seoul) resumes hopefully by the end of this year!

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop A1, G/F, Wing Fat Court, 506-510 Fuk Wing Street, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Cheung Sha Wan

Tel: +852 2666-6881

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily

Little Monster is finally back~~~

Little nugget is finally back! I have to admit, I miss him jumping all over the place at home. Our apartment was getting a little too quiet at times so I think it's time to welcome him back with open arms. 

With little one back, our first order of business to start the weekend was a morning hike to Kam Shan Country Park (金山郊野公園). At least that was the plan but by the time we actually got started, it was almost noon time.

To reach the "Golden Hill", we had to first climb an array of weird-looking staircases (Caritas Medical Centre on the left here).

Before we finally reached an area full of Buddhist temples. 

Moments later, we hit Tai Po Road, a very busy main road with lots of traffic. That was when we started running into all these monkeys. They don't call this place Monkeys Hill (馬騮山) for nothing, and we aren't even close to Kam Shan (金山) yet.

Not surprisingly, the monkeys are not really afraid of humans. Some of them even jumped on top of running cars. That looked scary (for the drivers, not the monkeys!).

After almost an hour, we finally arrived at Kam Shan Country Park.

Little nugget immediately started running around with his friend.

It was a bit hazy this morning and looked like it was about to rain. But we were going to enjoy this together, as a family! Heck, it's been so long since we did something together as a family.

Very peaceful but about to get violent with heavy rain coming our way.

This Kowloon Reservoir Dam (九龍水塘水壩) looked deserted for years. Well, so much for us trying to soak up the vibe here; it's time to find a place to hide from the heavy rain that's coming fast and furious.

I don't know if it's just me but I thought the sense of togetherness within our family grew a little since our great escape more than 3 weeks ago. A couple of nights ago, Jelloman told me that little one asked why we had to separate as a family while we were doing our self-quarantine. And when he was told that daddy needed to do it on his own because daddy didn't want to pass the virus onto him (but daddy turned out to be clean!), he shook his head in disagreement. When he was asked why he disagreed, he told Jelloman that "we are a family so we need to face this together.". That was so sweet, from a very wise kid.