Shake Shack Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I am not a big fan of waking up early on the second day of new year (年初二) but it's little nugget's birthday. He turns six today.

We are not doing much of a celebration this year. With the current social distancing regulations and soaring number of cases, we are just going to chill out at the West Kowloon Art Park. We are splitting our team in two initially; everybody else goes to the park first while yours truly goes to get some lunch at Elements Mall.

It's around 11:30am and Shake Shack was still pretty empty. Yeah, it's the second day of New Year so everyone sleeps in.

While I was getting lunch, the birthday boy already arrived at M+. 

A pretty hazy day. I hope it's not raining soon.

Surprisingly, the park was empty without a soul. Almost. So, we could set up anywhere we like.

I could sit here all day (if the weather permits). Just an amazing view.

Time to bring out our birthday burgers. 

And fries.

I had the limited-time-only Peking Chicken burger myself. This came with a spicy Hoisin sauce which I thought was pretty nice.

The West Kowloon Art Park has been one of our favorite hideouts since the start of the pandemic. I can't imagine life without it. Everybody needs a breather once in a while. 

Happy birthday son! I hope it's a good one!

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 1005-1006, 1/F, Fire Zone, ELEMENTS, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station

Tel: +852 2719-8282

Website: www.shakeshack.com.hk

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 8:30pm (Mon - Thu), 11:00am - 10:00pm (Fri - Sun)

Gong Hei Fat Choy 2022

A pretty challenging Year of the Ox was finally in the books. I think everybody's new year resolution has probably something to do with the end of Covid-19. Like most families in Hong Kong, we didn't do much for Chinese New Year celebration. Instead of going out for dim sum, we decided to dine in instead.

Oh and this guy's birthday is coming up. He's going to be six tomorrow.

And no, the Spiderman birthday cake isn't my call. I have far better taste than that.

And please, no need to save me a slice. 😂 Gong Hei Fat Choy, everyone!!! 

Sing La 星怡 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

My half day of work on Chinese New Year's Eve is finally drawing to a close. Now, I can celebrate a bit with my little one. For weeks, we have not been eating out but Jelloman hinted that if we could find a place with very little people, we could lift the ban for our pre New Year celebration.

I figured iSQUARE would be pretty quiet and for the most part, that was the case (except the New Year Bazaar that was taking place in the atrium). I have heard of this new Singaporean restaurant called Sing La (星怡) there and since both Jelloman and I are huge Asian food junkies (for different reasons), I decided to take them over for an early dinner at 5:30pm. As expected, we were the only guests in the house!

Teh Tarik – The Malaysian pulled tea was a little on the light side.

Grilled satay – Their turnip cake was all sold out so this was our second choice for starter. I am normally more addicted to chicken satay but I thought the pork satay was equally good today. The chef was slightly heavy-handed with the spices but we were fine with that except for little one.

Beef Rendang rice – We haven't had these for a long time. 

I love having beef rendang with steamed rice. It's such a good match. The beef was pretty tender (though not melt in the mouth type like Monsoon's), and the curry, coconut all right on the spot. It was great to re-visit this dish again.

Stir-fried Malay shrimp noodles – I was pretty tempted to check this dish out. I am not a fan of laksa type of Asian-style noodle soup but stir-fried noodles with a spice kick were definitely right up my alley.

This was very tasty. The oil noodles really meshed well with the tangy sauce and egg omelette, and the fact that there were loads of ingredients there (mainly seafood like shrimps, squid, scallop etc.) certainly didn't hurt.

Butter kaya toast – Of course, we weren't leaving without having one of these. In my opinion, this was the weakest link of the meal. The kaya was supposed to be infused with pandan but there was no sign of it at all.

Now, it's time to go home and get ready for Chinese New Year!

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 303, 3/F, iSQUARE, 63 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2117-1300

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily