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Motormouth From Ipoh

Monday, October 13, 2008

Hong Kong/Macau 2008 - Shopping in Shatin

Monday blues in full force. Let's reminisce on happier things in life. Let's continue on my September's Hong Kong/Macau getaway. (For the whole story, click HERE). Let's temporarily forget about the impending 4 days of mundane & routine work life.

FINALLY it rained. Heavily after sooooooo many days ....

A wet, gloomy and cloudy Friday morning. The rainfall was relished with utmost gratitude, washing away our phobia for scorching hot days, and extreme humidity levels. (Somehow, the heavens above must have emphatized with us, as the subsequent week saw heavy rain and typhoon in Hong Kong, a definite letdown for travelling on foot).

Breakfast at REALLY GOOD NOODLES & CONGEE (don't laugh, that IS their real name)

All 3 of them were armed with umbrellas. Silly me brought along 3 disposable raincoats. But to imagine wearing/stripping the coats everytime entering/exiting any premise. Slapping my forehead in disbelief, I unabashedly shared shelters. =P

And my poor sense of direction led us in circles, all the while splattered by the rain. Whoopsie. I was in fact searching for an outlet serving HUGE you tiao (yau char kwai/Chinese cruellers) paired with fresh soy milk. (But we succeeded the following morning though. Hehe, saving grace?) For today's breakfast, a rather highly rated cafe named, Really Good Noodle and Congee Restaurant, @ Shop C, G/F, 21 Soy Street, Mong Kok.

Famous for their Soy Sauce Fried King Noodles

Western Set of Fried Pork Chop, Bacon, Hash Brown and Toast, with Milk Tea

Pan-Fried Cheong Fun with Egg, Dried Shrimps, Soy sauce and Peanut sauce.

Food's generally good, the rice noodle rolls (Cheong Fun) stealing the limelight completely from the other noodle dishes. We ordered Seafood Porridge, 2 noodle soups, the Western Set and the Cheong Fun for a total of HKD86/RM38.70. Then we were off for some shopping.

New Town Plaza @ Shatin

For shopping, we followed the advice of a fellow Hongkie, or rather, a young man working at Dragon Hostel. Though shopping at Central/Causeway Bay is tempting, and much posh-er, the goods are considerably pricier than most outlets in other areas, as these places are mostly frequented by tourists.

Therefore, he suggested Shatin instead, where he claimed 7 shopping malls are within each's vicinity, and suitable for low-mid range clothings and accessories. Rest assured these are NOT the lowly (read : "La La") shopping malls selling fake Adidas or Quiksilver, by the way.

From Mong Kok East MTR, we took a train on the East Rail Line, to Shatin station for HKD4.90/RM2.20 per way.

Snoopy's World @ Level 3 of New Town Plaza

The cloudy yet cool weather was comforting, what's more with "Lucy In The Sky" sang by the PEANUTS characters at the background ....

New Town Plaza is a shopping centre right in the middle of Shatin, Hong Kong. Previously one of the biggest shopping centre in Hong Kong during the 80's, amazingly the plaza has not lost its lustre, yet regaining its sparkle with intense renovation works.

The place is connected to several other malls, and we scouted Citylink Plaza, Shatin Mall, and some other during the few hours we were "chilling" there. The retail outlets are far from being too high-ended, hence shopping was less taxing on the pockets. And there are MANY restaurants in the complex as well. The famous Maxim's Palace chinese restaurant is at Level 5 of the complex as well.

FAIRWOOD Restaurant - A famous chain of fast food restaurant in China and Hong Kong

Lunch was at a fast food chain branded Fairwood, a household name along the lines of Cafe de Coral and Maxim's MX.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger+Chicken Wings Set (HKD24/RM10.80) and Soy Sauce Chicken Set with Noodles (HKD30/RM13.50)

MBoy's Roast Duck Noodles (HKD25/RM11.25) was a "disaster", or so he claimed. The Soy Sauce Chicken Drumstick was good, but the accompanying noodles was too saltish, claimed TallGal. My Teriyaki Chicken Burger was tender and juicy, but the BBQ Chicken Wing was simply GREAT. Goes to show that ; thou shalt only eat fast food at fast food joint? :)

Geez, I forgot the name of these. But really good stuff from A1 Bakery in New Town Plaza

The above buns from A1 Bakery were really tasty. Chewy, a bit like a cross between mochi-bread, the buns come in various flavours. From chocolate to cheese,and milk to Kim Chi. A rather different type of bakery product. The other selection of breads, cakes and etc were VERY tempting to say the least. If you're here before a meal, you're bound to be attracted and purchase a few. Not too pricey either.

From Shatin, we departed ways. Team TallGal continued shopping in Mong Kok, while Team Glutton went to Central for more .... & the infamous night scene at LAN KWAI FONG

to be continued ...

16 comments:

Little Inbox said...

No doubt, it's a food paradise. Their roasted stuff really delicious huh?

Little Inbox said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wmw said...

Ahhh....nothing like a post like this to chase the blues away (or does it make it worse?).

Anonymous said...

Wow, just makan, makan and MORE makan in HK hor? And I won't laugh at the Really Good Noodles name lah... smart marketing ma... people sure curious and try at least once, ya? :)

Allie said...

Aiya... I missed the Snoopy world ler... *sad*
5 days is not enough ler...

Ciki said...

wow.. you really journal everything don't ya - good one.. keep it up;)

CRIZ LAI said...

I wished I could visit HK again. It has been years since I last visited the country. Just a look at your photos and my tummy is growling for food now. Haha... By the way, the way you describe the bun, it sounded like a cross between Butter Bun and Mexican Bun :P

http://crizfood.blogspot.com/

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

shit how many kgs u gained man..still going on about hk food ar??

-j- said...

wa lots of ppl seems to be going to hk now ... i want to go too!!!

J2Kfm said...

little inbox : the one at Fairwood we didnt try, but generally HK;s roasted meat not bad.

wmw : it doesnt make it worse. at least not for me. :)

life for beginners : yeah, other than MAKAN, what else to do eh? hehe ...

Allie : Snoopy world nothing much actually. just a small playground on the roof top of Lvl 3. coincidentally we were there only, so just go and see see.

cumi & ciki : yeah, can be own journal of the whole trip, or a guide for others.

Criz Lai : erm, its not lah. the texture of the buns (it's "Porkege" ... or something like that). I think got glutinous rice powder.

Joe : not many. but I'm working my a$$ off ... shedding the extras.

Duckie : go lah! hehe ... end of year not so hot, perfect for sight seeing.

PureGlutton said...

Made a mistake reading this post just before lunchtime - boy, did it make me hungryyyy! U must be keeping a thick journal with u all the time, to record all the minute details - great job!

Anonymous said...

I think the bun fr A1 bakery is a good try,luckily v listened to the young guy's advice to visit Shatin, and not the uncle's who said there's nuthin there.:P

J2Kfm said...

puregluttons : not really. I jot down at the end of the day, in a small notepad. not really minute details lah ...

tallgal : yeahlah. imagine go Times Square and shop for nothings.

Anonymous said...

THAT cheong fun is so diff from Ipoh's roll and drizzled with peanut sauce sounds weird leh. The bee hoon or fried noodle seems so appetising but remembers never stick the chopstick as that in the pic? NO NO.

choi yen said...

mee using for the soy sauce fried mee is the normal yellow noodles?

J2Kfm said...

jencooks : sounds and tasted weird the first roll. then it got better. addictive, I might add. YEAH! when we stuck our chopsticks that way when we were small, we always get a warning from mum. :)

mimid3vils : not the yellow noodles. it's the KING noodles, or Wong Tai Meen, also available in Msia.