ippudo

We finally tried out the world famous ramen house- IPPUDO. It definitely lives up the hype, one of the best ramen we’ve had.

Andrea had the Shiromaru Motoaji, the very first ramen served at IPPUDO, and I had the Akamaru Shinaji, IPPUDO’s latest signature ramen. We also shared the Beef Tataki and Codfish with Saikyo Miso Sauce, also very delicious. Thumbs up!

everything dry

One way of preserving foods for cooking here is ‘dried’, much of the seafood seen in these shops can be simply soaked in a bowl of water overnight, sliced and cooked into any dish.  A popular item here is reishi mushroom, shark fin, scallop, salty fish and sea cucumber (I love this one in claypot, also good for the skin full of collagen).  The flying lizards and starfish are a nice surprise to add to the menu yikes!  

Every herb/dried goods shop has it’s own ‘shop cat’.  This little guy had just arrived a day before.  The owner said that he just walked in and made himself at home atop a bag of lavender feeling very much in charge…now he’s part of the family. 

infinite reflection

Here’s the sneak peek of another inspired photo project.

陸羽茶室

Luk Yu tea house is a tea house and a dim sum restaurant established in 1933. It is Hong Kong’s oldest and one of its most famous tea houses and has been frequently featured in movies and literature. It is known for its colonial style, adherence to tradition and loyal long-time customers, for whom the entire first floor is unofficially reserved.

The tea house gets its name from the Tang Dynasty poet Lu Yu who wrote the legendary “The Classic of Tea" which describes the history and culture of Chinese tea.

A must-go place if you ever pass through Hong Kong!

Tong Lau (唐樓)

Tong Lau are tenement buildings built in late 19th century to the 1960s. I absolutely love the structure and style of these buildings. I’ve also started a few photography projects, one of them being the idea around the corner housing of these beautiful Ton Lau. 

Here’s a sneak peek.

Challenges

And… we are back!! 2012 began with a brief flu spell for both of us, cured by Chinese medicinal herb tea and supplements in 3 days, a new record!

Challenge #1, averted.  Challenge #2, our internet is currently down and extremely unreliable so our days are spent in search of ‘web havens’ throughout Hong Kong. Not yet averted, bear with us!

every night for 10 mins, Hong Kong buildings go disco

A Symphony of Lights (幻彩詠香江) is a synchronized building exterior decorative light and laser show that featuring 44 buildings on both side of Victoria Harbor accompanied by music. Every night for 10 minutes, starts at 8 pm, rain or shine.   

The building shown here is HSBC HQ.

SideWalk espresso

Although Andrea and I are away from S.F., both of us are still working. After a few weeks of coffee shops hopping, we’ve found our favorite local café to host our computers and spend some quality time working. 

We love SideWalk Espresso café for a few reasons: good music, peaceful environment, friendly staffs, open late and good coffee of course! ;)

雞蛋仔- little egg puff

雞蛋仔 is a traditional, unique Hong Kong street food, similar to waffles in the western culture. It’s golden yellow, crispy on the outside and soft in the inside with the middle half empty. It is definitely one of the food that brings me back to my childhood days. 

Local umbrella workshop and maker

Unfortunately when we came and visited it was closed. The whole space is about 12 sq ft and on a hill.  He has parts for any international umbrella part saved and ready to replace the oddest of things..usually we throw out our broken ‘brellas, but here it’s created a job!

Gruel 粥

Congee is one of those dishes which emerged from times of famine in history as a way to stretch the rice supply to feed more people.  Now we enjoy the soothing food therapy value of this warm overcooked rice ‘porridge’ for breakfast, lunch and dinner.   In fact happy hour we find is pretty popular and line goes out the door!

I like the shredded pork in mine, Ed goes for fish belly and pork innards. We also shared a refreshing bowl of white carrot soup in broth with braised beef belly. Always great with traditional HK milk tea. Total damage for the meal : $7.50 USD. yum.

Lots to look up for

X’mas dinner at home with the family. Mom, dad, and sister cooked up a feast!

It was AMAZING!!! Thank you!