Day 3 began with an early morning tim sum at Luk Yu Teahouse, apparently one of the oldest teahouses in Hong Kong.
The tim sum was served in the traditional way of waitresses carrying trays slung across their shoulders and the waiters were all dressed in chinese suits (aka 店小二).
We had to wait for a while before the waitresses slowly came trodding by. They were quite friendly and tolerant towards our "half-baked" Cantonese. Sometimes we didn't quite understand the names of food items that they were shouting but they took time to show and explain to us. We ordered the usual har kow, siew mai, char siew bao, lor mah kai and egg tarts. I also asked for a special black sesame roll that was quite popular in Hong Kong but hardly found in Singapore. It tasted like our 九参糕, except that it was less sweet and the sesame flavour was not as strong as I had hoped it would be.
The meal came up to around HKD 320 which surprised us because we ordered less dishes compared to Maxim's. Though Luk Yu gave us an old teahouse experience, we thought Maxim's was definitely better in terms of value and quality.
Luk Yu Teahouse
Address: 24-26 Stanley Street, Central
Tel: 852/2523 5464
Opening hours: Daily 7am-5:30pm
MTR: Central
With a full meal packed in our tummies, we started making our way to Lantau Island. We took the MTR to Tung Chung so as to take the cable car ride.
To our dismay, the cable car was closed for repair on that day so we had to take a 45 mins bus ride instead. :(
The bus journey was quite uncomfortable due to the numerous turns and I felt slightly carsick. However, the bus stopped right in front of the Giant Buddha statue so minimal walking was required, whereas the cable car station was about 15 mins' walk away.
We quickly made our way up to see the Giant Buddha. The climb was pretty manageable but there was a cute lady from USA who actually exclaimed that she felt like "Rocky" after reaching the top of the stairs. We went in and took a quick look at the exhibits, which detailed what the Buddha went through before he reached enlightenment.
From far
A statue at the top...
View from top
Then we went to the Po Lin Monastery to seek a divination lot or "求签". M got a good lot while I had an average one.
As to what we asked for.. it's a secret. :) We had some light snacks and drinks at the cafeteria outside the temple before making our way back to Tung Chung MTR. There, we spent some time at the Shopping Mall to enjoy the aircon and also made some purchases. We also found Food Repubic there!
By late afternoon, we made our way back to Mongkok as we wanted to catch the Temple Street night market before it got too crowded. Unlike the Ladies' Street, the night market at Temple Street was more famous for male apparel and accessories. I was hoping to get some cheap bargains for my brother and dad so this seemed like a good place to go. Eventually, I managed to get two shirts for them at a cheap price.
It was around 6pm before we decided to have our dinner and boy, were the eateries crowded. We headed to a small shop at Jordan called Mak Mun Kee Noodles House (麥文記麵家) . The oyster sauce here was apparently self-made and cost HKD2 per dish. I wasn't really a fan of oyster sauce so we gave that a miss. I had another wan ton noodle soup while M had a char siew noodles. We ordered a plate of greens to share too. The meal was quite cheap and satisfying. M liked the char siew a lot but I found it too fat and not as good as Yung Kee's.
Mak Mun Kee Noodle House (麥文記麵家)Address: 51, Parkes Street, Jordan
Opening Hours: 12noon to 12.30 midnight
MTR: Jordan
As we were about to head off to buy wife biscuits (or 老婆饼) as treats for our family, I noticed the shop next door, Australian Dairy Company, which sold steamed milk pudding. I got quite excited because I had read in one of the blogs that this brand was quite famous, so I braved myself for another dessert treat despite feeling really full.
The shop was so overwhelmingly crowded that I kind of knew the food there must be really good. I ordered a steamed egg custard pudding while M had an almond tea. Wow.. this was superb. I am not a fan of egg custard but this was really good. I made a mental note that I must bring my parents here next time, as my mum is a huge fan of egg custard.
Interestingly, we spent our last night in Hong Kong searching for delicious wife biscuits. There are three famous brands in Hong Kong: 奇华, 荣华 and 恒香. We were both quite determined to find 恒香 as I found the taste less sweet and more "authentic". Well, it turned out to be more difficult than we thought. The hotel concierge was unable to tell us where we could find 恒香 shops and the passerbys we asked didn't seem to know. Luckily, we met a young salesgirl who was familiar with Jordan area and she was able to direct us there. So from Tsim Sha Tsui, we made our way back to Jordan in our quest for 恒香. After much map reading and asking around, we finally managed to locate this small shop and bought 3 boxes of biscuits. Yay! Of course, we also packed our luggage with foodie purchases from the other two brands. No wife biscuit was to be left uneaten in Hong Kong!
So that very much summed up our eating cum walking adventure in Hong Kong during our third day. As we were walking back to our hotel, I realised with dismay that we were leaving Hong Kong tomorrow. There was still so much food items that I had yet to try like egg tarts, milk tea, etc. Sigh.. despite this being my third trip to Hong Kong, I always faced this problem. Too much things to eat and too little time to try.
Here comes the almond-walnut mix...
And the sesame-red bean mix...
Two in one... both went into our tummies...
The cozy area where we sat...
The fantastic displays that drew us in...
