The next morning I woke up later than I wanted because of my exhaustion from the night of the flight. I decided I needed to have a good dimsum meal while I was in Hong Kong because I had heard that it was some of the best dimsum in the world. I decided to go to the City Hall restaurant. There were hundreds of reviews online and they were virtually all very positive. What would I have done if it weren't for the marvels of modern day technology?
When I got to the restaurant, the lunch rush was just beginning to die out, but most of the tables were still filled. The restaurant was enormous, it was just one giant room, which must have had over 100 tables, many of which would have seated at least 6 or 8 people each. The dimsum was delicious. The highlight was probably to baked pork buns. They weren't really typical hum bao though, each one was smaller than normal hum bao and the outside was more like a pastry than a roll, and they were very flaky. By the time I was done I was extremely uncomfortable both with the knowledge of how much I had just eaten, as well as with the feeling in my stomach. It didn't matter though, I knew from the first pang of ripping stomach muscle that it was worth it.
Since I only had the late afternoon left before I was going to meet up with Jordan and his friends again that evening, I decided to just wing it. I picked a subway line and road it to the last stop. The name had 'park' in it so I hoped that there would be some sort of nice greenery I could walk through on the edge of the city. When I got there, however, it was not quite what I hoped for. The park was apparently the name of several massive apartments. By massive, I mean that they were at least 50 stories high and seemed to have the girth of a city block. There were seven or eight of them. The subway stop led to an outdoor walkway with a roof that only went in one direction - towards the apartments. As I got closer to the apartments, however, I saw that right next to them, there was a massive foresty area. A sign showed that it had a lot of paths and wound its way to the coast. I got really excited until I saw a big metal gate that separated me from it. I waited around a while, pressed the security button (I was hoping that since it was HK and not mainland China, things like security buttons would work, but alas), and waited some more. Finally a security guard walked by and saw me. I tried to explain to him that I wanted to go into the park. I think he was still getting over the shock of seeing a foreigner around the apartment skyrises because he didn't say anything for a while. He finally spoke in what I can only hope was Cantonese because I picked up nothing of what he said. He showed me his Octopus Card (the all purpose HK card for subways, the ferries, and other things around the city) and pointed at the gate. It seemed that I was not going to be able to go in, so I looked at the view from the walkway. Beyond the forest I could see the ocean and one Hong Kong's many islands. The sun was beginning to set and I enjoyed the scenery while eating a pack of some sour gummy candy.
When I got back to the city I changed into my suit and tie and met Jordan and his girlfriend at their hotel. We were all dolled up because we were going to the Ritz Carleton for dinner that night. The restaurant was on the 103rd floor of the tallest building in Hong Kong. When we got there, it was smaller than I expected, but extremely lavish. We met Jordan's friends at our table. I could tell it was fancy restaurant because they gave us two pairs of chopsticks. When we got the menu, I was flipping through it, and noticed that there was a HKD $1,000,000 bottle of champagne. When we got our food, I was shocked. You know in comedy movies when the actor orders a main dish and it's like a spoonful of spinach with a one inch by one inch piece of steak on top? This was kind of like that. And the food wasn't even that good, especially for how expensive it was. By the end of our meal we all agreed, food is one of those things where you definitely don't always get what you pay for. We ended the night with dessert tucked away in a corner of the restaurant overlooking the city. It seemed like we were almost as high as I was at the peak. Afterward, I said goodbye to Jordan and went home. I had to catch my plane back to Beijing the next afternoon. On my way back home, I decided to walk around the city some more as it was the last chance that I was going to have. I realized I was still quite hungry after our meal at the Ritz so I got some delicious street food and a waffle filled with sweet syrups and pastes. All together, it only cost $30 HKD.
When I got to the restaurant, the lunch rush was just beginning to die out, but most of the tables were still filled. The restaurant was enormous, it was just one giant room, which must have had over 100 tables, many of which would have seated at least 6 or 8 people each. The dimsum was delicious. The highlight was probably to baked pork buns. They weren't really typical hum bao though, each one was smaller than normal hum bao and the outside was more like a pastry than a roll, and they were very flaky. By the time I was done I was extremely uncomfortable both with the knowledge of how much I had just eaten, as well as with the feeling in my stomach. It didn't matter though, I knew from the first pang of ripping stomach muscle that it was worth it.
Since I only had the late afternoon left before I was going to meet up with Jordan and his friends again that evening, I decided to just wing it. I picked a subway line and road it to the last stop. The name had 'park' in it so I hoped that there would be some sort of nice greenery I could walk through on the edge of the city. When I got there, however, it was not quite what I hoped for. The park was apparently the name of several massive apartments. By massive, I mean that they were at least 50 stories high and seemed to have the girth of a city block. There were seven or eight of them. The subway stop led to an outdoor walkway with a roof that only went in one direction - towards the apartments. As I got closer to the apartments, however, I saw that right next to them, there was a massive foresty area. A sign showed that it had a lot of paths and wound its way to the coast. I got really excited until I saw a big metal gate that separated me from it. I waited around a while, pressed the security button (I was hoping that since it was HK and not mainland China, things like security buttons would work, but alas), and waited some more. Finally a security guard walked by and saw me. I tried to explain to him that I wanted to go into the park. I think he was still getting over the shock of seeing a foreigner around the apartment skyrises because he didn't say anything for a while. He finally spoke in what I can only hope was Cantonese because I picked up nothing of what he said. He showed me his Octopus Card (the all purpose HK card for subways, the ferries, and other things around the city) and pointed at the gate. It seemed that I was not going to be able to go in, so I looked at the view from the walkway. Beyond the forest I could see the ocean and one Hong Kong's many islands. The sun was beginning to set and I enjoyed the scenery while eating a pack of some sour gummy candy.
When I got back to the city I changed into my suit and tie and met Jordan and his girlfriend at their hotel. We were all dolled up because we were going to the Ritz Carleton for dinner that night. The restaurant was on the 103rd floor of the tallest building in Hong Kong. When we got there, it was smaller than I expected, but extremely lavish. We met Jordan's friends at our table. I could tell it was fancy restaurant because they gave us two pairs of chopsticks. When we got the menu, I was flipping through it, and noticed that there was a HKD $1,000,000 bottle of champagne. When we got our food, I was shocked. You know in comedy movies when the actor orders a main dish and it's like a spoonful of spinach with a one inch by one inch piece of steak on top? This was kind of like that. And the food wasn't even that good, especially for how expensive it was. By the end of our meal we all agreed, food is one of those things where you definitely don't always get what you pay for. We ended the night with dessert tucked away in a corner of the restaurant overlooking the city. It seemed like we were almost as high as I was at the peak. Afterward, I said goodbye to Jordan and went home. I had to catch my plane back to Beijing the next afternoon. On my way back home, I decided to walk around the city some more as it was the last chance that I was going to have. I realized I was still quite hungry after our meal at the Ritz so I got some delicious street food and a waffle filled with sweet syrups and pastes. All together, it only cost $30 HKD.
RSS Feed