A Life Shift

It was fun compiling my last round of food adventures (if you missed it, you can find it here), so here’s round two! We are finding lots of delicious and interesting things to eat and so far have no real misadventures to report. Also…the first “home cooked meal” that I made with the arrival of our kitchen supplies….Kraft Dinner of course!

A couple Sundays ago we had a slooooooow morning and decided to go for brunch. We had walked past The Cupping Room a few times before and it always looked busy so we gave it a try. Here’s and interesting article about the owner / 2nd Runner Up in the World Barista Championships…who even knew such a thing exists! We didn’t try the coffee, but the food was delicious! Braden dove in to his plate before I had a chance to take a photo!

Near where I work there’s a K Roll shop which I go to at least once per week. It is such a yummy lunch and is always fresh and tasty. The company was started by three local Korean moms and is quite popular in Hong Kong with a number of locations. I keep thinking I should try other things on the menu but whenever I go I can’t help but order a Korrito. Imagine a cross between a chicken veggie wrap and sushi. Basically it’s a bunch of tasty fresh veggies with a delicious sauce, some chicken, a mystery crunchy flaky layer that’s like flakes of the outside of a spring roll. This is all wrapped in some rice, which is all wrapped up in seaweed. They cut it in half for you and you eat it like a burrito. So good!

We live on Ship Street, a popular little lane with lots of great restaurants. I think the most popular by far is 22 Ships (the name is a play on their address, 22 Ship Street). They don’t take reservations, only serve full parties, and there’s a lineup before they open each evening. We decided to give it a try one weekday evening when it wasn’t quite as busy. We got to sit up at the bar which was so much fun. It was fascinating to watch the chefs prepare the food. Everything was done with an incredible amount of care, finesse and attention to detail and technique. The restaurant is the vision of Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton, and the tapas-style menu makes it fun to try a variety of dishes and flavours. We’ll be coming back for sure!

Recently Muji Cafe & Meal opened up just around the corner from us. The website for Hong Kong is only available in Cantonese, so the link to the Canadian website is here. Braden’s boss is from Japan and lives in our neighbourhood and has been super excited about it opening. We tried it for lunch one day after going to the gym and thought it was really good. My meal was perfect for after a workout – not too heavy. The shop also sells a limited selection of their retail products (really nice clothing basics and simply designed household items) and there’s also a deli for more grab-and-go eating.

More than anything I am craving Mexican food. If I could go anywhere right now for a meal it would be to Bellingham for a meal at Lorenzo’s! Guacamole, sour cream, salsa, all that melted cheese….mmmmmm! The closest thing we have found is Cali-Mex, which is more fast-food style Mexican (not like Taco Bell) but similar to Chipotle. At Cali-Mex they have a burrito bowl that’s similar to Chipotle’s and is quite good. The quesadilla is also tasty (and good for us to share). This is definitely a North American style meal and you feel like you should be in California when you’re eating.

Don’t worry, we haven’t just been searching out quesadillas and burritos. We went to a great little dim sum place one night for dinner. Dim sum is a style of bite-size Cantonese dumpling, traditionally served in little steamer basket or on small plates. You pre-order from a menu and then they bring you the various items in any order. It’s a great way to share food and try new things. We went to Dim Sum Square which has good reviews for its home-made dumplings and homey feeling. It was a really great place to visit and I’m sure we’ll be heading back soon. Planning to visit us in Hong Kong? We’ll probably take you here to eat a meal, so get ready! Don’t worry, though; there’s plenty of traditional fare such as chicken feet on the menu but we know what to avoid. And there’s so many tasty little options to try!

One weekend we were running a few errands, looked over to Kowloon and realized it was clear and getting close to sunset. We hopped on the MTR and went straight to Ozone at The Ritz Carlton. We took an elevator up to the 102nd floor, which is where the hotel lobby is. The hotel occupies all floors above, and we got on a second elevator to take us to the 118th floor, where we were 484m (1558ft) high, and visited the Highest Bar in the World. It was a perfect day and time to go because the weather was clear and we got a spectacular view of the city. We also got to witness the transition from day to dusk and watched the lights come on in the city across the water. As expected the drinks were pricey but we felt like it was totally worth it. There are lots of towers you can visit in the world that charge an admission to get up to see a view. In this case a beer was our admission and we got to stay as long as we liked. We drank those beers slooooowly and made it last as long as we could.

Braden is more adventurous than me when it comes to food and he’ll try pretty much anything. In saying that, I wouldn’t have thought he would try Snake Meat Soup but he sure did. A true local experience, a coworker took him to a restaurant known for its snake meat soup. Snake soup is a local delicacy and is mostly found in small little shops specializing in its preparation. You can read more about snake soup here if you’re interested. Let’s just say Braden won’t be rushing back every day for lunch but he said it was better than he expected and the meat did taste quite similar to chicken.

So, there you go! A little peek at some of the fare we have been enjoyed over here.