宋王臺站 (Sung Wong Toi station), Kowloon, HK

A hot topic about the launch of the longest subway route from Tuen Mun to Ma On Shan - some kids were so excited with the first train running and sang an improvised song with Greensleeves melody.  They innocent passion made me come here for feeling this new subway line.  Besides, it's nice to learn about this historical place.

 

Little Thailand, Kowloon City HK

The old Airport Kai Tak caused much noise pollution to Kowloon City but brought a fortune to a lot of restaurants, especially Thai restaurants. Though Kai Tak retired a long time ago, the legacy is still there in Kowloon City.

1. Lots of fresh produce can be found, such as Thai egg plants, tamarind, bitter gourd, banana...etc. 2. 90% of the customers are Thai expat.

3. I found some roselle drink and tiger herbal drink 崩大碗. I grabbed one right away. It's unsweetened. So good! 4. Another daylight robbery shop, regardless how famous they are. I checked on a pack of banana soft roll 香蕉糕 (6 rolls) and they sell at HK$20 (supposed it's just $10). All other pastries about 4 oz size cost at around HK$30-50. As I slightly touched that banana roll, it's harder than a rubber eraser 擦子膠. *Be careful when eating or shopping in this area. Some shops are decent but some set their prices so crazy because some celebrities visited there once.

Lo Fu as Lok Fu 老虎變樂富

During my visit at Lok Fu, I chatted with a senior about how Lok Fu got its name and just in a second, there it came the old name of Lok Fu.

糖百府 Snow flaky ice, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

It was one of the snack/dessert shops visited by Suzie Wong on her recent show. First, I need to specify that if you don't have the original Taiwanese snow flaky ice in mind, just put it as "ice" dessert, it's quite good. The Taiwanese snow flaky ice is my most favourite dessert I would try every time I go to Taiwan. It was almost 15 years ago and at that time it's called as 雪綿冰. Later on it was changed to 雪花冰. The Taiwanese one is with some condensed milk in the ice; so when the ice machine scrub on the ice, the ice would be quite snowy and a bit smooth/sticky but it would melt in your mouth like silk. However, this shop just concentrate on the taste but not on the texture; so it lacks the smooth/silky texture and the aroma of condensed milk. Anyway the shop's owners are quite creative in making various ice taste like ginger, almond, choco, guava, coffee...etc. So you can just treat it like a ice dessert from a "drink mix".

1/2. Green tea ice with QQ cubes. Very strong aroma of green tea and pretty nice but the QQ cubes is just jello, not the Taiwanese QQ cubes.

3. Guava ice - very nice guava juice taste! 4. Almond ice - also very nice almond taste.

5. Choco ice - this one is also nice. 6. Coffee ice - also pretty good.
7. Mango sago sweet - haven't tried it but was told the sago is a bit hard and the mango quite sour (not in season actually).

Wing Chung Vietnamese Restaurant, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Visited this restaurant a few years ago. In fact, I have been to various restaurants in Kowloon City as often got told that this one is good and that one can't be missed...etc. Just like one of the hot pot restaurants - they claimed to serve the oyster from Wan Kum 環琴 (a place in between Macau and Zhu Hai and very famous for the nice oyster as it's the place for river water mixed with sea water at the Pearl River delta exit into the South China Sea.). However, if anyone who has tried the oyster from Wan Kum in Macau, they should know what that is. The shop put some unnecessary things to make the oyster not be shrunk and look "big". So that attracted the customers as it's "big". Sorry "big" doesn't mean it's fresh and tasty if your stomach is not strong enough. Then back to all the other recommended places, I doubt why they are named and they serve food like factory but the price is not factory's.

1. Curry chicken - can't say this restaurant is wrong as most restaurants do the same things. Just use frozen chicken thigh and wings and pretend it's from a fresh whole chicken. The curry sauce is quite good though. 2. garlic bread - didn't try it; so no comments. I actually don't like bread to be put with butter on it. I am often asked "how can you eat bread without anything as it's tasteless.". I simply told them the flour aroma is already tasty to me.

3. raw beef slices over noodle soup. The soup base is too artificial with beef soup powder. The essence of Vietnamese noodle soup is the soup needs to be boiled with ox bones. 4. chicken/cold cut noodle soup - no comments as I didn't try it.

5. Chicken slices cold noodle - can't comment either. 6. Stir fried Kai Lan with salty fish - it's quite at average. The salty fish is quite nice but just the Chef should have first pan fried it a bit and mashed it a bit in the wok while putting the garlic together. Then put the Kai Lan in it. This way the burnt and slightly mashed salty fish would give a better aroma with the Kai Lan.

7. Again, this one wasn't done in a right way - the Chef should also pan fry the shrimp paste a bit in the wok. I noticed this restaurant and many other restaurants in Kowloon City that they cook very fast so as to have more customers' flow. That's why I call it "factory" or "production house". 8. Another disappointing dish - bbq pork and chicken. Though the menu said so, it's not BBQ, it's deep fried and yet the meat was marinated for a long long time and the meat got no meat taste - but just sauce taste.

9. Deep fried shrimp balls - it's quite average. 10. deep fried soft-shell crab - the Chef needed to pay attention of the final step of deep frying. It's a bit too oily.

11. Fresh spring roll - this one is quite good among al the other dishes. 12. This one is quite good and made me feel refreshed.