A cloudy rainy morning, ICC, HK

In May and June, weather can be quite extreme.  It can be very sunny on one day but rainy or stormy on the next.

Full Moon(月滿坊), Elements, West Kowloon, Hong Kong

It's about 5pm. This restaurant is still pretty crowded as compared to the others. That told something about it. In taking a look at the style and the decoration of this restaurant, it looks like it's a medium price fashionable restaurant for noodle/rice/congee/common Cantonese stir fried dishes. When I saw the packed wet napkin, it showed it's under the United restaurant group (聯邦). So I was a bit hesitant due to the negative impression from my last visit at United restaurant. So as in a Chinese saying "good is one meal, bad is another meal". It turned out it's quite a pleasant surprise or I lowered my expectation.

1. When I opened the jar of the "Yue Kwan Yik" style chili sauce, I already smelled a nice chili aroma. I don't eat hot and spicy food often but I often like to try this kind of chili sauce or Chiu Chow style chili oil - they go so well with beef brisket noodle soup. 2. This iced coffee is excellent and I can tell it's a freshly made coffee from the bean aroma. My guess is correct when I checked back on the menu about their house coffee. 3. Wow, this one is even more surprising. In some way, it is even better than the "cold" milk tea by Kam Fung in Wanchai 灣仔金鳳茶餐廳. Yes, just like MO BKK, they serve "cold" drink which is very chilled but not iced. So the taste stays as it is. The tea leaves are pretty good and not dry/bitter but with a strong tea aroma. The sweetness is just at a normal to less sweet level. Highly recommended.

4. a bucket of chicken over rice - the chicken was cooked to a balanced texture and hot steamy. The chicken tasted good too. 5. preserved radish - this is also nice, not too sweet and not too salty and quite juicy. Good to get you appetite as a pre-meal snack.

6. mini wonton soup. The soup base is very nice with strong aroma of burnt square fish chunks and dried shrimp roe. Reminded me of the old day for those original wonton soup base. However, it's not salty at all. That's good about it as less salty would bring out the original soup taste, though it may not be the original Cantonese style. OK, at this time, you may think why I ordered this mini wonton soup with just 2 wontons. From the drink to this wonton soup, it's the shop recommended set meal at just HK$60. If you order the iced coffee/cold milk tea, the single price is HK$24 and a plate of BBQ pork or chicken over rice, it would be HK$38. Those 2 are already over HK$60, but this set offers a very nice mini-wonton soup which is very good to go with the chicken rice and a very nice snack. 7. Based on the nice food I tried, I further ordered a dish of boiled fish ball over lettuce. I really like the way they hand-made this fish ball. They didn't use any flour or cornstarch to thicken the texture. All fish meat plus the dried tangerine peel which is a perfect combination. The fish ball texture is perfect - firm but not hard to chew. HK$48 is worth it as they used some very nice dried tangerine peel. Very fragrant and not bitter at all. Cheap dried tangerine peel would be quite bitter and sometimes smelly. I'll show some nice home made sunny dried tangerine peel under separate post.

8. the shop entrance. 9. The shop is together with another Thai restaurant but separated by a corridor.

W Hotel, West Kowloon - preview

The opening of this W Hotel was once a talk of the town. I once tried their introductory rate at HK$1,280 but now regretted a bit. This hotel reminded me of the same theme of W Hotel Seoul which I visited 2 years ago when W Hotel was launched as a sub-brand of Starwood. In walking into the hotel, there came various light effect and a bit trendy with some grunge. If the music is not in a beach house style during my visit, it would be a bit too dark. Some may like it, including me. :)

1. Guess where is it? It's the glass bottom of the elevator. 2. the entrance to the lobby.

3. reception area.

4. The Kitchen offers various buffets and a-la-carte menu. It'll be on my agenda in due course.

5. Entrance area of Kitchen.

6. Though the front desk is a bit small, it does have some another dimensional atmosphere.

7. The hotel ground floor all up to 6th floor are surrounded by the auto-changing lighting.

8. View thru' the lighting to West harbour Tunnel (on the right back behind)

Elements, West Kowloon, Hong Kong

Last week I have been onto something nostalgic. So this weekend, I went for something more progressive and contemporary. That's something about Hong Kong and it's the first time I paid a visit here after all those luxury skyscrapers have been built here with all the flamboyant names. I was told this place Elements are all luxury shops and restaurants but I didn't feel so. At least you can find a nice pizza with drink at HK$30-40 or a Japanese bento at HK$60 and at such a nice shopping mall, these are pretty reasonable.

1. This steakhouse serves high tea set at HK$88, but I didn't try it as I wanna have something more Chinese today.

2. The mall is under a main theme "hats" today; so you can see quite many things related to hats.

3/4. the mall inside.

5. this bakery is a subsidiary of Bekinhemn but the prices are not that expensive. HK$12 for a muffin and $10 for 4 mini choco. bread. Most pastry and cake range from HK$20-40.

7/8. there are quite many nice deco. in the mall.

9. Do you feel like having a hat like this?

10. The light deco. is under some basic element symbol, like earth, water, fire and wind...etc. I recall my most favourite movie "The Fifth Element".

11. more deco. 12. So these beautiful ladies are having a hat show.

13. They were about to show more than a hat. So under parental guidance, I didn't take any photo further.

14. This one may be 君臨天下. Forgot the English name because the Chinese name is really a bit too much and I suggest the next one to built around this area should go calling it as 萬人之上.

14. Elements are surrounded by all these luxury residences. 15. the Arch.

16. this is the back of W Hotel and the serviced apt. called Harbour View Place. 17. So on the top open garden area, there are quite many pubs and bars.

18. view to the show area.

19. ICC - tried to capture the jet flying over it. 20. entrance of Harbour View Place.

21. The good thing about Elements is that they have more than adequate restrooms and they are nicely decorated.

22. A big hat.

23. Lavazza restaurant serving more than coffee.

24. Shops are with very contrast images.

25. entrance to ICC.
26,. more shops.