eat, drink, men, women 飲食男女: photo diary

In 2010 winter I took a trip to Asia that lasted over 3 months. Amongst the countries including China, Japan, and Thailand. I visited many cities in these countries including Honk Kong and Macau which are special administrative zones.

This is my second trip to Hong Kong since I left it in my youth emigrated to North America.

dusk at vactoria harbour

bank of china 中國銀行 building from the early colonial era in central district; the building to its left is the hong kong high court of appeal; the building to the right is the new hsbc 香港滙豐 building

that afternoon we boat hop to macau to meet our relative

this nondescript restaurant in macau has one of the best dim sum; a lot of classic choices

traditional menus on the wall with very good hand writing and traditional old time writing of the prices so common decades ago in businesses and tea houses

this one is for a soup made with 3 kinds of snake meat with chicken with black skin - definitely a sign of old world restaurant with a well trained chef

we hopped into the adjacent chinese city zhuhai - sun set looking east towards hong kong

this is probably the most photographed tourist attraction in zhuhai

that night we went to this country restaurant; this man was roasting a pig in charcoal fire

All the patrons at this country restaurant are local regulars. This is the kind of restaurants that you are likely to find traditional and authentic local cuisines. Typically they all have a few signature dishes. They all family owned business and the patrons know them by names. This is the restaurant where I first came across morning glory with shrimp paste 虾酱通菜 cooked in a clay pot.

the next day we hopped back to hong kong - victoria harbour looking towards the central district on board the star ferry; the buildings are decorated for the advancing christmas; the short 60s building in the foreground in the center is the city hall building. it is a gem; the building right of it is the legislature building - it used to be the supreme court during the british rule

Hungry for a good dim sum breakfast we splurged for the Maxim in the City Hall in Central. We arrived 10 minutes before it open on a Sunday. There are already many parties have the same idea. In an hour the place would be jam packed and you will have to wait a long time to get in.

It has the harbor view even though it is on the second floor

they serve with the nicest service which is a pleasant surprise given it's quite reasonable price considering the location

we were all business - now only i wish we ate more

the place begin to filled when we left

While bumming around in Kowloon near Jordan and Mong Kok we came across this Chaozhou 潮州 beef noodle restaurant. It was one of the best Chaozhou beef noodle place I found. Note that though it is translated as beef noodle, most patrons order a few cuts of offal. We were hungry and the noodle tasted so good that I only remember to take a picture half way through.

the piece in the spoon is cow spleen which is quite hard to find even in hong kong. yum!

in an area called san po kong - it has a lot of factory building which helped propelled hong kong to become an economic power house during the city's manufacturing and export era; lion rock (hill) and diamond hill (a government subsidized housing village) at a distance

most of the hong kong schools still remain to this day including many that i got kicked out :-)

we found this very old neighborhood cantonese restaurant; while the prices is low (in a relatively lower income neighborhood) it is well regarded by the locals

the weathered street sign is a testament to the history

at the main intersection of san po kong

One day we went to Western District on Hong Kong island.
a staircase in an historic colonial era building on western street - very parisian

the side of the building with the beautiful fire escape staircase

a cathedral across the street also from the colonial era

western street is one of the many steep streets. i like how you can see the harbour on the entire street. the vessels on the water appear out-of-scale large due to optical illusion similar to a horizon moon appears to be much larger than a zenith moon.

this picture was taken at the top standing on a pedestrian island in the middle of the road

a nearby street much steeper not open to traffic

produce market building - built by government to replace the open air street markets

one of the most efficient (ease of maintenance), practical, and budget sensible public restrooms i ever seen in all my travels

this is a pre-war (wwii) era building used to be common place in hong kong. only very few still standing today. being in excellent condition his one would likely be preserved.

traditional shop sells chinese preserved meat and salted fish; this one has been around near a hundred years; it sells some of the best quality products

western market - it was once built by the government as a fresh produce market, but has long since gentrified and converted to house boutique stores; i found no love with it

the back side of the western market - the giant circles are air vents for the underground subway

we had dim sum in the restaurant with the big sign which occupies the second floor. later we found out the smaller one (the center one on street level) right of it has cheaper and better dim sum. it became our regular breakfast place most days after.