Hong Kong 2009 Day 04!!!

Rise and shine!!! Our “last” day in Hong Kong
Had to make the most of it… so we woke up really early ……

…. so that we could check this place out!

The all famous Lin Heung Teahouse!!!

When Aly said she wanted to check this place out… I was
Why? ‘cos I read about this place online

So here’s what happens when you’re here.

You find your own seats.
The place would be packed.
Old man would ask you what tea you want.
He’ll return with your tea leaves in the cup/pot and you mix it up yourself.

Everybody seems busy

Look at how packed the place is … people waiting for seats and all….

and when the pushcart rolls out with the dim sum…

Don’t expect the lady to serve you.

You have to go to her instead and bring back to the table whatever you want! SELF SERVICE

Early morning…. piping hot dim sum for breakfast!

I pray that it’s not like the crappy ones we had for breakfast at Changi Airport

Bun is soft…. filling looked okay… moist… not dried up

Best of all… it tastes good!
If only they were more generous with the filling (Okay… I’m greedy lol )

Baby got this for me
She knows what mao likes!!! Pig stomach!!!

and what’s this? Chicken meat under the pig stomach! … Lovely

Just when I said she knows what I like…. she comes back with this

Some really fishy fish
I ate 2 bites and gave up…. There’s some fish maw slices as well in there….
Fish maw was at least more edible… the fish was too fishy and had lots of tiny bones

and then baby came back with this hideous looking thing too
She said “You eat this one right?”

Er… yes I do…. but it doesn’t normally look anything like this!
Is this even chicken claws ….
I didn’t dare touch this at all. It was left to waste

Char Siew Cheong Fun …. sedap!

Prawn dumplings…

Generous filling of prawn and minced meat

Carrot cake…. we were getting full already… but Aly wanted this…. she got all excited …

Aud came back with this. We asked him what it was. He said he didn’t know

Turned out to be some chicken filling filled in this deep fried starchy skin thingy
But tasted not bad!

You should’ve seen her angry face when I led her to the wrong place initially

People are really busy here….

People looking for seats… rushing for the food… the staff refilling the tea cups and tea pots…

and when you’re done….

You head to the cashier to pay up

Spotted this cutout at the entrance/exit… but Chua Lam on this place

After that we headed to Shum Shui Po and explored the wholesale clothes area

Wahaha… this dude from TVB… check out the ad

Dried crocodile meat

Check out the crocodile …. You mean it’s legal?

Stupid LTA must’ve got their Bugis Junction to Bugis Village traffic crossing idea from here

But unlike back home, I don’t think all the humans would be stuck in the middle as the human traffic here is minimal

Rows and rows of clothes shops

Wonderful Engrish

TAKE ORDER ON ANY STYLE!!!

What’s with all the take order on any style… oh well… I guess as long as the message is sent across

Any space is space for ads in Hong Kong

But the words should be bigger… how to see from across the road?

Seldom get to see empty roads

Ferrari Plus Co.!

We soon ventured to Ap Liu Street…. the place to get electronic goods at cheap prices

Er… this one all chains … no electronics here

This one is sellingnew and  used remote controls

Is this where the Remote Control shop at Jurong Point got their idea from?

Electronic Pasar Malam!

Clocks… radios… earphones… headphones… etc.

Da Sa advertising for electronic mahjong table…. Check out his pose Hilarious

Time for some juice ….

Tempted to get some food

Nooo…. take your hand out!!!! ARRRRGHHH….

Food stall not opened for business yet leh

Aly bought some freshly squeezed orange juice….

Ended up at Dragon Centre…. remember the restaurant with the Merlion logo I mentioned last year?
Well.. here it is… KREPA Ayer Restaurant lol …. not Kreta Ayer

DVD shop… Aud trying to see if he can find any Manchester United dvds

Egg Capsule store…. with giant egg capsule

Didn’t find anything interesting though…

Look at the size of the cotton candy!!!

Here’s kitty enjoying her huge cotton candy…

But she was soon struggling with it as it’s so large!

See her sian look

Can you guys please help me out

See her cheeky look…. looking for the dustbin!!!

Greedy kitty cannot finish her cotton candy!

I had tofu ice cream….

Aud had peppermint ice cream

From this ice cream stall…. some jappy ice cream thingy…

We walked around somemore till it was time for tea

Headed to Fairwood for some tea time meals
I got this set that came with 2 curry fishballs and erm… some pig skin…

with fried bee hoon…..

That’s my tea time meal…. with a glass of iced milk tea

Aly had char siew rice with sharks fin soup (not the real thing of ‘cos lol… it’s “Woon Zai Qi”)
So Aly and I shared the soup and the fish balls together

Aud had the best of everything lol… fish balls… soup… char siew rice….
Damnit… I should’ve ordered the same thing… looks more satisfying

Here’s the fake sharks fin soup

Char Siew Rice…. few slices of char siew… big bowl of rice

Pig Skin… and curry fish balls…

Back towards the MTR station through the streets of Sham Shui Po….

Can just park like that?

Wah… this bugger’s number plate is damn cool YEAH!!!
No wonder anyhow park

Is the plate legal?

Ugly spoiler Still YEAH somemore

AC Schnitzer Wheels… nice….

Cool… we stumbled across Batman’s tailor

Kissy?

Nice Fashion? Got not nice one meh?

Wah Fatt? Or… WAH!!!! FAT HONG Fashion? Er… don’t get the joke? Sorry

Check out the middle sign
Coming up… Big Surprise *faint*
Er… no thank you…. 

I think it meant COME UP!! BIG SURPRISE FOR YOU …. but anyway… no thanks ….

What car is this?

Hmm… Toyota… but what model? Interesting. …

Roasted meat!!! MEAT!!!

Okay… enough of the place… we took the MTR back to Mongkok….

I wanted to check out this place… heh….

A place we walked past many times previously but never paid any attention to it…

‘cos I really thought it’s just a MODERN TOILET…. a real toilet!!!!

Until I did some research on the internet and realised it’s the cafe from Taiwan

So here we are… at the Modern Toilet

Had to take the lift up…. the place was undergoing renovation…. The lift had some LCD tv playing some stuff… quite cool…

Here’s the interior of the Modern Toilet Cafe…. Check out the urinals on the wall…

The chairs are toilet bowls… the tables are sinks with a glass panel on top

LeMew and LeMao went to the toilet together in Hong Kong!!!

Check out the toilet seat covers on the wall behind us …

Here’s the menu … Innovation could create the fortune??!! What the …

Do not accept coins. This menu costs $200!!! Crazy!

Notice the lights above? They are made to shape stools (shit)
Guess you can’t really see ‘cos it’s too bright….

All the shitty lights on top… and decor on the walls… There’s a shower head and bathrobes too

Here’s our table/sink

I suppose the glasses have some meaning to them? For brushing teeth?

Our drinks arrived in urinals

So we had 2 urinals on the table…

With a stirrer as well!

Iced Lemon black tea

If we remove the straw…. really looks like pee to me

Aud complained the urinals were too heavy and were a bitch to hold

Still trying to get a nice shot of the lights….

Here’s the entrance/exit of the cafe…. Check out the 2 cute male/female toilet signs

More pics of the place…. female bathrobes this time I guess… with the shower head and toiletries….

I wonder if I broke this urinal …how much it’ll cost

Okay… with the straw removed… looks like pee no?

We were too full for a full meal… so we ordered the tea time meal instead and shared…

Arrived on some toilet bowl cover plate I think…
Baked Potato skins….

Such a waste we couldn’t order a full meal as others behind us did…. and the food came in toilet bowls and all lol….

But I wouldn’t think the food would be that good though…  so it’s just as well we had a bite here and nothing else…

That’s the bill for the toilet experience

What do you guys think? Cool? Or plain silly?

Well… it’s unique I must say… and cute

So off we go…. This is the entrance from outside by the way

The main entrance from outside

Here’s the url for the main website based on the headquarters in Taiwan
http://www.moderntoilet.com.tw

Look at these happening folks… Can just setup chess competition anywhere sia

By the roadside!

Ahhh…. nothing attracts me more than beef

But too full to eat anything

Ice Cream truck again….

Saw this bin by the roadside….

Metal bin for ciggys…. good idea… it won’t burn….

Walked past this mall… and went in….

I keep saying there’s nothing for guys… well… if you’re looking for clothes… this mall is JUST for the guys… all men clothings sold in this mall….

Nothing for me though… all too funky for old man like me

After walking about for several more hours… it was time to settle for dinner ….

and again… we ending up at MX….

and again… we ate the same thing….

ya… we’re boring people

They had pumpkin milk based soup tonight!

We quickly ordered 3 sets of it….

I regretted shortly afterwards though… should’ve ordered the promo of chicken soup instead with the dong po pork

Steamboat again…. with pumpkin paste this time!

.

Ingredients are all the same…. beef… pork…

Milk based soup!

After dinner… we roamed the streets of Sai Yeung Choi Street and Soy Street looking at shoes… shirts…. cds… etc.
We also brought Aud to Ladies Street where he complained that there’s nothing there…. just like a cheap pasar malam lol

We then brought him to Hui Liu Shan (许留山) desserts…

I said it’s his first time in Hong Kong! Plus it’s his last day here as well… die die must eat dessert here lol
(Okay it was just a good excuse for me to eat some mangoes )

Wah… was tempted to get this curry fish ball set

The forks and spoons were in a drawer under the table

Here’s my dessert.. mango pomelo with coconut milk in mango puree with mango sorbet…….

Aly’s one was without the coconut milk …..

and Aud’s dessert… he didn’t eat mango!!!
He ate carrot cake and bo bo char char

The cat sniffing the mango before eating it

A closer look at my dessert lol

Oops… forgot to mention that there’s some mango pudding below as well

Full of mango goodness…. shiok ah!

Aud posing his dessert for my camera

Carrot Cake!

Erm… how much?

Back to the hostel!!!

Alamak…. this stall is directly below the hostel…

ahMao see all the street food cannot tahan!!!!

Got smelly beancurd somemore!

Here’s where the cold sticks of street food are…

Aud couldnt resist and ordered stick of sausage….

This is the shop… just below the hostel….

Smelly beancurd anyone?

Here’s Aud’s sausages….

ahMao gave in to temptation and bought 3 sticks of cold food!!!

Pig ears!!! Crunchy!

Springy intestines!!! Damn shiok!!!

Pig head meat…. wah lau… I am REALLY gonna miss this when I return to Singapore :’(

Time to sleep!!! Gotta wake up REALLY early tomorrow :’(

SIGH….. LAST DAY IN HONG KONG!!!!

MAO DON’T WANNA GO HOME!!!!! :’(

The table is set! Brought my steamboat thingy over to their place

Some processed food we bought from the supermarket….

Lots of balls

Gotta have my fishballs when it comes to steamboat

Some chicken filet that’s marinated in some bbq sauce I think… by Kelly…

Sliced bacon and pork….

and of ‘cos… MUST HAVE beef slices Tong and me 

Mushrooms for Aly….

and lots of veggies for all of us

I love steamboat!

Tong’s mum makes a really mean chilli sauce as well… gotta ask her for the recipe

After all those warehouse sale visits, Aly and I ended up walking around City Plaza exploring the area

We then met up with Sam again for dinner at Paradise on Earth Steamboat at Katong.
They’ve expanded once again further down (214 Tanjong Katong) from where they are (200 Tanjong Katong)

Good thing we made a reservation. The new place at 214 looks cleaner and brighter

Real sisters. Who’s the older one

Here for the beef tripe!!!

and beef slices!

Aly’s here for the mushrooms

Lots of food With an extra person today, we can order more stuff!

Achar…. $2 per plate … NOT complimentary … warn you folks first

Chilli dip is awesome… still trying to figure out what’s in it after so long

Both of them ignoring me ….

and attacking the steamboat

Lots of veggies! Satay based soup on the left and scallop soup base on the right

Here’s our waitress trying her hand at preparing the fish paste for us

A little shy at first….

Looking pretty optimistic…

Before giving up after the failure

All in all… great fresh food in a nice enviroment

Paradise on Earth
200 and 214 Tanjong Katong Road
Singapore 436998
Tel: 6345 9272
Daily 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 2am

Summary

Menu Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Value for money Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ambience Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Service Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mushrooms Mushrooms Mushrooms … Aly loves them… Fai hates them …

We’ve never been to the Mushroom Pot since they opened their first outlet at the Indoor Stadium… They’ve since opened 2 other outlets, at OG Orchard Point and this one, Millenia Walk.

Checked with Aly if she was hungry ‘cos she didn’t know where I had in mind ….

Found the place and asked her if it was okay with her… mushrooms! She didn’t say no

Place was rather quiet… was it ‘cos we were early?
Packets of tissue (we were charged 30cents per packet at the end of the meal for this)

Okay…what do the words say?

We were served with some appetisers …. Wild mushrooms with thai spices…
This was a cold dish … light and tangy… to open up your taste buds

some Mushroom rolls …. with some thai chilli sauce dip

and Monkey head mushrooms with house dressing …
There were some walnuts amongst the mushrooms…. eeeks!
Aly didn’t like the house dressing… she found it too sweet…
I liked the texture of this though… crispy on the outside… soft mushroom on the inside

We were only allowed one serving per table for the appetisers

Soup base we took something non spicy, which was Wild Mushroom soup.

The soup itself had a strong smell and taste of mushroom… pretty tasty on its own…

The waitress suggested that she picked a mixed bit of ingredients for us since it was our first time there… and asked us if there was anything we didn’t like or want to have…. so we told her no bittergourd

So round 1 had us eating some prawns, fish slices, mixed homemade balls, mixed meat, sausages… etc.

Hmmm… I think we should’ve opted to choose our own items instead….

So here are some of the stuff for round 2, stuff we selected on our own…
Sliced beef, pork tripe, beef tripe, white cabbage, pork liver, pork belly and pig skin
I can have just round after round of similar items

Red meat Yum!

Their homemade balls… we ordered more sotong balls and prawn balls… the fish balls we had earlier weren’t very good though

The cooked balls … very mush when raw

Aly was expecting more selections of mushrooms in the buffet menu … but only a few were listed… so we just asked for a mixed plate of mushrooms… can you see how many different types are there on the plate?

The soup became sweeter after the addition of all the meat and prawns….

Atmosphere was pretty good…. clean and bright and best of all… air con

The waitresses were very helpful as well… service was excellent….

Total bill was for 2 x buffet, 1 x Pepsi, 1 x Iced Barley and 2 x tissue = $62.40 which blew to $73.44 after gst and service charge.

Question is, would we return to dine here? Aly said no as she was disappointed with the mushrroms, I think she had 1001 Mario mushrooms in her head when we entered the place only to find a few that we could choose from…

For me… I wouldn’t mind …. as they had some of the stuff I like in a steamboat… mainly the pork and beef tripe, sliced beef… ingredients were fresh, soup stock was good too… the appetisers were interesting
Good service… air con… and not too many people… nice!
Now… if only the price was lower

The Mushroom Pot (Millenia Walk)
Time Square @ Millenia Walk
#01-06
Tel: 6338 1160
http://www.mushroompot.com

Summary

Menu Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Food Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Value for money Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Ambience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Service Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

We were with Fai and Kelly… We had originally wanted to try the Korean Steamboat at Mario Kitchen along Liang Seah Street…. but it was closed!

Fai then suggested going to Ting Yuan as he’s been there before and the food was pretty alright.
We got a table after waiting for some time…

The place was not very big…. very cramped inside… and once I sat where I was, I wasn’t able to get out as other patrons’ chairs had me trapped where I was

NOT good … had a hard time getting out to grab some dipping sauces…. and going back to my seat was a feat itself.

I managed to grab what looked like sesame sauce and chilli paste …

BOTH not good… I read later on in some reviews on the internet that you’re suppose to add the soup stock with the sesame sauce

Well… nobody told us that here….

The sauce on its own was super salty and not very delectable.

I concocted my own dipping sauce with a mixture of soy sauce, red chillis, some spring onions and garlic … my own concoction was crappy as well lol

We chose herbal soup and the least spicy ma la soup.

The rest of the stuff, you tick the items on a piece of paper and hand it to the staff (who were really busy running about)

A mess of mushrooms to ward Fai away lol

Fish balls were awful … not fresh at all … pungent fishy smell and taste … REALLY BAD …
Prawns were not fresh as well
Cockles that the girls ordered…. the smell was so bad, even Aly didn’t dare to eat them…. goodness!
My order of tripe never arrived… which was just as well ‘cos I didn’t trust the freshness of the food by now

Some frozen dumplings … we had to cook them for a long time before we dared to eat them since they were solid as rocks when they arrived ….

Bit slices of pork belly and pork slices… Beef slices looked scary… (not in the pic)
Overall? This has got to be the WORST steamboat I’ve EVER had.

The only thing that was alright was the jug of lime juice we all had … sigh…

Fai and Kelly were disappointed as well claiming it wasn’t this bad the last time they were here….

Sorry Ting Yuan owners and fans… I seriously have no idea why the place is packed when the quality of the food is suspect. Service was not very prompt as well and when Fai paid for the bill, they had added additional stuff in that he wasn’t aware of… he wasn’t very pleased.

Ting Yuan Fish Head Ma La Hot Pot
22 Liang Seah Street, Tel: 6338-4755
Opening hours: 11.30am – 3pm, 5.30 – 10.30pm

Summary

Food Menu Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Food Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
Value for money Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
Ambience Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
Service Rating: 1 out of 5 stars