Cheung Chau

Cheung Chau is a beautiful small island in Hong Kong.
It is a fish village with a rich history and culture

Getting there:
You can take a 30min ferry at Central port to Cheung Chau.
There are two types of ferry.
The express will get you there faster without seasickness
If you choose to take the slower boat, you can grab a seat at the end of the boat and enjoy the wind with the fresh air from sea.

There are many small cafes and restaurants on the island
My friend and I went to this traditional cafe for a modern glass of ice coffee
The interior of this cafe stays in the 60s 70s era
Surprisingly they taste just as good as those I can get in Toronto




The weather in Summer Hong Kong is very very hot
It was over 35'c that day
When we were on the way to the beach, we kept seeing people holding this fruit Popsicle
After a turn at the corner,
We FOUND the vendor!
Of course we got one too!
This is super refreshing under a sunny day.




If you have been to Cheung Chau, you would know about this bun
This is as big as my hand.
You can still find this bun at a few bakeries on the island.
They usually comes in two sweet flavours, red bean and lotus paste.

This bun came from Cheung Chau Bun Festival (包山節)
Village people would build a tower with thousands of this bun to celebrate Buddha's birthday
Visitors were welcome to join the bun-snatching competition during the celebration
The locals believe the person who catch the bun from the top of the tower will receive a great fortune.
However, the bun-snatching ritual was abandoned by the government due to the 1978 collapse.




Before you leave the island,
you must check out the dried seafood vendors.
My grandma loves the strong flavour of the dried seafood,
I got her a famous salted fish and some dried shrimps.
She uses a lot of these to make Cantonese soup and dishes.
I will write more about these dishes later on

If you get a chance to go to Hong Kong, I strongly recommend you to spend a day to Cheung Chau Island to experience another side of Hong Kong

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Cafe de Coral

If you have been to Hong Kong, you must know about its fast food culture.
People in Hong Kong are very busy everyday.
They tend to go to fast food restaurant for almost 3 meals a day.
Cafe de Coral is one of the biggest chain fast food restaurant in Hong Kong.
I remember when I was a kid, mom always take us there for lunch before school.
(Yes, we go to school after lunch time in primary school. Because of the full population, kids go to school either from 6am to 12pm or from 12pm to 6pm)
This year when I went back to Hong Kong for visit, mom and I went to Cafe de Coral for a re-visit.
I missed there Asian style BBQ chicken/duck and their signature milk tea...
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Cake lovers heaven

If you are a cake lover, you must visit this “Food Show” at Shibuya station.
It has all kind of cake shops inside of it; both Japanese and Western cake are available.
The price of each piece is between $2 CAD to $200 CAD.
You will fall in love with the packing too.
Local would usually buy them as a gift.
If you pass by the station, I would strongly recommend you to spend 15 mins.

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Odaiba Hot grill fried noodles

Odaiba is about 30min from downtown Tokyo by train.
It is a small island located at Tokyo coast; many couples like to spend their weekend there.
We went there mainly for the 70s look of Japan.
There are 3 shopping mall connected together by the board walk.
The 70s street look of Japan is located just above the “Little Hong Kong” floor of the “Deck”.
There are also 100 yen shops and other department stores around the area.


When you get tried from all the shopping,
You can find the food court at one of the mall basement area for some local snack.
The portion of this meal is enough for mom and I.
It is fried noodles on a hot grill, including one side and one drink. (we got fried chicken skewer and yogurt drink)
It was 950 yen, approximately $10 CAD.




If you keep walking on the board walk, you will find this Takoyaki vender.
They sells all kind of Tokoyaki (Grilled Octopus balls).
They top it with some fish flakes.
The fish flakes dance on the Tokoyaki because of the steam,
it is fun to watch them and more fun to eat them.
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Underground food court

It is way too hot to walk around on the street during summer time in Japan.
We have found an underground food court right at Shinjuku station.
There are many kind restaurants, from sushi place, to tempura place, to steak house to noodles place; they are all inside the underground food court.



The bean curd udon soup only cost me 450 yen, which is about $5 CAD.
When I order this, I pointed at the food display model and bang! They guessed what I wanted.
Mom chose something more flavorful, she ordered a stew beef undo soup.
It is only 500 yen ($5.25 CAD).


=p hehe, I just want to show you this last picture to make you starve for this.
Seafood tempura don!
Don in Japanese means rice.
They lightly fried all the seafood (shrimp, fish of all kind and veggie) and top it on a bowl of hot steam rice, drizzle some secret soy sauce with the sizzle sound. LOVE IT!
This set with clam miso soup cost 2200 yen ($25 CAD).

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Traditional Japanese Breakfast

I always admire the art of Japanese food.
They believe food has it own nature spirit.
To respect the spirit and customers, they would give the food its best taste and the best presentation.
This traditional Japanese breakfast is simple.
Yet, many chefs spent hours and hours in the kitchen to prepare this meal.
From the way they cut the vegetables to pickles to plating, the chiefs make this meal magical to us.
The breakfast set (from top left): Pouched hot spring egg, Boiled fresh vegetables, Local grown cabbage salad, Pickled seaweed and Steamed white fishes. Served with steamed rice, Mushroom miso soup and Grinded cinnamon vine paste.


What really is pouched hot spring egg?
It is basically just pouched egg. The only different is that the egg is cooked in hot spring. The temperature of the hot spring can easy achieve the perfect cooking process for the egg. Allow the egg yoke to remain soft and smooth.

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Convenient Stores in Japan

Why do we all love Japanese convenient stores?
First of all, they are 24 hrs/.
Secondly, they are everywhere, usually 2 or 3 located near your hotel.
And lastly, they sell almost everything you could think of.


Oh, forget to mention that mom and I had so much fun doing shopping in the convenient stores.
We had convenient dinner for 2 nights.
They were cheap, fresh and tasty.
Our meal including Grilled salted fish, King crab legs, Egg tofu, Pickles, Sashimi, Five Beans salad, Hot soup with pork, Grapefruit drink and Plum wine.


Nothing is better then this paper box plum wine after a meal.
Japanese convenient stores carry all kind of liquor in small size.
Don’t you worry about alcohol in the late night.

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Summer in Japan

Summer.
Japan.
Food.

All these words brought me to Japan this summer.
Since I was coming back to Hong Kong to visit my family.
Mom and I planned to stay in Japan for 5 days on our way back to Hong Kong.
I booked the hotel on expedia.ca
Search for transportation direction and printed off maps from google.
I was all ready for this trip.
(If you would like to find out time table and price for train and subway in Tokyo in advance, I strongly recommend this site ekitan.com/ , all you need is the name of the place. I searched in English and it shows in Chinese and Japanese characters, please let me know if you will need help with it.)




First night, we went to a hot spring hotel at Choshi.
It is on the east of downtown Tokyo, near by the sea, 2 hours away from Narita Airport.
It cost about $150 USD per person (the cheapest one), including 1 night 2 meals and hot spring bath tax.
You can also choose other deal on the website.
To book this hotel, you will need to visit their website at
viewhotels.co.jp/gyoukeikan/

Unfortunately, it is only available in Japanese.
Now it is time to figure out how to book this local hotel.
I then found this free translation site, Worldlingo
all you need is to fill in a form on Gyoukeikan site to reserve a room.
You can always email to the hotel staff (in English)
they will provide very clear direction and answer all you questions in English.

When we arrive Choshi station, we called the hotel at a phone booth. (cost 10 yen, make sure you have some change with you. If you don't, there is a 24 hr conventience store at the station)
We only waited about 10 min, they send a shuttle bus to the station to pick us up.



After we checked-in the hotel, we have got 45 min to rest before they serve dinner in our room.
Yes, in the room =)
We managed to have a quick shower in the public bath and rest up in the hot spring.
They have some tranditional bath robe in different sizes for you to wear to the hot spring,
ofcourse we took some nice picture in it.



Dinner time!
I swear I have never had so much seafood in my life.
I didn't like raw fish/ sashimi but you must try the freshest ones in Japan.
Everything is caught in the sea near by the hotel.
I can't tell you everything because I will let you to experience your own.
Mom and I had so much fun during the stay.
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