hong kong on a plate

big buddha. bruce lee's statue. mickey mouse. shopping, lots and lots of shopping.

all that may be hong kong, but for me it is, dimsum-noodle-congee-milk tea heaven. and so much more.

whenever im in hong kong, i head to Dragon Restaurant (3-5 Gage Street, Central), no fail. a small, shabby eatery in central's hilly streets, that can be easily missed. but don't let the restaurant's facade fool you. 

they serve up superb roasted suckling pig. Bourdain said their pig is "as close as to god as you're gonna get".  clearly, i had to know how heavenly it tastes.

it was celestial. divine. godlike. enough with the adjectives. it was exactly how Bourdain said it would be.

i know, i know. im such a Bourdain groupie. but the man knows his sh--, uhm, stuff. 

the skin was crisp to perfection, the meat almost melts in your mouth. lechon what? 

now to get my dumpling fix. a michelin-starred restaurant is my best bet-- cheapest michelin-starred restaurant in the world, Tim Ho Wan. right after some shopping at the ladies market, i walk my way up to Kwong Wa Street in Mongkok. 

There's no english sign for you to know if it's the right place, but the line outside the restaurant would probably catch your attention. i almost gave up in search for this place. thank god i didn't. 

people queue up for 3 hours waiting for a table. once, my fiance was told to wait for more than an hour, so he ate somewhere else instead.  i refuse to give up.

i was lucky to have made it right on time, i was the last customer. probably why it didn't take hours for me to get seated. and i was alone so they just squeezed me by the kitchen. im a happy camper, i can be standing up eating and i wouldn't mind.

the dumplings and the pork buns are the best i've had to date. i would be willing to wait for hours just for this! fortunately, i didn't though. whew.

honestly, im happy with my hole-in-the-walls, street side eateries. but one time my sister suggested we try Yung Kee at Wellington Street, Central, for it's roasted goose. of course, there was a wait too, this place had become sort of a tourist magnet.

tried their dumplings and sweet and sour fish too. it was good, but nothing special, i think. nothing really stood out. and it was quite expensive too. 

don't get me wrong, it was a good meal. they have awards and more than half a century of business to prove it. or maybe im not just the biggest fan of roasted goose. but im sure i can go somewhere a little cheaper and have the same quality of meal, or even better. 

still, it's an experience to eat Yung Kee's legendary roast goose. 

to a more different kind of experience, there's Lan Kwai Fong. crazy fun. just the way i like it.

i can get a drink at 7 eleven (bottled jack and coke please), and just walk around. few jello shots here and there. do the 10-shot challenge. dance on a table of a random bar. and drink some more. crazy fun.

but there's this one pub in Stanley that really appeals to me, Smuggler's Inn (thanks to our friends in HK for bringing us there). it is by the promenade, perfect for a stroll on a laid-back afternoon. but in our case, it was perfect for an afternoon of drinking. 

with a bad hangover from our night at Lan Kwai Fong, we knew the best way to feel better is to drink some more. we weren't wrong.

the pub was filled with paper money from all over the world, customers would write on them and stick them on the walls and ceiling. reading them can be quite entertaining. gotta love a place with character. 

hong kong is perfect for an asian-food-crazed girl like me. and a party-crazed girl, too.

it's one of those places where i feel right at home, have a really great time, and come back to dubai a little heavier on the weighing scale.

Cheers!