Hong Kong: Random Places in Central

After the visit the NTU, the next morning I boarded a plane to Hong Kong, which is the main purpose of this trip to the Far East since there's a huge expo that work sends me to every year. I don't know Hong Kong that well, and last year I had a few friends showing me around (thanks Rene & Judy). This year, rather than booking a hotel in Causeway Bay, I decided to stay in Central, just to get a different feel of HK. Below is a collection of a few places I checked out in Central over the course of 2 nights there.

(Sadly I didn't get to eat any of the famous restaurant on SoHo. Co-workers weren't down to explore haha)

Of course before I boarded, I had to take advantage of the free food being offered at the China Airline Lounge once again. I love free upgrades haha.

Got the famous 牛肉麵 beef noodle soup, some xiao long bao, and dumplings. I also decided to try the 擔擔麵 dan dan noodles (bottorm right) since a few around me also got it. They add the soup stock, few slices of pork and a piece of shrimp for taste, then a dollop of minced meat for flavoring. Really simple but really good.

香港中環 Hong Kong Central

MTR: Central

After I got to HK, we headed straight to the convention center and pretty much stayed there until it closed. Had to find some place to eat before retiring to the hotel, and ended up finding 沾仔記 Tsim Chai Kee on Wellington.

Turns out, it's a traditional HK noodle place! Really simple menu, with wonton, beef, fishball, or a combo.

I decided on the wonton & beef egg noodle combo. Simple stock with skinny egg noodles you usually see in Chinese restaurants. Big pieces of beef that's been flattened and probably coated with baking soda prior to being cooked so it's super soft. Wonton are freaking amazing. Generally not a big fan of wonton soup, but damn this is best wonton soup I've had anywhere.

Also ordered a "郊外油菜 countryside veggie." Usually 油菜 is made by boiling vegetables in some sort of stock to give it flavor then they add oyster sauce over it. Here, they use on-choy then they add this... sauce... over it. Not gonna lie... it was sorta weird with the sauce. Without the sauce, it would've been fine.

Few days later, after a business dinner, saw Yoppi Yogurt, which is a self-serve yogurt spot. Wanted something sweet so I went in.

They have Almond Roca here as a topping!!!

And about 4 different flavors of mochi to add.

Ended up getting a few tart flavors and... just straight up Almond Roca hahah. So good with Almond Roca. It was expensive though... I think this was about 30HKD (a little over $4), when it's probably less than $2 at Yogurtland for the same amount.

Next morning, wanted to grab breakfast somewhere close to the hotel so went to 華豊 HuaFeng, a BBQ place.

Almost all restaurants in HK serve some sort of breakfast, usually a combination of Western & HK-style, similar to cafe food here in the States. Ended up ordering a charsiu pork egg sandwich and milk tea. I heart the milk tea in HK. Taiwanese call it 皇家奶茶 royal milk tea but in HK, it is just regular milk tea. Floral black tea + sweetened milk = liquid cocaine for me.

The charsiu pork egg sandwich. Scrambled egg + slices of charsiu between 2 slices of bread. Simple, nothing fancy, but it works!

So that was it in terms of the food around Central. Yes it's kinda sad since SoHo in Central is known for popular restaurants. Every night on my way back I see lines at many restaurants but by the end of the day, my co-workers and I just want to grab a meal where we don't have to wait so we can go back to sleep. Work sucks.