Long Walk Along the Harbourfront

Gorgeous day for a walk and admire the Hong Kong skyline

This morning my friend and I did the 11.5km walk from North Point to Kennedy Town in just over two hours. It was a great way to walk off an accumulation of calories and see the city the way I used to see it when I lived in Hong Kong.

It was already sunny and hot at just after 8.30am when we set off, and luckily we had slathered on sunscreen and wore a hat. We walked past North Point, seeing people make use of seating areas to eat a snack, look at their phones or read the newspaper, and Fortress Hill before going to Tin Hau and Causeway Bay, walking around the Police Officers' Club.

Construction for the route in Sai Ying Pun

In Wan Chai there was a running race going on -- the My Boy 3K Family Run, based off of a comic strip character. We saw many people dressed in blue T-shirts with medals around their necks and then the actual race route along the Wan Chai waterfront. 

When we got to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre it was great to see the familiar sight of Victoria Harbour and both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I was not able to spot any cats by the rocks though. 

Meanwhile there is construction extending from the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong so that people can walk from the hotel across an overpass to reach the walking path which will be fantastic once it's done; guests won't be confused as to how to get there and be able to enjoy the skyline by the harbourfront.

Pretty soon we arrived in Central, and spotted a military ship docked; I was surprised there were no People's Liberation Army soldiers out in front of the gates guarding the ship...

Military ship docked in Central

At the Ferry Piers there were the usual crowds hanging around waiting for friends or family before boarding together to go to the outlying islands and it wasn't as packed as it used to be pre-pandemic.

Shun Tak in Sheung Wan was basically the same, though with more pollution from the Turbocat ferries. I don't miss the noise pollution and the gasoline smell.

Soon after we arrived in Sai Ying Pun, and at Dr Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Park there were people exercising, children playing, and walking like us. But after passing the sports centre the route was diverted with lots of construction along what used to be the boardwalk.

My friend noted that not much seemed to have been completed since the last time he walked by this area. Alas will have to see how it looks the next time.

Finally we reached Shek Tong Tsui where we saw the former Instagram Pier that has been blocked off for years from public access, and soon enough we arrived at Kennedy Town.

The coffee shop Arabica is still very popular with mainland tourists thanks to Xiaohongshu, and across the street, many were trying to get a shot of themselves with Victoria Harbour in the background. There were more people taking pictures with the line of Banyan trees on Forbes Street. It is quite the miracle how the seeds for these trees landed in between the rocks of the stone wall and managed to cling on and grow into trees. 

Banyan trees are a tourist attraction in K-Town

It was heartening to see most of the restaurants and shops are still around.

Cheap Eats in Sai Ying Pun

Large clams steamed with vermicelli and spring onions on top

I met up with my ex-colleagues for dinner the other day. One of them arranged for us to eat at a dai pai dong in a government-run cooked food centre and the food we ate was fantastic, perfect for a casual group of people.

The restaurant is called Daisy's and it's a no-frills place where diners sit on plastic chairs around a round table with flimsy plastic on top. But the food is top notch.

Another round of the crispy deboned chicken 

One of the highlights was the deboned -- yes deboned -- crispy chicken. The skin was so crunchy, while the meat was tender and juicy. Another was giant clams topped with vermicelli and spring onions. Some people were hesitant about eating the large orange reproductive gland, claiming it tasted mealy. But it's part of the scallop!

Other dishes included an omelette with preserved vegetable, Chinese kale stir-fried with garlic, prawns stir-fried in salted egg yolk, another salted egg yolk with squid, string beans stir-fried with minced pork and chillis, and fish with tofu in a claypot.

In general all the dishes were pretty good and including several bottles of Tsing Tao, the meal came to HK$250 per person.

We had the added entertainment of playing with two cats who wore tops to keep warm! In general they are quite friendly.

One cat mans the stall Daisy's

My former colleague likes Daisy's, not only because it's across from where he lives, but also because it is gay-friendly, pointing out a rainbow sign in a corner of the restaurant.

Daisy's

Centre Street Market between First and Second Street

Sai Ying Pun

2547 5899

Whatsapp +852 6891 1362

Bakehouse Bakes up Success Story

Chef Gregoire Michaud with Bakehouse's famous egg tarts

Bakehouse is an extremely popular bakery that sells loaves of sourdough bread, pastries, cookies, sandwiches and doughnuts. Its most famous product is the sourdough egg tart, similar to the pastel de nata with its caramelised egg custard.

It was started 2018 by Swiss Gregoire Michaud, who quit his job as executive pastry chef at the Four Seasons Hong Kong. He first set up a wholesale business in 2013 supplying bread to hotels and restaurants before opening the retail bakery Bakehouse.

There are queues daily at the various locations

For someone who covers the food business it's been fascinating to watch Bakehouse grow from its first shop in Wan Chai to now having seven locations around Hong Kong.

A few days ago I caught up with Michaud and he continues to have a very humble attitude towards building his business and brand, and knowing full well that consistency is key.

The last time I talked to him was during the Covid-19 pandemic and he was having a hard time despite long lines at Bakehouse; the wholesale side of his business had completely plunged because hotels and restaurants did not order any bread, as hardly any customers dined out.

While retail sales at Bakehouse were doing very well, it was just barely enough to get by those few years. After the pandemic was over and borders reopened, sales bounced back very quickly.

Michaud said that the second most popular location after Wan Chai is Tsim Sha Tsui, with mainland customers passing through the area via the high-speed rail and thanks to Xiaohongshu, these visitors will go to Bakehouse and pickup not one box of egg tarts (six per box), but eight -- yes eight boxes of egg tarts. 

The flaky egg tarts are made with sourdough

But then someone on Xiaohongshu posted that if they wanted to skip the lines in Tsim Sha Tsui they should go to the Causeway Bay location.

There are even people in Taiwan who fly to Hong Kong specifically to stand in line at Bakehouse to buy the egg tarts and then get back on the next flight to deliver them to people who have ordered them online.

Some local residents have given up lining up for the prized egg tarts, saying because Bakehouse is trying to keep up with demand, quality has dropped...

Last year it was reported Bakehouse sold a whopping 18,000 to 20,000 egg tarts per day. At HK$12.50 each, that's a cool HK$91.25 million annually.

Quite amazing considering Michaud and his team were experimenting with some leftover sourdough dough to make egg tarts.

And they really are delicious. 

Challenging Times for Fine-Dining Restaurants

Diners are spoiled for choice when it comes to restaurants

Hong Kong's restaurant scene has changed completely in the last year or so. 

Even though the city has 95 restaurants with a Michelin star rating this year, customers aren't necessarily interested in shelling out for the gourmet experience.

In particular fine-dining restaurants are having a hard time attracting diners who are willing to subject themselves to set menus; they would rather like to have the power to choose what they eat and not let a chef dictate what is placed in front of them.

Originally set menus were an opportunity for the restaurant to showcase multiple dishes so that diners would not be limited to say appetiser, main and dessert. It is also a good way for restaurants to control their food and labour costs when they know exactly what they are serving.

But now perhaps customers are tired of being told what to eat and want to decide for themselves what is going into their stomachs. If there is no flexibility, they would rather dine elsewhere, and in Hong Kong, there is a lot of choice.

Some fine dining restaurants managed to pivot quickly, while others are still stuck in their set menu mode. For example, a French restaurant like Caprice in the Four Seasons Hong Kong, which has three Michelin stars may still appeal to diners who want that exceptional dining experience, but a one-star restaurant may not have enough -- ahem -- star power to be able to determine what customers will eat.

And those with no stars at all have learned to be extremely nimble and take whatever business they can get. Some have been lucky with a steady stream of customers, while others have some good days, and some bad ones, resulting in just breaking even.

In the meantime the restaurants that are opening in Hong Kong these days are mid-price range ones that appeal to budget-conscious diners. It is these places where there is a high chance that people will dine here more frequently, rather than just for special occasions like birthdays and Valentine's Day.

So is it still worth gunning for Michelin stars? It's something chefs and owners are grappling with, as restaurants struggle to attract diners when over a million people go to the mainland on the weekends.

The shakedown continues and we'll have to see who lands on their feet on the other side of this challenging financial climate.

Wok Hei at a Hong Kong Dai Pai Dong

Two chefs cooking with wok hei at dai pai dong Oi Man Sang

In Chinese cooking, particularly Cantonese, people talk about how good a dish is by the "wok hei", literally "the breath of the wok".

It involves intense heat or fire, that heats up the wok so much that ingredients are cooked and caramelised in less than a minute, resulting in a slight char or hint of smokiness that adds another layer to the flavour of the dish.

Baked casserole, stir fried beef ribs, razor clams

Most Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong have wok stations to create wok hei, but may not be able to get that intense heat that can be found in dai pai dongs, or open-air food stall. One of them is Oi Man Sang in the Sham Shui Po area, more specifically around Prince Edward district.

Dai pai dong literally means "big license stall", and they began proliferating after World War II. But decades later in a bid to clean up the streets for hygienic reasons, the government restricted the number of dai pai dongs, relocating many of them in government-run cooked food markets. 

The numbers of dai pai dongs dwindled further when the authorities only allowed owners to pass on the license to family members. 

Which brings us to Oi Man Sang, which has been around since 1956, making it one of the oldest in Hong Kong. 

Typhoon shelter crab with garlic and spices

Typically there is a massive line of people waiting for tables -- no reservations are taken -- and diners are literally eating on the sidewalk while the mobile kitchen is on the street, with two big gas burners fuelled by kerosene. As chef Lucas Sin likes to say, they use jet fuel to cook.

This was my first time to Oi Man Sang and was excited to try the food that I had read and heard so much about. We got a table set up on the sidewalk, metres away from the open-air kitchen and watched two chefs deftly manipulate the woks as they were heated up by the roaring fire underneath.

Another good thing about eating here is that there is no corkage, so we brought a bottle of sake to try with the food. 

The first dish to arrive at the table was baked fish intestines with liver in egg casserole, and here it was topped with thin slices of you tiao or savoury Chinese doughnut for a contrasting texture. This was done well, fluffy from the eggs combined with the offal.

Stir-fried cabbage with minced pork and shrimp

Next was stir-fried small razor clams, which you don't see often. The narrow strips of sweet clam meat were about two to three inches long, cooked with a tiny bit of spice, and roughly chopped onion and peppers.

We also ordered stir-fried beef ribs, very tender and attached to the bone, together with onion and peppers again, and typhoon shelter crab, which is cooked with a lot of minced garlic and spices. The meat itself was sweet, though quite messy to eat.

A favourite was stir-fried cabbage with minced pork and dried shrimps in a clay pot. The cabbage soaked up the salty flavours, and in the sizzling pot stayed warm for quite a while. 

Stir-fried prawns is considered a popular dish, though again a bit messy to eat, though the prawns were very large, meaty and sweet.

While most of these dishes demonstrated wok hei, perhaps the only dish that was disappointing with the yeung chow fried rice; the individual rice while plump, were not cooked well enough in the wok to have the wok hei flavour.

Large meaty prawns served at Oi Man Sang

Nevertheless, we were quite satisfied with our dinner. I ventured over to the kitchen to take a look and indeed the two chefs there cooked dishes in seconds thanks to the intense fire on the stove. 

At one point there was a lot of banging -- the fire was so hot that it had warped the wok and the chef had to hammer it back into shape!

The evening we went there weren't many people waiting in line, which some attribute to not many tourists coming. We hope Oi Man Sang and other dai pai dongs continue their tradition for years to come, though who in the next generation is willing to work with such heat day in, day out?

Oi Man Sang

Shop B-C, G/F, 1 Shek Kip Mei Street, Sham Shui Po

+852 2393 9315

An Enjoyable Walking Route at North Point

Under the highway overpass is a place for people to exercise

In the last few years I lived in Hong Kong, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, my friend and I did a lot of walking along the harbour. It was a way of decompressing and also feeling like we accomplished something, counting the number of kilometres with some sweat. I also wore down a few pairs of runners.

Towards the end we could walk from Kennedy Town to Sai Wan Ho on a path hugging the shoreline, though there were some sections where we had no choice but to walk inland before the path continued again along the harbour front.

A colourful path directing cyclists and pedestrians

Recently another section opened up -- right by my hotel in North Point. Called the East Coast Park Precinct, the path going west is under the highway overpass which is interesting. It's jazzed up with bright colours, some exercise machines, motorbike hills for kids and a really tame climbing hill.

There are two paths that periodically converge or separate; one of which juts out periodically so people can take pictures of the harbour or stand or walk and enjoy the view.

This morning I checked out the path and saw a number of seniors taking advantage of the path, some young professionals using the route to walk to work in the car-free zone, some squeezing in a run before work, or walking their dogs.

I walked to Fortress Hill, the next district west of North Point and did a loop around the giant vent shaft which is part of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass, before turning back.

In the end I walked about 4km and broke in a bit of a sweat even though it was a chilly 15 degrees.

A mini hill to climb on the left for kids

What a great way to start off the day, seeing this development continue to piece together the shoreline so that people will eventually be able to walk all the way around Hong Kong Island -- if they so wish!

Macau: Two Sides of the Former Portuguese Enclave

Many people at the Ruins of St Paul's in Macau

On Sunday morning I made a trip to Macau to visit relatives. I bought ferry tickets the day before to ensure I could get on the high-speed ferries. 

Tickets on the weekend are HK$190 each, and for first class it's HK$329 each; ages ago the return ticket would be worth more, but now they are the same price. Perhaps it's because there are now two high-speed ferry companies, and there are other ways to get to and from Macau, like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.

African chicken with pickles and potato wedges

It was a beautiful clear and cool day when I went, but very windy, which resulted in a slightly bumpy one-hour ride. The water kept splashing on the windows as if the ferry was going through a car wash or a rainstorm for the whole trip.

We made it safe and sound to the other side and unloaded off onto the Macau Taipa Ferry Terminal, a massive building that has a low capacity; which means passengers have to walk a long way to get to immigration and then out.

My relatives picked me up and we went upstairs to get to the Macau Light Rapid Transit, which is relatively new and few people ride it. It's a pleasant way to get around even though the speed may seem slow. It has convenient stops near all the major hotels, though not many people know about this public transit line or find it a hassle to get to the platform. 

At the end of the line -- right across from Hengqin in Zhuhai -- we got off and wandered a bit, passing by the Tin Hau temple before getting to Restaurante Litoral, a Portuguese dining establishment which has a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin guide.

Freshly made almond cookies with mandarin peel

We tucked into a big meal of bacalhau, or salted cod cakes, African chicken topped with a sauce that includes shredded coconut and caramelised onions that are browned under a broiler, stir-fried mixed vegetables, and a plate of grilled short ribs. 

Then we attempted to walk off the calories we had just consumed by walking around. We went to a side street to find a shop that sells handmade almond cookies, featuring ground almonds that are pressed into molds and baked.

My relatives were surprised to find the shop had a very short line -- typically the queue goes down the street. We didn't have to wait too long to get into the tiny shop and buy four boxes of these almond cookies that cost HK$85 each! That's because they are handmade, and not churned out by machines. You can even see men in an open-air shop making them with old equipment, the cookies left to cool on round bamboo trays.

As we walked down streets mostly catering to locals, my relatives were also concerned to see a lot of shop fronts that were closed, the shutters down. Either it was because it was a Sunday, or the business had shuttered. My relatives said if a business was not related to tourism, it would be very challenging for it to keep going.

Streets packed with visitors

This contrasted to when we got closer to the Ruins of St Paul's, where there swarms of tourists -- both mainland and Taiwanese. The streets leading up to remnants of the facade of a 17th century church are filled with shops selling all kinds of snacks, like the aforementioned almond cookies that are mass produced, beef and pork jerky, Portuguese egg tarts, egg rolls, and wife cakes. 

There were so many people at the Ruins of St Paul's that we quickly took a picture at the bottom of the stairs and then left via another street.

Macau is anxiously tracking the number of visitors to the city: in January there were over 3.64 million visitors, the vast majority were same-day tourists at 2.15 million, and only 1.49 million staying overnight. 

While the total number of tourists has gone up 27.4 percent year-on-year, most visitors only stay for the day. Those from the mainland can very easily cross the border into Zhuhai to stay the night where it is cheaper before re-entering Macau if they wanted to visit again.

This is a very similar situation in Hong Kong, where hotel rates are also expensive and again quite easy to go back to the mainland to Shenzhen to stay for the night, though most visitors are from Shenzhen and Guangzhou. It's a tough dilemma to solve, particularly for hotels eager to have more people staying in their rooms.

The Grand Lisboa in the distance

We managed to catch a cab along a small street and my relatives suggested I get to the ferry terminal and then they could continue on in the same taxi to get home. They said because cabs were so hard to come by that they didn't want to risk not being able to get another one if they got out and saw me off at the ferry terminal.