Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: The Peak

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

After a short rest in the hotel room, we left to visit The Peak. You can take MTR to MTR Central station. However, we wanted to experience the Star Ferry, so we need to get to the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier. Good thing that our hotel provide free shuttle bus services between the hotel and Tsim Sha Tsui. We booked our seats in advance and took the 530pm shuttle bus which will drop us at The Sun Arcade. From there, it is a short walk to the Ferry Pier.

Past by 1881 Heritage.

Star Ferry

At Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier. Sky darkened very early. Think we started abit too late and will be missing the sunset at The Peak.

Open-top Bus

We took the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central. After that we boarded the Peak Tram shuttle bus No. 15C at the Central Bus Terminus (near Star Ferry Pier 8). We were lucky to board the Open-top Sightseeing Bus! The ride was very enjoyable during night time!

Peak Tram & The Peak

Reached the Peak Tram Lower Terminus where we will take The Peak Tram to The Peak. The queue for the peak tram was crazy. Super crowded! We waited for close to an hour before we boarded the Peak Tram.

The ride up to The Peak on the Peak Tram is a must-try experience in Hong Kong. The slope upwards is so steep that the buildings below all become tilted! DO sit on the right side of the tram cos there are more buildings to see. Actually it's better to go during day time and come back during night time so that you can view Hong Kong's day and night scenery.

We left at 530pm and reached The Peak at 8pm! Took such a long time! Everyone was so hungry. So we quickly settled our dinner at a Hong Kong Style Cafe.

After that, we went outdoors for a view of Hong Kong at the top! Super cold and windy up here! So sorry for the low photo quality. It was hard to take photos at night time using my normal phone.

Walked around the place for a while before we were back to the long queue for the Peak Tram again. Worse it had to be outdoors. No fun queueing so long in the cold weather.

Taking the Peak Tram down. This time we will be moving backwards because it is a one-way track! More fun! Again, please choose to sit on the right side too. But I only got the left seats as there were too many people on the tram. There was nothing much to see, only trees in the dark. But better than standing. :)

So, then we took the same route back, by bus 15C, then star ferry... Too late to catch the last shuttle bus. So we took the taxi back. It happened to be Halloween night. Still many crowds around at this time. The taxi queue also very long. By the time we were back to hotel, it was already 11pm. Dead tired and very sick of waiting and waiting for the whole night.

Next: Traditional Dim Sum

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Here's my first bake in 2014! Trying to post my bake as soon as possible this time. Must kick the habit of blogging too slow, hope it can last. Hahaha!

This recipe is taken from "Okashi: sweet treats made with love". Have been wanting to try this. Just happen to buy 2 boxes of blueberries and the itch to bake something. So this becomes my tea-break yesterday. The baking cups were bought from Hong Kong.

I like this small recipe, I make exactly 6 muffins, just enough for my family (ignore the kids they only love chocolate, hehe). This muffin uses creaming method. The muffins are quite nice, soft and not too sweet and oily. I like the additional crumble toppings, sweet and crispy. Lots of blueberries! I love watching the blueberries oozing out during baking!

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

Ingredients (make 6 muffins)

Crumble Topping:

20g unsalted butter, softened
20g castor sugar
20g cake flour, sifted
10g ground almonds

Muffins:

50g unsalted butter, softened
40g brown sugar
30g castor sugar
1 egg (about 65g)
60g cold fresh milk
120g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g fresh blueberries

Method

1. Make crumble topping. Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix with fingers until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Chill in fridge until use.
2. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Sift flour and baking powder twice. Set aside 18 blueberries.
3. Beat butter with mixer until soft and creamy. Add both sugars and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg and beat until well-combined.
4. Add 1/3 of flour and fold in with spatula. Add 1/2 of milk and continue to fold batter gently. Add another 1/3 flour and fold in, followed by the remaining milk. Add remaining flour and fold through, but do not over-mix. Add remaining blueberries and fold in gently.
5. Spoon batter into cases until about 3/4 full. Divide the 18 blueberries among each muffin, then sprinkle crumble topping over.
Bake for about 25-30 mins, or until muffins have a springy texture when pressed gently.
6. Leave muffins to cool on a wire rack. They are best served warm, and consumed the day they are baked or the day after. If not consuming immediately, store in airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days, freeze for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe from: Okashi: sweet treats made with love

Goodbye 2013 Hello 2014 & New Announcements

Welcome to 2014! Looking back at previous years, I don't seem to have the habit of compiling my bakes of the year. After seeing many bloggers doing it, I did mine this year.

Took a morning to look back at my posts last year, not many actually :P. I did my first charity bake sale for CNY, baked MORE chiffon cakes, did more kiddy bakes, played with fondant the first time, made mooncakes. I posted more unrelated to baking stuffs, haha! About gardening and half-way through my Hong Kong trip. Still have not posted up some bakes yet.

Some of my favourites for last year.

I'm not a very hardworking baker and blogger. I don't write well, I take my photos in less than a minute. I don't bake that often. I take longer time to blog, especially when there are more ways of sharing my bakes online, like through facebook and instagram. :) I choose to blog more casually now, at my own pace. Blogging is my way of recording my own recipes, my thoughts, my life, my experiences. So that I can have great memories when I look back. If I have shared a good recipe, inspired you to bake, provided some useful information, that's a bonus! :)

Good things come and go. I have 2 announcements to make today.

Aspiring Bakers is coming to an end this year. This had been on my mind for the longest time since last year as I think I have not done a good job. It is a hard decision to end AB. And I finally decide and officially announce it today. I hope you are reading this! This month's 39th theme: CNY Rock & Roll is the second last one. The last theme will be Rainbow Cakes/Ombre Cakes hosted by Cynthia. I really enjoyed the food posted by all bloggers and readers. Aspiring Bakers has great moments, bringing everyone together to share and make friends. I am very proud to be the starter of this event. Hope all of you will give great support for the last 2 themes. :)

The other announcement is about my online shop SSB Baking Supplies. It was started a few months ago, selling baking/cooking/packaging products. Thank you to all my baking friends who supported by buying and sharing about it online. I hope to look for more interesting products that are harder to find here and keep the prices affordable (some shops are selling too high!). Earning a little extra income and also fulfilling my little dream at the same time. Please support to keep it going!

Online shop: http://ssbsupplies.com/
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SSBsupplies

Wishing for a good year in 2014!

Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: Baking Supplies Stores

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

After we left Toy Street, I managed to get some spare time for my own shopping. Easy to guess right? I went looking for the baking supplies stores in Hong Kong. Before the trip, I did a quick search for the baking supplies stores here and found Cathy's post extremely useful as she got a long list of shops that she had visited! Also got some info from Wendy who just returned from Hong Kong before my trip. :) Knowing that I won't have sufficient time to shop, I targeted at 3 shops here, but in the end only visited 2.

Baking Supplies Stores

Here's a map that I roughly made markings and directions of the places I went to. I took the MTR from Wan Chai back to Yau Ma Tei. Exit from A1, walk along Pitt Street (碧街), cross the road at Shanghai Street (上海街) and turn right. Walk past a few shops, you will find On Yip Building (安業商業大廈). There are 2 baking supplies shops located in this same building.

Took the lift to Floor 8, this is 二德惠 （http://www.twinsco.com/）. They have other branches too. It's only after I returned then I realized they have a branch at Wan Chai too. Haha!

After that took the lift to Floor 1, this is 淇趣蛋糕烘焙工房 (KK's Cake Workshop).

Not sure if photography is allowed, so I just quickly took some photos. I spent more time and bought all my stuffs from 二德惠 as they were cheaper and more variety. Some of the things that I bought back. I did not spend a lot though.

M Garden Vegetarian

After shopping, I went to look for vegetarian food for my mum. If you are a vegetarian, you can find vegetarian food all over the world from HappyCow website. I bookmarked a few before the trip. There are 2 vegetarian restaurants very near to us here at Dundas Street (登打士街). We went to M Garden Vegetarian which serves vegetarian Chinese food and dim sum.

A few simple and tasty dishes.

Some info for anyone who is vegetarian.

M Garden Vegetarian
2/F, Omega Plaza, 32-34A Dundas Street, Mong Kok (nearest MTR station Yau Ma Tei)
Open Mon-Sun 11am-11pm

The other vegetarian restaurant Jade Vegetarian is somewhere diagonally opposite this building at the ground floor, easier to spot and seems cheaper! Haiz!

Jade Vegetarian
Shop B, 124-128 Portland Street, Mong Kok
Open Mon-Sun 10am-11:30pm

Kwong Wa Street (廣華街)

After the food, we intended to walk back to our hotel. We walked along Dundas Street and found a whole street selling fruits, vegetables and dried goods. We stopped by for a look. My mum bought some stuffs back. At the end of the street, we got a bit lost of the directions. Didn't know how to and how far to walk back. As we had more activities later at night, we decided to take a taxi back. The taxi fare was HK$20. I read the map after we were back and found that the street was Kwong Wa Street (廣華街). :)

Next: The Peak

Merry Christmas 2013

This Christmas, I made a Christmas logcake for the first time.

The cake was made of chocolate chiffon cake, spread with nutella. The logcake was frosted and decorated by my nieces with nutella whipped cream. I did tried to help them to make the cake neater, but I was equally bad at it, haha! Luckily, once all the decorations were put in, the logcake looked pretty good! :)



The remaining of the chocolate cake batter, I put into my new mini flower chiffon mould. It was really cute!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!!

May everyone be blessed with good health and happiness!!!

Hong Kong 2013 Day 2: Tim Ho Wan - Toy Street

Day 2: 31 October 2013 (Thu)

On Day 2, we woke up and saw the great view from our hotel room at the top floor!

Tim Ho Wan

We started our day with the famous Michelin Star Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan 添好運 in Hong Kong. There are a few branches in Hong Kong. We visited the one at Sham Shui Po nearest to our hotel.

This map is taken from Google Map and I try to show its location from Sham Shui Po MTR station. We walked to Mongkok MTR station from our hotel, took MTR to Sham Shui Po Exit B2. It's quite a few streets away from the MTR station though.

From Google Map

G/F, 9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon
九龍深水埗福榮街9-11號地下
Nearest MTR station: Tsuen Wan Line, Sham Shui Po, Exit B2
Opening hours: 8am-9.30pm daily

You will know you are there when you see this big sign on the street!

We thought it opened at 10am and we got to queue for a long time. But it was already opened when we arrived at about 9am and there was no queue at all. We got seats immediately! And the menu was given.

Being not the foodie type, haha, I wasn't really aware of the 4 heavenly king from Tim Ho Wan. But we did order their famous Baked Bun with BBQ pork 酥皮焗叉烧包. It comes 3 pieces in a set and this was one of my favourite!

There were 3 items from what we ordered that left a really good impression. Until now, I still can't help thinking about it. :) One of them was the BBQ pork buns above. The other was the Steamed Egg Cake (香滑马来糕）. It was very soft and had a very strong and nice caramelized sugar taste in it. It was unforgettable!

We ordered a variety of dim sum from the menu. My third favourite was the Pan Fried Turnip Cake (香煎萝卜糕). Cos the texture was different from Singapore's one, soft and QQ. Most of the other dim sum are nice too.

Vermicelli Roll

Osmanthus Cake

The Glutinuous Rice Dumpling was probably the most disappointed one for me. It was tasteless and very little ingredients wrapped inside.

Overall, the meal was good! We spent only HK$264 (~S$44) for so many items. Do give it a try if you go Hong Kong!

Tai Yuen Street (Toy street)

After the meal, we weren't very sure where to go. So I suggested Toy Street, should be quite fun for the kids. Took the MTR to Wan Chai Station Exit A3. The Toy Street, Tai Yuen Street (太原街) is just across the road.

Not much photos here as we were busy exploring the shops and stalls along the streets. After getting some toys, the kids were tired and went back to the hotel for their nap. So I took the chance to explore elsewhere. Guess where I'm going? :)

Next: Baking Supplies Stores

Hong Kong 2013 Day 1: Royal Plaza Hotel

Day 1: 30 October 2013 (Wed)

Royal Plaza Hotel

By the time we reached and check-in Royal Plaza Hotel, it was already 10pm! We took more than 2 hours! We were lucky, or maybe due to the late check-in, we managed to get a free upgrade to the royal club room at the top floor!

Our room was at the top 19th floor. We were very delighted once we entered and saw the room. It was huge! We were recommended to this hotel because of their huge room size of 350 sq feet (33 sq m). It can accommodate at least 3-4 people, just nice for a small family. So glad that we will be staying here for 3 nights! :)

We got 2 big and comfortable queen-sized beds in our room! There is a 46" LED TV (no photo) and a mini-bar cabinet with a variety of beverages, a mini fridge and a Nespresso coffee machine too! What I love most is the free in-room WiFi cos I needed it to check my emails, facebook and instagram, haha! Plus there are plenty of USB powerpoint in the room for charging and iPhone/iPod Docking Station, all just beside the bed. So I can use my phone while lying on the bed. :)

The very modern bathroom with bathtub and rain shower head. Well-stocked bathroom amenities and hairdryer. Then we discovered something more special for the bathroom. It is actually a see-through bathroom, of course you can put down the blinds if you need privacy, hehe! For some strange reasons, we couldn't find the door lock for the bathroom. Maybe it's supposed to be unlocked? :)

Kam Wah Cafe 金華冰廳

After all the "exploring" for the room, it was already 11pm. Me and my mum went out for some dinner/supper. We were like very careful not to lose our way as we were new to the place. But there were plenty of signs to lead us. My method of finding ways is just need to recognize a few important street names - Fa Yuen Street 花園街, Tung Choi Street 通菜街, Bute Street 弼街. :) We found the way there by walking through the shopping centre Grand Century Place just beside the hotel, down an escalator to reach Bute Street. For your info, it was very safe to walk around here, the streets were still full of people at this time! Hong Kong-ers don't sleep! :)

The famous Kam Wah Cafe is right in front. They are famous for their pineapple buns 菠蘿油 and egg tarts, but not at this late hour. We quickly settled for a fried rice and then went back to rest. (Too bad, I didn't have the chance to be back for their pineapple buns :()

Next: Tim Ho Wan - Toy Street