Had lunch at one of the cafes in Wan Chai, where Slug fell in love with its pork chop bun and hot milk tea. I found it ridiculous to have to top up another HKD6 to change the noodles to instant noodles for my order. I mean, they are all noodles, so why the extra charge?
Pork chop bun and hot lemon tea
My favourite instant noodles with luncheon meat and egg!
At the cafe
After that, we took the MTR to Choi Hung Station, and I emerged from the underground station surprised. Residential estates (like those back home) and small sundries shops surrounded us, and the feel was so totally different from that at Hong Kong island. Eagerly explored the heartlands and experiencing its familiarity.
At Wan Chai MTR station
A shrine just outside Choi Hung MTR station
We walked around a nearby estate, where shops were selling everything from confectioneries to pork to fruits to kitchen necessities. Prices were significantly lower than those at the city too. Earlier, we bought a butterfly crisp (a buttery flaky pastry) at a Wan Chai bakery for HKD6, but the butterfly crisps here were selling at 3 for HKD5! And egg tarts were selling at HKD2.50 each! How cheap could it get!
Market shops
Boarded a minibus bound for Sai Kung just outside the MTR station, and it took us through more housing estates, winding roads up the hill and through the forests, and finally we could see the sea. We alighted at Sai Kung bus terminus, and proceeded to take a walk along the waterfront park. We stopped at the first seafood restaurant we saw to marvel at the tanks of live seafood, from sea basses to prawns, and from crabs to shellfish. The server at the restaurant pestered us to go for one of their set meals, pushing a promotional brochure to us. We promised we would be back, saying that we did not want to have dinner so soon, but deep down, we had the intention to check out prices at other restaurants.
Hills are everywhere even in the New Territories
Boats moored in the waters
The first seafood restaurant we came to
We came to the waterfront, where fishermen were peddling their stocks of live seafood on their sampans. We were enthralled by the array of seafood they had - eels, octopus, clams, cuttlefish etc. However, I was quite saddened by the cruelty of this business - customer points to a fish and fisherman instantly scoops it up and hacks it with a cleaver before scaling it. I flinched when I witnessed how one fisherman chopped up a live cuttlefish and handed it to a customer within a minute.
A signpost at Sai Kung waterfront
Fishermen at Sai Kung waterfront
An array of live seafood
Live seafood aside, the fishermen also sold dried seafood. Slug loved dried scallops so we bought two tubs of dried scallops (they smelled damn good), some ikan bilis and a large packet of seaweed from one of the fishermen. Bargaining necessary.
A fisherman selling dried produce
We walked over to the jetty, watched the locals fish and immersed ourselves in the peaceful atmosphere.
Sai Kung waters
A kaido
A kid fishing with his father
Me on the jetty
A smoky sunset
We took a leisurely stroll along the waterfront, watching families enjoying their weekend here, children running around, and couples taking their pet pooches out for a walk. I probably had never seen so many dogs congregating in one area before, and here they are - maltese, pugs, retrievers, poodles and the occasional husky and Jap spitz (our favourite!). It was interesting watching the dogs - the small ones would to try act aggressive and yelp at the larger dogs, and the larger dogs would tolerate to a certain point before snarling back at the provocateurs and showing their true power.
Sai Kung waterfront park
Dogs playing and running around
An adorably ugly bulldog
There was a (fund-raising, I think) funfair going on nearby, and there were booths selling anything from decorative ornaments to customised T-shirts to friendship bands to comic portraits. There was a booth which gave out cute coloured paper, and Slug and I wrote our wishes on a cat-shaped paper, before hanging it on a huge plant beside the booth. Slug was sweet to wish for an early marriage for us.
Booths at the funfair
Slug hanging our wishes on the plant
Soon, darkness came and we decided to have dinner. We browsed through the many seafood restaurants there, and had many of the servers persuading us to dine at their restaurants. One server boasted that his restaurant (cannot remember the name) was the 'boss' of all other restaurants and had been patronized by celebrities like Chow Yun Fatt, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung and Martin Yan (Yan can cook, so can you!). We could see that from its lavish exterior for both of its outlets. Slug and I had fun identifying those celebrities from a collage of photos just outside that restaurant.
Seafood Street (which was a pavement lined with seafood restaurants)
Busy seafood restaurants
Tanks of live seafood
What are these horseshoe crabs doing on the pavement?
Sea urchins
How could they eat these cute moray eels?!
Slug with big fishes
After much comparison and discussion, we decided to settle for the first restaurant, Tung Kee, that we came to earlier, because their set meals were quite value-for-money and they offered a larger lobster than the other restaurants. The server who approached us earlier was pleased to see us return, and promptly sat us down. We ordered the Romance set meal for two, which consisted of baked lobster with cheese sauce, steamed scallops with mashed garlic, steamed fish Hong Kong style, deep fried mantis shrimp with salt and pepper, fried vegetables with garlic, fresh fruits and tea. All for HKD388.
Tung Kee Seafood Restaurant
Me and Slug waiting in anticipation for our seafood feast
Baked lobster with cheese sauce
Steamed scallops with mashed garlic
Steamed fish Hong Kong style
Fried mantis shrimp with salt and pepper
Slug tucking into his favourite lobster dish
The lobster was really good, its flesh was tasty and succulent, but I did feel guilty for making it die just to feed us (I saw it alive and flapping its tail 20 minutes ago, and now it ended up on our table dead and split into half). The steamed fish was of standard, like those served at Chinese wedding dinners. The mantis shrimp was something new to us, and we thought it would taste something like prawns but it did not. Instead it tasted somewhat like lobster and was extremely chewy, but anyway, it went well with salt and pepper. We washed down these seafood with tea and fruits (watermelon and orange slices), and overall, it was highly satisfying. The service was excellent as well, with servers clearing empty dishes promptly and carrying out their tasks professionally. The meal totalled to nearly HKD480 after including service charges. It was expensive, but Slug consoled me by saying that such a meal would have cost even more at places like Jumbo and Long Beach back in Singapore.
A server helped take a picture of us after the meal
Walked around Sai Kung town after the meal to aid digestion, but most shops were already closed. Took the same minibus back to Choi Hung, and then taking the MTR back to Causeway Bay.
Sai Kung town
Back to Choi Hung
Back at our room, we spent the night relishing the memory of dining at Tung Kee, although I felt that we could have gone to Lamma Island or Cheung Chau for cheaper seafood. It was an enjoyable day and we really fell in love with Sai Kung.
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