Sheung Wan is the Bomb!!!

Our hotel is in Sheung Wan, the end of a subway line, a transitional mix of massage parlors with cutting edge galleries, cool shops and cafes and old school market stalls with remnants of a colonial past.  It's a wild confluence of the decrepit and revitalized, old and new, happening and over. It's incredible.

On Friday night we had a booking at 121 BC.  I’d read about it online a few weeks back and it seemed like a good idea: Daily chalk board tapas menu, one communal table, five minutes from our hotel.  So I booked it and we went: It was superb.  We shared a number of brilliant dishes including: A broccoli sautéed with almonds in chili oil, cabbage salad with pecorino, Jerusalem artichoke fritti, bruschetta with mortadella and olive tapenade (to die for), a roast pork with crackling, and SS topped it off with a cheese plate.  SCORE!

 

Roast Pork with Crackling

Saturday morning we had a coffee at the Agnes B a block away; although a French fashion icon she has a patisserie style of local cafes throughout Hong Kong.  Then we walked through much of the shopping district of Hong Kong Island west.  It was cooler today, around 22, and less sticky, but with actual drizzle, on and off.  SS bought an umbrella for $5, then spotted the same item around the corner for $3.50.  Hooped! 

Opium Pipe.  Another item on our bucket list.

Not social housing

We took a ferry across the harbour to Kowloon, then walked the seawall which provides spectacular city views of Hong Kong Island to the west.  We made our way to the historical museum, dedicated to the natural and geological history of HK as well as the cultural history.

 

Meat Market

The World.  The cruise ship that you buy a "condo" on and sail the world.

Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

Floral Shrine at Kowloon Museum

Paper doll.  No reference to the Mills Bros.

SS the perspective provider

Ode to the golden age of plastic toys of HK

After our museum trip we took the subway back to our ‘hood for lunch.  We don’t have a SIM and without connectivity can’t access Google maps to figure out where we are, but I had read about a new noodle place called Foxtail and Broomcorn which does non-MSG noodle dishes in a 28 seat no-reservation cafe.  (The inane name comes, supposedly, from two of the first ingredients used to make pasta.)  By accident or fate we literally stumbled across it and lucked out with a seat at the bar.  SS had a prawn broth fish, tofu, pulled pork noodle soup.  I had a cold soba noodle bowl with crispy chicken and vegetables.  SCORE!

Soba noodles with crispy chicken and vegetables.  Asian comfort food, yum.

Following lunch we went through the area our hotel is in with more deliberation.  Hollywood Road hosts dozens of antique dealers.  The artifacts here range from the phony and dubious in hawker’s stalls to those of extreme antiquity.  Unfortunately, you also see ivory shops, whole tusks with exquisite carvings, and many other artifacts which reek of tomb raiding or deceptive trading.

We went back towards the harbour through markets, high end shops and malls, and throngs making the most of their Saturday off.

Temple.  In amongst the rest.

Putting down roots

Dragon.  Relic on sale.

Buy me.

For dinner we had no reservation. Every shop we dropped by I had been asking people where they liked to eat in the area and the answers were never too interesting.  Then one woman in a boutique told us “her friend” the chef David Lai had opened a little place called Neighborhood just two weeks ago and why didn’t we go there?  That sounded so quaint and simple and homely, so we dropped by mid-afternoon but were unfortunately told they were fully booked. Still, I left my email just in case.  About an hour later they told us they had a cancellation.

 

SS outside of Neighborhood

Artichokes braised in bacon

Rocket, aka arugula, with goat cheese and nicoise olived

Egg noodles with pork ragu

Just a little something called lamb.

Well, first of all, David Lai is a big deal in HK, having studied under Alain Ducasse; he was named chef of the year by Time Out and was recently listed by The Guardian as a chef of one of the best restaurants in HK.  Of course we knew none of that going to dinner.  We just went on someone’s recommendation from a shop in the market.  At any rate, it wasn’t over the top fancy or pseudo; smallish, seats about two dozen, unimposing, not very expensive, simple menu (to be shared) and a lovely, warm candlelit room off a laneway terrace near the hotel.

We shared a few sensational dishes including: Artichokes wrapped in bacon and braised with pearl onions; arugula salad with goat’s cheese and nicoise olives; risotto with beef marrow; lamb on mashed potatoes; egg noodles in pulled pork ragu; fresh porcini mushrooms in a crock pot with vegetables and garlic.  Yes, I had dessert: A 70% cocoa chocolate ganache, warm, on a crisp chocolate wafer.  Sort of like a super high end chocolate pudding.  And while SS had an espresso I took a chrysanthemum tea which was velvety and soothing like white linen but, as he put it, revolting.  Not a big fan of the herbal tea thing.  SCORE! We're batting better than Roger Maris!

Butterflies.