Hong Kong Eats

This is long overdue, but here are the places I ate when I was last in HK, March 2015.

W Hotel Kitchen as our Starwood Platinum amenity, with a breakfast buffet.  This just scratches the surface, and I may have written more previously elsewhere.  But there is a huge selection, Western and Eastern, and I like the Eastern selection better.  Great views of the harbour too, when the pollution is not too bad.

I always go to Tim Ho Wan, even if it is only for take out.  Their baked BBQ pork buns are the best in the world.  This time I also got the Malay cake (ma lai gao) because my mother mentioned it and I was thinking of her.

Another favourite is Tsim Chai Kee for their wonton noodles.  This is my preferred noodle place in SF.  I did a comparison post with Mak's Noodles (wow they have a Wiki page).  I much preferred TCK for their comparatively large portions, springy noodles, large wontons and chili.

We tried a new place this time, called Dim Dim Sum.  They have a Facebook page, wow.  I'm so amazed all these restaurants have websites.  HK is getting techy!  I went there mainly because of their cute piggy liu sha baos, which were not bad, super fun, but not the best I've had but still pretty good and different looking (haha).  We also got buo luo bao and the deep fried chang fen.  All pretty good!

Lastly, we went to Nahm, the Thai restaurant in the Elements Mall.  We ordered the soft shell crab which was way too thickly breaded, spring rolls and chicken noodle soup (it seems), which were all OK.  I would not go back, but it was convenient at the time.

Fun eats, HK!

Salt Lake City and Park City, UT

This is sort of a continuation of our great American summer adventure, but somehow is not quite as iconic as Yellowstone or so, so I decided to give it its own heading.  It seems Park City, very popular for winter sports, has now also become the place to go to in the summer.  Lots of families around.  We went for a conference that Lingon was to attend, which was nice because we got a good rate on the hotel.

We drove in from Yellowstone (exited the west gate, went through Montana, Idaho, and made it into Utah.  That makes it 4 states in 4 hours.  I feel kind of cool thinking of life that way.  ;-)

Our friend told us about this Mexican joint called Red Iguana that we had to go to.  So Red Iguana we went.  We are both trying to keep fit and lose some weight, especially during periods of travel, so we decided to share one of their specials, a seafood fajita platter.  On a Sunday afternoon at 1.30pm or so, our expected wait time as told to us by the greeter was 45 mins, but we probably got seated in 20.  We got free chips and salsa, so that helped fill us up a little.  The fajita plate itself was plenty, and had shrimp, mahi mahi and scallops, together with grilled peppers and onions, and 3 flour tortillas.  The food was cooked really well, plenty of flavour, not overcooked, simple flavours, not too unhealthy (or so I would like to think).  Given the popularity of the place, I would say the other dishes have to be really good.  SO YUM!

I decided I wanted to visit the Great Salt Lake, so off we went towards the marina.  After the GPS told us to get off the freeway, we saw a giant gift shop before the marina where a few cars were, and we decided in the interest of time we would go there.  I had asked a friend whether it was cool, and she said it was gross, but I wanted to see it anyway, thinking it could be like the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia which was also another great salt plain but actually beautiful (think reflecting crystals where one can take cool photos), but this was pretty much a dump.  Still, saw it, and happy to have seen it.  We took a walk out to the water, where some of the ground was made of sand, some soggier than others, and salt.  So there we have it, the Great Salt Lake, which wasn't so great after all.

Then we headed off to our hotel, where I knew we were going to get pampered.  The St Regis Deer Valley.  It was a welcome change after our not so great motel-esque places.  There is a valet at the base of the property with a private St Regis funicular to the top where the actual property was.  We did not know to drive to the top, so we went to the base valet, and lugged our luggage up the funicular to us, which was rather inconvenient - I really do wish the valet told us we could go straight up.  The views going up the funicular were stunning.  we got upgraded to a suite with a full kitchen - the fridge was the same as ours!  Our view was not very pretty overlooking the property valet area, but we rarely go on balconies anyway, so it was no big deal.  But it was very very nice.  Yay.

One of the days, I took the opportunity to order room service, a rare treat.  Fried chicken wings, which reminded me of the kind I would eat after a swim when at home in Singapore.  The bread was not very good, there was a wheat (edible), sundried tomato (inedible imo) and olive (decent for olive, I do not like olives).

We got our Starwood Platinum breakfast amenity, which was $40 off our bill at the J&G Grill.  The first day I ordered a short rib hash, which was really spectacular.  Sunny side up eggs over short ribs and perfectly seasoned potatoes.  I'm not a big eat-out breakfast person, because I often feel I can make most breakfast egg stuff well, but this really wow'd me.  Lingon got the eggs benedict which was OK.  The second day, I went solo, and ordered Belgian waffles and bacon which were so so, and ordered granola, yoghurt and fresh fruit to go.  Their granola was extremely delicious!

One of the nights, when Lingon was at an event, I had to dine by myself.  And since the event had booked out the J&G Grill, I had to eat at the bar, which wasn't such a bad thing.  I actually enjoy eating solo at bars better than at a table anyway.  I sat down and got served the most delicious bar nuts ever, and some herbed popcorn which was not bad.  I had to restrain myself from eating it all.  I treated myself to a bubbly, and got the almond crusted arctic char as my dinner, really well done, perfectly cooked, healthy, a girl was happy.  I decided to skip dessert for health reasons and also because the bar was getting really full.  As I walked back to the room, I was informed that there were smores every evening from 7-9pm, which pleased me to no end because I was frankly a bit bummed that I did not get dessert.  One even has a choice between Reese's peanut butter cups or regular Hershey's chocolate squares (which were really rectangle).  I got both.

I really enjoyed staying at the hotel.  It was really nice to be pampered.

We had dinner in Park City itself on one of the evenings.  Kind of a small cute downtown strip.  Our first evening there, we went to Handle, a fairly new restaurant that opened a little over a year ago.  Good quality food, people seemed to be drinking freely, and having a good time.  We got the yellowfin tuna ceviche, broccolini, burrata toast, diver scallops and clams, pork belly, and the caramel pudding dessert which seemed really popular on Yelp.  I think all the food was pretty good, except they seemed to really like using watercress - in great quantities - in a number of the dishes, and the taste of that overwhelmed.  I found myself eating the watercress first before attacking the rest of the dish.

Over the couple of days, I managed to spend quite a bit of time outdoors.  The first hike I did was long, and according to my GPS I ascended 3900ft which is quite a bit.  I left the hotel and tried to get on a trail that would take me to Canyons Village, where I took the Silver Lake trail up to the top of Bald Mountain.  I had some really beautiful views on the way up of the Jordanelle Reservoir, and decided I wanted to take the chair lift down.  The chair lift down was singularly the most scary experience ever, I literally felt like I was going to pee in my pants, and constantly grabbed on to the side rail.  Funny, since I never experience this going up the lift.

One of the most exciting experiences, though, was seeing a moose upclose and personal.  So we were having breakfast at the hotel, and the server, a very nice lady called Kim, told me of a moose on the hill right in front of the restaurant.  We did not see him on the first day as we had a later breakfast, but on the second day, I went for breakfast bright and early and lo and behold, there he was!  Let's play spot the moose.  Sorry for the crappy photo.  The sun was really not in my favour.  I myself can barely spot him in the first photo.

Following the disappointing bear-less episode, I decided I would look for him and take a photo up close.  I went up to look for him and spotted his antlers behind the bushes.  Taking care not to scare him, I made sure to create a little noise so he knew I was there.  But still, at some point, he jumped back very suddenly and I got spooked, took a quick photo, and went down, a bit bummed that I did not get a better photo.

As I was heading down, I met a dad and son pair and asked if they wanted to see the moose, and invited myself on their journey to find the moose.  Then, we saw him.  We must have been 20ft away from the beast.  I was happy.  I did some reading on the moose, since I swear his antlers were furry, and indeed my eyes were not playing tricks on me.  Story is, they shed their antlers every year, and in the initial growing stages the next year, they are furry with a ton of blood vessels bringing oxygen (I suppose) to the antlers to help them grow.  Strangely, the Wiki entry on moose included the fact that if the moose gets castrated, he immediately sheds his current pair of antlers, and then grows a pair of deformed antlers which he keeps for the rest of his life.  Survival of the fittest, I suppose.  No one wants a moose with ugly antlers.  So sad.

Small world - turns out the dad whose hike I joined was the roommate of Lingon's ex-colleague's brother.  I would say it is super random, but maybe a lot of finance people go to Park City and it's just a matter of time you find 3 degrees of separation.

I went back to the hotel and showed Kim and some kids my photo.  Upon check out, Kim gave me a stuffed St Regis moose!  One for the collection.  So sweet.  Thanks Kim!

Well, soon the time came to leave.  We had lunch at Uptown Fare in town.  We both got the turkey sandwich because of all the rave reviews.  I was going to get the tomato soup, but the butternut squash soup caught my eye and I got that instead.  We also got a side of the egg salad to go, since their eggs were supposed to be really good.  What a meal!  And for $30!

We walked down Main Street just to check it out.  They were filming a movie, but we did not know the cast members.  And then I took an obligatory photo of High West distillery.  Then we called it quits.  Bye bye, Park City.  What a lovely short journey.

The Great American Summer Adventure Part 3 - Yellowstone National Park

This is yogi bear reporting live from Jellystone Park!  Smarter than the average bear!

Well, here we were, Jellystone Park.  Just kidding, Yellowstone Park.  I guess I knew about Yellowstone Park even before I really knew about Yellowstone Park.

After leaving Grand Teton, we headed for Yellowstone.  I was determined to find a bear, and a college friend had seen some during his trip, so I felt confident.  We followed this map to the areas that were supposed to have bears, partly to find bears, partly because these areas were interesting.  Our first stop was at a marker in the map called Mud Volcano.  Not sure if we actually saw the mud volcano itself, but the area was full of muddy stuff that smelled like sulphuric gas emissions.  Bubbly bubbly.

Then onto the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (I thought that was just what people said, in reference to the Grand Canyon National Park, but this was really its name).  The pictures I saw online were great, but seeing it in real life was just spectacular.  We first headed to Artist Point, where we could view the Lower Falls.  Wedged between an extremely steep and narrow gorge area, the river resulting from the falls gushed down.  The rocks had varying pretty colours due to the geology and the gases emitted from... the water?  Lol.  Clearly not a geologist.  Then we headed to Uncle Tom's Point, where we could get an Upper Falls view.  The landscape there looked much different, way more lush, with coniferous trees lining the sides of the river and the falls.  Off to N Rim Drive via Grand Loop Road, where there were various lookouts.  Just stunning.

We stopped in Canyon Village for a coffee for Lingon, and guess what we saw?  Singapore laksa!!  Who would have thought.  Anyway they had this diner style restaurant too so I took a photo of that since I thought it looked cool.

After this, we headed to Lamar Valley to find bears.  No luck, but we saw some bison and elk.  The valley itself did not look all that pretty.

Following a disappointing bear-watching trip, we realized we were doing well on time and went to the Mammoth Hot Springs area, where they had these terraces of limestone.  I enjoyed looking at them and they were really cool, but they were not many educational signs that taught me how these were formed.  We even saw some elk in the village!

After this, we were tired, so we decided to head to the hotel.  I had gotten lucky and managed to book us at the Old Faithful Inn, which is a historic lodge.  I even managed to get us a room with a private bathroom, thank goodness.  The thought of having to share a bathroom just creeps me out, so I am very very thankful!  They had a very cute bear soap!  The lobby was gorgeous, made of wood, with 3 levels of balconies looking down on the main floor.  There was an outdoor patio where one could see Old Faithful geyser hissing and spouting away.

We had dinner at the Obsidian Dining Room in the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, because the menu looked a little more Jackson-y, with Montana trout and bison burger (I wish we had actually checked out the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room menu at the restaurant itself before dining, because we checked it out after and they had trout and a few other options that were slightly different from the online version.  Also so you know, one has to make reservations for the Old Faithful Inn Dining Room.  Another one for next time!).  The food was OK, both a bit overcooked, but I liked my trout better than the burger.

Following dinner, we went to see the last eruption for the evening on the balcony, where we froze to death while awaiting the geyser.  No pictures because it as almost pitch black by the time it erupted.

The next morning, I had every intention of watching the eruption.  There is a geyser predictor which for some reason did not work when I woke up, because there are actually long intervals in the night (based on my short research).  I called the front desk and they gave me a time, and we went about 20 minutes before it was due, and ended up waiting about an hour before the damned thing erupted.  Totally worth it to be the first people there, without the summer crowds, with that sunrise in the background.

One last tourism push before we exited the park.  We visited Grand Prismatic Spring and Fountain Paint Pots which, I suspect due to the freezing temperatures in the morning, were just kind of steamy and not as pretty as what I expected and I was pretty bummed.  I'm sure I'll be back, and I'll choose a less early time to visit and see the visit colours, but for now we were tired of being tourists, sleepy, and ready to relax (ish).

As for my bear-watching quest, how did that fare?  Not so well.  However, I did see bison and elk.  In learning about animals, I found out that a little animal called pika exists - a distant relative of the famous Pikachu?

There will be a next time, Yellowstone.  And Yogi Bear, I will find you.

See here for part 1 of this trip in Jackson, WY, and part 2 in Grand Teton National Park.

The Great American Summer Adventure Part 2 - Grand Teton National Park

Hello and welcome to part 2 of Lingon and Mushroom's great American summer adventure.  We did Grand Teton over 2 calendar days.  We tried to knock out most of the stuff in the lower part of the park on the first day, and pretty much succeeded.  We did not do it in the most efficient manner, but thankfully that did not cost us more than 30 mins of driving time, but it still annoyed me.

The smart thing I should have done was to start with Mormon Row, since it was by itself on Antelope Flats Road to the east of the main highway.   Mormon Row was kind of interesting.  I suppose early Mormons settled here, and the remnants of their buildings and settlements remained.  Apparently this is the most photographed barn in the world, by TR Moulton, who may have been the first settler here.

Then we should have headed to Schwabachers Landing off the main highway.  The photos I saw online were much prettier than mine. This is basically a spot with a river meandering through, and there is the lower and upper landing.

Going back in the opposite direction leaving the park and re-enterint at a different entrance on Teton Park Road, the Chapel of the Transfiguration was probably the most special thing to me in this park.  A mere log building, the setting of the chapel, with the Tetons in the background, was simple yet magnificent, with a large glass window framing the mountains.  Imagine going to service, sitting there, listening to the word, and looking out at one of the marvels of the world.

After that to Jenny Lake.  I got it in my head that Inspiration Point was a thing to do, but since we did not want to hike around the lake, we paid $15 each for a round trip boat ride to the landing across the water.  $15 well spent, though I maintain it is very pricey.  There were 2 hikes to do here, Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point.  Normally one can get to/from each place, but the park was doing some work so we had to loop back to the boat landing area to the other point.  Nice views from Inspiration Point, but by the time we got to the falls I think we were both quite tired and ready for dinner.  My GPS said 3.36 miles for both hikes.

This concluded our first half day in the park.

On the second day, we headed up the main freeway, US-26,

We first went to Oxbow Bend, which is part of the Snake River.  I read there would be animals, but no such luck.  Still very pretty with the reflection of the Tetons in the river.  By the way, there is some really high quality beef from somewhere called Snake River Farms, which I presume is in Idaho.  We first heard of it at Wakuriya, a Japanese restaurant in San Mateo in the Bay Area, and our post on that restaurant is here.

Then we stopped at the Jackson Lake Dam.

Finally, we drove up Signal Mountain and Colter Bay, but by this time we were Teton'd out, so I did not take any photos worth sharing.

We tried to go to Leeks Pizzeria, and thought it was part of the Signal Mountain Lodge, but when we got to the lodge this thing did not exist.  Just as well, since we got there way before it was supposed to open.  It had really good reviews, so I must admit I was a bit bummed.  A little later on, we saw a sign that said "pizzeria", and lo and behold we found Leeks Pizzeria, though not at all at Signal Mountain Lodge.  It had some nice pizzas, menu here, definitely a nice option in the park, and I was glad that we found it.  We got a small BBQ chicken pizza for maybe $15, and enjoyed that very much.

I had some great expectations for Grand Teton National Park, and I'm glad it lived up to my expectations.  The only thing we did not get to do was Phelps Lake, but we ran out of the time the first day, and then I was too lazy after.  Gotta save something for next time.

See here for part 1 of this trip in Jackson, WY, and part 3 in Yellowstone National Park.

The Great American Summer Adventure Part 1 - Jackson, WY

The great American summer adventure, coined by Lingon.  Condensed into 2 days.  Lingon had a conference in Park City, and since Wyoming was so close by (mild sarcasm intended), we decided to do the weekend before there.

Since there was only one United flight in, we took that one which departed late, naturally, and arrived in the evening around 9.00pm.  I had heard so much about Jackson (city), or Jackson Hole (valley area including Jackson), but sadly my plane seat did not have a window and I did not get a chance to see the mountains as we landed.  However, the airport setting was really beautiful - I had read an article before about the airport being one of the most scenic landings in the world, and truly, it was.

We actually changed our flight to arrive a day early, so we were supposed to be car-less.  I called Enterprise, and Brian from the Jackson Enterprise helped me out and made the car rental process super easy.  Thank you Brian, I will write you a review on the Enterprise site.  Truly amazing customer service.  On top of that, we got an upgraded, which honestly I was not that wild about since our new vehicle guzzles gas.  But there it was, part of the great American summer adventure.  You can see Lingon right there.

We spent 2 nights at Jackson.  The first night we stayed at the Quality Inn, and the second night we stayed at the Rawhide Motel.  Both were not cheap in absolute, at $209 and $174 (before tax), but seemed the cheapest tolerable option.  Guess we are in a resort town, so high prices were expected.  Both were rather unremarkable, but clean enough.  Both had awful sagging beds, but Rawhide Motel at least had duvet covers, and seemed a little brighter and cheerier than Quality Inn.  Quality Inn provided a breakfast that was rather inedible, the bananas were the best part, but otherwise the sausage terrified me, and the cheerios tasted like sawdust.  Rawhide did not have any breakfast, but that was just fine by me.  Wifi at Quality Inn gets zero points, while Rawhide's wifi was pretty good.  In conclusion, fine for a "cheap" place to stay, you pay for what you get.  Lingon was sufficiently displeased, but I suppose staying in motels can become part of the great American summer adventure.  Haha.  No pictures of either since they were rather unremarkable.

We took a walk around town, and found Pinky G's Pizzeria, and got a slice of pepperoni and a slice of cheese, $4 and $3.50 each.  Not bad, large slices, not anything special by any means, but nice for a later night snack.  They had live music, so the place was rather hip and lively, and I was glad to have seen it.  What creeped me out was they put pizza boxes under the ovens on the ground.  That REALLY grossed me out.  I was glad we did not get our pizza from a box.

Jackson as a town was not too bad.  There was a local Starbucks (haha!) that we spent a few hours in since our hotel wifi was the pits.  The town square had 4 cool entrances at each corner made of antlers shed by the elk each season, picked up by boy scouts.

There were 2 places I had wanted to eat in Jackson.  The first was Teton Thai, actually in Teton Village about 15 minutes outside of Jackson.  They are on that Travel and Leisure list that I chase.  We tried the dishes the article recommended, which were the laab, pad gar pow with crisp-skinned duck breast (rice with duck cooked with basil and some yummy sauce) and tom yum soup, and I added the duck noodle soup on top of that.  We had arrived right when the restaurant opened, and were shocked to be told that our wait for food may be up to an hour, since there was a group of 20 who had arrived early.  The place definitely filled up.  All the food was very good, especially for being in Jackson which I definitely do not think of as a food destination, much less Thai food destination.  Our food arrived in 15 mins.  Thanks for the speedy service!!  :-)  Randomly enough, this restaurant has another branch in Idaho.  I'll save this for the next time.

The other place I preselected was the Gun Barrel Steak and Game House.  I think the name pretty much sums it up.  We ordered the mixed game grill - a combination of our elk steak, buffalo prime rib and a venison bratwurst.  I especially loved the elk steak.  We got a side of fried tomatoes which were nicely breaded, but I thought the tomatoes were a tad sour.  We ended the meal with bread pudding, which was rather dense, and the sauce had a liquor taste which I did not like (but of course Lingon did).  The restaurant was really superbly outfitted with stuffed animals, and had custom ironwork for a lot of the fixtures.  Supposedly their gun collection was sick too, but I have no means to judge.

Back to breakfast, the most important meal.  I'm always a sucker for bakeries.  So when we got slightly lost around the town square, we saw a place called the Great Harvest Bread Company, I was sold.  I wandered in there, got some samples of their scones and bread, and said we were going there the next morning, and we did.  I got the raspberry white chocolate scone and chocolate almond scone (I think the latter had cream cheese in it which I did not love), and these scones were crispy on the outside and super moist on the inside.  To die for.  Loved the white chocolate they used too.  Lingon got a blueberry muffin (seemed like it had some bran in it yum) and a breakfast sandwich.  They were both great too.  I did not realize they were a chain, but when I just googled them I found out there are many locations!

Well, that seems to be all for Jackson, which is really quite a lot for what a small town it was.

Onto part two for Grand Teton National Park!

See here for part 2 of this trip in Grand Teton National Park, and part 3 in Yellowstone National Park.