We spent the morning at 古猗园 Guyi Garden (¥12 per adult).
It appeared to be a garden where the locals gather to dance and chat. We guessed it paled in comparison to the natural beauty of 西湖 and 东湖, and we thought the artificial swans and all were really quite unnecessary. There were also a few exhibitions in some of the pavilion.
We also caught some 腊梅 and 梅花 on their way to blossoming. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours strolling and enjoying the greenery. Continue reading
We had wanted to check out this place for the last few trips but it was always closed (because we kept picking the same day to travel 😡). This time, we especially picked a different day, and called in advance to make reservations.
We found the place slightly before 12 noon, and found the metal gates still locked 😮 However, looking through the gates, it seemed that the back door was open, and we figured that we would just take a peep, as we were not too sure if this was the correct place to be, as there were a couple of similarly-named places found in Google Maps.
Boy, were we glad that we went to the back, for we got to see how 叫化鷄 Beggar Chicken was prepared 😀 The owner was preparing the chicken, and explained to us how it was done, hehe! Continue reading
After our 旗津 Cijin Island trip, we took a 25-min stroll to 鴨肉珍 Duck Zhen to continue our EatEatWalkWalk.
We shared a 鴨肉飯 Duck Rice (NT55 for small) and 綜合下水湯 Mixed Organ Soup (NT50).
The duck rice with minced meat and braised sauce was awesome! The Mixed Organ Soup had organs such as 心，肝，胗，膓 (heart, liver, gibbet and intestines). We enjoyed the soup too! In particular, we thought the heart was crunchy and sweet.
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While having porridge for lunch earlier, we shared table with a friendly local who highly recommended that we try out 坤記煲仔小菜 Kwan Kee Claypot Rice. We were going to meet Mr D for dinner and he too mentioned that he failed to walk in without reservations few weeks back for this eatery, because it was just oh-so-crowded.
These led us to walk back to make dinner reservations there, haha!
We managed to make reservations for 3 persons at 6pm in Mandarin with a rather grumpy lady. Do note that there might be time limit for eating (ours was till 7:30pm).
We ended up having the 招牌猪豬煲 Signature Pork Bone Soup (HK$208), a 鴛鴦腸煲仔飯 Preserved Sausage Claypot Rice (HK$75), and 蒜茸炒西蘭花 Fried Broccoli with Garlic (HK$60).
XY highly recommended this place and we skipped breakfast to make a special trip here for lunch 🙂
At first, we ended up at the 三井選品 Mitsui Supermarket across the street, but quickly found out that the actual restaurant was opposite 🙂
The restaurant was at 2 locations and the menu is the same, just that the decorations were different. We were led to the second site 上乘三井 a few shops away, as it appears that the first site 三井本館 required reservations.
三井 Mitsui started off as a small eatery 三井小吃店 in 1992, and expanded to seven restaurants with slightly different concepts but each still serving fresh seafood and delightful Japanese cuisine to customers. We also got to know that 上引水產 Addiction Aquatic Development (which we visited in 2013) is also managed under them.
We ordered a Coffee Pork Ribs 咖啡排骨肉 (OCBC offer 50% off $6.45++), Pork Belly with Tofu in Claypot 回锅肉豆腐 ($12.90++), Water Goby with Fresh Apple Soup 苹果炖生鱼汤 ($19.90++), Australian Lettuce with Fermented Beancurd 腐乳炒油麦菜 ($9.90++), white rice ($1.20++ per bowl), and warm water ($0.30++).
Beautiful view outside our balcony!
Today was our last day in Iceland! We slept in after enjoying the spectacular display of northern lights the night before, and enjoyed the hotel breakfast for the last time. The food had almost no changes in variety during our past 4 days, but was more than sufficient to fill up our tummies. We especially enjoyed making our own waffles for breakfast 🙂 It was also quite hilarious that our favourite breakfast spot happened to be very near the KFC, and we kept checking in KFC on Facebook as our phones kept connecting to the KFC WiFi. So much so that our friends were wondering what was so nice about KFC in Iceland, and why we had to fly all the way there to eat KFC. For the record, we only ate it once :p
[Interesting tidbit: Apparently there is KFC in Iceland but no McDonald’s! There is also no 7-11s, or Starbucks!]
Hello Iceland!
[Here is the photostream of Iceland 2014, for those who prefer pictures to tell a story. 🙂]
For once, a trip that food was not the main focus 😛
We took a very early easyJet flight out of London Luton Airport and arrived in Keflavík International Airport around 10am in the morning and it was cold!!! Hubby managed to find the Gray Line Iceland ticket office real quickly while I went to grab brochures, and we caught the bus that was leaving in 5 minutes time. The minute we stepped out of the airport, fresh cold air with a slightly sulphuric smell hit us!
Gray Line Iceland was very efficient and the big bus dropped everyone off at a central point, where everyone was re-directed to the different mini buses to be transferred to our respective hotels.
Bright red storefront
Tomorrow we would be flying off to Iceland so we needed to drop off one luggage at The Rubens At The Palace today (so that we only bring one luggage with us to Iceland). Side note: The Rubens were great to allow us to store our luggage for 4 days!
We had just dropped off our luggage at The Rubens and were searching for a light lunch, as we had a large sausage roll from The Pasty Shop just before we boarded the tube. Found Tiles Restaurant and Wine Bar just diagonally across and serving fish and chips, so we popped right in!
Turkish Mixed Tenderloin Kebab
We ended our day by paying a visit to Arab Street, hoping to catch some of the Hari Raya festivities. But alas, we must have came too late, because the street foods were mostly sold out.
Walking along Bussorah Street, most of the restaurants were very crowded, so we decided on Amirah’s Grill when we spotted some empty tables! Also, I recalled having dinner here once with my colleagues and the food was not bad (there were posters of awards hanging on the walls). The deco was very middle-eastern with lots of carpets and leather seats, and with (very) loud music playing in the background.
It was difficult to get the staff’s attention, but once we settled down, food was served rather quickly.
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 