Restaurant Review: Yun Fu Restaurant

I've been to several great restaurants in Hong Kong and have finally decided to start reviewing them here. Since there isn't one popular restaurant review site here in HK (like Yelp), I'll be blogging my reviews here.

I just had dinner at Yun Fu Restaurant which is on Wyndham St. by Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). I had passed by it many times while heading down to LKF and have also wondered what it was. From the street, you only see an ancient Chinese door with stairs leading down to the basement lined with buddhas on both sides.

When I finally descended down the stairs, it opens up to their bar area. The entire place is dungeon-like darkness with red highlights from red lanterns. On the wall in the bar, there's a large film projection showing old Chinese films. The cocktail list is very unique and I got to try one of their very refreshing concoctions, Ben Zhi Lan, with Chinese rose wine, rum, fresh chili, lime juice, sugar syrup and lime. The drink came blended on a martini class and was just what I needed at the end of the work day after walking (and sweating) up the slopes and steps to this place.

This was a business meeting for me so I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures but will definitely update when I come back again. Once past the bar, we walked through a darkened curved corridor with sliding old Chinese doors on both sides which hide private dining areas. We were escorted to the end of the restaurant to a more open space. We sat by these large hanging lanterns (see pic on the right). The menu is extensive so we decided to just have the waiter choose for us. Every dish selected was delicious.

We started with "clams steeped in Chinese rose wine & chili padi". The blending of flavours were exquisite on the little clam. It was the perfect opening dish with a little bit of a kick to open our appetites. It was then followed by steamed pork cheek fillet wrapped in lotus leaves. This dish was slightly lighter in flavor but which balanced well with the first dish. For main courses, we were offered their famous marinated roasted rack of lamb with assorted herbs and tea leaves, the braised veal shank wrapped in lotus leaves in a dark soy sauce, and wok fried prawns in Szechuan red pepper. The lamb was beautifully executed and presented with the waiter opening the tea leaves and preparing the lamb for us. It came with this sauce that provided a great mixture of flavors over the perfectly roasted tender lamb. The braised veal again was another unveiling of lotus leaves this time to expose the richly braised veal that was falling off the bone. I took advantage that my food partner was not into the bone marrow and had the juicy goodness myself. The main course wrapped up with the spicy prawns dish covered in red peppers. It was definitely spicy but the prawns were light a crispy and very full of flavor. My mouth wasn't so numb from the spice that I couldn't taste the prawn which was a great thing!


To clean our palate, the meal wrapped up with a slightly sweet flowery gelatin dessert.

It was truly a culinary adventure and I'll definitely be back again to take better picture of the place and the food and try more dishes!

The spa experience in Shenzhen

Ben and I went to Shenzhen for a quick impromptu trip to the spa. It was definitely a bit too impromptu since I didn't have a name of a spa to go to and neither did we have a lot of time.

I had been hearing for the longest time about the huge cheap spas in Shenzhen where you can spend an entire days and spend less than a hundred dollars. So we finally made it there this last Sunday, June 14th.

After some research online, we picked to go to Queen Spa and Dining (http://www.queenspa.cn/Index.html and http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297415-d654322-r12288777-Queen_Spa-Shenzhen_Guangdong.html). This place is a 5-floor extravagant settlement.

We didn't get there till a little past 2pm and only had until 4pm since we had a movie planned back in Hong Kong city at 5:50pm (we never made it back to the movie though...).

In the two hours that we had there, we decided to spend it on one of their premium spa services. We booked a room for two and each booked a 105min full body massage with body scrub. We shared one really nice room and each had a masseuse. We opted out of the bubble bath and went straight to the body scrub and then the massage. It was a very relaxing experience. They didn't leave a single muscle unturned :-).

The whole thing was a little less than US$75 per person (not including tip and 10% service charge). The impressive thing about the experience is all the other stuff that we could have enjoyed if we stayed there longer :-). Drinks including fruit juices, fruits, and soft serve were all available for free on the 3rd floor where you also had a huge space full of full-reclining lounge chairs each with its own tv to choose from. From here, you can also get foot massages for around US$12 and manicure and pedicure services. The facilities also include sauna, jacuzzi and full size pool.

We definitely wished we could have spend a full day there but will leave that for our next trip.

Hong Kong Travels: An evening at the Happy Valley Racetracks

Wednesday, June 10th

We made it to Happy Valley Race Tracks on one of their last races before summer fully sets in here back on June 10th. It was our first real horse race together and our first in Hong Kong.

Our friend and my co-worker, Gorgeous Eddy, set a group of us up with an outdoor buffet dinner. It was a tad bit warm and humid to sit outdoors but it was great to be there with friends and great food! :-) We also got to celebrate Dan's birthday on this special occasion.

Ben and I placed about HK$100 each race (about US$15) on a horse that would win and another on a horse that would place. On 6 races, we lost 5 but came out almost even with the table bet winning big at the last race (thanks to Dan!).

Here are a few pics to remember the evening. Ben got to also practice taking action shots with his new camera:

Picture!

Yeah... here's the picture that showcases my hair and its pretty red streaks. They're mostly gone now though...

First trip to the hair dresser in HK

When I went to Taiwan, I took the opportunity to get my hair trimmed at one of the quick NT$100 (equivalent to less than US$3.00) places. The place is nothing more than a booth with 3 chairs inside a supermarket mall, so I got a hair cut but really nothing more than that.

I finally decided that since my birthday was coming up, that I'd splurge and get my hair done. I've been hesitant about just going to any hair dresser for fear that I would turn out with funky colored hair. I ended up going to a place in Central by the escalator where Ben has gotten his hair cut. It seemed like quite a popular place for a Sunday afternoon.

I didn't come out of there until 4.5 hours later. They game me highlights with base coloring and a hair cut as a package deal. I loved the hair cut since it layered my hair better and gives it a little more bounce now. The highlights were interesting... Definitely not as natural as the highlights I've gotten in the U.S.... and they also added some red highlights along with the blond-ish ones... it turned out quite interesting depending on how the light hits it...

Passover Seder in Hong Kong

This was my first passover Seder and it was a great experience. Thanks to my coworkers Donovan and Michelle, Ben and I enjoyed our first Passover Seder together. The Seder took place at the Aberdeen Marina Club at one of their beautiful dining halls on Wednesday, April 8th. Ben and I both dressed up for the occasion.

I didn't know much about it and hadn't done my research before hand so I wasn't quite sure what we were in for. As I learned, the Seder is performed following the Haggadah and is the remembrance of the Israelites liberation and exodus from Egypt. The event gathered about 150 people around 13 tables. Lots of families with children were there. The ceremony before the dinner was the re-telling of the story with some praying, singing and performance of rituals. My favorite was the one where you whip green onion as a remembrance of the lashes of slavery. We, of course, ended up hitting each other with green onions. Several other ceremonial acts included eating matzo (the "poor man's bread"), maror (bitter herbs which symbolize the bitterness of slavery), and charoset (a sweet paste representing the mortar which the Jewish slaves used to cement bricks). We also drink the four cups of wine, in a reclining position, and dipped vegetables into salt water (the dipping being a sign of royalty and freedom, while the salt water recalls the tears the Jews shed during their servitude). These ceremonial acts were performed in between readings of the passages from the Haggadah by different people in the Seder, including kids.

We sat at a table with people around our age group. All of us were in our 30's without kids yet. It was great meeting new people. Two other couples were Jewish guys with Chinese girlfriends. They were looking to studying Judaism and looking to convert. I'm not sure where I'm at with that just yet... If I were to convert, I'd have to be sure that it's the right spiritual choice for me. It's been great being part of these ceremonies and getting exposure to these communal experiences.

Oasis at Asia World

So it seemed like in a span of 3 weeks, I ended up going to three concerts. The first was Coldplay, the second was Oasis and the third was John Legend.

My friend Cheek had an extra ticket so I ended up going to see Oasis live on April 7th. The venue again was at Asia World. The set up was a bit different in that the front section by the stage was standing room instead of seats like in Coldplay.

to name a few songs, they played "Don't look back in Anger", "Morning Glory", "Falling Down", and, of course, "Wonderwall". They also played a few of their newer songs which I wasn't as a big fan of...

I've added the video to facebook so you can check it out here.


It was an enjoyable concert but nothing quite like Coldplay. We were also sitting with industry folks and not too many people around us were standing us. Liam Gallagher seemed a little out of it, and not to give too much of a damn and his flasher outfit just kept throwing me off. Noel Gallagher was great and the rest of the band were all playing like a tight band. All in all though, it was a great experience and there's nothing like watching a performance live.