Day 4 – 10th March 2024

I had trouble sleeping – I think it was jet lag. I woke up later than expected and I had to wake up early to find some sort of breakfast.

I was looking at the Shatin New Town Plaza’s website, which seems to load much faster in Hong Kong than in the UK! I had decided on several places, but finally decided to find Isaac’s Toast. The Korean toastie brand.

It took me a while to find the place, as it’s hidden away to the side, I felt like I was going round and round in circles just trying to find this place.

I chose two toasties that cost HK$85 altogether, and went back to the hotel room to eat them. It felt like a long walk back… Well, what I can I say, the toasties aren’t to my liking. Maybe it was just too boring for me. The Ham Special Toast just didn’t have enough sauce.

And the Corn Cheese Best Toast was lacking sauce. Maybe it’s just that the HK version is different to the South Korean version… no idea! I haven’t been to South Korea yet (one day I will try!).

Both sandwiches had nice ingredients but I’m quite used to making my own toasted sandwiches which taste savoury and saucy at the same time.

My geeky rating: 2.5/5

Address: Shop A311, 3/F, New Town Plaza Phase III, 18 Sha Tin Centre Street, Sha Tin, Hong Kong

I also went to A1 Bakery that same morning to get some sandwiches and rye bread in case I got hungry later on in the night.

After eating and hanging around the hotel room not doing much, I went to DaddyChef’s hometown in Sai Kung. I hanged around from the afternoon to the evening… it was also very COLD that day, and it rained like cats and dogs after I arrived.

Most of that afternoon was talk of family, gossip and family history… OMG. My cousin even gave me a heavy copy of our family tree with a bit of history, which I might have to use Google Translate to do some translating for me… too lazy to read Chinese or work out some of the characters. It was brain overload to understand why my family tree is getting smaller in HK because of the birth rate, economy and so on so forth (but it’s probably bigger in China – well depending on the one-child policy, and if there were any males that carried on the family name). I also found out I became a “grandmother” to my third cousin (my cousin’s son’s son). I’m too young to be a “grandmother”!!!! 😭😭😭

My second cousins are quite funny, I’m not in their generation, but I completely understand them. Our generation gap is not that far. LOL.

Dinner was great by the way, the family hired two new maids (as two left), and they can make some really good food! I forgot that one of my second cousins likes roast duck as much as I do… that plate was almost finished. He had some competition from me! Hahahahah.

Day 5 – 11th March 2024

It rained the whole day. What was I going to do on a day when it was wet, slippery and slightly humid? Go shopping!

I decided go on a small shopping day in case I didn’t get a chance later on in my two weeks. Family gatherings became a main thing when I went to HK this time around.

I stood at a bus stop after going around the shopping centres looking for the way out towards the bus stop… it took me a while to find my way out! I had just missed the double decker bus, and I really, really didn’t want to get on a green minibus as they mainly go fast and get into accidents very often. However I’m glad I went on one… some have installed a bell – I guess it’s in case people didn’t want to speak out and say they wanted to get off. I kept looking at Google Maps, and found which stop to get off, so I pressed the bell… fascinating!

I went to the Ma On Shan shopping centres. Ma On Shan was still showing their Chinese New Year display when I was there.

I was going back forth between shops. I don’t know what I was looking for really, any small bargains. I did find one shop that sold accessories and bags, they even gave me a set of cutlery for free… I didn’t even know how I got that. LOL! I swear I didn’t buy much from them. 🤔

Went back to Shatin with 2 full bags of mixed things, I then bought late lunch / early dinner from Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop (正斗 – Jing Jap). I’ve been here before… I remember their noodles… The noodles definitely shouldn’t be used for a crispy noodle dish.

The service was so-so, I got a slightly moody waiter taking my order, but after he took my UK visa card out, he stared at it, and probably thought “ah”… He softened his mood afterwards. Need to get used to HK rude service. It’s been a while… was I bothered, not really! I’ve seen worse in work emails. Hahahahah!

Anyway, the crispy noodles was as I remembered it, but not as burnt. I thought there was only 1 wonton in that wonton noodle soup, but nope, there was a few in there hidden away. The fried dough was cool, it came with lots of different sauces – the peanut and satay sauce was great!

Total came to HK$214.20! Expensive!

Address: HK New Territories Shop 119, Level 1, New Town Plaza Phase 1, 18 Sha Tin Centre Street, Sha Tin, Hong Kong

Late at night I had a small snack before going to bed.

In Circle K, I found the famous Korean banana milk but this one was made with low fat milk and produced in HK. I think the banana taste could have been improved even if it was low fat, but it didn’t say low sugar. At this point point, I would have killed for a banana milkshake! I had bought a “sweet potato bread” from Maxim Bakery. It was fluffy and a bit sweet, the centre had some sweet potato paste in it. Not sure what the purple powdering was, that was a bit tasteless.

End of Days 4 & 5.