Hong Kong Trip (Part 1)

Aug 1, 2009 to Aug 5, 2009 – I was away from Malaysia for a short trip in Hong Kong, together with Mr. K. Booked the air ticket from AirAsia 1 year ago when they offer 0 fare tickets. Why Aug 1 to Aug 5? That’s because I am the most romantic person in the world! LOL! Aug 4 is Mr. K’s bday. So I am thinking to let Mr. K to celebrate his bday in Disneyland. Isn’t it romantic? I always tell Mr. K that if I were a guy, I will be able to kill many girls. LOL!

Roughly 1 month before the trip, I have been doing research on where we should go and what we should be eating when we are in HK. I did most of the planning for this trip as Mr. K can’t read Chinese and he don’t even watch HK series! So I would say that there is nothing much about HK in his mind. So no choice I gotta plan everything.. especially for his bday :-). After much research, I finally came up with an itinerary. I’m quite impressed with the planning – it might come in handy for my next trip to HK or to my friends who might/will be going to HK.

Aug 1 finally reached. And Aug 5 finally past. The trip is over. Mr. K and I had a great vacation in HK and also Macau.

Itinerary & some of the pictures taken.
Pre-flight
 
a small cube room & air cond (by credit limit you purchased) 

Booked a room from TunesHotel and stayed there for a night. Cos the flight was 7am in the morning – gotta be in the airport 2 hours before (even after online check-in for international flight), which means we gotta be there at 5am, which also means gotta wake up at 3am. So, to avoid all these hassles, we’ve decided to stay one night in this hotel – to get enough sleep/rest for the great trip ahead! :-D
How was the room? It was real small – nearly cannot get our luggage in. If you notice, our luggage is just at the right side of the bed, if you can notice the luggage handle in the pic.. yes! it’s just that near. And right next to the luggage is the window and door. The walkway can only allow 1 person to pass, the other has to be on the bed to let the other passes through. Anyway, that is not important since we only need to stay a night to rest well. :-) The air cond/hair dryer/towel – all available IF only you pay the rental. LOL!

Day 1
– reached the airport about 11++ to 12 noon. Took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). Checked in hotel around 2pm. Then, to get started, we roam around Tsim Sha Tsui area for lunch. Then, we head to the Peak and also Madamme Tussauds Museum. Madamme Tussauds is nothing special to us – not really that fun to take pictures with wax :-P but the peak was awesome. It was breathtaking – very nice view. The only nightmare to get to this areas was the long queue.  
Hong Kong Airport

Lunch we had on the 1st day – around TST  - beef noodle & roasted geese rice – I had a glass of ice lemon tea.. ahhh.. :-) and Mr. K had a glass of ice milk tea.


me & Mr. K in the pic.. queuing.. :-P                                                     long Q to get into the tram to the peak & madamme tussauds museum

    

celebrities in the wax museum


the peak & also the building which you always see in TVB drama..



here comes the hawker food.. some i have no idea what they are.. but taste nice..

We bought the food shown above from a hawker stall when we were on the way back to hotel. It’s very near to our hotel – we tapao from the stall and head back to taste it in the hotel. Overall tasty but I don’t quite like the fishball as it has some kind of funny taste that I don’t know how to describe – Mr. K likes it tho.. so I guess it’s different people like different taste.. :-) Anyway, now when I think of these food, I still want to eat them again.. yum yum! :-D

That marks an end to my pre-trip and Day 1 story. Coming up next.. Noah’s Ark, Symphony of Light, food.. and much much more.. stay tuned! ;-)

**Memoir: Sweet & Fun! **

Vinegar Pork Knuckle/Pig’s Trotter

Cooking has always been my favorite hobby of all times. I love to cook for my love ones – family & friends. I love to see their happy faces if it’s tasty and their frowning faces when the result sucks. LOL! Sometimes I do get praises, sometimes I will get comments.. even a bad one. Regardless of good or bad, I just love it! I can always improve.

And Yes! I love to eat too! :-D

The process of cooking gives me a feeling of satisfaction.

In this entry I would like to share one of my favorite dishes that I learnt from my mom - Vinegar Pork Knuckle/Pig’s Trotter. This is a Chinese traditional confinement food.

It is believed that it is good for the ladies during confinement. It helps to nourish the mothers' spent bodies. The ingredients include the following:-

1. Pork Knuckle/Pig’s Trotter.
2. Old Ginger (老姜)
3. Black Vinegar
4. Black bean
5. Brown Sugar
6. Sesame oil
7. Salt (to taste)
8. Water

According to my mom, this black bean functions to increase milk supply, pork knuckles provides collagen – good for joints and old ginger is to drive out wind. As for why vinegar is chosen for this dish, I am really clueless. A wild guess – to add taste to the dish? LOL!

Some of the pictures taken during the process:-
  
 
Pork Knuckle – I prefer pork knuckle as it has more meat compare to trotter.
Old Ginger
 
 
Black Vinegar & Brown Sugar

Tada! vinegar pork knuckle ready to be served. yummy! :-D
The best time to serve this dish is to wait until the knuckles have softened enough - by soaking the knuckles in the hot vinegar soup. The best practice (to me at least) is when everything is in the pot, bring the dish to boil, then switch off the fire/gas and let the knuckles continue to cook in the hot soup for about 3 to 4 hours/until the meat is softened. Softness is very much dependent on individual preferences – some people like it softer and some people like it not so soft. :-)

Thanks to my mom for teaching me this great dish. Love you! ;-)

** Memoir: Sweet, Sour **

the making of Savory Memoir (SM)

Since I created this blog, my curiosity grow stronger in making this site better.. It's like a small lil child learning something new... tho my career is in IT but I won't deny that I am actually an IT idiot.. to me, IT stuff is boring.. and I find it so hard to understand..
Even so, I did not give up exploring more and more to beautify my page..  ermm... ya, I know it's not perfect yet.. but I am trying hard.. :-P
Throughout the process, I've learnt:-
1. favicon (*.ico) - can't try it yet as my access to ftp still fail.. not sure what is wrong.. sigh..
2. Editor - change the *.php files (simply bcos I cannot find where to change from front end :-P)

Hope to learn more and more.. hope that I can start blogging some of my travel experiences/food tasted/cook, etc in my next entry.. :-)

* Shhh.. has been secretly updating my blog in the office.. :-P but it's during my free time la.. cos I'm still waiting my superior to finish his part before I can continue mine.. :-)

** Memoir: Sweet & Fun! **

Welcome to Savory Memoir!

Hi, Welcome to Savory Memoir!.. a place where I will be blogging about my every experiences..

Before this site is being created, me and Mr. K have been thinking very hard in getting the name of this blog. All kinds of name come into our mind.. e.g. WintcKitchen, TasteofLife, ToL, etc. Some has been taken.. some just sounds like something is missing.. some just doesn't sound right.. until I finally decided to use SavoryMemoir. Why? It is simply because it means the many tastes of life. It could be sweet/sour/bitter.. any taste.. you name it. It could mean about my life.. the people around me or food or anything that adds its taste to my life. All these are very memorable to me and all these can be savory. It resembles my life's journey.. every pieces of my life puzzle.. all of the flavors act like the colors to a painting - it would be too dull if there's only 1 color.. but it would be very beautiful with a combination of many...

Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, salty - whether you like it or not.. this is the taste of life.. included mine..