Hong Kong is a multicultural hub where you can find everything you want. Great food, polite people, and beautiful nature all around you make it a very liveable city. You can easily escape the city and go for a hike in the mountains or to the beach.
When in Hong Kong, don’t forget to go up to Victoria’s peak, especially when it’s a clear day. No need to go up the busy and touristy Sky Terrace, just walk past it into Lugard Road and you’ll have a fantastic unobstructed view all for yourself! For a great description of how to get there, click here.
Exploring Hong Kong is highly addictive as every street and corner has interesting stories to tell, such as the tales behind the colorful feng shui architecture, old temples and ancient traditions being honored in a modern and fast paced society.
Obviously, being the financial center that it is, the city is also expensive. The rents are high and while people can enjoy themselves to the max in this city they work hard too! A six day (local) contract is no exception although Saturday is nowadays often only a half days work.
The financial district, with the skyscrapers and businessmen getting their shoes polished, reminded me of Midtown in New York. Also a city that never sleeps! Shop till you drop, day and night and Hong Kong has a serious party scene like at Mott32 where we made friends with the mixologist and enjoyed some high quality Japanese whiskey. For a drink with a view, go to Sevva that has a cool rooftop terrace on top of the Prince’s building.
Fragrant Harbor
Food plays an important role in the lives of the Hong Kongers, it may actually even be the single most important thing! People can spend the week on OpenRice to find the perfect restaurant to go to during the weekend. And I can’t blame them, the whole city breathes and smells of food. So if you weren’t hungry before, the lingering smell of spices, fruit, roasting and cooking will seduce you to eat out. Just follow your nose (as a matter of fact, Hong Kong translates to “fragrant harbor“)!
So it comes as no surprise that Hong Kong has an elaborate food scene from Michelin star food stalls in back alleys, upscale high tea, and last but not least dim sum restaurants. But also the healthy creative organic food restaurants have taken their place in the local scene as witnessed by long queues at popular venues. There’s something for everybody!
Having been to Asia on a number of occasions, we usually can’t wait to go back for the fantastic food. From fleshy, juicy mushrooms (damn you, monkey head mushroom, you ruined me for life, how am I ever going to enjoy mushrooms in Europe again!) to stir fried vegetables and exotic fruits.
What the teff?!
We also observed some interesting trends. For example, apparently teff is nowadays very hot to serve in Hong Kong. In Paris new (food) trends sometimes have trouble to break through (takes about 5 to 10 years;)). So it was interesting to see how an Ethiopian staple has become common in multiple restaurants. It’s even said that Asians have started consuming less rice and more exotic grains like teff and quinoa.
This city has so much to offer that we just managed to scratch the surface during our 4 nights there and I can’t wait to go back!
Would you happen to be in Hong Kong, these are some environment and health conscious restaurants you might enjoy.
Healthy food in Hong Kong
Mana! Slow Fast Food and Home are a plant based foodie’s and environmentalist’s heaven in Central. They serve healthy, fresh and tasty dishes while trying to minimise their environmental food print and give back to the local community. Both are close to the mid level escalators area. At Home you can enjoy coconuts with a view of a busy Hong Kong central street. Be prepared to queue around lunch time, these places are very popular, especially among expats. Must be their green juices, teff wraps and dhal goodness! After our travels I’ll try to reproduce the avocado humus wrap my husband wants to go back for. Off course they also have every vegan salad combo you can imagine.
Cute Fei in Kowloon. Organic veggie stir fries and mushrooms (yes!), all those juicy mushrooms. And very friendly staff! More than enough reason to take the (must-do) Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.
Veggie Spinner in Tin Hau, Causeway Bay. Cute small vegan lunchroom that serves fresh organic vegetables, green juices, avocado, pumpkin and portobello mushrooms rolls. Seating is very limited and you’re almost sitting on the sidewalk, in the middle of the bananas and dragon fruit, but the people watching is priceless.
Leave a Reply