So much for having our first meal right after we land. The flight was delayed 30 mins and we were delayed in the air waiting to land. I made dinner reservations for 9:30 pm, which was accounting for landing a bit early and quickly clearing customs. I had my first scare of the trip before we boarded when the airline attendant asked me if I had a visa to travel to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has special traveling allowance from the US, which only requires a passport. I explained that to the attendant and they had to ask another person to confirm my facts.
We arrived at our hotel close to 11 pm and decided to not not bother looking for a place to eat that late. Instead there was a nearby 7-11 and we were just going to eat some snacks and call it a night. Interestingly, the 7-11 in Hong Kong do offer some light meal choices. You can get ramen, sandwiches, and other quick items. I thought about grabbing a beer, but when I touched the can it was warm. I settled on some chili crab chips, after passing on roasted chicken pringles, and a small isle of packaged pastries. Meh. The chili crab chips were nothing special and now I am up at 3 am local time writing this and feeling the hunger pangs.
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You have to love the English language and the alternate definitions of words. I'm not using the word reservations with the definition of doubt. I'm talking about making dinner reservations. I'm so used to the domestic way of making reservations. Jump on something like Open Table, put in your date, time, how many in your party, hit send and viola, you have a dinner reservation. I thought making dinner plans for eating in HK would be just as simple. Of course, it's not. After doing a bit of research of which restaurants I wanted to eat at, I proceeded to try and make reservations. Hmmm...this restaurant doesn't only accepts reservations through the phone. Factor in time zone, the possibility that broken English may hinder the process, calling from a US phone number. Okay, next restaurant, this restaurant accepts reservations via internet, great. So why are they asking me to pay up front to hold the reservation? It's a Michelin Star restaurant and they want payment in full. Uh, let's cancel that one. Next one, no reservations available online, call the restaurant. Really? After more researching and narrowing things down further, I was finally able to book some reservations. Now I am having some reservations about those reservations... What I discovered is the HK version of Open Table. It's something called Chope. I was able to make some reservations through Chope, but none of the Michelin Star ones. I also found an entirely different website called https://www.feedmeguru.com/ that is running a Crabalicious special during the month of November. The feedmeguru thing is similar to Dine about Town. A number of restaurants offer a special set menu at a discounted price. Crab, Michelin star restaurant, reservation without having to pay up front. Shang Palace here we come!
After more planning, research, messaging, emailing, I was able to fill out a pretty full schedule of restaurants. I chose one that asked if we wanted to dine on the roast duck. If so, I had to order it in advance since it was a 24 hour process to make and they typically sell out. Yes, please "reserve" me one of those. I automatically gravitate towards TST when traveling to Hong Kong. TST is located in the south of the Kowloon Peninsula and is across the sea from Hong Kong island. TST is central to most places in Hong Kong and it's really easy to hop on the MTR (subway) to where you want to go . Shopping and dining is plentiful in TST and there is great day time and night time activity. Admittedly, it's a bit touristy. There are approximately 80 Michelin Star restaurants in HK and Macau and HK has one of the cheapest Michelin Star restaurants in the world. Our goal will be to eat at many of the Michelin Star restaurants and other highly recommended eateries during our visit.
One of my pet peeves is how widely different reviews of restaurants can be. One reviewer may give the place a one star rating and complain that the service was terrible and the food sucked, while a different reviewer may say it's the best thing they ever ate and they were treated like royalty. I've always been aware that people have different tastes and expectations and sometimes those standards can be inconsistent. Take the Michelin Star restaurant for example, I'm automatically going to be biased before I walk into the restaurant. It's got a Michelin Star, so I'm already assuming the following: it's going to be a bit pricey, the food is going to be of a high quality and standard, and the service better be good. If I go to a four star yelp rated restaurant, should I have the same assumptions? What I'm trying to say is it's entirely subjective. Could you have a good meal in HK without eating at a Michelin Star restaurant? You sure can! I've been to HK many times previously and have never eaten at a Michelin Star restaurant in HK once. Another goal on this trip is to find strange flavors of snacks. Can anyone tell me what flavor this is??? |
AuthorRodney Wong, professional eater ArchivesCategories |