Last Hoorah

Summer in Hong Kong is drawing to an end. As summer's last hoorah, it was hotter than ever in HK with the temperatures rising up to 33 degrees C, as if the summer season were trying to make up for all the rains and typhoons during June and July. So the best remedy was to hang out in shopping malls to enjoy the free A/C, which was turned up to extra cold.

I noticed that retail stores are always on sale now ever since the financial tsunami last year. The winter sale season started as early as December 1st of last year, 3 weeks earlier than usual, and lasted until the end of February. The summer sale season started so early, on June 1st, that by June 30th, the official start of the sale, most stores had slashed the prices of items to half of the original price. Now, as the -ber months are looming ahead, most retail stores are still on sale as they try to discard the remaining pieces from the previous season. This situation makes buying anything at full price pretty much unreasonable.

One of my favorite places to dine in nowadays is Shanghai vegetarian restaurant Kung Tak Lam located on the 10th floor of the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay. I ate here before I became a vegetarian and loved their food even then. The food here is not heavy on seasoning and spices as is the case in many vegetarian dishes, the place is brightly lit, not crowded at all, and has a harbor view, and the service is impeccable. Many monks come here to dine, too, because all the dishes do not contain any garlic or onions.

My top 2 favorites are the pine nut and seaweed rice (HKD 48) and sweet and sour fake pork (HKD 88), for which mushroom was used as substitute. So far, I have not been disappointed in any of Kung Tak Lam's dishes yet. Kung Tak Lam also serves dim sum from 11am to 5pm; my favorite is the siumai.

This sweet and sour "pork" is crunchier than most real sweet and sour pork dishes.

Finally, Kung Tak Lam has a lunch set on weekdays for only HKD 45. Another affordable option is the Dan-Dan Mian or Sichuan Spicy Noodles, vegetarian style, very yummy at only HKD 28.

At long last, I finally found a boutique that imports Cath Kidston bags from UK. I tried to Google the bag in HK but the search only yielded pages in Chinese. Lately, I noticed many HK-ers toting a Cath Kidston, much like the Harrod's shopping tote phenomenon in 2005. When I saw a woman carrying one in the grocery, I gathered up my courage and asked her where she got hers. She told me that she bought her Cath Kidston in UK; luckily, she knows where to get it in HK!

Zazie Store (Shop 208) is located in Laforet, a mini shopping mall beside Giordano across Sogo, along East Point Road.

I ended up getting the biggest tote. The picture posted in my previous entry is only a book bag which is flat. The small handbag version of the big tote is also cute but the pattern I like is not available in the small size.

I also got Mom a purse with a metal clasp, which she is crazy about.

And the piece de resistance of my recent purchases is this item I came across by accident. Japanese jewellery 4°C collaborated with Sanrio to come up with a line of gold Kitty pieces. The pieces are so tiny, I thought it was a line for children, but the sales personnel assured me that it is for adults. What struck me are the clarity and cleanliness of the lines and dots on Kitty's face and the ribbon made from coral.

While having dinner at rbt in Causeway Place, I was blown away by the loudness of this B-bag. It was huge, fire-engine red, and has big gold hardware. I asked for her permission to take a photo of her bag which I liked a lot and discovered that she got it in China for 500yuan. Wow! It looked so real!

Trying to get a full paparazzi shot of the bag without success. The shop sells all sorts of knick-knacks. Given the sky-high rent of HK retail stores, the current trend among shop owners nowadays is to divide the rent among many different tenants. Anyone who has something to sell can get a box and display their wares in the box. During the whole course of my fast-food dinner, the foot traffic in this shop was non-stop. Some items sold here include mini flat-irons with fun prints like zebra lines, sunglasses, toys, accessories, displays, etc.

As closing, I use my MacBook for all my post entries as well as editing the layouts of my blog. When I checked my blog using an IBM laptop running on Windows, the font and pictures came out in a different size from my original configuration. I'm not quite sure how to fix it, but if my blog appears distorted, it's not supposed to look that way..I think.