Five kinds of food you can taste in the Cantonese restaurants

Cantonese restaurants' five kinds of food

Hong Kong is the dining capital and the Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong are the miniature of the culinary capital! You can taste five kinds of food there.

(1) DIM SUM (mostly serve from 0700-1700, some restaurants have the night time dim sum)

Dim sum is the many different kinds of exquisite little snacks, buns, dumplings, rolls etc. 

The chefs prepare the dim sum by steaming, frying, deep-frying etc. 

The main ingredients are pork, shrimp and vegetable. 

You may regard dim sum, e.g. the famous shrimp dumpling (Ha Gau蝦餃) and barbecued pork bun (Cha Shao Bao叉燒包), as the hot appetizers.

(2) CANTONESE BARBECUE(serve from 1100)

In most Cantonese restaurants, you can find a kitchen-like room next to the entrance. 

You can find lots of barbecue pork, roasted geese, soy sauce chicken etc behind the room's big window. 

Busy local workers may buy the lunch boxes there with rice and Cantonese barbecue to take away. 

You, the leisure travelers, can order a bowl of rice with chicken or barbecue platter to enjoy in the restaurants.   

(3) RICE, NOODLE & RICE NOODLE(serve from 1100)

Apart from the barbecue, the chefs mix the rice, noodle and rice noodle with lots of other ingredients for you.  

Like the famous spicy fusion cuisine, fried rice noodle in Singaporean style (Sing Chow Chao Mic星洲炒米), it is made by the barbecue pork, shrimp, chili and onion. 

You can also have something in soup, e.g. the rice noodle in soup with roasted goose slice & preserved vegetable (Suet Choi For Ap Si Tong Mic雪菜火鴨絲湯米). 

(4) MAIN DISHES(serve from 1100)

The main dishes are the perfect combination of the meat, seafood and vegetable. 

For example, the chefs can use the grouper to make three dishes for you, fried grouper fillet with celery, steam grouper belly and soup with grouper bone.  

The restaurants have different set lunch/dinner menus, which consist of different main dishes, for you to choose. 

As the main dishes are made by the best foods, they are more expensive than dim sum.

(5) DESSERT(serve from 1100)

The set lunch/dinner menus always have desserts included.

You can also find them on the dim sum menu and order them separately. 

Green bean soup(Look Dau Sha綠豆沙), Osmanthus Jelly(Kwai Fa Go桂花糕) etc are common. 

Some restaurants can offer you something like the 'mango pudding glutinous rice flour roll' (Mon Guo Law Mic Kuen芒果糯米卷) and Pumpkin Soup(Nam Gwa Lo南瓜露).

Mouthwatering??? No need to find the big brand or the one with Michelin Star, just find one Cantonese restaurant on the main roads/in the malls and you can enjoy all the above-mentioned delicacies.

You may consider the following private tour options, which include the dim sum meal...

Full day Hong Kong Kowloon city tour

Round Hong Kong Island full day private tour

Hong Kong Lantau Island full day private tour

Kowloon half day culture tour

For further private tour planning, please contact Frank the tour guide.

Three beautiful Chinese Gardens in Kowloon

Kowloon's three beautiful Chinese gardens

Apart from markets and shopping malls, Kowloon Peninsula's has three beautiful Chinese gardens, which have different scenery, historical background and landscaping style.

(1)Nan Lian Garden

In the past, the area was the largest slum area in Hong Kong. 

In 2000, Hong Kong Government resettled the people and built a traditional Tang Dynasty-style Nan Lian Garden.

Through the traditional Chinese landscaping and gardening methods, the developer integrates the rocks, trees and water harmoniously to create an urban oasis, which is surrounded by the high-rise buildings.  

The Chi Lin Nunnery is next to the man-made heaven.  

You can say hello to the Buddha and see the traditional but new Chinese wooden architecture there.

(2)Kowloon Walled City Park

The Kowloon Walled City Park is pretty and even got the international award in 1993.  

But you can go there to trace its special historical background.  

At first, the site was a Chinese Army walled stronghold against the British imperialists and Kowloon's city center, with a big bazaar.  

The complicated reasons made it the abandoned historical orphan, which was not under Britain's, China's or Hong Kong's rule.  

Japan demolished its thick wall during WWII to use the bricks to lengthen the Kai Tak Airport runway.

Its haphazard development became uncontrollable after the war.  

It became infamous: slum with the highest population density and the hodgepodge of refugees, gangsters, crimes etc.

Today the old Chinese Army Headquarter building (Yamen) is still kept as the management office of the beautiful Jiangnan (South of Yangtze River) style garden.

(3)Ling Nan Garden

Ling Nan Garden is the South China style garden, which is different from the above-mentioned two gardens.  

As South China is hot and wet, the garden has the long and wide covered corridor as the shade.  

South China was the first place to keep contact with the Westerners.  

So garden's decoration has lots of Western elements.  

Water makes up 20% of the garden.  

This shows the site's history.  

It was the coast for the citizens to have the romantic paddle boat ride and Exxon Mobil's oil depot.  

The Mei Foo (Exxon Mobil's Chinese name) Sun Chuen is next to the Ling Nan Garden.  

With 99 blocks, it was once the biggest private housing development in the world.  

The Ling Nan Garden is the "private" backyard garden of Mei Foo's residents and makes Mei Foo, which is now 50-year-old, still the expensive 'blue chip' private housing estate in Hong Kong.

You may consider the Kowloon cultural private tour, which  can bring you to the above-mentioned Chinese gardens.

For private tour planning in Hong Kong, you can contact Frank the tour guide. 

Five hidden gems on the Lantau Island

Five Lantau Island hidden gems for travelers

Apart from saying hello to the Big Buddha and Mickey Mouse, you can still find 5 out of common tourist track sightseeing points on the largest Lantau Island in Hong Kong......

Inspiration Lake

The free Inspiration Lake, which has a water fountain capable of shooting up to 18 meters in height, is Hong Kong's biggest artificial lake.  

Disney uses the water to irrigate its plants.  

Travelers may pay a reasonable price to ride bicycle around and have paddle-boating on the lake.  

It is a good place for the lovers and families to make some happy memories.

Pak Mong Village

You can see indigenous people's history and life at Pak Mong near the North Lantau Link Highway.  

In the past, most Lantau islanders relied on Pak Mong to travel to other places for works and businesses by boats, just like today's Mui Wo or Tung Chung.  

You can see two heritages at the remote Pak Mong: a small incinerator to burn the wastes and a guard tower to protect the people.

Tung Chung Fort

Lantau was infamous for its pirates lairs and opium smuggling in the past.  

The Qing Dynasty thus built the Tung Chung Fort in about 1830 to strengthen the defense.  

The (190 x 740)m fortress is a rare well-preserved military heritage in Hong Kong.  

You can still see the old cannons there.

Lou Han (Arhat) Temple   

Lou Han (Arhat) Temple is a good place to understand more about the Buddhism.  

In its Arhat Cave, you can see Buddha's students, 18 Arhats.

They have achieved enlightenment, but Buddha ordered them to stay in the world to help the people.  

They have different capabilities and wisdom.  

They propagate Buddhism through helping people, just like the Saints in the Western religions.

Chek Lap Kok New Village Tin Hau Temple

When government developed the new airport on the Chek Lap Kok Island, the indigenous people with their small temple, which was completely built by the granite, were moved to Lantau.  

The rebuilt temple can show you the popular local Goddess of the Seas (Tin Hau) belief, Hong Kong's old industry, masonry, and the masons' great works. 

If you want to get more details and have the private tour planning for the Lantau Island, please contact Frank the tour guide.

You may also consider the three well-designed and highly rated Lantau private car tour program...

Full day Hong Kong Lantau Island tour with Ngong Ping Cable Car ride

Half day Lantau Island Big Buddha tour with Ngong Ping Cable Car ride

Big Buddha Tai O sunset Lantau Island tour with Ngong Ping Cable Car ride

Five WWII relics in the city of Hong Kong

See five WWII relics in the city center of Hong Kong

15 August 2015, is the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender.  Hong Kong was invaded by Japan in 1941.  You can still see Hong Kong's WWII history through five relics in the city of Hong Kong.

(1) Peninsula Hotel

The Christmas decoration of Peninusla Hotel is nice.  But on the Christmas day of 1941, when Japan fully occupied Hong Kong, the grand hotel had no lighting at all because the power station was damaged.  

Hong Kong Governor, Mark Young, was forced to sign the armistice in the room 336 of the hotel under dim candle light.

You can still have afternoon tea set at the lobby floor of the hotel. 

You may even try to book and stay at the room 336 to recollect the history!

(2) Defense position at Stanley Market

There is still a concrete defense position at the Stanley Market next to a big banyan tree.  

Long before WWII, British leaders once guessed that Hong Kong's enemy would come from the sea.  

So lots of defense facilities were built on the southern part of the Hong Kong Island.  

In 1941, however, Japanese Army came from the north. 

Although there were heavy fighting and casualties, the defenders at Stanley could withstand the enemies effectively.

They were the last to surrender to the Japanese. 

(3) Osborn statue at the Hong Kong Park

During the fierce 18-day battle of Hong Kong, defenders fought bravely.  

On 19 December, Canadian defender, Company Sergeant Major Osborn and his company were besieged by the Japanese at Mount Butler.  

For covering his comrades, Osborn just picked up the enemy's grenades and threw them back to the enemy.  

At last, Osborn even threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades.  

The hero was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and a statue was made to remember him.

(4) Private Maxwell's grave near the St John's Cathedral

Private Maxwell was killed in Wan Chai on 23 December 1941, just two days before the fall of Hong Kong. 

As that was impossible to ship the Catholic Maxwell's body to the cemetery, his comrades decided to bury him near the Protestant St John's Cathedral.  

Later, people led Maxwell rests in peace permanently in Central after the war.

(5) Queen Victoria Statue at Victoria Park

Queen Victoria Statue was once the icon of the Statue Square in Central. 

For securing more metals to make more weapons before its defeat, Japanese Army decided to 'invite' the queen to go to Japan, i.e. STOLE the bronze statue and tried to MELT it.

After Japanese surrender, the Allied Army found this VIP in a warehouse and sent her back to Hong Kong. 

In 1957, Hong Kong Government placed the statue at the entrance of a new Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. 

For private tour planning about the WWII relics, please contact Frank the tour guide.

YOU may also consider the Round Hong Kong Island private tour.

YOU can visit the out of the common tourist track Chung Hom Kok Battery in the southern part of Hong Kong during the tour.

4 types of Hong Kong private tours, which you need to think twice before booking

Think twice before you book the 4 types of private tour product

There are a lot of different types of private tour product in Hong Kong.

You may thick twice before you book the 4 types of private tour product.

(1)PRIVATE FOOD TOUR/FOODIE TOUR

You can find good food very easily by yourselves in the culinary capital (please refer to the openrice.com).  

The food tour is not good because it is not good to eat too much in a short period of time (about 2-3 hours) especially when you are traveling.  

The experience of travelers diarrhea due to non-acclimatization is bad!

(2)PRIVATE MARKET SHOPPING TOUR

You can reach Hong Kong's markets easily as they are in the city center (please refer to: Discover Hong Kong: Street Markets and Shopping Streets).  

You NEED to bargain in the markets by mobile phone calculator app.  

It is easy.  

You need to pay the hourly rate to the private guide to go shopping with you.

This means the cost of shopping becomes a lot higher.  

Just save more for more souvenirs is better!

(3)Bus metro walking (BMW) tour

BMW tour means tour relies on bus, metro and walking for transportation. It has actually no private transport. 

Using PUBLIC transport as the main transportation method contradicts the definition of a PRIVATE tour.  

Public transport cannot offer you point to point transfer.  

You need to walk to the sightseeing points after alighting the train with your private guide.  

Lots of uncertainties impact your tour.  

You can find no bus or taxi and the weather may not cooperate.  

How much time is left for your PRIVATE tour?

(4)PRIVATE TOUR BY PRIVATE 'DRIVER-GUIDE'

Driver-guide is a bad idea in the bustling Hong Kong.  

Talking to the driver when the car is in motion is illegal.  

So driver-guides cannot introduce Hong Kong properly to you when they are driving.  

Driver-guides need to spend your valuable tour time to find the insufficient parking space.  

How much time is left for the driver-guides to make the tour commentary?

As a smart travelers and customers, you deserve something better.  

Book the easy private tour with a set but flexible program, which includes private car with driver and private guide is your best choice. This can save your valuable sightseeing time and keep your privacy.

For your private tour planning, please contact Frank the tour guide.

You may also choose your private car tour program.