Coming soon!

10. Sing Heng Yuen’s Tomato Noodles
One of the few remaining Da Pai Dang stalls around, the crowd during lunch time is insane so please avoid it unless you don’t mind waiting for 20–30 minutes. Don’t usually eat tomatoes, but the ones they had in the soup were so sweet and fresh. FYI I tried the Luncheon Meat and Beef Tomato Noodles. Their toast was awesome too.

09. Oddies Foodies
My favourite dessert stall — basically its just Egglet with Gelato. Their egglets are toasted to perfection and they have really interesting/creative flavours that keep me coming back for more. Unfortunately my favourite outlet at Wanchai closed after its lease was up, leaving them with only one outlet at Sheung Wan.

08. TeaWood’s 徐太宇的麻醬麵 & Toast
Das right, all you fangirls who have been going crazy about 徐太宇, you can now try his 麻醬麵 — 麻酱和面分开放. Never understood the logic cos you would have to mix the two up eventually. Novelty aside, the dish actually taste pretty legit. Love their Fried Oyster Omelette too. Oh and save some space for dessert, cos their signature Mango/Strawberry/Chocolate Toast is a must try.

07. Australian Dairy Company
A place that needs no introduction — if you want to get a real taste of Hong Kong i.e. squeezing in a Cha Chaam Teng, sharing tables, getting scolded for not ordering properly — this is the place to be! But to be honest, the only thing that keeps me coming back is their Steamed Egg. Just eat that, nothing else. And here’s a tip — you can do takeaway if you want to avoid the crowd!

06. Butao Ramen
Sounds like a ridiculous idea to eat Jap Food in HK, but yes it is that good. My personal favourite got to be the Black King (Squid Ink Ramen), the broth was so thick and flavourful (it taste abit like black pepper). MUST TRY cos you probably won’t find this dish any where else. Apparently it’s a local HK brand and they have a few outlets across both HK and Kowloon areas. IMO Butao > Ichiran

05. Lan Fong Yuen
Located just next to the world’s longest travelator (lol), they serve the best Toast and Yuan Yang. So good to the extent that our angmoh friends always ask us to bring them back there again. Can get pretty crowded but the workers are generally nicer than those at other Cha Chaam Tengs.

04. Tai Cheong Egg Tart
Not even kidding but I eat this almost every other day in Hong Kong. Their Egg tarts are the best I ever had — so sweet, so munchy, aiya I don’t how to describe it la. They have off-peak offers — 2 for 8.80 HKD/ $1.5 SGD and buy 2 get 1 free. (IMO Tai Cheong > Honululu)

03. Sun Kee Cheese Noodles
You can’t go wrong with cheese- and this is just an excellent example. Who the hell eats noodles with cheese — well, Hong Kongers can. The best part, however, was not the cheese but the roast pork slices. It’s pretty similar to those you get at a Jap Ramen stall but even better — tender and fresh xoxo.

02. Capital Cafe
Probably the most under-rated restarant in Hong Kong. While tourists always rave about Australian Dairy, the locals usually stick to this (well, at least this was one thing which my roomie recommended me to try). It’s an old school Cha Chaam Teng but with a much bigger dining space. You get the usual old uncle waiters but they are really alot nicer! Most food blogs recommend their Black Truffle Toast, but I thought it was pretty meh. Can just stick to the usual scrambled eggs. My favourite dish was the Tomato Spaghetti — Best Pasta I had in Hong Kong! You can either add one or two extra ingredients to it, ranging from a sunny sideup to charsiew. But I usually stick to my scrambled egg and beef — writing this got me craving for it again. Damn.

01. Chau Kee Dim Sum
Number one dish goes to… Dim Sum! No surprises here since this is the land of dimsum. Tim Ho Wan is only good for their Char Siew Polo Bun and have very limited choices, Dim Dim Sum was pretty average, One Dim Sum was good but Chau Kee/周记点心 really stood out from the rest. It’s not your typical Dim Sum stall, they serve fusion dishes such as Salted Lava Egg (or Taro) Toast, Fried Shrimp Cake and XO Fried Rice Roll. Don’t have a particular favourite dish cos they were all soooo good.

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Alright, so that concludes my list of favourite food. There are a few famous/touristy stalls that miss out cos we all accept the love we think we deserve and we definitely don’t deserve any ridiculous/outrageous service regardless how famous/nice the food is (Kam Wah, Mak’s, Mui Kee…)

Cha Chaam Tengs are generally getting overpriced and overrated. If I really want to go to one, I would just stick to Tsui Wah. Apart from that, I think the rule of thumb is just to walk around, explore and give different stalls a try, you never know what gem you might actually stumble upon. There are a few more stalls which I really want to recommend but I can’t remember/find out what is it actually called ($11HKD Ice Cream at Dragon Centre, $17HKD Wanton Noodles at Northpoint!!)

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I miss Hong Kong. Hope you guys enjoyed did this post as much as I did writing it.

21. McDonald’s
This sounds weird but the HK McDonald’s is amazing. Apart from the fact that their McSpicy set meal is only 23HKD ($4 SGD), they offer a really interesting variety of food such as Coke/Fanta float (7HKD/ 1.2SGD) and Apple Pie a-lad-mode (which is essentially apple pie with chocolate/strawberry sundae — my personal favourite!); and there is also the seasonal promotions — for example, in January they had Lobester Bisque Soup and Affogato Ice Cream. Just before I left, their McCafe even released a series of Matcha Desserts.

20. IKEA Popcorn
Other than meatballs, IKEA serves up pretty awesome popcorn too at just 10HKD ($1.7 SGD). And I’m referring to a pack of Sweet Caramel Popcorn xoxo

19. BAKE Cheese Tarts
Cos I don’t have to queue 2 hours for it and honestly I don’t think it is worth that amount of waiting time. FYI, the cheese tarts can also be found across all major Asia cities. Google.

18. Dou Fu Hua 豆腐花
HK version of Tao Huay — same, same but different. Prices range from 5–7 HKD (~1.2 SGD).

17. Hotpot at Yoshinoya
Apart from Macs, I think Yoshinoya is the second-most popular fast food chain in Hong Kong. Favourite dish here is the Tobiko Salmon Flakes Bowl with Onsen Egg. But most people come here for their Hotpot (yes hotpot). At only 52HKD ($9.20 SGD), you get a plate of beef, cheese tofu, mushrooms, crabmeat, udon, a drink and a free-flow of soup — this was basically my favourite afterschool dinner treat. Do note that hotpot is only available after 6PM.

16. Mobile Softee
The Vanilla Cone (9HKD/ $1.60 SGD) has a unique salty flavour to it — an iconic HK street snack.

15. Kau Kee Beef Noodles
To be honest I didn’t even try the noodles cos the three times I was there, the queue was so bloody long that I just gave up. But like a wise Singaporean once told me - got queue means must be good la

14. Yat Lok Goose
The Charsiew/Roast Goose platter was perhaps the most sinful plate of meat I’ve eaten in HK.

13. Lab Made Ice Cream
Cos Liquid Nitrogen is so cool (pun geddit) and their menu changes everyday.

12. Iced Coffee at Cheng Chau Island
Umm its not worth it to travel to the island for the coffee but if you are there, this is a must try! It’s a push-cart/trolley store by two young people. They have this fancy Coffee dripper setup so it’s quite easy to spot them. I would dare say their Iced Black Coffee is better than the one at Hoshino.

11. Jenny Cookies
Probably the one souvenir that everyone would buy from Hong Kong cos it’s so damn awesome. 4 Butter Mix is all you need. Not a fan of the noughat though.

Okay that’s all for now. Writing all this at this hour actually makes me hungry. Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow.

Compared to my peers in Europe, a day trip here won’t require me to rent a car or spent hours on the railways. The beauty of Hong Kong is that you can probably alight at any stop on the MTR line and still have something to do or explore.

Hung Hom definitely won’t be the one of the places you would even know or think of if you are just a tourist. It is probably more commonly known as the terminal station of the Light Blue Line (Island Line).

On the first look, it seems like a pretty packed interchange station with people seamlessly flowing through and flow. But as you dwell deeper into the neighbourhood, there is actually more than meets the eye.

1. Hong Kong Poly University

An university is definitely not your usual touristy spot but it is actually a pretty nice place to explore (and take pretentious instagram photos).

The entire campus is mainly made up of these old-school bricks, which gives the university a very traditional and rustic feels.

Go on a weekday and you might even have the opportunity to crash one of their lectures. If you are interested (or tight on budget) you can even visit their canteens or cafes around the school. Didn’t try it personally but prices are definitely cheaper and I reckon it probably can’t taste that bad.

2. Innovation Tower

Ok, let me be honest. The main reason why I even bothered to explore PolyU was because of the cool-ass photos of people I saw posing at the Innovation Tower on instagram and I really wanted to explore it as well. Safe to say, it didn’t disappoint at all.

Apart from its pretty amazing architecture on the outside, there are plenty of things to see inside the building too. See below.

Okay, so the cool thing about the school is that they have an exhibition on almost every level according to the respective disciplines e.g. communication design, product design, advertising. For a designer like myself, walking through each levels was as good as going through a museum. The pieces on display were really amazing.

Yeh, so the students were suppose to design a poster based on a selected quote with typographic influences and principles. Pretty damn cool? I’m not too sure how often do they change these exhibits but I’m pretty sure they would make it a point to have something on display.

Sounds geeky but I spent a good 2 hours walking around Hong Kong’s highly acclaimed design school, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

3. Lunch at Iconic H

The school tour took longer than I expected, and it was nearing 3+ already by the time I wanted to get lunch. This was a place I always wanted to go after seeing photos of it online. I was really surprised that I actually manage to find myself a seat in stall, considering its popularity (okay la maybe cos I was alone plus non-peak hours).

I would say the price is pretty decent considering how expensive the food are currently in Hong Kong. The fries smelt really good but the taste was a little bit underwhelming — still good nevertheless. Couldn’t really taste the truffle on my hotdog, but they make up for it with all the cheese! Would definitely be back for more to try out their other hotdogs and toppings.

PS: there’s a similar stall called 1987 Hot Dog around the area too; haven’t tried it but the reviews look good on openrice.com. Walked past and it seems like a cheaper alternative to Iconic H.

4. Whampoa Garden

Not to be confused with that neighbourhood in Singapore; but like its SG counterpart, it is a residential area as well. The only difference is that there are shops on the first level of every block. Ranging from Japanese supermarkets, H&M to bowling alleys and even a sleezy looking karaoke bar. The coolest thing about the place is probably the giant ‘ship’ which is found in the middle of all the buildings. To be honest, there is nothing much to buy inside but it is pretty cool to just hang around the neighbourhood.

5. Mammy Pancake

Wanted to get some Tao Huay for dessert but I couldn’t find the stall I walked past; instead I stumbled upon Mammy Pancake, which was in fact one of Hong Kong’s most famous egglet place? There was already a massive crowd lining up as I saw from afar. Like any typical Singaporean would do, I joined the queue.

Patience is a virtue — and you better do; I knew I had to wait but I definitely wasn’t expecting to wait for almost 25 minutes. At least the weather was cool and I had time to just scroll through all my social media outlets.

I ordered the original pancake for $12 HKD and it is definitely the best one I’ve had so far. Worth the wait? Might consider if you are rushing for time.

Hung Hom is really quite a chill place to be. Prices of the food are relatively cheaper as compared to MK/ TST. There is a wide variety of choices of food here, which I will definitely try in the future — burgers, noodles and alot, alot, alot of Jap & Korean food stalls.

It was a pity that it was too cloudy that day, otherwise an evening stroll along the Hung Hom promenade would definitely be a great way to end the day. For me, I took a 15 minutes walk to TST where I enjoyed a good 2 hours listening to buskers singing a range of English, Chinese and Mandopop tune.

My kind of Saturdays.

I tried to get tickets for an Anfield/ Liverpool match, but my schedule didn’t fit. Besides, due to the short notice of my trip, tickets were already sold out. I turned to the black market, but the prices were crazy- with the cheapest ticket coming at 85 pounds (approximately 180 SGD?) plus they are not even reliable.

Eventually I settled for the Anfield Stadium tour and tried my luck at Melwood Training Ground, some fans term it as the pilgrimage to Liverpool.

With the help of Google and some tips from the people at Official Supporters Club Singapore — LFC Singapore, I found my way to Melwood. Here’s the directions
(NOTE: Anfield is NOT at Melwood)

• Take Bus 12 from Liverpool ONE Bus Station
• Alight 19 stops later at opposite Crown Road (approximately 22mins) — Just ask the driver to give you a ring when you reach, they are really friendly!
• You should see the walls surrounding the training ground, it’s pretty obvious! After that just cross the road, walk straight, turn left and there you are

Okay here comes the important part — When will they players be there?

• Technically speaking, they should be training there everyday. But take note, for away and European cup games, they will probably need some time to travel, so they are unlikely to train the day before (and probably after)
• There are 3 possible training times a day — morning, afternoon, evening. The team tends to train in the morning during the Rodgers era i.e. players should arrive around 9AM or so.
• But since Klopp’s arrival, its said that he prefers the afternoon (players arrive around 11AM ) and evening session.

I reached Melwood in the morning at 8.30AM, and waited for almost 2 hours. The first few vehicles which entered were probably the staff and coaching team. Milner drove in pretty early at around 9AM, but didn’t stop. After which it was a pretty barren spell with only a random staff member stoping and signing for me, and no players arriving. I was about to leave the place as I booked the Anfield Tour at 11AM.

I kinda accepted the fate that I wouldn’t be meeting any players…until the next moment. Klopp arrived. He was pretty chill and lowered down his windows for us. Didn’t talk but was nice enough to stop for an autograph and a photo.

A black car arrived behind almost immediately. Lowering down his window pane, it was Sturridge. I guess he had no choice but to stop for us as well since his boss was right in front. Cool guy, didn’t talk, and he was blasting some hip-hop/rap tunes.

Yep that was about it. I had to leave for Anfield right after that. But I guess it was enough, couldn’t have asked for any better :)

I met a fellow fan there, by the name of Daniel. He was free enough to wait for the remaining day. Guess what, he had photos & autographs with about half the first team.

Okay I admit, I was really lucky to meet Sturridge and Klopp (especially). But with a little bit of patience and a stroke of luck, anyone can do it as well. My friend here waited from morning till 2PM (?).

The wait can be long, but it is definitely worth it. Good luck to anyone else trying this in the future!

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Alright now for the second part. Here are the directions from Melwood to Anfield.

• Go to the bus stop opposite the one you alighted from
• Take Bus 13 and alight 11 stops later at Sheil Road
• Walk to West Derby Road to take Bus 27 and alight 4 stops later opposite Anfield

Booked the Centenary Stand Tour & The Steven Gerrard Collection tour for 11 Pounds (student price). Quite a pity that the main stand is currently closed as they are under construction for the new expansion. As a result, we didn’t get to visit the actual dressing room and the famous This Is Anfield sign. But I guess the replicas are good enough. Here are some photos from the tour.

All in all, a wonderful experience. The whole tour last around an hour and you will definitely spend more time at the LFC Store (FYI there is another store at Liverpool ONE, smaller though). A must-go for any Liverpool fan.

Hopefully this guide has been helpful and good luck for anyone trying to embark on the pilgrimage!

Here’s a short video clip from the Liverpool trip