Hello 2012 – Visit to the ‘Long Island’

Welcome to 2012 my dear friends and readers!!! 🙂

I hope you’ve had a wonderful New Year Eve! I know I had an amazing time  and now I can’t wait to share with you all my new foodie and travel adventures!

Seeing this is my first post this year, I wanted to mix things up a little and instead of giving you a review of a restaurant or product. I wanted to share with you a summary of my recent visit to an outlying island in Hong Kong – Cheung Chau (長洲) or the literal translation ‘Long Island’.

Source: HK Outdoors 

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Cheung Chau, it is one of the most popular islands in HK, locals often go on the weekends to get away from the hustle and bustle in the city  🙂 It’s fairly easy to get to Cheung Chau, where you can get on a ferry at the Central pier and with a standard ferry it takes 45 minutes and only 30 minutes on an express ferry. For more information on fare and ferry schedule you can go to the First Ferry website.

Going to Cheung Chau is a yearly thing for Mr Bao and me, because it’s so close yet so far away hahaha I hope that makes sense. We love being able to get away from the crowds and get some quiet time alone to relax and refresh 🙂 So last week when his cousin (the one that hooked us up 🙂 Mr Luk called and suggested we go to Cheung Chau for the day, I immediately agreed and invited Ms C .

Beautiful day!

We were so lucky it was such a beautiful day, first time since I’ve been in HK, I’ve seen the sun and blue sky ~

Family bike ~

I have trouble with riding a bike, so we rented a family bike where I got to sit at the back and Mr Bao did all the cycling woo hoo 🙂 I felt like a princess! We basically went around the whole island and visited all the beaches and temples before I got extremely hungry and decided it was time to do my favourite thing EAT especially DESSERTS!

So our first stop was at a local dessert shop called ‘Coastal Dessert’ (北海甜品) 

Owner wasn't very friendly 😦

They had a variety of Chinese desserts such as sweet soup, sago desserts and also the famous Taiwanese style ‘snow ice’ dessert – where its made from shaving a piece of flavoured ice, to create a snow like texture.

Chocolate Snow Ice $29HKD ($3.9AUD)

We got the Chinese snow ice, which wasn’t too bad but nothing special… I liked the crunchy bits from the coco pops but I didn’t like the green ‘lime’ flavoured syrup over the snow ice, as it didn’t really go with the chocolate.

By then Mr Bao was complaining he needed ‘savoury’ food, so our next stop was at the locally famous ‘Welcome Food Court’ (時來食坊).

They sold typical HK street food like curry fish balls, fried squid and dim sims…but they’re curry fish balls are very famous because they’re HUGE and I mean ping pong ball size fish balls!

Massive Fish Balls $8HKD ($1 AUD)

The fish balls were delicious! It had the right balance of curry and texture, it wasn’t too soft or too firm, it produced that perfect ‘bouncy’ feeling in your mouth when you bite into it ~ My number one recommendation if visit Cheung Chau!

Next stop Sun Hei Ge Cafe and Restaurant (新照記茶餐小食店) sorry I don’t think it has an English name, similar to the shop before, they had a range of HK style snacks and noodles but they specialised more in Chinese puddings and the traditional Cheung Chau ‘Peace’ bun （平安飽).

Assorted puddings $10 HKD ($1.5AUD) for 4

Peace buns and 'tea braised eggs' - sorry forgot the price!

I’m not really sure what the ‘peace’ buns taste like, but I heard that there’s no filling and the words printed on them in pink are the characters that mean ‘peace’ hence, the name. There’s also a famous Cheung Chau Bun Festival which lasts 7 days. The eggs on the right are infused with a tea scent, very traditional and yummy ~

And the last thing we had was Mr Bao’s favourite sushi roll from Hometown Teahouse where a Japanese lady operates and only sells a few items. One being her famous sushi roll with sausage and crab stick.

Sushi roll with Sausage and crab stick approximately $15HKD ($2AUD)

To me this is a very homemade and not-that-exciting sushi hand roll, and it’s beyond me why Mr Bao likes it so much…but hahhaa I’m not going to argue with him!

Cheung Chau is a definitely a different side of Hong Kong, so I definitely recommend anyone coming to Hong Kong to visit their unique ‘Long Island’.

Thank you so much for reading and continuous support 🙂

All the best everyone in 2012!

Ps. Sorry this post is a little longer than I anticipated it to be.

Addresses:
Coastal Dessert (北海甜品)
G/F, 9D Pak She Praya Road,
Cheung Chau
長洲北社海傍路9D地下 

Welcome Food Court'(時來食坊).
G/F, 150 San Hing Back Street,
Cheung Chau
長洲新興後街150號地下

Sun Hei Ge Cafe and Restaurant (新照記茶餐小食店)
G/F., 18 Tung Wan Road,
Cheung Chau
長洲東灣道18號

Hometown Teahouse
Cheung Chau Church Rd. 17,
Cheung Chau

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Tagged: cheung chau, Dessert, Hong Kong, Review, Travel