Miscellaneous Food: London's Hot Chocolate

I have a Thing for hot chocolate. Food-lovers in particular will know what I mean: every one of us has something we are extremely particular and even pedantic about, a certain hang-up or obsession (or perhaps more than one) that we cannot be blase or nonchalant about, but must take absolutely seriously. Perhaps you like your meat done just so, or your pizza base must be crisp and crunchy but never spongy, or your soup must always be scaldingly hot.

Well, one of my Things is hot chocolate. I have drunk a lot of hot chocolate in my life, and I cannot abide the watery, bodyless, insipid swill that involves dissolving some "instant" hot chocolate powder in hot water to produce a very disappointing brown liquid that is unappealing and characterless. It seems like a crime to debase something as glorious as chocolate in that way.

For me, true hot chocolate is thick, rich, brimming with an earthy, deep, dark and enticing aroma of ground cocoa. Made with milk or water I make no bones with, but it actually has to taste like chocolate (not as obvious as it sounds - try ordering any hot chocolate in Singapore).

In Europe, this form of hot chocolate is very common in France, Spain or Italy, which makes it all the more baffling that it is almost completely absent from the UK. Thankfully, however, I found a TimeOut guide here which points the way to some of the places in London which stick to the true hot chocolate philosophy.

So I decided, after my exams, to take a hot chocolate tour of London, ambitiously making a list of a number of places that I knew or heard made the real stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or opportunity to sample hot chocolate from all these places, and there are a few that are not on the TimeOut list that I have tried but didn't manage to get a photograph of. Still, what follows is a list I hope to build on when I next return to London, which I hope will be of interest to anyone who takes hot chocolate fairly seriously.

Apostrophe

Apostrophe is one of these newish chains that have sprouted up, specialising in boulangerie and patisserie (baked goods and desserts).



They've got outlets all over London, so it shouldn't be hard to find one at all, especially not when the stores are eye-catchingly black and pink.



Unfortunately, the hot chocolate was not as pleasing as the decor. It certainly was very thick; the skin from the scalded milk rapidly forming across the surface of the chocolate, and you'd probably need a spoon to finish it all. Nor was it very expensive: 2.50 GBP for a decently-sized cup of hot chocolate.

The real problem was the taste of the hot chocolate. It lacked any real blossoming of cocoa flavours in the mouth, and the taste of the starchy thickener they used was very obvious. If you're just looking for something to warm you up during winter, this is fine, but if you're looking for a true chocolate fix, Apostrophe's hot chocolate is sadly not quite it.

Apostrophe
Too many to list; see here for locations.

Paul

I've been to Paul's so many times that I've never taken a photo of the hot chocolate they sell, which I suppose in its own way is a testament to how good it is.

Paul, like Apostrophe, is a boulangerie and patisserie, but I rarely come here for anything other than the hot chocolate, and I've heard complaints that their other products are rather expensive.

Unlike Apostrophe, however, Paul's hot chocolate is the real deal. From the first sip, the chocolate flavours dance across your palate and warms you up, not just from the heat of the drink alone, but from the warmth and comfort of the cocoa. This was my favourite morning pick-me-up when I was interning in London last summer.

The best thing about Paul is that for 5 GBP, you can take away a 1L tetrapack carton of hot chocolate to enjoy at home, and all you have to do is heat it up in a saucepan or microwave yourself a glass. A good DVD and a glass of hot chocolate beats a night out in a London nightclub any day.

Paul
Too many outlets to list; see here for locations.

Melt

Melt is a boutique chocolatier in the heart of chic Notting Hill, not far from the equally trendy Ottolenghi.



It's not quite operational in this picture, but under the lime-green umbrella Melt sells its own ice cream, which I imagine must be cold comfort for the denizens of London in the current heatwave.



The aroma of cocoa powder and tempered dark chocolate tempts you into the shop, and you'll find not just the usual pyramids of pralines and truffles, but also a workspace where all the finnicky tempering work takes place, and where chocolate workshops are run on weekends.



The actual hot chocolate, however, is somewhat unglamorous and ungenerous. For 2 GBP you get a small disposable cup's worth of liquid dark chocolate. But that little cup definitely delivers an impressive hit of intense richness.

Melt
59 Ledbury Rd, Notting Hill, London W11 2AA
Tel: 020 7727 5030

Caffe Nero

Caffe Nero induces mixed feelings in people: I know some who are there almost religiously, while others claim their coffee is actually repulsive.

While I can't vouch for their coffee (though I did have some rather poor latte), they do a fairly credible hot chocolate, which is better than none (or hot cocoa water), but is somewhat too sweet for my tastes.

Caffe Nero
Outlets all over the UK; look for one near you.

Carluccio's

Continuing the Italian theme, Antonio Carluccio's chain of cafes, although they offer pretty little by way of food, do sell a small espresso glass of thick, unctuous cioccolata fiorentina.

Like Apostrophe's, I find this to be somewhat lacklustre (figuratively, not literally, as the chocolate does have a nice sheen to it), missing the depth and intensity and power that a true cup of hot chocolate should have.

Carluccio's
Outlets all over the UK; look for one near you.

Hotel Chocolat

This was, due to some rather unfortunate circumstances detailed below, the last cup of hot chocolate I managed to sample, and thankfully it delivered in spades.



I believe only the flagship store in High Street Kensington sells hot chocolate, as I don't recall the Knightsbridge branch having any when I dropped in for a look. But that is not, however, the only thing Hotel Chocolat sells.



Hotel Chocolat sells almost every chocolate product imaginable: from chocolate liqueurs to cocoa nibs, from grand cru chocolates to gift scrolls.

But what I've come for is the hot chocolate, and Hotel Chocolat offers three: one made with 50% chocolate, one made with 72% chocolate, and one made with 100% (!) chocolate.

I'm very curious as to what the 100% chocolate tastes like, as I imagine it must be terribly bitter, which is why I went with the 72% chocolate.



Unlike all the other hot chocolates pictured here, you can see that the one offered by Hotel Chocolat is much thinner and lighter in colour. At the same time, however, look at how magnificently it catches the light - a smooth, glossy, gleaming bowl of hot chocolate. That's right: for 3 GBP you get an absolutely enormous bowl of hot chocolate, to be slurped up just as the ancient Mayans did. I would strongly advise coming here on an empty stomach.

Hotel Chocolat's hot chocolate trades texture for taste: since they use water instead of milk (resulting in a thinner hot chocolate with no "skin"), the bitter sweetness of the chocolate really shines through, unadulterated by any additional sweetness from the milk. This is something you can sit down and enjoy the entire afternoon, so grab a friend to join you.

Hotel Chocolat
163 Kensington High Street, London W8 6SU
Tel: 0207 938 2144


Things started to go wrong from here, as places like L'Artisan de Chocolat inexplicably ceased serving hot chocolate, while Paul A Young apparently don't do hot chocolate over summer.

So what follows is a list of places I'll be going back to when I'm back in London to try out the hot chocolate they offer, and if you've been to any of them, I'd love to hear about it!

L'Artisan de Chocolat
89 Lower Sloane Street, London SW1 W8DA
81 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UL
400 Oxford Street, London W1

Cake Therapy
59 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6CF
Tel: 07939 574315

Camino
3 Varnishers Yard, Regents Quarter, London N1 9AF
Tel: 020 7841 7331

Chocolate Society
36 Elizabeth St, London SW1W 9NZ
Tel: 0207 259 9222

Konditor and Cook
22 Cornwall Road, London SE1 8TW
Tel: 020 7261 0456
10 Stoney Street, London SE1 9AD
Tel: 020 7407 5100

Laduree
71-72 Burlington Arcade, Londond W1J 0QX

Paul A Young
33 Camden Passage, off Upper Street, Islington, London N1 8EA
Tel: 020 7424 5750
20 Royal Exchange, Threadneedle Street, London EC3V 3LP
Tel: 020 7929 7007

Review: PS Cafe

The funny thing about PS Cafe at Palais Renaissance is that I never really knew it was there. All this time, I had always gone to the Dempsey Road PS Cafe- maybe it's because the PS Cafe at Palais Renaissance is really small and tucked away in the midst of clothing shops.


Still, my visit here confirmed what I had been told, that the food here is indeed superior to the other PS Cafes, especially for brunch. I also love the decor of this place, the black and white colonial mosiac tiles, the high, rafted ceiling, the use of glass and natural light and the beautiful luscious flower arrangements that the owners make themselves.


This doesn't mean that the food couldn't be better. The Heuvos Ranchos that we had, although very fulfilling in concept, was a skinny little sausage (halved) that would hardly satisfy the appetites of male diners. However, the dips were surprising good, the burgers, heady truffle mushroom soup and egg-based dishes did not disappoint, as I guess they shouldn't, when you're paying $40 a head for brunch!


They roll out specials at their different locations every week or so and I have to say that the food at all the locations has improved and the restauranteur concept has become stronger now that they have a veritable chain of outlets. The food is fairly heavy and not to everyone's taste (read: few people over 50 spotted) but if you are hungry and enjoy the lazy, casual-chic ambience of the location, it is worth it, especially if you are entertaining a group. It is a lovely, relaxing and luxurious way to start off your weekend.



PS Cafe
Level 2, Palais Renaissance Shopping Centre
390 Orchard Road
Tel: + 65 9834 8232

Miscellaneous Food: Where to Buy Ingredients

One thing I notice is that I get queries about where and how to get supplies and these tend to be the same items so in order to encourage you to cook more and eat heathier, I've listed the top questions I've received. Also, I'm really hoping that this will be a forum of positive sharing, so please leave comments if you have more questions, if you have a good suggestion and also to help answer other people's questions.

(1) Valrhona Chocolate and Cocoa Powder

Baking/cooking chocolate is sold in slabs or small pieces called faves. You can get these in varying percentages of chocolate (54% to about 92%) and in white, milk or dark chocolates. For Valrhona chocolate or cocoa powder, you can find it at Shermay's Cooking School (Jalan Merah Saga, Chip Bee Gardens at Holland Village, Tel: 64798442), Sun Lik (33 Seah Street, Tel: 63380980), ET Artisan Sweets (32 Holland Grove Road Henry Park) and Bake-It-Yourself (182 Bukit Timah Road, near Newton Circus, Tel: 6100 2253 http://www.b-i-y.com/).

If you want to try Michael Cluizel chocolates, which is not Valrhona but another lovely brand of quality chocolates, go to Culina (617 Bukit Timah Plaza, next to Coronation Plaza, Tel: 6468 5255 or 21 Orchard Boulevard, #01-23 Parkhouse, Tel: 6735 9958). Culina has great chocolate but does not have cocoa powder.

For more gourmet baking supplies like paillete feuilletine I would go to Shermays, for more generic baking supplies, I would go to Sun Lik and Phoon Huat (many locations around Singapore), these two are the most comprehensive baking supplies shops and between the two, Sun Lik has better quality. Phoon Huat is a dedicated baking store but they carry their house-brand, called Red Man, which produces fairly low quality product (for example, flour/almonds are not evenly ground, icing sugar contains starch, pineapple jam is thick with gluten).

(2) Vanilla Beans and Poppy Seeds

Vanilla beans are terribly expensive but I found a great site, www.beanilla.com where you can order 10 pods for $14 or in bulk, 1/2 a pound (probably about 50 pods) for $28. Extremely cheap, given the mileage that you get out of each bean, they deliver internationally and very good quality, vacumn-sealed product which I've tried personally before.

What do you use them for? Vanilla beans are like the holy grail of baking, everything tastes better with fresh vanilla. Slice them open, scrape out the fragrant little seeds and use them in place of vanilla extract for cakes, ice cream, cream stuffing, it really perks up the taste and richness of your food, even while keeping the health quotient there. You can also store them in your sugar jar, before using them, to perfume it or you can be very extravagant, as this friend of mine was and use them as stirrers for your coffee!

Poppy seeds are banned in Singapore, even though they can't really be smoked. However, they are available just across the causeway in Malaysia and in Australia in any reputable baking store or in cake mixes.

(3) Dessicated Coconut

There are two kinds of dessicated coconut, there is the dried powdery variety and the slightly wetter coconut curls that is used for topping cupcakes/cakes. The dried kind is easy, any supermarket or Chinese provision store will have them. The wet kind is very difficult to find, so far, I have located them at Cold Storage (occasionally), Jasons (more often than Cold Storage) at Orchard Towers and Bunalun (43 Jalan Merah Saga Tel:64720870 or http://www.bunalun.com.sg/pureinflavour/)

(4) Cranberries/Raisins

We don't have very much choice, the commercial one are Ocean Spray, Sunmaid, Del Monte and I generally find them all the same. I like to buy the freshly packaged ones in the fruit section of the grocery store, rather than the baking ailse section. However, the best mecca I know for all types of currants, dried fruit and nuts is the Chinese dried goods store at Hong Kong Street. They have a wall of tubs of dried fruit, very comprehensive and inexpensive. They also sell all these usual Chinese New Year Pen Cai stuff like dried mushroom, chinese sausage, lotus leaves, fish maw etc. I believe it's 17 or 33 Hong Kong street but there are a few in a row so you can't miss it.

(5) Fresh Herbs

The best place to go is actually Culina or Tekka Market. The reason I would go to Culina is that unlike grocery supermarkets, Culina sells their herbs by weight, so you can mix and match different types of herbs in the quantity that you need. I seldom finish using a pack of specific herbs from NTUC or Cold Storage and I don't want to buy so many packs of different herbs, so this is a more efficient option for me. I also feel that their herbs are more fresh though that sometimes means that not all herbs are available. Again, the upside is that you get to pick your own herbs so if there are brown bits, you strip it off and you don't to pay for the unusable parts. Tekka Wet Market has a couple of stores (the vegetable one with the hawker who plays contemporary rock music very loudly is particularly good) which carry western and thai herbs. These are really cheap and good, if they are in stock.

(6) Unsalted Butter

Does it make a difference- yes, it does. If you make the same cookie recipe with salted and unsalted butter, it does come out tasting different, take my word for it. That being said, the unsalted is better for you but most people will not know the difference. The difference is more obvious the lighter the dessert is, so in cakes, in creams, in icing, it's going to make a bigger difference than in brownies or criossants.

It is definitely more healthy to cook with unsalted butter and there is a purer taste to some of the more expensive brands like President or Elle and Vire butter or creams which are sold at ET Artisan Sweets, Shermays or Sun Lik but I would save those either for a special occasion or a treat, as they are more expensive. If you are using salted butter, then omit any other addition of salt that's listed in the recipe.

(7) Cookie Cutters and shaped Cake Tins

Sadly, the selection of cookie cutters in Singapore is quite abysmal. The two places I can suggest are Shermay's Cooking School and Bake It Yourself. If you want a wider selection, I would suggest buying them online on websites that will ship to Singapore. Try http://cookiecutter.com/ or http://www.thecookiecuttershop.com/ . I got a great money-saving suggestion about baking, apparently you can rent decorated, or shaped cake tins, for kid's birthday parties, from Bake-It-Yourself (182 Bukit Timah Road, near Newton Circus, Tel: 6100 2253 http://www.b-i-y.com/).

(8) Wheatgrass

Fresh wheatgrass is found at Meida-Ya supermarket in Liang Court. It is sometimes found at Culina's retail locations and sometimes also at Cold Storage or NTUC Finest. Usually, you have to buy a tray of wheatgrass which can be quite expensive.There is a local/Malaysian farm that is experimenting with selling smaller bags of wheatgrass, which is the type that's found in Cold Storage and NTUC Finest.

(9) Duck Fat

While this is starting to show up in Cold Storage and NTUC Finest, it comes tinned at Culina's retail locations, where you can choose between duck and goose fat.

(10) Good meat

Singapore is sprouting butcheries, every time I look around, there's a new one vying for business. The three top butcheries, in descending order of size and variety of product, are Swiss Butchery ( 30/32 Greenwood Avenue Tel: 64687588 or http://www.swiss-butchery.com.sg/index.html), Huber's Butchery (122 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Tel: 64650122 or Level 1, 56 Tanglin Road, Friven & Co, Tel: 67371588, or explore http://hubersbutchery.com/), or Meat the Butcher (615 Bukit Timah Road, next to Coronation Plaza http://www.meatthebutcher.com.sg/).

Alternatively, you can go straight to the wholesalers if you want to purchase a large quantity of meat. There are three main meat distributors in Singapore, QB Meat (8 Chin Bee Crescent, Jurong Tel: 62616120) and its next-door neighbour Best Foods (which has better service nad individual vauum wraps for meats), Indoguna (located at 36 Senoko Drive, Tel: 67550330, explore their online retail website www.greengrocer.com.sg/ ) or Culina (24 Senoko Way, Tel: 6753 6966) . These places will suit you if you are buying for a dinner party, festive family gathering or to stock up the freezer and you will probably get much better prices and cuts.

For smaller quantities of meat, the freshness of supermarket meats is determined by the speed of the turnover, so I tend to find that the best meats are at specific grocery stores that have a high expat neighbourhood population. Of late, I've found that the meat counters at Cold Storage have actually improved tremendously and the meat counters at NTUC Finest, which are now supplied by Culina, are very good though a little pricey. I buy bulk packaged or canned items from Giant, Carrefour or Sheng Siong because it's much cheaper but I would not buy fresh meats there because the turnover is not very high and as a business, the hypermarts don't focus on high-margin items.

Duck is extremely hard to find in Singapore. There are usually limited cuts at the supermarket, so you can either go to a wet market for fresh local duck, try one of the butchers (again, selection might be limited) or get canned duck legs from Culina's retail locations.

For fresh fish and seafood, I would just go to a wetmarket like Tekka Food Market or Tiong Bahru Food Market, I don't really know anyone who buys fish US-style from a supermarket and definitely not mussels or shellfish. For a western variety of fish and smoked salmon, go to Fassler Gourmet Wholesaler (Woodlands Terrace, explore http://www.fassler.info/), for fish and seafood like Boston lobsters, Alaskan kind crab and Pacific oysters, go to Allswell Marketing Live Seafood Market (670 Geylang Road, corner of Lorong 42, Tel: 61004500) and for an even bigger variety, you can go to Jurong Fishery Port but you have to get there at 3-5am. Check out http://cookbakelegacy.blogspot.com/2008/09/jurong-fishery-port.html if you have nothing to do this weekend.

(11) Sea Salt

Sea salt is obtained by the evaporation of seawater and its mineral content gives it a different, less sharp taste than table salt, which is pure sodium chloride. It's thought to be better for health because unlike table salt, it is not refined with the addition of iodine. Areas that produce specialized sea salt are beach areas- Caymen Islands, Greece, France, Ireland, Essex in the UK, Hawaii, San Francisco Bay and Cape Cod in the US.

Sea salt is available in Singapore in most gourmet or organic food stores, like Culina. You can pick and choose from all the atas packaging- if you intend to use it regularly though, I would suggest a reasonably-priced, supermarket brand of sea salt, called Maldon (comes in a green packaging). This is pretty commonly available at Cold Storage and also NTUC Finest.

You can use sea salt in place of table salt all the time. In recipes that specifically call for sea salt like salted caramel (which needs a rounded, less metallic saltiness), I would definitely use sea salt. Fleur de sel (Flower of salt) is a specific kind of sea salt hand- harvested off the cost of Brittany, in Guerande, Noirmoutier and Camargue. It tends to have larger crystals than regular sea salt, or table salt.

(12) Packaging for baked goods

Again an area that Singapore is woefully short of. You can check Phoon Huat for plastic boxes or Daiso for cardboard packaging and ribbons. If it's just ribbons you are after, then you can go to Arab Street or Hong Kong street where there are textile and ribbon merchants. Alternatively, go online to Martha Stewart.com or Williams Sonoma and look under craft/food packaging when they are on sale.

You can also check out packaging websites, like http://packagingplace.com.au/ or http://www.papermart.com/ . Shermay's Cooking School has Martha Stewart crafts packaging for sale but at a huge premium, I think you save 50% at least by buying it directly from the US. You can also look into inexpensive stickers and experiment with printing your own from local shops like http://www.artpaper.com.sg/ , http://www.aceproclink.com or http://www.aceprinting.net/ .

Miscellaneous Food: Mycofarm Mushrooms

My workplace placed a wholesale bulk order with Mycofarm Mushrooms, a local gourmet mushroom farm at 9 Seletar West Farmway. Mycofarm was the brainchild of Dr K. K. Tan, CEO and founder of MycoBiotech Inc. Dr. Tan who used to work at the NUS's biochemistry department, began cultivating mushrooms for commercial sale 25 years ago. The company, Everbloom, was renamed Mycofarm sometime in 2006.

Singapore's only specialist mushroom grower is dedicated to producing quality, fresh, natural and chemical-free mushrooms for consumers and their products include Japanese Oyster Hiratake, Willow, Forest Oyster, White Oyster, Emperor Shitake, Royal Abalone and many others.


You can take a tour (great for kids) and see how mushrooms are grown, harvested and packed. Shiitake for example, grows on oak logs in the wild, hence its name "Shii" (oak tree) "take" (mushroom). In the farm, Shiitake mushrooms are grown in plastic-bag logs filled with wood substrate. The shiitake mushroom has an incubation period of nearly 100 days, while other varieties take between four and six weeks.

Mycofarm's produce is sold at supermarkets like Sheng Siong and NTUC Fairprice but also at many established eateries like Wild Rocket and Buko Nero and their website
here provides heaps of growing information, like their incubation periods, recipes, nutritional content and more.

For $40 I got a giant styrofoam cooler worth of mushrooms! The giant king oyster mushrooms I would use on a Japanese charcoal grill and the white Enoki mushrooms went into a breakfast-fry. Yesterday though, D. hosted a birthday brunch and I had a brainwave to revive an old favourite recipe.


We sauteed a little oil, garlic and one onion together, then added a heap of mushrooms and at the last minute, chopped cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, basil chiffonade and crumbled goat's cheese. The trick is not to saute the mushrooms for long. You want them to be slippery, but not wet and definitely not soggy. It would be better to err on the side of firm, really, because the mushrooms will still have a lot of taste and will continue to cook, in the heat of the onions.

If you have a pool of water at the bottom of the pan (which you won't if you didn't saute the mushrooms till they went sweaty and soggy), drain the mixture.

Place some store bought vol-au-vent casings on a pan. It was just too early in the morning to mess about with home-made flaky pastry but you can certainly do so. Bake them at a high heat, then remove them from the oven and lever out the little center pieces so you get a depression in the pie. Save those little cap pieces to top your pies.

Spoon mushrooms into the casings, replace the little caps and serve while hot. At home, we also do a more substantial version of a chicken and mushroom pie, by adding diced pieces of chicken, carrot, onion, celery and two large scoops of sticky cream of mushroom canned soup to the mushroom mix. This would make a much heavier, creamier pie filling but just as good with flaky pastry.

Miscellaneous Food: Hong Kong - a 3-Day Itinerary

I am always asked about HK itenaries and I prepared this one for some colleagues, so I thought I'd post it here as well. This is an extremely biased 3 day itenary based on what I would do, eat and see. Enjoy!

HK: Day 1
Arrive in HK and take the high-speed Airport express into HK Island, since I use the MTR extensively, I always find it worthwhile to buy a stored value Octopus card bundled together with my Airport express train ticket. For shopping and eating purposes, I find it easier to stay on HK Island as it more compact and accessible. Some of the lovely hotels in HK are the imitable Four Seasons, with it's beautiful bouquets of lily and gardenias and tastefully large rooms, the hip Hotel LKF by Rhombus and the boutique JIA hotel, designed by Philippe Stark.

For the more cost-concious, there are good deals to be had in HK, such as the Hotel Lan Kwai Fong (not to be confused with the former), a tiny but newly and keenly-decorated hotel at the brilliantly central Wellington Street. Double rooms used to be available here for as low as $120SGD a night but after they won the best boutique hotel in Asia award, I'm sure they've gone up. There are other good rates to be had in Central, namely at Jen Hotel (www.hoteljen.com) $140SGD at Queen's Road West and the Ramada Hong Kong $130SGD at Des Veoux Road but other cheaper budget options to check out would be the L Hotel in Tin Hau, which is nearer to the city than similarly cheap hotels in Cyberport.

After checking into the hotel, spend the day eating and shopping at Central. Almost the entire of Central, in a tribute to the MTR's extensive access, is connected by underground or inter-building passages. Start your browsing at IFC where the quality of shops and gourmet produce at City Super definitely trumps anything we have in Singapore. Walk to Landmark to ogle at items you can't buy- check out the Valextra store, the Miu Miu store, the Aveda store, the NARS boutique and the DVF boutique, all carrying lines largely unavailable in Singapore.

Walk out onto Pedder Street and visit the Club Monaco flagship, the Bathing Ape flagship and the On Pedder flagship, all pretty much in a row, walking your your way toward D'Aguilar street. If you are lucky enough to come during sale season, the sales in HK go down to 80% off regularly, unlike the 15% that Singapore's retail seems to understand as a 'sale'.

As you approach D'Aguilar/Pedder/LiYuen Street entrances of the Central MTR, this is where the real shopping begins. Next to Shanghai Tang, you will find an opening for Pedder Building, a 7 story mecca of warehouse and outlet merchandise. Ignore the security guard and take one of the lifts to the 1st floor, where you will find a store that sells Armani suits with their tags cut- these retail for $200SGD and they are some of the best suits you can buy, soft yet supple and perfect for Asian women. They also sell ad-hoc jacket tops, pants and skirts for as low as 99HKD/20SGD. On their racks you will also find, if you have sharp eyes because all the tags will have been cut, some luxe dresses- my friends have picked up Missoni, DVF and Catherine Maledrino dresses here for $100SGD. Other stores on this level sell cashmere cardigans, on level 2, there are stores that sell Banana Republic merchandise, then on the level 3 there is Pantry Magic and Bumps to Babes children's merchandise. On some of the higher levels, there are two jackpots- a two-storey shop that is packed full of BCBG/Hugo Boss/Chloe dresses for $100SGD and another more expensive store that a beautiful collection of branded outfits, curiously arranged by colour!

Exiting the building, stop at the back of Shanghai Tang to appreciate their cheongsum tailors at work. These are where some of the most expensive and innovative cheong sums in HK are made and you can run your hand over the bolts of heavily embroidered lace, tulle and chiffon, awaiting their wedding turn.

From here you have two options, walk up the hill to Wellington Street and you will be at Yung Kee in time for a roast goose lunch and Kee Wah Bakery is right next door to buy Cantonese biscuit snacks and gifts. Or walk down the hill to Queen Street, where you will come to the giant 3 storey H&M. If you walk up to Wellington, try to do so along the cross-streets of Li Yuen East or one of the sharply-pitched streets, where I am always amused by the tourists groaning their way up the cobblestone, the Halloween stalls lining the road catering to expat LKF madness and the little tailor shacks which retail the most innovative cheongsum buttons, lace, chinese fans, tassles and trinkets.

Along Wellington Street, stop in for a bowl of wanton noodles and dumplings as big as your palm at Tsim Chai Kee, for HKD15. It is opposite Mak's Noodles but please don't get cheated there, the quality is much superior at Tsim Chai Kee. Opposite the store, there is a shack with good fresh orange juice and another one with interesting bead necklaces. Continue down Wellington Street and at the base of Cochrane Street, make an appointment with Happy Foot Massage. They are regularly called to the Peak by the who's who of HK society, so they are really good and after a hard day, you will need a good acupressure massage (about SGD$50 for an hour, tip $20HKD).

From here, you can go up Cochrane Street where there are two good food stalls, one on the right, hidden by the trolley shacks, selling the most incredible HK milk tea and XTC gelato for the best scoop in HK (try their vanilla bean which is chock-full of fresh Madagascan specks). You can also continue up Lyndhurst Terrace to Chris Patten's egg tarts, stand on the corner and burn your lips on these still wobbly custards.

After snacking, walk to the top of Lyndhurst Terrace and visit the creative GOD homeware/clothing store that specialises in HK-savvy products. Then turn right and walk along Hollywood Street visiting all the comtemporary and modern Chinese art and antique galleries as you go. I have spent an entire afternoon here and thank God they are so expensive that it is impossible to do any damage. Along Hollywood Street, you will eventually come to Expat Centrale where you will find the achingly laid-back cafes (not pubs, mind you, pubs are in Wanchai) and eateries of the Press Room (similar to our PS Cafe but food is better), Wagyu (set up by a bunch of Australians, good to know they are colonising HK as much as Singapore) and Mint.

If you really want to, ride the Escalator (I find this a giant waste of time but different strokes for different folks!) and peer into people's apartments or continue into Sheung Wan to the Western Market area (a quaint little colonial Dutch house cum textile market) and go to Honeymoon Desserts for some of the best local cold-fruit-and-hot-bean desserts

Start back to the hotel to put down your shopping, wash up and dress for dinner. Being the first day, there might be excitement enough to go out big for the night and there's no place for fancy like Hong Kong.

Some of the posh eateries to consider would definitely be Nobu at the Intercontinental in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST- forget about the crappy and hardly visible laser light show but take time to walk out onto the groyne at the TST pier, especially if the waves are dark and stormy), Hutong at One Peking Road in TST, or if you're not keen to go far, M on the Fringe in Central is a cosy little gem of a restaurant at the top of a squat brick tower. There are many, so many other posh places in HK, after all every high-end culinary name is represented there. To be honest, for most part it's a feast for the eyes and a no-go on the wallet I'm afraid. In terms of food, you are best placed at Nobu or M on the Fringe but I will say that Hutong has the most beautiful and evocative restaurant decor. Remember though, never never take a car across from HK Island to TST unless it's the middle of the night, the train ride is 10 minutes underwater, a taxi stuck on the bridge can take an hour.

After dinner, head to the Lan Kwai Fong bar street for drinks at FINDS and clubbing afterward- the proximity allows you to hit up as many as 5 clubs in a night, including Drop, Prive and the iconic Dragon-i where you might come face to face with many celebrities or Zhang Ziyi in her pre-Vivo days. A lot of the young HK expats will hit the clubs several nights a week so chances are you will probably find what you're looking for. If you are too old, like me, then you could try a drink-with-a-view at Felix at the princey Peninsula, Zuma, the Silk Road-esque Water Margin or my personal favourite, Feather Boa, a little tucked-away bar in Soho, decorated to look like a Victorean lounge. Part camp, part bordello and with a seriously watchable crowd, it serves the most delectable chocolate martinis and strawberry daiquiries.

It sounds like a lot but look at it this way, you can do all of that today and never have stepped food outside a 3km sq area if you choose the dinner retaurant in Central. Welcome to HK!

Shanghai Tang
12 Pedder Street
Pedder Building, Central
Mon-Sun 11am-7pm

Tsim Chai Kee
98 Wellington Street
G/F Jade Centre, Central
9am to 8pm daily

Happy Foot Massage (chain)
11/F Jade Centre
98-102 Wellington St, Central
Opened till 12 midnight daily

XTC Gelato (chain)
G/F, Shop B, 45 Cochrane Street, Soho
www.xtc.com.hk

Chris Patten's Egg Tarts/Tai Cheung Bakery
32 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central

The Press Room
108 Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: 852 2525 3444
www.thepressroom.com.hk

M on the Fringe
2 Lower Albert Road, Central

Honeymoon Dessert (chain)
Store 4-8, G/F Western Market, Sheung Wan

Feather Boa
38 Staunton Street, Soho


HK: Day 2
If you wake up early and not confused and hungover (the more realistic HK experience actually, I think), one of my favourite things to do in the morning is take the touristy tram up to the Peak, enjoy the misty view in the relative quiet of the early morning and then run back down to get some exercise and the nighttime excesses out of your system.

My local friends generally look at me like I'm mad when I say things like that (and no, I don't karoke so don't expect those kind of tips from me) but downhill, it's not that tough a run.

When you are through with the morning ritual, head to Admiralty and take a look around the Pacific Place complex or skip it completely for two shops.

The first, from the MTR's exit A is at Admiralty Center Tower 1 and is a customized shoe shop. There are two stores on the 1st floor, a cheaper one called Edwina and a more expensive one known as Lili or Alan Chan.

Wall to wall of Christian Louboutin-like red soles and beautiful stiching, exotic skins, buttery soft calf leathers in every colour of the rainbow- even if you are not intending to purchase anything, it's quite a sight. The shoe makers here will take an imprint of your foot and I would suggest, if you have the restraint, that you don't get shoes here becuase after a customized shoe that only fits your foot, every other shoe you own will feel uncomfortable!

The other shops in this complex are also interesting, it has a bit of a reputation of being a discount complex, so many stores offer merchandise that you see island-wide but here, they are on a particularly hefty discount.

The second store is at Exit B of the Admiralty MTR, in Far East Corporation building, on the 9th floor. This is a store called Acetex, but it is in an office space. Acetax is one of the distributors for Max Mara, Chloe, Stella McCartney, Prada, Bottega and a number of other high-end labels (unlike in Singapore and say, Club 21, European brand owners hardly ever grant exclusive licenses to distributors in HK, this explains why there is more competition and also more of these random distributor wholesale spots) and this office is the space where they pull together a lot of collections at a deep retail discount. The prices are not as low as in the true outlets but the trade-off is that the collections are complete and edited so you're not sifting through any junk.

Today is local food day and the best food is available in the seedy underbelly of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. The best dim sum is probably found at the Peninsula Hotel, Maxims at the pier and Che's Kitchen in Wan Chai.

After lunch, take a cab from Wan Chai to Ap Lei Chau (WanChai is the nearest place on the island to take a cab there) to spend the afternoon at the outlet stores. There are two places in Ap Lei Chau, one is the famed Space/Prada Outlet, which is a lovely suited up showcase of discounted Prada/Miu Miu/Jil Sander merchandise and the second is the South Horizons Building at Yi Nam Street, which is a 27-storey mecca of warehouse outlets.

I think the building is taller than that but it's irrelevant because 27th floor is Max Mara, 25th is Lane Crawford and 21st is Joyce Warehouse. (Something like that, my memory fails me) Go to Blumarine at 22nd floor because they have new Armani and a Moschino outlet that also has collection of Jimmy Choo shoes for $200SGD.

If you have time, check out the home furnishing and furniture stores that populate the rest of the floors, the Italian wholesale produce/food store on the I believe, 9th floor and the Early Learning Center kid's toys outlet, as well as the baby emporium on the 21st floor.

That should keep you busy up to dinnertime, though note that these complexes are not open on Monday and close at 7pm at night on other days.

Take a cab back to the hotel (beware of traffic stuck at the Aberdeen tunnel should you choose try to get back to HK Island at peak hour) and choose between local food and Japanese food for dinner.

For local food, my favourite Cantonese restaurants are still Yung Kee, the China Club (very different from ours) or Futong Cantonese Restaurant in Wan Chai, which has the most kick-ass Cantonese style food, their soups, stir fried fish and crab roe and braised yellow chicken stuffed with glutinous rice and mushrooms were truly excellent.

For Japanese food, which, in HK is some of the best in Asia, my two favourite places are the hidden, unknown and very affordable Etsu in Tin Hau or the counter of Sushi Immamura in Causeway Bay, which has the quintessential chef-diner atmosphere and some of the most innovative Japanese sushi I've had for a long while.

After dinner, walk around the local shops at Causeway Bay, which really comes to life and bustle in the night, when the pedestrain-only streets are shut off. There are lots of bargains on the street-front shops but also a lot of local brands, like Joy & Peace, Mirabell, Staccato, IT, Izzue, Massina, Zucca. Along Causeway Bay to Paterson Street, there is the giant Sogo, the Island Beverly (which is like Far East Plaza here for local young HK designers), the Fashion Island and Delay No Mall.

The reason I would come to Causeway Bay after outlet shopping is that you will probably realize that the outlets on sale are cheaper than the local shopping not on sale but you may find the taste and trendiness of this stretch irresistable as well!

There is nothing like supper in Hong Kong and my favourite place is Yee Shun Milk Company for double-steamed-skin milk. That sounds quite horrible but the actual product is the most heavenly thing on earth, sweet, soft, cool and refreshing, reminscent of cold milk but a much cleaner, smoother taste. These come in cold, hot or ginger varieties and you can also order the steamed egg (not as heavenly, in my opinion) and the mango or papaya milkshakes. There are many outlets but a good one is in Causeway Bay just outside exit C of the MTR, on Hennesey and Patterson Road.

My brother, more of a street junkie than I, in his time in HK did an exhaustive survey while eating a horrifying amount of his favourite beef brisket noodles, which you can find by searching his old posts in the blog.


HK: Day 3
In the morning, take a hike on Dragon's Back in Shek O country park, so named because the humps of the mountains resemble the scales on a dragon. One of my most treasured gifts from a HK friend is on all the hiking trails in HK, there are so many and they are so beautiful, often winding round the fishing villages or the green Chinese-style mountains.

One of the big benefits of going in winter, is not just that the food tastes better but that the best hiking weather is during this season, which gives you a great chance to explore some of the islands that surround the HK city. It may sound paradoxical that in a city full of eating and shopping, hiking is actually one of my favourite reasons to be in HK.

So far, I've done some mountain hikes, a beach hike across Repulse Bay and a fishing village in Saikung. Do some research and choose one that is suited for your health and fitness and don't forget to bring a cap and water!

For those who aren't interested, other things you could do would be to go to Kowloon and visit the Bird Market and the Flower Market, especially in the mornings. You can take a stroll to see the Jade Market in Kowloon as well. For those with children, you could go to Ocean Park or Disneyland and spend the day there (get ready to elbow rude Chinese children out of line!). For those who have more shopping and some er...counterfeit ambitions, you can take the KCR train and alight at Shenzhen's Luohu station.

If you do go up to TST, there is a wonderful local dim sum place on Canton Road called Happy Garden, which is virtually next door to Sweet Dynasty (88 Canton Road), which is where you can get your fill of HK desserts.

One hidden place in TST is on 17 Carnervon Road, called Excellent Tailor/Fabrics, it's a little store selling bolts of discontinued or retro cloth. When I first went to this place, I almost died, they sold silk scarf cloth that had been woven in Hong Kong (the textile industry in HK has been non-existent for at least 30 year years) and they had flawless reams of rare geometric and chinese prints.

I would use Day 3 to eat at the restaurants that I didn't get to the first two days or visit a local 'cha chan teng' for lunch snacks like thick coconut-spread bread or crispy HK noodles. If you can't, squeeze in the massage that you booked on one of the nights then perhaps after the hike would be a good option.

The last flight to Singapore out of HK departs at 6.30pm and before you leave, you could swing by Yung Kee or the Cafe de Coral at the Airport Terminal to pick up some roast duck rice and milk tea for dinner.