Vignettes of the World
The adventurous lunch of the day was at a convenience store. I have long heard that the convenience stores of Japan serve up wonderful egg salad sando’s. And it certainly lived up to its good name. From the 7-Eleven, going on Matsubara-dori, was a gentle …
Along the busy Queen’s Road Central stands a market that has a long history serving the daily needs of Central residents since the beginning of Hong Kong as a British colony. First opened in 1842, the year after the British formally began their colonial administration …
The day was bright and perfect for al fresco dining. I joined my family in a casual lunch at the Beas River Country Club of the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Sheung Shui. I lived close, so I walked about 40 minutes to arrive at the Old Clubhouse Restaurant and Bar.
I was keen to see the most significant heritage at the Beas River Country Club, which was the gateway into Jockey Club’s countryside clubhouse. Known as the Jardine Gate, this structure “originally stood at the entrance to Jardine’s Stables in Leighton Hill Road and were later moved to the company godowns in East Point (now Causeway Bay). They were donated to the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club by Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd when the godowns were demolished in 1972.” (Descriptions on site)
Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd held a large swathe of land in the now-Causeway Bay Area during the early 20th century. The Jardine Gate stood once at the entrance to the grand houses owned by Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd, intended as the Jardine tycoon’s residence, in East Point Hill. Eventually, Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd. sold some of its land holding in Causeway Bay to the Lee Hysan family in 1925. As a result of Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd.’s land dealings the gate stood at three different locations before being stored at Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd.’s godowns.
It is said that the granite gate is built in a typical English country house style, with arched entrance way and a corresponding arched top. All of the three entrances are fitted with metal gates now.
Built in the 1920s, the Old Clubhouse Restaurant and Bar at the Beas River Country Club is a chalet featuring beautiful stone stucco walls as its exterior and classic colonial setting for its dining space. It was certainly a world of its own being located in the furthest north of Hong Kong’s countryside in Sheung Shui.
Inside the Old Clubhouse, I saw beautiful, festive adornments for LEVADE, which is also the name of its chalet accommodation. The clubhouse was brimming with Christmas vibes as a world of its own. It is little wonder why the Beas River Country Club is a prime location of choice for wedding celebrations and special occasions.
We had lunch al fresco at the restaurant. The menu features an incredible variety of cuisines, from Korean to Japanese, from good ole American steak to Hong Kong classics such as baked pork chop rice. The day was blessed with generous apricity.
The Beas River Country Club of Jockey Club requires membership for using its facilities. Besides two dining establishments, there is also a host of other facilities such as spa, swimming pool, gym, golf, tennis and table tennis courts, etc.
Descriptions on site at the Beas River Country Club of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
The Website of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
When I woke up on my first full day in Japan, I decided to ditch the Osaka Castle and head right on to Kyoto. I took the JR line to Kyoto from the Osaka Station, having to navigate the morning’s rush hour, and arrived in …
Historic Sites to Visit in Central A walk amidst the hustle and bustle of Central during a weekday rush hour can be a bewildering experience. As Hong Kong’s business district, Central is the heart of the matter when it concerns business. But visitors to Hong …
The plane touched down at Kansai Airport and I looked for the train ride to Osaka. The plan, originally, was to stay that evening in a hotel in Osaka, then the next morning I would see Osaka Castle before heading out to Kyoto.
I saw a ticketing station when I just came out of the airport. The ticketing booths sold JR tickets, and naturally I bought a JR ticket, although there would have been (slower but cheaper) trains on the Kansai Airport Rapid trains (Nankai Rapids) to Osaka, for which I could have paid with the Suica Card.
As it turned out, I purchased the ticket for the Limited Express Haruka train, which presented Hello Kitty, Japan’s sweet ambassador. This boded well for my trip. It brought up pleasant childhood memories seeing the most enduring icon of Sanrio. Hello Kitty was my very first encounter with Japanese culture, and it brought forth a fuzzy sweetness.
It took maybe about an hour for me to reach Osaka station. It was well into the night when I arrived, so I could not quite see what Osaka was like outside.
Inside the metro, however, I saw an urban scene that was very familiar. It appeared that a lot of commuters were going home. Tickets in, tickets out, people hurried through the station minding their own business. It could have been anywhere in the world, really, that the motions of life take its pre-programmed course, automated in a foot traffic that runs a mindless rhythm until one reaches his destination. No one paid attention to anything, perhaps not even to himself.
Serving a population of 2.75 million in Osaka, the Osaka Metro is the integral part of the extensive mass transit railway system of Greater Osaka. This network of metro transit system reaches eastward to Kyoto and extends westward to Kobe, consisting of more than 1,000 stations. I noticed that some stations seemed slightly tired. Indeed, the Midosuji Line that runs through Umeda Station began its service in 1933, the second oldest metro line in Japan.
I then made it to a mall at Umeda to have the very first Japanese meal in Japan in my life. I opted for grilled beef bento at Romantei Lucua at the Umeda Station, and, while it was not too bad, I was a little disappointed.
“Once you have had Japanese food in Japan, you would never want any Japanese food outside of Japan,” so I was told by numerous friends. Good food is expected at even the most unlikely, humblest of all places, such as the kombini’s (convenience stores), and at any kind of food court. This first grilled beef I had was not too bad, the quality of the meat was fair. The temperature was right, it was cooked to medium rare, and there was marble on the beef. But something was missing, namely, basic flavor. It tasted bland at the first bite. I added a whole lot of furikake powder, dipped it in the sauces, and it tasted better.
Well, as it turned out, the food I had in my first trip in Japan was the only, and single most, disappointing experience. Even at that first dinner in Osaka, I figured that I was simply too accustomed to the Japanese food that was adapted to local preferences, and that was why I always loved having Japanese food wherever I lived. There will be more on Japanese food on a later entry.
The hotel of the evening was the Hotel Keihan Tenmabashi in Tenmabashi. I booked this hotel because it was within walking distance of the Osaka Castle. The hotel room was clean and petite with a whole lot of free toiletries for guests to take freely.
I was so excited at my first night in Japan that I could not fall asleep. When I used to tell my Hong Kong friends that I had never been to Japan previously, they looked at me with disbelief. In 2023, the Japanese Yen was at its historic low and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to see it, finally.
Osaka was good to me. I had no trouble understanding how the metro worked and people were courteous. They did also understand my English as well. I already knew that I would have incredible memories in Kansai.
Ask just about any Hong Kong person and you would find answers to all things Japan. Japan is hands down the most popular travel destination for Hong Kong people. In fact, many in Hong Kong call it “going home” when they go to Japan. Clearly, …
Besides the Cha Chaan Teng’s, the Dai Pai Dong’s are also a way of dining that is distinctly Hong Kong. In recent months I have had the pleasure of visiting a few Dai Pai Dong’s in Hong Kong. I do consider the Dai Pai Dong’s …
The train to Shenzhen would depart in the early evening and I debated how to spend the day in Jiangmen. To be honest, there was not very much in this city that I wanted to see, as I was almost always only keen on heritage sightseeing. There were maybe a couple of fortresses here and there, but it would be prohibitively expensive for me to hire a car for a day to see them. One of them was a site of ideological education, and I thought it best to avoid it.
Close to the hotel at which we were staying was a museum with exhibitions on the history of overseas Chinese. I ruled that out as well because I thought the learning from the Kaiping diaolou’s has amply served the purpose. The Diaolou’s are a living history.
It then came upon me that I had not had a chance to have claypot rice. During the car ride with my driver in Kaiping, we talked about local food. A Chikan specialty, the claypot rice was highly recommended by Mr. Guan, my friendly driver. I then began searching for a few options in the area. On my wish list were claypot rice, fried fish cakes and dried mandarin peel coffee.
Zhaogongxiang Ji seemed popular in the food review circle. It would require quite a bit of walk to have the claypot rice and the fried fish cakes, but I had a whole day to kill, so off I went.
I arrived at a little after 2pm and was very nervous when the waitress told me that the chef had already left for the afternoon recess. It would have been exceedingly unfortunate if I did not get to try this claypot rice. And plus, I really did need food at that hour as well.
Somehow the manager told me to order quickly, and I did. Traditionally, Chinese people think of the Asian swamp eel (in Chinese, the yellow eel) to be very nutritious. I was eager to try that in a claypot rice.
It being a claypot specialist, the Zhaogongxiang Ji offers a menu that caters to a wide array of preferences for Chinese diners. Its menu options are quite different from the standard claypot rice restaurants in Hong Kong. Some offers are truly eye-catching to a Hong Kong diner: seabass, meatloaf with shrimp paste, meatloaf with crab, and even fusion claypots like salty eggs with beef and cheese or Thai style claypots.
My claypot came sizzling with mouthwatering aroma. The ritual is to pour some of the soy sauce over the food and close the lid for the soy sauce to seep through the rice. I like my food piping hot, so I dug in soon.
I thought this was Michelin star grade claypot. In any claypot, the rice is the very soul that defines the claypot. It is the most critical technique, the standard by which the quality of the claypot is appreciated.
The claypot rice of Zhaogongxiang Ji was dry, with each grain thoroughly-cooked but with no sogginess. This enables each grain to have a distinct texture within the palate, resulting in a chewiness. This alone is an achievement.
What amazed me further was the fact that the crispy bottom had not one burnt grain of rice. Now, that is new to me. In Hong Kong, the rice is usually a bit burned in the bottom of the claypot, which indicates that the bottom layer of the rice has crisped up. I spooned a whole sheet of crisped up rice without it being stuck to the bottom of the claypot because of its being burnt.
In any authentic claypot rice, the rice is added raw to the claypot. As such, the claypot serves as the rice cooker on an open fire stove. That is how the rice crisps up at the bottom. In this kind of cooking, timing is the very key that makes or breaks a claypot rice. The manager told me that the chef never fails in his timing, and that is how the rice turns up crispy with not a grain of it burnt.
The Asian swamp eel was a perfect combination in this claypot rice. The eel had a natural sliminess. When it is well-seasoned and placed atop the rice, its flavors are fused with the rice beneath. The natural sliminess became a smooth sensation when eaten with the rice, as if you can slurp it.
I highly recommend this claypot rice restaurant in Jiangmen.
It took me 30 minutes to walk to Zhaogongxiang Ji, and then another hour of walk to get to this very local shop for fish cakes.
There was not very much to see as I walked through a quieter part of Jiangmen City. It was a boring urban landscape, and I managed to find no cafe on the way that offered chenpi (dried mandarin peel) coeffe. The clouds were gathering. I pushed on because I really wanted to try the fried fish cakes, as a popular local food in Jiangmen.
There was a line at this small shop already when I arrived. I had a nice chat with the locals there, as it was clear to everybody that I was a tourist. Batches of fish cakes were being fried. I ordered a few and really enjoyed them as they were piping hot, bouncing in my mouth.
I figured that I had better get back to the hotel soon, it was a long walk to get to this part of the city. As heavy rain befell me, I decided that I must take public transportation. This was a good conclusion to my trip in Kaiping and Jiangmen.
I have a very favorable impression of Jiangmen due to a personal memory of my grandma. When WWII began, resources were scarce. She would take her mother’s Qing dynasty clothes to the merchants of Jiangmen in exchange for money. “One piece of my mother’s Qing …