Dim sum and a piece of sad news

As I was drafting another entry about my weekend in Hong Kong, I received a piece of sad news that a friend and her husband passed away in the recent Hong Kong Ferry accident.

I knew Mani from my exchange days in the University of Leeds. She was on exchange at Leeds Metropolitan University and we got to know each other from the pub opposite the university. Leeds is a university town so the more famous pubs and clubs (with the cheapest booze) were a common place for legions of students from different schools to gather.

I met up with the bunch from Leeds when I was in Hong Kong but Mani was not there because she was busy with her wedding preparations. During lunch, we pulled out our phones and checked her FaceBook page to look for her wedding pictures and chatted fondly of our time in Leeds.

Shortly after returning to Singapore, the girls told me about her demise. I am still in shock and my heart goes out to her family and friends. Rest in peace my dear Mani, you will always be in our hearts and minds.

You know how some people have their favourite places in the world, other than the place they call home? Well (quite obviously), Hong Kong is one of mine. The food is good, shopping is cheaper than back in Singapore, the shops open till late, and some of my friends are there.

Before my trip, I made plans to meet up with the girls from Leeds for dim sum at Tsim Sha Tsui (for the uninitiated, dim sum originated from the Cantonese and refers to Chinese food served in bite-sized portions). I was pleasantly surprised to see Dima there as well and learned that he just started working in Hong Kong and will be there for the next four years. Hong Kong seems to be the meeting place for my group from Leeds.

With the bunch from Leeds

On the topic of dim sum, I can never find a good place for that in Singapore that is comparable to any restaurant in Hong Kong! The prawns used are always large, bursty and fresh. So my travel companion and I had another round of dim sum at the Michelin star restaurant, Tim Ho Wan, just before boarding the Airport Express for our flight home. The cha siew bao (barbeque pork bun) was the best dish in my opinion, and this is saying a great deal because 1. I do not like pork and 2. I never eat cha siew baos back home. I was really glad that Tim Ho Wan opened at the Airport Express station! Two years ago, when I was in Hong Kong, the restaurant had only one outlet in Mong Kok and the queue was insane!

My travel companion and I at Tim Ho Wan

Oodles of noodles

My friend and I were whisked off to Hong Kong last weekend for four days of food and shopping. I love holidays with the girlfriends!

Of course, my first meal was wanton mee (prawn dumpling noodles) from Chee Kei. I love that shop! The noodles are chewy and (as the italians say) al dente, and the dumplings are bursting with the freshest prawns. Mmm just thinking about it makes me salivate!

Hong Kong will always have a special place in my heart as it is where my godmother and good friends from my exchange days stay.

How great is it to meet up with friends whom you have not met in years and still have that same sense of familiarity!

We also took time to head to Macau for a day trip and stumbled onto more great food. Unfortunately we decided to try our hands at the gambling table and lost! It was an eye opener though.

More about Hong Kong in another post as another busy weekend awaits me.

The Fantasy and Science Fiction course that I am taking on Coursera is coming to an end. I am going to miss it. On a happier note, I did really well for the essay that I wrote on Ray Bradbury and received great comments asking me to keep writing. It is great being good at what you enjoy!