Trip to Hong Kong Part 2- Food

Hi lovely people, how are you all coping with this freezing cold weather? This post will be part 2 of my Hong Kong trip. I know this is way overdue but better late than never right?

First, lets talk about my body and diet. Before my trip I changed my diet by cutting meat out totally and lost 3kg. Losing weight was not my intention however, I eliminated meat for health reasons and I am continuing eliminating meat from my diet as much as possible. I also mentioned that I will be pigging out everyday in Hong Kong. So what happened to my weight and body shape after?

I've put a photo of my abs below, before and after the holiday. I don't think I actually changed that much but I did put 3kg back on. Although I was eating all the time but I was walking literally every day from day till night.My daily routine was wake up, have breakfast, shopping/sightseeing (walking), lunch, shopping/ sight seeing (walking), dinner, late night shopping/sight seeing (walking). So I guess all that walking burnt majority of the food I ate and kept my metabolism going.

Did I have my usual nutritious breakfast? Yes, I did. I actually took sachets of baobab powder with me. Lol. I was going to bring seeds and nuts but I forgot. I still had my warm lemon water to start my day and then I had warm eggy porridge majority of the times and other times a bowl of mixed fruits. Blueberries in Hong Kong are super expensive compared to UK but I still bought them lol. I love my breakfast, it completes my day. Haha.

Warm porridge with baobab powder, blue berries and banana.

Warm porridge with baobab powder mixed in and topped with dragon fruit and a slice of cranberry wholemeal bread.

Bowl of blueberries, banana and dragon fruit

When I made my breakfast the first day my granddad's maid acted like my assistant while I was cooking lol. I said to her I want to make porridge and she gets a pot out for me and fills it with a bit of water. (I made porridge with water on the first day as my grandad doesn't drink milk) I started to cook it and then she asks me "Do you want to add an egg?" I was surprised she asked me that lol. I said yes and she goes to the fridge to grab one. I beat the egg into the pot and then she stretched her arm over for the egg shells. She threw them in the bin and then went to get me a spoon and a bowl and placed them next to the stove. She even washed up everything for me. It felt good lol. 

I did eat meat when I was in Hong Kong.It's hard to avoid meat because Chinese people love their meat. When I had dinner with my uncle, almost everything he ordered was meat. However, I only ate a small amount of meat and I tried to have as much greens as possible when I was there. Through out my trip I did have a lot of seafood though. Yum Yum!! Below is a bunch of photos I took of majority of the food I had.
This razor clam was absolutely delicious. It was cooked just right, good flavour of the black bean sauce and the chilli gave it a good kick. This is probably the best razor clam dish I've ever had.

Razor Clam in Black Bean Sauce

This is fish (not sure what kind of fish) stir fried with celery. This was average, quite bland but I still finished as it was the only vegetable dish my uncle ordered. I need to make sure I have my veggies lol..

Steamed scallops in the shell topped with vermicelli noodles and minced garlic and spring onions. One of my favourite dishes of all time but they over cooked it leaving the scallops a bit dry :(

Steamed Scallops

Steamed abalones. I've never been a big fan of these because they are tasteless and very chewy. But it just feels good to know you're eating something that considered good stuff (expensive).

Lunch with my cousin, tepankyaki. Prawns with mushroom rice, miso soup and pickled salad.

A hotpot buffet with my family (my dad's side), there were 9 of us. This is round one and we had all sorts of food; prawns, fishballs, squid balls, meatballs, fatty slices of beef (yuk!), vegetables, corn on cob, and many more. The bowl may look small in the photo but it was actually really big.

Round 1

This is fried fish skin, it was so yummy. You dip it into the hot pot but I prefer it dry and crispy so didn't dip them into hotpot.

Fried fish skin

Round two! This round we had ostrich meat, lots of green vegetables (I requested to have vegetables), lots of other meat (my uncle loves his meat) and those puffy balls thing. Not sure what they are but they are quite nice though.

Round 2

Dinner with my cousin, we went to a seafood restaurant that was recommended by a magazine. Apparently they do good deals for lobster, peking duck and pigeon so we went to check it out. They had quite a few combos; lobster and duck, pigeon and duck, pigeon and lobster, etc. We ordered cheese baked lobster with noodles and peking duck. The third dish is stir fried choi sum and shitake mushrooms, we felt we needed some sort of vegetables to be a bit healthier but we couldn't finish it. We were stuffed.

 

A square shaped custard egg tart. It was yummy. I love Hong Kong style custard egg tart especially short crust ones. Independent cafes does the best custard egg tarts.

 You can't find frozen yoghurt as pretty as this in the UK can you? If you know a place that does it as good or better let me know please!! This frozen yoghurt place is called Smile in Causeway Bay, I like the name as it reflects your reaction when you go in there. I literally smiled when I looked at their menu.

 A quick lunch with my mum, I had squid ball soup noodle with deep fried fish skin.

After having lunch, my mum and I felt like having dessert so went to a popular tofu dessert place that was round corner. This is tofu with sweet ginger juice.

Tofu Fa

Yes, this is a broccoli bake if you've already guessed. Trust me to have this. It was terrible and it wasn't a even a bake. It tasted like boiled broccoli topped with bland cheese sauce. Even I could make something better than that. Ok, I ordered it because I felt like having something healthy and small. 

Broccoli Cheese Bake

 Before going Hong Kong I did my research for the best places to eat. I looked for the best place for won ton noodles and Tasty Congee came up. Apparently it's a Michelin awarded restaurant. I had dinner there with my cousin and her friend who is also my childhood friend when I was still living in Sweden. We ordered some food that people usually eat for lunch, i. fried dough stick wrapped in pastry (the dish on the far top right) It was delicious! The pastry was extremely thin and silky and the fried dough stick wasn't too greasy and was very crispy. Won Ton noodles was obviously a must. We ordered a large portion but the large wasn't very large and it cost almost $60. It was like a regular portion you would usually get in other places however it was tasty though. We also ordered Chinese Kale (Guy Lan), some jelly fish, half a chicken and some sui gua (prawn dumplings). I actually wanted to order stir fried dry beef ho fan (beef with flat noodles) because apparently they are one of Tasty Congee's most popular dishes but my cousin said we've ordered enough. And she was right, we just managed to finish everything, we were stuffed. I will definitely go there again.

Tasty Congee Restaurant

One time, instead of having a proper meal for lunch my cousin and I went to Mong Kok to try the street food. I love the street food in Hong Kong, especially egg waffle (first photo-I'm not sure what the exact name is in English but because it looks like lots of tiny eggs attached together in Chinese we call it mini eggs) and waffle (second photo) with peanut butter, butter and condensed milk. Mmmmm. I know sounds very fatty and greasy but it is delicious and the waffle is so soft and spongy.

Waffles!

Other street food; Octopus seaweed balls with mayonnaise, spiral potato chips, honey grilled squid and squid salt chilli & garlic. 

 

I went to a Japanese Hokkaido restaurant for dinner with my mum and God parents. I wanted to try rice pizza, where the base is made with rice instead of dough. You might be wondering why there are pasta and some potato wedges, that's just Hong Kong for you. They tend to like implementing different types of cuisine to increase their variety and 9/10 times western cuisine like Italian is rubbish. So if you're in Hong Kong stick to Asian food. That black ink squid pasta wasn't very good and smelt quite fishy too. We ordered a tempura thousand island rice pizza.

Japanese Hokkaido Restaurant

I don't really eat Thai food because I hate the taste of Tom Yum and coriander but I had the most delicious Thai food ever in Hong Kong. My auntie took me to a Michelin awarded Thai restaurant located in Whoam Po. The food was amazing! 

Top: Fish cooked in lime juice. Bottom Left to right: Shark fin soup (sorry shark), sharing platter of spring rolls, prawn cake and fish cake.

Left to right: giant grilled squid, BBQ giant tiger prawns and mussels in some coconut sauce (I think its curry but didn't taste like it though).

Top left: dessert. Top right: Fresh young coconut water (my first time having fresh coconut water) Bottom: Fried soft shell crab. 

That's all the photos I've taken. Thanks for reading and I will blog you later!!

Have you been to Hong Kong? What's your favourite restaurant and food in Hong Kong? 

Guest post by my cousin Colette- A review of Lipcote Lipstick Sealer

Hello people! About a month ago I asked my cousin to do a review of the Lipcote lipstick sealer that I gave to her. I thought for a change I want her to do me a review/ guest post. Enjoy.

Check her out Colie's Corner

Guest Post- Lipcote Lipstick Sealer Review

I promised my cousin weeks ago to write a review about the Lipcote Lipstick sealer she got from her monthly Glossy box, but she gave it to me instead since she's not a fan of using lipsticks.

I have recently been really into lipsticks so I was really excited to try this out! I have always been a bit skeptical towards lipstick primers because I think they are pricey and simply didn't want to buy anything expensive that turns out being really bad.

How the product looks like:

As you can see it's liquid and sort of reminds me of nail polish - the smell as well. According to the directions on the packaging (that I have already thrown away) for best result, after putting on lipstick you should gently pat your lips with a piece of tissue. Apply a thin layer of the Lipcote sealer on the outer lips and then fill the rest.

My Verdict:

I did not like it at all! Why?? I will keep it short by listing up the cons with this product:

- It smells AWFUL! As I mentioned earlier, it has a strong chemical smell.... like nail polish! It's far from pleasant to put anything stinky like that on your lips.... near your nose as well!

- It tastes really really bad. I guess the bad smell gave it away already. I personally think it is unavoidable to get bits of lip products in your mouth because you will taste it when you either lick your lips, drink or eat. So I don't understand why they didn't think about this issue when developing the product. Nail polish in your mouth? No thank you.

- It's not long lasting. I guess it works...ish? I'm not sure if it really works or if it's because I am so conscious about the smelly product on my lips that I become extra careful with not licking or rub my lips. Nevertheless, it wears off after only one or two hours!

- It leaves residuals on your lips that look like dead skin! This is a big no no. I noticed that after having a meal it left some residuals on my lips, unless I am extremely careful. And don't even think about wiping your mouth with a napkin, the product will peel of immediately.

-It made my lips dry. It might be only me because I get easily dry lips, this product made my lips feel even more dry!

Yep, I couldn't think of any pros.... the only pro is the fact that it was free because my cousin gave it to me haha. Anyways, I am planning to give it away or just throw it because I will never use it again.

Anti-ageing Sk:n cream for younger skin

Sk:n, The UK's No. 1 skin clinic

I recently bought a new moisturiser, Sk:n Age-Delaying Cream for younger skin. I bought this because it indicates it is for younger skin and anti-ageing. I thought this is perfect since I was trying to figure out which brand is more suited for my age group- 20s.

The other feature that attracted me was the ingredient. Lately, I have been paying more attention to the ingredients of the skin care products, I never used to read the ingredients. I just chose which ever one I thought was affordable and indicated it was hydrating. But we all know 5/10 skin care products doesn't do what it claims to do or it doesn't suit our skin even if it says its for our skin type. So I did my research to find out what makes a good moisturiser and what does people in their 20s need for their skin.

A good moisturiser should have (for the age group 20s);

Sun Protection, UVA & UVB filter
Vitamin A, E & C
Shea Butter/ Cocoa Butter/ Macadamia Oil, or others that really hydrates the skin
Ceramide

Although, this Sk:n face cream doesn't have all of above but it does have most of them. The main problem I have with it, is that it doesn't have sun protection but I could just apply an extra layer of sun protection on top.

I've been using it for 2 weeks now and so far so good. I say that because I have sensitive skin and my skin works in a funny way. A moisturiser may seem to work for a couple of weeks but later certain parts of my face will start to have bad reaction with red patches that burns. And so far I haven't had such reactions with this cream, after all it does say it is UK's No. 1 skin clinic so should be good.

Final Pros & Cons:
Pros
Really hydrating
Contains Vitamins that are anti-oxidants; A, C & E
Good packaging- it has a pump which is easy to control.
Small- can easily fit in a travel cosmetic bag.

Cons
Doesn't have sun protection
Has a greasy/ sticky finishing feel
Quite dear- £29 for 30ml only. When I bought it, it was on offer for £19.

Eyelash Serum is my new best friend!

There is serum for everything these days; for hair, for skin (face) and even eyelashes! Ok, maybe not everything as I only pointed out 3 things.

A few weeks ago,  I was in Debenhams looking for a new mascara, I wanted try the expensive ones this time because I want to see the quality difference between those expensive brands and high street ones. I used to use Max Factor, Maybelline, Boots No.7, Bourjoise, they weren't bad. (I loved the Maxfactor False eyelash effect one.)

I happened to have stopped at Dior section. I said to the sales lady that every time I wear mascara, I always end up getting panda eyes at the end of a day. You would think she would start marketing Dior mascaras and how they won't do this and that because this and that. But she didn't really do that. She just said maybe I need to have more moisture on my lashes and then the mascara won't go flakey. So she recommended Diorshow Maximizer Lash Plumping Serum (what a long name) where I have to apply it before which ever mascara brand I'm using.

Here's a close up of the brush. I took it with my iphone  so not very good.

In the end, I didn't buy a new mascara but bought that serum instead.

Does it work? Yes and no. You still get a little bit of mascara falling down but not to enough to give you panda eyes, otherwise I must say I love it and it is amazing!! I went clubbing over the weekend, I thought I'd end up with panda eyes after the night especially with the heat in there. But NO, I still looked hot! Lol!  Also I got to say not only does it moisturise your lashes, it also lengthens the lashes. Doesn't make the lashes clump, creates a really natural look.