Friday 1 November 2013

Where to eat in Hong Kong: Day 2, Australian Dairy Co, Lantau Peak, Nathan Congee and Noodles, Lan Kwai Fong

We woke up bright and early on the second day to have breakfast before making our way to hike up Lantau Peak. We decided to have breakfast at Australia Dairy Co as it was strongly recommended. Furthermore, it was near our apartment and a short 10 minute walk would take us there, thus we decided to check it out before making our way to Lantau island.

When we arrived at Australian Dairy Co, we were so surprised to be greeted by an extremely long queue in front of the door. We expected a long queue so we came earlier before 8am hoping that the queue would be shorter. Yet there it was, a queue of 20 people when it was only 8am in the morning! However, we were lucky that day. The cafe had two empty seats and nobody ahead of us was in a pair so we were allowed in within 5 minutes.




Australian Dairy Co situated on Parkes Street does not actually sell any Australian breakfast. Instead it sells comfort breakfast items like toast, macaroni and ham, and either scrambled eggs or sunny-side up. The breakfast set also came with a tea.  The breakfast set is big and definitely more than enough for one person. We watched as most people ordered one breakfast set to share between two. However, we decided to take one breakfast set each since we needed the energy to hike up Lantau Peak.

I have to say the scrambled eggs were awesome. They were the best scrambled eggs I've ever tried. The macaroni and ham soup and toast were pretty average. I did not actually queue very long for breakfast at Australian Dairy Co so I cannot really comment as to whether it was worth the wait. However, I have to say that the best item in the breakfast set was definitely the scrambled eggs.

Also, this is not a place where you can sit around leisurely having a nice chat over breakfast. The turnover is extremely quick, the waiters speak faster Cantonese than I can comprehend (and my Cantonese is honestly not too bad, if I could say so myself), and they literally just dump your food items on the table seconds after you placed your order. There is not much of a service here so don't expect to be treated like a treasured customer. You aren't and they do not make any effort to pretend that you are.

47-49 Parkes Street, Jordan


Lantau Peak is the second highest peak in Hong Kong. We took bus E23 from Jordan to Tung Chung and alighted near Citygate Mall. We walked over to Citygate Mall, grabbed some extra bottles of water, and walked over to the bus interchange to take bus 3M. We alighted at Pak Gong Au to start our hike. If you are not familiar with the area and unsure of where to alight, you could ask the bus driver to announce the Pak Gong Au stop for you. That was what we did and thankfully the kind uncle did the announcement. From the bus stop, simply cross the road and you would see this big rock with the words Pak Gong Au inscribed on it. You would see the yellow trail marker next so simply follow the trail marker and you are good to go.



The trail was wide at certain points but really narrow at others. It was not as steep as Mount Batur but the Lantau Peak hike was tiring in its own ways. Particularly so because we were hiking in the late morning and have to weather the scorching sun and high temperature. It took us close to 2 hours to reach the peak and we reached the top around mid day when the sun was the hottest. There is a small shed at the top which was surprisingly cool and comfortable so we sat around and took a bunch of pictures before heading down.


This is the view from Lantau Peak.


The hike down was relatively shorter so it took us slightly more than an hour to reach the Wisdom Path. The hike down eventually led us to the Wisdom Path at Ngong Ping and from there we could reach Ngong Ping village easily. At Ngong Ping village, we saw the Bronze Buddha and a few shops selling souvenirs and drinks. We bought more drinks to replenish fluids in our body and decided to take a cable car back to Tung Chung.



There are two types of cable cars back to Tung Chung, the normal cable cars and the crystal cabin cable cars. I decided to take the crystal cabin cable car because that was what Running Man took and the view through the clear bottom was amazing. It was so exciting to be able to see the view beneath your feet through the clear bottom and I thoroughly enjoyed the 25 minute ride.




We took a quick stroll around Citygate Mall at Tung Chung to check out a few outlet stores. We also tried the new black sesame McFlurry and sundae at Macs. The black sesame McFlurry and sundae were yummy! I hope the black sesame flavour would come to Singapore soon. After which we went back to our apartment where Stef prepared to meet her friends and I decided to take a nap before going out for dinner.

After I woke up, I decided to flip through the Lonely Planet guidebook for some nice eatery around the Jordan area. Nathan Congee and Noodles caught my eye so I decided to take the short walk over and have my dinner there.

It was easy to locate Nathan Congee and Noodles which was situated on a quiet street. The doors of Nathan Congee and Noodles were firmly shut when I arrived and I almost thought it was closed. I decided to try my luck anyway and entered to find the store half empty. There were a few patrons sitting around but it was quite quiet inside. I took a booth seat and ordered Century Egg Porridge and a plate of vegetables. The bowl of Century Egg Porridge was good. The porridge was sweet and smooth, and they were generous with the lean meat and century egg. The plate of vegetables was quite horrible though. The vegetables were terribly overcooked and I could only finish half the plate.

11 Sai Kung Street, Jordan



I took the MTR to Central after dinner and met Stef for drinks at Lan Kwai Fong. It was a Friday evening and Lan Kwai Fong was crazily crowded. We started our night at Common Room which turned out to be an extremely crowded and noisy bar. We left after one drink each and headed to Yamanae Bar. Yamanae Bar turned out to be much less crowded and quieter so we managed to have a nice long chat over drinks. We spotted 7th Heaven across the street from Yamanae Bar and decided to check it out. The music at 7th Heaven was awesome and I would strongly recommend it to other party goers! We also checked out Beijing Club and Billion. All clubs did not have a cover charge for girls. Or rather,  I don't remember paying cover for any club. What I do remember was being asked to pay a fee for bag storage at every club we went and that amounted to about SGD 5 per club ber bag.

Check out Day 1Day 3Day 4 and Day 5!

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