A Charlie Brown Cafe

I was pleasantly surprised that The Charlie Brown Cafe serves not only cute looking but also delicious cakes. The cafe is located in the Tsim Sha Tsui area and I've passed by this themed restaurant in the past. But the dim sign facing the road always gave me the impression the cafe was closed. Maybe because it's the holiday weekend, but the cafe today seemed more lit up and busier than normal, so I decided to check out the place.

The Charlie Brown Cafe is on the second floor of the Kok Pah Mansion  (Photo:CharK)

The cafe serves a lot variety of desserts like cake and waffles, to light meals like burgers and onion rings. I couldn't pass up trying this adorable Woodstock sled, greentea chestnut cake. The cake was moist and had actual chunks of chestnut in the filling. The onion rings were crispy but not too oily, and the thousand island dip it came with made the whole thing a tasty snack.

MMmmm...a yummy greentea chestnut cake (Photo:CathC)

I love the detail that is put into their coffee cups/sleeves (Photo: Cath)

Being a themed restaurant, the cafe is thoroughly decorated with the Charlie Brown theme. The walls in the stairwell to the second floor dining area are lined with different Snoopy and Charlie Brown figurines. The dining area also had tons of Charlie Brown Paraphernalia, like different Charlie Brown characters etched into the tables, a bookshelf of comic books, and even a screen playing old episodes of the cartoon. But one detail that is missing from the cafe is the incomplete cast of characters that are featured. Noticeably missing are Pigpen, Violet, and Schroeder.

A fun Charlie Brown Cafe in Tsim Sha Tsui (Photo: CathC)

Cute life-sized figurines in the cafe (Photo: CathC)

I often think of themed restaurants as one hit wonders that I'd simply check off as a place I've tried. But  this fun cafe seems to draw in both tourists and locals alike. The customers consisted of couples, small groups, and of course families with kids. The cafe is actually much bigger than it looks from the outside, and seats 140 (according to online reviews). So I can imagine this would be a great place to host birthday parties, especially since there's even a party room at the back of the cafe.

As far as themed restaurant goes the Charlie Brown Cafe, is one of my favourites. Next time, I think I'll try the mango yogurt cake. This pretty mousse cake looks like it'd be another yummy dessert to enjoy with a cup of Americano.

A Merry Christmas in HK

Our first Christmas in HK was a nice low key celebration. It was a nice gesture that work let us leave by lunch time on Christmas Eve. So we had time to do a little decorating and grocery shop for our Christmas dinner.

It's not really practical to put up a Christmas tree in a small flat like ours, but I found nice orgami tree alternative that fits nicely on our table. I just followed this great video by Jo Nakashima that teaches how to fold this cute looking tree and star.

Our Christmas tree and presents (Photo: CathC) 

I can't resist these intricately designed models even though they are just of everyday objects. This series has a variety of displays like laundry lines, washer and dryers, and even birthday parties with cakes. But this breakfast set/cart was just detailed to pass up.

This breakfast set is so detailed,- even the bread box door opens and all the lids to the blenders, thermos, rice cooker, are removable (Photo: Cath)

For a taste of home, we made a Christmas dinner of Canadian Angus rib eye steak with garlic mashed yams and broccoli. Yesteryday's grocery line was half way into the store, and it seemed so busy that it seemed like it'd be closed today. But walking around the neighbourhood today revealed that pretty much every store was open. Even McDonalds (which is traditionally closed in Toronto) was up and running.

MMMmmm Canadian Angus beef really is worth the money-it was delicious! (Photo: CathC)

Dinner couldn't be complete without dessert. My favourite cake was the chestnut chocolate cake we got from Das Gute. The chestnut paste made the cake very yummy and fragrant. These small cakes are great for sharing and trying multiple flavours. The mango mousse was light and creamy too. The Christmas chocolate decorations on these cakes were a nice touch...

Tasty cakes from Das Gute--there are even small bits of gold flakes on the chestnut chocolate cake (Photo: CathC)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones--Merry Christmas!

All decorated for Christmas

Christmas is almost here and Hong Kong being the commercial city that it is, is drawing in the shopping crowds by showcasing different Christmas decorations at malls across the city.

I've always been impressed by the creativity and details of these seasonal displays which seem unrivaled anywhere else, and this year's Christmas decorations are no exception. From mechanical animals moving around a Christmas tree to a multi-storey tall Santa's workshop, I took a lots of photos of these pretty decorations.

Here's a list of my 5 favourite Christmas displays from around Hong Kong:

#5 Po Lam's Christmas Dinner
This whimsical display was a lot of fun. Christmas favourites like turkey, ham, and chocolate cake were all part of the display.

You can actually walk through this larger than life turkey. And showedcased inside are different art pieces like this painting of Jay Chou made from coffee cup stains. And of course who doesn't love these stool-sized macrons?

Photo: CathC

Photo: CathC

 #4 Times Square's rotating forest
These forest creatures rotate around the Christmas tree and are actually pretty cute.

Photo: CathC

#3 Monchhichi
All these child-sized dolls dressed up in different traditional cultural and themed clothing--Native, Chinese, British--were lined up around a two-storey high ferris wheel. I love the detail of the steamed custard buns the Chinese Monchhichi is holding.

Famous landmarks of Holland and Paris featured in the world travel theme (Photo: CathC)

#2 The Peak's Winter Wonderland
This display is over at the "Peak Galleria". It's not the main display outside the Galleria but actually at the observation deck on the building. The blue lighting makes everything looks so cold and wintery. This beautiful display is a perfect match to the Peak's scenic view of the city.

Photo: CathC

#1 Pacific Place's Santa's Workshop
This Santa's workshop is surrounded by a number of ornately decorated Christmas tree including this stunning 3 storey tall tree. Although it seem a little wasteful that this tree will be thrown out at the end of the season, it's does look very majestic in real life. The gears ontop of Santa's Workshop also spins, which is a nice touch.

Photo: CathC

Photo: CathC

Hope everyone is have a wonderful Christmas season so far!

Hiking up to The Peak

Yesterday's cool and sunny weather made it the perfect time to hike up to The Peak. This was the second attempt for CharK and I to hike up to The Peak, having only made it up to the mid-levels by Old Peak Road in the summer. This time, the breezier autumn weather made the hike much more enjoyable since we weren't sweating buckets like the last time!

Our hike consisted of a trek through Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) followed by the hike up Old Peak Road and Findlay Path towards The Peak. The hike was a good alternative to the tram ride up to The Peak (which typically have 1-2 hour long lineups). I wanted to challenge myself to walk up the steep path and it was also a nice way to avoid the crowds. 

The cityscape along the way through the mid-level escalators--lots of hanging gardens (Photo: CathC)

According to the signs, The Peak is about a 30-minute walk from the base of Old Peak Road. I kept stopping to take photos along the way up, so it took us a bit longer. Aside from a few couples who were also hiking up to The Peak most of the people we came across were just jogging or walking their dogs. I guess this path is a nice quiet place to exercise in the middle of the busy Central/LKF districts.

Bamboo shoots, berries and leafy foliage along the hike (Photo:CathC)

There's a fork in the trail just before we reached The Peak. The Old Peak Road continues on one path and another is along Findlay Road which reaches the Lions Pavillion Lookout.  We took the second path and also came by the Baker Road tram station. On this particular day there was a photo shooting going on just in front of this tram station.

You can see people on top of the Observation Deck. There's only one tram that can travel along the track at any time. (Photo: CathC)

The views of Hong Kong are really beautiful from here. Although it was a bit hazy, I could still see most of Hong Kong and Kowloon Islands. It's been nearly a year, but I finally made it to The Peak. 

The Hong Kong skyline as seen from the hiking trail on Old Peak Road (Photo: CharK)

Finally made it to The Peak just in time for sunset (Photo: CharK)

The iconic Hong Kong sky line from The Peak at night (Photo: CharK)

A samba through LKF

Lan Kwai Fong is lively entertainment district consisting of a variety of international restaurants, bars, and lounges in the midst of the former hawker`s neighourhood. I always find the walk through the windy roads of LKF along the cobble stone lanes to be more exercise than I'm use to out in TKO where the roads are quite flat.

The steep cobble stone lanes of LKF which is a popular background for wedding and graduation photos (Photo: CathC)

Street vendors ready for the holiday season by selling Christmas ornaments and tabletop Christmas trees (Photo: CathC)

I had fun walking around the Lan Kwai Fong Carnival which is running this weekend in LKF. Many of the local bars had booths outside sellng beer and snacks, and traditional Chinese snacks like the dragon beard card were also being sold. I thought it was a smart idea to set up performances along the different streets. But unfortunately the small stage areas made it very difficult to get a clear view of the performers (whether Brazilian drummers, Kung Fu masters, or Jazz saxophone players).

Kung Fu masters was one of the many different performancers at the LKF Carnival (Photo: CathC)

The Toys "R" Us stage attracted a lot of kids who were hoping to get balloon animals (Photo: CathC)

Maybe it's just me but I think it's inappropriate to be handing out Okamoto balloons and paper crowns to kids (Photo: CathC)

Today was a great day for the Carnival and I enjoyed spending the time outside since it was such a nice breezy autumn day for an outdoor event.

Global fundraising for children's educational programs

Walking around Ikea always brings me a sense of familiarity. One of the more noticeable differences between Ikea Hong Kong and Ikea Canada is that the showrooms here are actually more representative of the actual living space of a typical HK apartment than that in Toronto. So multipurpose furniture and/or storage options are on the top of my shopping wishlist.

Aside from walking around and fantasizing about redesigning our apartment, I spent a lot time playing with the new plushies and finger puppets that were being sold as part of Ikea's 2013 Soft Toys for Education campaign which is raising money for Save the Children and UNICEF's children's educational programs. This is a global fundraising campaign for educational programs in Asia, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. Ikea Hong Kong is donating $10 HKD for every plush toy that's sold.

A squeaky carrot plushy and dragon and a fairy tale cast of finger puppets (Photo: CathC)

I was curious about the educational projects that were being funded by this campaign and found a blog that's written by different Ikea staff members who've spent time volunteering at the various sites. I thought they've done a nice job with the blog since you can get a good idea of what the volunteers experienced in each of the different projects--like building the Iharaka Primary School in Mahalevona by shipping materials in from boats. I believe Ikea Hong Kong is donating funds to UNICEF in China which is helping to build schools in the rural parts of China.

I think the Soft Toys for Education campaign is a great cause since it's global campaign and staff working in different countries not just raised money but have also volunteered in these local projects. Their work has been pretty impress as well. According to Ikea Foundation website the campaign began in 2003 and since then they've raised nearly €57 million, for 90 projects in 45 countries, helping 10 million children receive a better education.

A walk in the park

Hong Kong's mountaineous terrain makes a walk though the park a really great workout . The majority of city's natural hillside ranges from 0 to 30 degrees, which means the different areas of parks are often connected by long flights of stairs.

I visited Hong Kong Park yesterday, which is in one of the hilly areas of the city. This turned out to be one of my favourite parks. It's truly a beautiful oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle.  Aside from an artificial waterfall and lake that's swimming with turtles and fish, there's a fantastic vantage point that overlooks the park.

This vantage point located in the Tai Chi Garden (Photo: CharK)

There are two flights of stairs to this tower, one to go and another to come back down (Photo: CathC)

At first I was a bit wary of to walk up the spiraling staircase of this 30-metre tower, but it actually takes a very short time to walk up 105 steps. At the top I had a great overview of the park (including the lake, aviary, tai chi garden) and also the surrounding neighbourhood.

A mix of old and new buildings near the mid-peak area (Photo: CharK)

You can get a peak of Victoria Harbour from here (Photo: CharK)

If you like bird watching, this is a great park for that. Even outside of the designated aviary, there were a number of cockatoos perched on the trees. I had the greatest view of these birds from the vantage point.

Walking over to the artificial lake, I was surprised to see so many turtles and koi fish--there must have been at least dozen swimming around in there. There were lots of kids watching the animals and they'd normally love to feed them. But there were signs everywhere which said not to feed the wildlife, and they were actually pretty good about following them too.

This turtle looked so cute sleeping on a rock at the edge of the artificial lake (Photo: CharK)

I love these weekend outings to the parks--it's a really relaxing way to enjoy the autumn weather. I hope this cool weather lasts for a couple more months...I'm not really looking forward to the damp and cold winter months...

Hiking through High Junk Peak Country Trail

In a city with over 7 million people, it's a challenge to find a quiet spot away from the crowds. That's why I love to go hiking on the weekends. Hong Kong's rugged landscapes and natural environments are often overshadowed by its night-life and shopping. But Hong Kong actually has over 50 different scenic hiking trails that vary in difficulty and terrain. Since Hong Kong is a coastal city the view of the marine areas at different points during the hike really is beautiful.

I've gone hiking a couple of times this year in the Spring and early Summer, but I like hiking in the Autumn best. The weather is warm but breezy and more importantly the humidity low (<50%).

CharK and I started at the High Junk Peak Country Trail entrance just off Clear Water Bay Road and followed the trail to the Pavillion. It was our first time through this trail and stopped to take a lot of photos along the way. It really helped that we had seen some photographs of the trail before hand, from www.hike.hk This is a fantastic site which features many of HK's trails, and the owner offers some good descriptions of the landmarks to watch for on your hike. Our hike was about half of the length of the entire trail and we took about 1.5 hours...pretty slow but we took a lot of photos along the way and spent some time to enjoy the scenery.

The main entrance to the High Junk Peak Country Trail on Clear Water Bay Road (Photo: CathC)

We headed in the attempted to head to大廟 (Photo: CathC)

Typical hiking trail--lots of stairs and rocks (Photo:CathC)

The trail had a wide variety of vegetation include this young bamboo trees (Photo:CathC)

The houses look very picturesque from up here. You can even see they carved out a corner of the mountain for the house on the top right corner (Photo: CathC)

A view of the latest developments in Lohas Park from the trail (Photo:CharK)

The HK government takes care of these hiking trails and they've placed a series of distance posts along the trail to help you find your way (Photo: CathC)

We exited the trail here and ended up back onto Clear Water Bay Road (Photo: CathC)

My favourite view during the hike. We looking in the direction of Port Shelter (Photo: CathC)

There is still another half to this trail that I'd to come back and finish. This part of the hike is famous for the amazing view of the Clear Water Bay beaches. After that hike it'd be nice to head down to the beach too. Autumn is turning out to be one of my favourite time of the year...

Walking around Whampoa

Hung Hom is a pretty eclectic nighbourhour in the southeast region of the Kowloon Peninsula. There's a variety of traditional HK cafes, dessert houses, and independent shops up and down Tak Man Street (德民街). At the end of the street is the Whampoa Garden which consists of residential buildings and over 300 shops, including a boat-shaped shopping centre known simply as the Whampoa.

The boat themed shopping centre at Whampoa Garden (Photo:CathC)

Apparently a there's a large Japanese immigrants and expatriate population living in the Whampoa expatriats, which explains the good mix of Western/Asian/fusion restaurants and shops. For dinner tonight CharK and I went to Ant One-a nice restaurant with both a unique menu and friendly service.

I'd classify Ant One as a fusion restaurant that draws inspiration from Italian and East Asian cuisines. They serve dishes like salads, pastas, pizza dishes--with softshell crabs, peking duck, and laksa. My favourite dish of the night was their peking duck spring onion pancake (known as a puffy pastry "pizza" on the menu). The overall combination with the salty spring onion and fragrant duck was delicious; it was slightly odd tasting biting into parts where there was only cheese.

Interesting fusion between the East and West--a spring onion pancake topped with mozzarella and peking duck (Photo: CathC)

Another interesting combination was the soft-shell crab pasta in a laksa sauce (Photo:CathC).

Even just a little bit of the sesame vinaigrette dressing seem to cover most of the taste of smoked salmon dragonfruit salad, so this was just an ok tasting salad to me.

If you know me, I can have desserts for any meal of the day (I'd happily start the day with a slide of leftover  pie or spongecake). So I was really happy to end my meal with this yummy green tea Crème brûlée. The green tea was fragrant but not too overpowering as it can get in some green tea desserts.

A creamy dessert to end the night (Photo:CathC)

I know a lot of people aren't fans of fusion cuisine because the dishes often turn out to be a jumbled mix of ingredients that don't taste good together. But tonight's dinner proved to be an tasty exception. I'm glad we stumbled on this place during our trek around Hung Hom.