First birthday in Hong Kong

My birthday is usually a low-key affair spent trying new restaurants with family and friends. But this year's was particularly special--celebrating it with CharK in a new city.

We started out at Saizeriya, a Japanese chain serving Italian-style food. I had fond memories of it after trying an outlet in Tokyo, Japan. We tried the outlet inside the Nan Fung Plaza (南豐廣場) in Tseung Kwan O. It's always packed here so a good tip to beat the dinner rush (even on a weeknight) is to get here before 6:30 pm. The restaurant seems to fill up by 6:45-7 pm.

It was a great meal, the food was good and the services was prompt.

There was a good variety of seafood in the Paella but the rice was a bit crunchier than I was expecting. (Photo: CathC) 

The chicken was flavourful and juicy--no complaints here! (Photo: CathC)

But the best part of the evening was definitely the desserts! After Saizeriya, we walked downstairs to 五代同糖, a HK style dessert cafe. The photos outside of the cafe make all of their desserts look so tempting! I had such a hard time choosing that I`m sure I`ll come back to try the other selections.

This cafe reminds me of the tea shops (e.g. Green Grotto, Ten Ren's) back in Toronto. It's a great place to sit and talk with friends. The music just plays softly in the background and the staff let you sit for as long as you want (presumably since it was still earlier evening when we were here). They had a surprisingly wide variety of Chinese & Western style desserts and drinks (e.g. bubble tea, slush, coffee)

I was really impressed with this light and fluffy mango soufflé which was made to order. (Photo: CathC)

The Cashew dessert soup was pretty special too, since almond or sesame paste is usually more common. I really enjoyed the peanut dumplings which had a great texture and were nice and chewy.

(Photo: CathC)

I can't say I have any profound thoughts on what it means to turn a year older but I'm confident the year ahead will mean new challenges and exciting opportunities. So far these past two months have been a great learning experience finding and moving into a new place. I think I'm starting to adapt to the pace of daily life here and ready to tackle the next challenge--work!

There's no other place I'd rather be right now than in HK, and starting out a new year in a new city with so many possibilities!

The many views of Victoria Harbour

The past couple of weeks have been pretty rainy and cloudy. So I took advantage of the sunny weather over the weekend and enjoyed a day at Victoria harbour with CharK. There was nice breeze as we walked along the Waterfront from Wan Chai Station to Tamar Park.

Walking along the Waterfront promenade by Tamar Park, I came across the iBakery Express. This small snack shop/cafe has a fantastic view of the harbour and is a great spot to relax.

iBakery Express is a great quiet spot to enjoy Victoria Harbour (Photo: CharK)

Missing buttered popcorn but freshly made caramel popcorn and potato wedges are good alternatives (Photo: CathC)

Not only does iBakery Express make good food, it also gives back to the community. The bakery is owned by the Tung Wah Group, and is dedicated to training and hiring staff with disability; teaching them to bake as a way to given them independence and ability to participate in society.

From here we took the MTR to Sham Shui Po to check out the famous Apliu street for deals on computers and electronics. The street lived up to its reputation for the number of electronics and computers being sold. It reminded me of Akihabara in Tokyo, Japan (minus with the anime/manga associations). Apliu street is pedestrian friendly and filled with booths on either side selling a variety of electronic parts like magnets, capacitors, and breadboards. One street over on the other side of Cheung Sha Wan road is the Golden Shopping Arcade, where there are a number of shops that sell cellphones, computers, and video games. But this area is pretty crowded on the weekend and I felt like I was constantly in line filing through a shop.

Amazed by the number of antennas they managed to fit on the roof of this residential building on Apliu Street (Photo: CathC)

I wanted to compare the HK skyline at night and headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner after electronics shopping. Next time I'll remember to make reservations for dinner as most of the restaurants at Ocean City Mall/Ocean Terrance had a 45 minute wait. The Buffalo Burger at Greyhound Cafe really stood out. I thought the soft buffalo mozzarella was a tasty match for the juicy beef patty. More fries for dinner, and these super crunchy potato skins came piping hot from the fryer.

The Spicy Muay Thai burger (with fries that remind me of Doritos Pepper Jack Chips) and the Buffalo Burger (beef patty with buffalo cheese, lettuce and onion on a squid ink bun) (Photo: CathC)

After dinner we took the Star Ferry over to HK island. It was a breezy night and the choppy ocean waves made it a fun and rocky ride Even though it was a short ride to Sheng Wan, I enjoyed the beautiful view of the skyline (something I miss when taking the MTR across). I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the brightly lit buildings should be dimmed to conserve electricity instead?

One of the ferry boats traveling across Victoria Harbour and a view of the famous HK skyline from the Tsim Sha Tsui dock (Photo: CathC)

A view of the skyline as the ferry heads away from Kowloon (Photo:  CathC)

But I love the different views of Victoria Harbour: taking in the unique architectural designs that make up the HK skyline during the day and the flashy light displays and the brightly lit HK skyline during the night.

How long do LEDs really last?

We were watching tv in the living room the other night when suddenly we heard a loud pop from the kitchen. Turned out one of the LED bulbs had burned out and fell out from the ceiling socket. Not entirely sure what cause the bulb to burn out-- I looked some possible explanations for LED failures on my science blog here--but the bulb definitely short circuited. Surprisingly there was enough energy from that event to burn a hole in the base of the bulb.

With enough energy to burn a hole through the base of the LED, no wonder the LED popped out of the lighting socket. (Photo: CathC)

The bulb that burnt out is a warm LED bulb. This type of white LED lighting technology was developed by researchers in Japan in 1997. The use of LED light bulbs as an alternative to incandescent bulbs have been gaining popularity in homes since their commercialization around the 2000s. There have been claims that LEDs can last anywhere from 10 to 25 years, but these estimates are under theoretical conditions (read: no external factors like power surges). 

Has anyone really have an LED bulb they've been using for 10+ years? I wonder how long LEDs really last in a typical home environment...

What the LED bulb look like after it burnt out. (Photo: CathC)

Although LED bulbs are gaining popularity here as alternatives to incandescent bulbs, not too many stores in our area had them in stock. Most stores that sold light bulbs just had 

compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or incandescent bulbs. Only one of the larger supermarket chains had a single brand of LEDs in stock.

Then I got to thinking how the number of light bulbs in our home compares to those in other countries. Quickly scanning our flat, I counted about 20 light bulbs. This is low compared to the average home in the United States, Canada or Britain. Colin Humphreys, a prof at the University of Cambridge and an expert in the field of solid state lighting, reports there are 45 light bulbs in the average house in the United States, 30 in Canada; and 25 in the United Kingdom.

But considering our flat is less half the size of the average house in these other countries, we have a significant number of light bulbs. It's no wonder that the majority of light bulbs that are used (installed by the owner) are either CFLs or LEDs.

In the end we still chose to continue using LED bulbs despite our experience with it shorting out. Generally speaking the advantages of LED bulbs (energy usage, lifetime) still outweigh the other alternatives, which is important considering the

number of lights we have in our home!

--

Humphreys, 

Colin J. (2008). Solid-State Lighting. MRS Bulletin, 33, pp 459-470. DOI: 10.1557/mrs2008.91 

Taguchi, Tsunemasa. (2008). Present Status of Energy Saving Technologies and Future Prospect in White LED Lighting. 3(1), pp  21-26. DOI: 10.1002/tee.20228 

Getting to know the city

After about a month of settling in to a new city and setting up our apartment, Hong Kong is starting to feel like home. CharK and I started off our Easter long weekend with a leisurely brunch of pan-fried pork dumplings and local dim sum favourites (sticky rice dumpling, Malay cake, taro & yam steamed bun, sui mai). The convenience of takeaways is one of the biggest differences between Toronto and Hong Kong. We walked downstairs to the mall by our apartment complex and were home with our food in under 15 minutes.

This lotus leaf wrapped  sticky rice dumpling stuffed with bbq pork, minced beef, quail egg, and mushrooms was amazingly delicious. (Photo: CathC)

A lot of malls also had Easter displays. Here's one in Causeway Bay. I love the creativity and attention to detail that goes into the ads here. 

A creative Easter display at a mall in Causeway Bay. (Photo: CathC)

This year's Easter long weekend happened to fall on the same week as the Ching Ming Festival, so many locals took this opportunity to travel outside of the city. But no matter how quiet it gets, Hong Kong is still a busy tourist city. We ran into a few tour groups while wandering around the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui.

People watching at the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui. (Photo: CathC)

Tomorrow will be a somber end to the long weekend as the Ching Ming Festival is marked by paying tribute to ones ancestors. Hopefully the rain will hold off so everyone who's making the trek out can have a peaceful outing.