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!