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)