Culinary Experiences in the Exquisite Hong Kong

Hong Kong? Well! It's incredibly fantastic, to say the least. Deafening and chaotic, technological and culturally advanced, it's an overcrowded jungle of skyscrapers.. where on every corner... and believe me, on EVERY corner... there's a wonderful (more or less) restaurant waiting for you.. more or less because the vast majority of them offer excellent food at a very low price, but sometimes you can be unlucky enough to walk into the wrong restaurant.. pay without touching a thing (because the food is literally INEDIBLE) and walk out! Or else eat little and spend a fortune!!! So always read the price list outside the place. It happened to me 3 times in 5 days, which is why I advise you to choose carefully where you decide to enjoy the many Chinese delicacies! The food really costs little; you can eat for 2 people with several courses for as little as 10 euros...

Out in the street you can taste a thousand different varieties of food, from steamed dumplings to green tea or ginseng cakes, from fresh fruit juices squeezed on the spot to eggs cooked in soy sauce... besides, shops and stalls sell typical local products such as roots, tubers and above all the famous bird's nests, which are extremely expensive — as much as 800 euros for a pack.. throughout East Asia this food is a highly prized dish; in a restaurant a bird's nest dish ranges from 60 to 100 euros,..

in fact it depends a lot on the colour of the nests: the pale ones cost less because they're little worked by the mother swallow, while the dark ones, thoroughly coated in saliva, cost more!! But in Hong Kong you can also eat Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, even Italian! Watch out though: be wary of the dives offering Italian cuisine — in fact only the luxury restaurants offer our cuisine, but at high prices, so if you have a delicate palate but a dry wallet, settle for plain rice and chicken. Don't like rice and chicken? Fine, there's the infamous McDonald's on every corner, so you won't go hungry... don't worry. But for those who love trying new cuisines, as in my case, I recommend trying the sushi in one of the many Japanese restaurants, all very reliable and clean.

A lunch for 2, with as many as 14 courses of sushi, cost only 15 euros! How cool! The precautions I'd advise are: be wary of the dives; often the food is good but they don't always have a price list, so they cheat on the real prices of the dishes, and the owners don't speak English, so what you order will remain a mystery until it arrives at the table.; Another precaution is to order only after seeing the dish already prepared, perhaps at someone else's table or on the menu, since in China these come with photographs, so if you're indecisive it's best to avoid restaurants that don't have them. I strongly advise you to carry an English dictionary, assuming you don't already know the language well, or even Chinese!! But Hong Kong isn't only food... a stimulating environment where ancient Chinese culture lives in perfect harmony with the avant-garde and progress..

men and women go to the city's many parks to practise the ancient discipline of meditation that recharges body and mind: the slow movements of the body follow the rhythm of relaxing music.. I'd suggest taking a peek in the morning around 10 o'clock... it's fascinating and, believe me, also fun!!! The Hong Kong lifestyle is different from ours: the streets are super crowded, the restaurants swarm at any hour. That's because life is lived mainly in the street; locals rarely go home for lunch, and it's impossible for dinner, so there's chaos everywhere, all the time! And then life is pretty cheap even for them..

when will we be able to afford to eat lunch and dinner 360 days a year? You can really do anything because everything has a fair price: from taxis, to the boat crossing the two parts of the city (because there's an island Hong Kong and a peninsular one), from food to shopping (the Chinese kind, not the big European brands), to entertainment.. they're all very affordable.. even accommodation, if you know how to settle, as in our case, can cost on average 20 euros per person (for a double). At that price you rent a room that's not excessively clean but not dirty either!! In fact, the easiest thing we did in Hong Kong? You may not believe it, but it was finding a hotel: thanks to a highly efficient BOOKING Rooms system that you find as soon as you set foot in the airport; you won't believe it, in half an hour we'd already found a hotel and a taxi..

all thanks to the efficient service system that deserves praise! It's also important, for those travelling alone, to always carry the name of the hotel written in Chinese and not in English.. taxi drivers are often old-school and would hardly manage to take you back to the hotel. A precaution your author didn't take... and I'll leave the rest to your imagination!!! Ask the reception of your hotel to kindly write it in Chinese! If you're interested, the hotel's name is King Hotel.. it's in Kowloon, one of the most central areas.. well placed by the metro. Hong Kong also offers a wonderful panorama on Lantau Island, not far from Kowloon; in fact you only admire the view after climbing long, almost endless stairs that lead to the Giant Buddha.. from that position you can admire the enchanting masterpiece but also lean out and breathe the pure religious atmosphere of this place..

the monks live in this spot swallowed by the valley.. the spirituality of the place is too charged and dense not to be noticed!! I advise you to go, and believe me, you'll be truly struck!! For those who love shopping to the death, there's really plenty to go crazy over! Little shops everywhere; I really appreciated the shoe collections, truly IN.. and there's an amount of designer shops beyond the norm! I think the shops in HONG KONG (I mean the high-fashion ones) could equal all the shops in Campania!! Too many, too many, too many! A word on the climate: August isn't among the best for the southern part of China, but all in all we can't complain, you feel the heat but it isn't unbearable as so many people say..

I think it's hotter in Ethiopia! Carry a poncho rather than an umbrella, because when it rains it doesn't mess about!!! And it's better to protect yourself because the rainwater is toxic, being very polluted! Another little attraction is the Zoo.. it's not on a par with Singapore's but it's still worth a visit, and it's also free: to get there just take the boat at Star Ferry, which reaches the island part of Hong Kong in a few minutes and for very little cost, take the first taxi and in 2 minutes you'll be among a thousand little animals! ALSO DON'T MISS THE FANTASTIC EVENING SHOW HELD EVERY DAY AT 20:00 AT STAR FERRY.. I JUST WANT TO GIVE YOU A TASTE BECAUSE IT'S SO INCREDIBLE THAT I'D HATE TO SPOIL THE SURPRISE. SO DON'T MISS THE LIGHT SHOW!! I HOPE I'VE BEEN HELPFUL.. AND HAVE FUN!!! Oh, and please don't eat too much!!!