When: Aug 20, 2013
Right before I boarded the plane back to SF, I decided to go on a half-day tour of Cheung Chau with my friend spontaneously. Yes, crazy, I know. I've never been to Cheung Chau and it was an amazing experience.
If you do not know what Cheung Chau is, it is an outlying island in Hong Kong. It takes 1 hour to get there from Central if you take the regular ferry, or ~30min if you take the fast ferry.
As I've never been to Cheung Chau, my friend acted as my guide of the day. Cheung Chau is not big at all, but it is famous for its food and boutiques. Since it was still very early when we arrived, a lot of the shops were not open or was opening, so we walked around the island 2-3 times the whole day! It was hot as hell, but it was also very fun.
First, we found a Hong Kong style restaurant and ordered 牛膩酥, a kind of fried sweet dough that you eat with congee. And we each got a cup of soy milk. That was a great breakfast. We sat outside under tents with fans to cool down. It was so nice sitting there, eating such typical Chinese food by the sea.
Then we walk around a little, and stopped at a fishball shop. They have all kinds of balls: beef balls, fishballs, cuttlefish balls, lobster balls... (that just sounded really wrong...) We ordered a skewer of different kinds. They immediately fry it and hand it to you. BEST FISHBALLS I've ever had. I've noticed that a lot of fishballs in regular markets don't taste like fishballs at all. So when I had this, it was heaven.
Of course we also had to get Cheung Chau's famous large fishballs. They're golf ball sized, dipped in different kinds of sauces. We had the curry and BBQ sauce fishballs. The curry is so spicy! I'm not a person who can eat very spicy though I like medium spice. But these got us crying and our lips numb. The BBQ sauce was great too. Again, the fishballs in Cheung Chau are the best.
After the hot and spicy curry fishball, we went to get shaved ice to cool down. We ordered mango, guava, and passion fruit. Like any shaved ice, it's the best when you eat it under horribly hot weather. The juices they used were a little too sweet, but it was still delicious.
There is a restaurant that sells 豬仔包, a kind of hard bread roll. We got the bun with tomato and cheese on top. It kind of tastes like pizza margherita, different from how I normally get it which is with butter and condensed milk. It was good!
We the passed by a booth that sold icicles and ordered the milk tea one. They really just freeze milk tea to make icicles. I love Hong Kong style milk teas. So milk tea in icicle form under the hot sun is just paradise. I might make it myself when I have time. Perfect for summer!
Finally, we just had to get the mango mochi. I've never had such good mango mochi in my life! I hate 椰絲 coconut bits, but this is just coated with flour. The mochi itself is humungous, and inside, a huge piece of mango! Normally, glutinous mango rice cakes just have a small piece of mango and puree, but this is real mango every single bite. Heaven!
They also had really cute boutiques selling clothes and accessories for very inexpensive prices. I got a pair of earrings and some pants myself.
How did we have the appetite to eat so much? I don't even know. We just tell ourselves that we burn all the calories we ate by walking under the blazing sun all day. I ate so much, but the food is so good. I would totally just go to eat fishballs and rice cakes. Unfortunately I had a plane to catch so I couldn't stay till night, or else the seafood there is also another famous attraction of Cheung Chau. As someone who loves seafood, I need to go again when I can to try it out!
If you've never been to Cheung Chau, I highly recommend going! It is really nice to go to the outlying islands with family or friends for a day trip. Get some fresh air, experience a day of good food and traditional Hong Kong streets!
xoxo
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