Hong Kong: Of Ngong Ping and food

The second place shortlisted for visit is Ngong Ping plateau. Our very basic itinerary was the norm - taking a cable car there, walked through the Ngong Ping Village to Po Lin Monastery and The Big Buddha. We had lunch at the monastery's dining hall. 

As usual, breakfast was a quick check online along the route to the MTR station. At this day, we tried Angus Cafe. There was a short queue when we were there but all was good as it gave everyone time to decide so that we could order promptly. Of course there were 'hiccups' here and there as everything was customizable and terminology used in cha chaan teng. We learnt that 鮮油多 and 牛油多 is different, and in Hong Kong 奶油多 is condensed milk and butter toast. It also took awhile to know which food belongs to which set. Our breakfast situation were a bit chaotic especially on this day (day 1) and the below were only a small part of the food. We thought we would get scolded but all was good, they even gave the kids some soft lollies. 

I think this was combo sandwich of ham and scrambled egg

After breakfast, we were on our merry way to Tung Chung to get to the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car Terminal. There are now 3 types of cabins - standard, "Crystal" and "Crystal+". "Crystal" cabin has glass bottom whereas "Crystal+" is glass all over. We went with the cheapest standard cabin. We played the 'Sweet or Sour' game during the cable car ride - which is just wave to people in other cable cars and if they wave back, they are sweet. If they don't wave back, they are sour. 

We didn't really linger around in Ngong Ping Village, mostly just cutting cross and walked towards Po Lin Monastery. Thought it would be less warm as we visited in January.

According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board official website, Po Lin Monastery was founded in 1906 by three monks from the Mainland’s Ch’an (Zen) School in Jiangsu province. The monks used a small stone house as the site for teaching Buddhist practices in Ngong Ping. In current monastery compound, the buildings include the Main Shrine Hall of Buddha and the Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. 

We walked around the grounds but we also wanted to have lunch at the monastery. It seems like we break for food very often, it wasn't untrue I guess. 

We came across this meal ticket office first and thought that this is the only available dining option. So we went with this even though we thought it was a rather pricey, HKD 750. Luckily they allowed us to get the 5 person meal set instead of the 6 person one because we wouldn't be able to finish the food. The food portion was big. 

It was only after we went to the bathroom that we noticed the other food option. This one was more casual with outdoor seating. We initially thought they were the same. There were also stir fry noodles on sale. 

After lunch, we walked to the Big Buddha. 

On our walk back to Ngong Ping Village, we stopped for some more food. We ordered the first 3 items on their menu to share - soybean pudding (tau foo fah), black sesame soup and combination of both. 

We returned back to Tung Chung via cable car as well and dinner choice for the day was wonton noodles. There was also a queue to get into the shop but it moved fairly quickly. As there were 6 of us, we were seated separately. Sis and I shared a table with a couple and the rest at another table together. 

We went to Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop in Jordan. We ordered one dry and one soup noodles to share. 

More food was needed and we strolled over to the Kai Kai Dessert. When we saw the people waiting outside of the shop, we were about to give up dining in. I guess a good number of people outside were waiting for takeaways so we didn't wait for long either. 

We ordered stewed snow fungus with papaya, papaya with rock sugar, taro lotus sago and mango pamelo sago to share. They were really refreshing.

We enjoyed the night view from the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade area before taking the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong island. 

Side note: Microsoft IT outage 19/07/2024