Chiu Chow food in HK

When I'm in Hong Kong, my friends know not to bring me to chi chi restaurants. Actually more specifically no Western food. I love my wanton noodles, beef brisket noodles, claypot rice, century egg porridge.....& chiu chow (teochew) food.

In HK, they call them "chiu chow da lang" restaurants - the usual braised goose but these are my favorites

Minced pork & oyster porridge

(my all time favorite supper food)

I will never forget one supper in an unnamed da lang restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui where the next table was occupied by some mafia characters. And how would I know ? Well one minute they were having supper, then they left only to return half an hour later with blood drenched shirts to continue their meal. I kid you not. I almost freaked out.

Cold crabs !

I miss HK

I was recently back in HK

Catching up with old friends

Missing them terribly

Missing the wonderful food

Enjoying the sights & sound

Of this hectic & busy city

I used to call home

Barcelona - Football & Flamenco

If you're a football fan (for my American friends, I'm talking about soccer), a must do in Barcelona would be to catch FC Barcelona in action. We were lucky that they had a home game when we were there.

I figured the best incentive to get X to go watch a flamenco performance (more about that later) with me would be to accompany him for a soccer match. Truth be told, I do enjoy going to watch a game live. I'm not at all a football fan but there's something about the stadium lights, hearing the fans roar, beer (they serve non-alcoholic version, yuks) & hot dogs - the whole atmosphere that is electrifying.

As you exit the train station, you just have to follow the crowd especially the groups wearing the home team jersey. You know you are near Camp Nou Stadium, when you start seeing these stands.


No I didn't purchase my tickets from there. I don't even know if these are operational. I bought them online like everybody else & collected the tickets from FNAC.

Camp Nou (New Field in Catalan) is very impressive. It can sit close to 100,000 making it the largest stadium in Europe.

The camera action

He who scored the one & only goal of the game

For the football fans who would know who these players are

Not bad for an evening entertainment
Wish they'd served real beer tho

3 nights later, we went for a very different kind of show. Based on tripadvisor reviews, I made a booking at Tablao de Carmen. It sounded a little touristy & most definitely not the cheapest option for a flamenco show (I found much cheaper alternative on the internet) but most of the reviewers gave it a thumbs up & since I didn't have a clue, why not.


Tablao de Carmen is within the grounds of Poble Espanyol, a Spanish village created for tourists (see what I mean). The buildings & architecture represent all the different periods in Spanish history now occupied by restaurants, galleries & artisanal workshops.

If you have tickets for the show, entry to the village is free. Arrive well ahead of the show to give yourselves ample time to walk around the premises.


This was the closet we got to El Bulli - this is where Ferran Adria sources his plates. The restaurant by the way will close next year.

Tablao de Carmen has 2 seatings every night & you have a choice of just watching the show with drinks, having the tapas menu or the full dinner menu. That determines which tables you are assigned to. All diners have tables closest to the stage.


We had the tapas menu @ 45euro which is more than enough - ham, cheeses, potatoes, bread & either a bottle of wine or a jug of sangria.



The dancers & musicians put up a good show. Both X & I really enjoyed it. The highlight was this male dancer which was even better than the male dancers we saw at a flamenco show at the Esplanade recently.

Alila Goa

Just when you think I'm done with Goa, there's more.

Based on past experiences, one of our top 3 criteria for choosing a hotel has always been the pool especially if we are with the little one. Given the condition of the beaches in Goa, I was so glad we didn't compromise on the pool.

The Alila Diwa in Goa has a spectacular pool. It overlooks the padi fields & strange as it may sound, there is something soothing about doing laps to the sound of buffalos in the background.

The Girl had a great time at the Kid's Club. I'm so making sure a kid's club is on the checklist when I next book a hotel.



After 2 nights, the hotel upgraded us to this ridiculously big suite that we kept getting lost in. Really. The many mirrors in the room were a little confusing.


The other highlight of the hotel is The Spice Studio. Chef Linda presents an array of delicious Goan dishes. We were delighted when we found out she conducts cooking classes in her open kitchen & promptly signed up for it.

Feni Cashew is an Indian liquor made from cashew apple. Drink it neat or use it for cocktail. Very interesting aftertaste.






I don't know when I'm going to have the time to prepare the dishes but my faves are chicken cafreal & lamb xacuti. I have the recipes from Chef Linda & don't hold your breath, but I'm sure I'll get to them one day.

Beaches of Goa

Goa is famous for their beaches & knowing that I'm a beach person, you must be wondering why I've not blogged about their beach yet. All the beaches had red flags which meant swimming was out of the question. That wasn't the reason.

These beach huts were closed in preparation for monsoon

THIS IS the reason why

We stayed in South Goa & on the second day we arrived, we went to the beach only to find it covered in oil slick. Just another unreported oil leakage that happened off the coast of Goa. I spent the rest of the day trying to find reports of oil tankers colliding or oil spillage near Goa but no luck and the rest of the time, cleaning our flip flops & swimsuits off.

We thought our beach in the south was an isolated case. But it was the same even when we went to the north, near Candolim.

More importantly, it made me realise how detrimental the BP oil spill is. Here I am complaining about washing the oil stains from my bikini so imagine the severity of what happened in the Mexico Gulf. I refuse to order any seafood after that, just think about the marine life & wild life affected by this. Images of oil soaked brown pelicans will haunt me for a long time.

For me, this little incident brought the issue closer to home. We should be very very angry why our waters & beaches are polluted.

Is there any wonder nobody is in the sea ?

This is Fort Aguada which is extremely popular with the local tourists. Everybody wanted their pictures taken there.

Last remaining beach huts before the monsoon starts.

We had a refreshment aka cocktail stop at the Fort Aguada Beach Resort. The weather was blazing hot & even tho we went sightseeing in an air conditioned car, we needed a break from the heat. We found a table facing the fort that had a nice breeze, ordered a caiprinha & we were all set. The barbed wire was a little disconcerting & so were the birds lurking around.....

The little one doing a take away