We just came back from a whirlwind Christmas trip to Hong Kong! It is quite possible in our case because Hong Kong is just a two-hour ferry ride from where we are in China. ;-) Yep! And perhaps this is the only reason why I like this place.

Hubby and I left for Hong Kong on the morning of December 24th. We didn't get our ferry tickets beforehand because we thought there wouldn't be many passengers from China at this time because it's not a holiday here. We were wrong! And we almost didn't get tickets. Fortunately, one of the travel groups cancelled their trip so we were able to get seats in the 8.30am ferry boat.

Hong Kong was in a frenzy as usual, but we noticed that this time of year, there are actually more people in Hong Kong than in any other month. I only found out today that it is indeed the Winter Sale in Hong Kong and a lot of mainlanders are there to do their shopping aside from foreigners from other parts of the world.

Hubby and I decided to do a mall-hop on this trip and just enjoy each mall's Christmas theme. After checking in at our lovely hotel, The Minden, the first thing we did was to find lunch. We found it at the Outback Steakhouse in Tsim Sha Tsui. They serve Aussie food and we really loved it so much. (Perhaps because we already miss Australia or perhaps because their food is very nice, we ended up coming back for dinner on Christmas night and for yesterday's lunch.)

After lunch, we went to the nearest mall which is the Harbour City Mall at Canton Road. According to some websites, this is by far the biggest or longest mall in Hong Kong. Boy, are they right! I ended up having a lot of "water bubbles" on some of my toes from strolling inside the mall from around 1.30 in the afternoon to until about 11.30pm that I had to limp my way for the rest of the trip.

It was also quite amazing how much money this side of the world has! On the ground level along Canton Road, all the very expensive designer shops are lined up. Here you can find brand names like Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Hermes to name a few. And what was so astounding was the long queue of customers outside each shop! And they were not just there to have a look inside the shop. They were there to BUY! I was actually amazed at the same sight every Boxing Day in Melbourne when I see a long queue of people outside the Lacoste shop in Melbourne Central. But even that could not compare to this. These are all high-end designer shops and when they do get out of  the shop, they were never empty-handed (except for us! hehe). They have at least one or two packages each. Ah! The buying power of the Chinese!!! That is why in this part of the world, LV is a very common handbag among women, you see almost everyone holding one. If you look closely, some could be fakes but then again most of them could also be the real thing.

Christmas eve in Hong Kong is actually a very big event I gathered. They even had to block off some streets like Canton Road and Nathan Road to traffic and to let the sea of people pass through on their way to merrymaking. In every street corner, you will also see groups of people, young or old, singing Christmas carols to the passersby. Some establishments hire a band or a good choir as well. Overall, it was a very lovely time. You can really feel the Christmas spirit in the air.

Have you ever tried eating in the toilet? Not just eating candy or chips but real food in the toilet and eating from the toilet bowl? I guess not. Tell you what, Hubby and I did! Yesterday while we were at the mall.... Still couldn't get it? Here's the story...

There's a newly-opened restaurant in our favorite mall and Hubby and I had been so excited to check it out because of its very unique concept. Finally, yesterday we braved the crowds and the long waiting list and got ourselves a table at the Modern Toilet Restaurant. Of course we prepared for this treat by bringing our respective cameras.

It is already a very common sight for passersby to stop and stare and laugh at you while you are enjoying your time in the restaurant. Why? Because through the glass walls they can see you sitting on a toilet bowl, digging in to a toilet-bowl-shaped bowl for your food and sipping your drink from a urinal. Finally, when you order dessert, they can see you delighting yourself with a poo-shaped ice cream - some look like hard feces while some look like that from a bout of diarhhea.

The Modern Toilet Restaurant chain started in Taiwan and is now fast making their way throughout China and Hong Kong. They serve a wide variety of food from rice dishes, to pasta, to noodle dishes and of course their wide ice cream selection. If you're lucky enough to travel to these places, why not check them out for a really one-of-a-kind dining experience? In the meantime, feast your eyes on these toilet delights....

Realizing that today I have nothing for lunch, I decided to finally cook the green bean vermicelli that I bought a few weeks ago. I never had the chance to cook it because Hubby is not too fond of the Filipino way of cooking vermicelli. So today is my chance but there's not much ingredients to cook it with since I never really planned to and didn't buy the other ingredients last Sunday.

Luckily, I still have some leftover raw ingredients in the fridge so I just made use of them. I still have some 20 or so shrimp heads leftover from a few weeks back when I was cooking a shrimp dish and also a leftover pork liver. These two combined with some crushed garlic, sliced onion and capsicum, soy sauce, chicken  powder and some shredded cabbage and chives all made up the dish as shown below. *The shrimp heads are not meant to be eaten but their juices lend a very rich flavor to the vermicelli.*

(Note: I don't normally publish my recipes because I never measure my ingredients but if you are interested in trying them out, feel free to contact me.)