Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - The Library Cafe (Ep. 6)

Address: G/F, Lane Crawford, 3 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

In a somewhat hard to locate location, The Library Cafe is an ambient and pleasant cafe in the heart of Harbour City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. I walked around for about 20 minutes trying to find the cafe, asking multiple information desks how to get there, but of course, knowing me and my navigational struggles, it was still a challenge to find. Just to make things easier for any of you trying to find The Library Cafe, here is my attempt to give directions. Notice how the address (listed above) says Lane Crawford? Well Lane Crawford is a department store/clothing store located on Canton Road so just walk on that road (which is packed with high end, luxury brand stores) until you see the door opening to Lane Crawford. Walk in and go down the stairs/escalator and go past the shoes section and you'll see the cafe. If you're not really sure but you're inside Lane Crawford, just ask a sales associate and they'll direct you (as they did for me). Because Canton Road has all the nicer shopping malls in Hong Kong with all the expensive brands, most sales associates know pretty decent English so if you're a tourist, you should have no problem asking your way around.

The ambient lighting and decor of the cafe really adds to the pleasant feel of the entire cafe. It's quiet in a way Starbucks could never be and secluded enough to give you the privacy of a nice afternoon tea by yourself or with a friend. I love the little details that make this cafe so unique with the perfectly placed decorations on the shelf to the little kettles containing sugar packets and the classy stands holding the silverware on every table. The Library Cafe is a perfect place to go if you want a cup of tea or coffee as they have a wide range of flavors, but they also have a good number of choices when it comes to salads or sandwiches. They also have an afternoon tea set which is presented on a lovely stack of 3 plates containing mini sandwiches, pastries, and cakes along with coffee or tea - all of which you can choose from their menu.

I ended up trying the caramel latte which came with a small cookie shaped like a lady's high heel. I'm really not a coffee/latte/any caffeine drinker but this was definitely something I would come back for. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and the drizzle of caramel on top with the sprinkle of crushed pistachios really enhanced the caramel flavor. The cookie was a nice addition though it was really just a normal sugar cookie. My friend ordered the cake set which came with a cake of your choice and a coffee or latte of your choice. I think she got an Americano (can't remember for sure), but I love the feathered coffee art they added on her cup. She also chose the raspberry mousse cake which according to her, was really delicious.

Overall I would recommend The Library Cafe for tourists looking for a quiet place to relax or rest from a long shopping hall. The atmosphere of the cafe is perfect for those looking to get away from the bustling malls that surround it. If you guys have stopped by The Library Cafe, let me know what your thoughts of it were and what you ordered so I can try them out next time! I hope you enjoyed this mini review and have a wonderful day!

Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - One Dim Sum (Ep. 4)

Address: Shop 1 & 2, G/F, 15 Playing Field Road, Kenwood Mansion, Prince Edward

On this lovely day, I will be taking a break from my sweetie Good Eats posts and sharing with you my experience eating at One Dim Sum, a Michelin Guide Recommended dimsum restaurant located in Prince Edwards (also known as Tai Zi in Cantonese). It is only about a 5 minute walk from one of the Prince Edward MTR subway station exits (I forget which one ;P) and you can easily spot it by the long line of people waiting in front of it. Nicely enough, they have stools outside for waiting customers to sit on (uncommon for most Hong Kong restaurants!) and Fa Yuen Street is also located closely by so you can walk over there (about a 5-10 minute walk) and shop around while you wait for a seat. My cousin and I arrived around 3 PM on a Saturday afternoon expecting not much of a wait seeing as dimsum is most popular from 11 AM to 1 PM, but when we arrived at One Dim Sum, we were surprised to see quite a bit of people waiting in front of the shop. We were given a number and told that the wait would be about half an hour so we decided to walk over to Fa Yuen Street to do some shopping and returned a little less than half an hour later and were given a seat about 10 minutes after returning.

Obviously we were pretty hungry as we hadn't eaten since breakfast (aka 8 in the morning!) so we decided to order 6 dishes (yes my cousin and I can EAT!). As a standard, we ordered siu mai, baked (not steamed as there is a difference!) barbeque pork buns, ha gao (although I've seen online people spell it har gao), deep fried tofu skin (also known as fu pei), cow intestines (not sure if that's the exact right English translation and I know it sounds a bit gross but trust me, IT'S DELICIOUS!), and turnip cakes (pronounced lo bah gou in Cantonese).

Siu Mai - basically shrimp dumplings with orange fish eggs on top and covered in a yellow rice sort of wrap

Baked Barbeque Pork Buns - this type of pork is known as cha-siu (or char siu) which is sweet and super yummy!

My attempt to beautifully rip the bun in half to show you the inside which obviously didn't turn out so well but hey at least you can see the delicious yummy inside! As you can see, the top is shiny which, I'm not sure what they do, but it makes the bun super sticky so be careful if you want to use your hands to eat these little suckers!

Ha Gau (or Har Gau) - another shrimp dish which is literally just a steamed shrimp inside a glutinous rice wrap but is SO freaking yummy.

Fried Tofu Skin with vegetables inside

Cow Intestine - I absolutely love this dish and always love to get it when I go eat dimsum so don't be afraid to order it!

Turnip Cake - another one of my favorites. The turnips are mashed into a fine paste and then mixed with some tiny dried shrimp and some other goodies and then pan fried to create a firm somewhat crispy on the outside but soft on the inside cake.

One thing I love about soley dimsum restaurants are their incredibly fast service. We received our first plate (or well wooden dimsum container.. not sure what they're called really) steaming hot in about 5 minutes after we had ordered and all our other dishes came in about 15 minutes so we were soon overwhelmed with our six dishes crowding up the tiny 4 seater table we were sharing with another couple (yes most small food shops will shove multiple parties into large tables in order to get you in and out as fast as possible). The food was definitely fresh and straight out of the kitchen and I thought all the dishes were delicious except... (try and guess? ;D) the fried tofu skin. Honestly I'm not sure why we ordered it since I've never gotten it at any other dim sum restaurant but my cousin suggested it so we decided to just go for it. I like tofu skin when it's normally cooked (usually steamed or in a soup) but the whole fried thing.. not really my thing. All the other dishes were definitely good, but I'm not exactly sure why One Dim Sum is Michelin recommended as the dishes I tried seemed to be at the same level as any other dimsum restaurant I've been to in Hong Kong. But then again, my grandma and relatives usually take me out to dimsum so I'm assuming they know the better places in the area so I've never had to try a particularly mediocre dimsum restaurant ;P Nevertheless, I think One Dim Sum is a good dimsum shop for tourists as it has an English menu and I think lots of tourists do stop by it because when I went, there were quite a lot of foreigners (myself included really). The shop has a wide selection of traditional dim sum items for you to try and the food is definitely fresh and tasty and best of all, it's cheap! My cousin and I split the bill and if I recall correctly, it was only around 100 HKD in total (maybe give or take a few but IT WAS LIKE CHEAP!). The service and waiters are also quite nice which is a plus for a Hong Kong restaurant as most places have pretty meh service because waiters want to just get you out of the shop quickly and are more about efficiency than politeness really. So yes another successful shop knocked off my list of food places to try ^__^ Leave a comment if you've been to One Dim Sum or any other dim sum places you thought were better and would recommend me to try out ~! xoxo.