Around the World in 80 Days- Week 9

It's official! We failed! We have two days left and too many resteraunts to complete by the time our challenge deadline is here. We were close but no dice. We are going to continue our journey around the world and finish it but we know we are not going to make the deadline. Money and time simply doesn't allow it. We would like to thank everyone who was reading and eating along with us for their time. We're sorry we couldn't complete the journey! We also would like to thank our team mates for the time  they spent researching resteraunts and the money they spent going out of their way to try new and interesting cuisuine. Too often we go to the same old places over and over again. We went on this journey to expand our cultural palettes and horizons. Oh and we totally called Peruvian food coming to Hong Kong. (Boom!)

This week we tried to be as adventurous as we could with our end of the month pennies. You know you eat out less at the end of the month because the cobwebs start appearing in your wallets! We had more European food this week with Swedish at Ikea (A total cheat we know!) A complete bargan at 7 dollars for coffee with unlimited refills and food for 15-30 dollars! You can't do better than that! The chocolate truffle cake was yummy AND nut free! Shatin Ikea was practically empty on a Tuesday afternoon and we totally took advantage and spent some time divulging into some Swedish treats at bargain prices!

Norwegian was a surprise at FILLES in TST. Pricey at dinner but a bargain at lunch for a 120 you get two courses of free range, organic food from the Scandanavian land of Trolls and ugly ass sweaters. Try the smoked salmon salad with poached eggs. Super yummy! Veggie options and Pescatarian options are plenty on the menu!

Matthew and Steven took on Seafood Buffet at a all you can eat Japanese buffet on Kowloon side. Their only complaint was they both ended up with massive headaches from the meal. MSG, anyone? Migraine suffererers beware! They also went to Olympic city and dined on Chinese cuisine. Cheap and yummy it was a pleasurable experience for both!

Mongolian was scratched off the list at Bayi. Off the beaten path in Sai Ying Pun. Bayi specializes in one thing: Camel. If you want to eat a dromedary this is the place. I had camel pancakes with peking style sauces. Kind of like eating camel soft tacos. It came with veggies to add and was a little spicy. Definately an adventurous meal and healthy! Camel is apparently very low in fat!

Portugese was taken off the list with a lunch at Cafe Liason in LKF. I never could afford this place at dinner but I knocked it off the list at lunch time. It was about 150HKD for a three course lunch with dessert and coffee. Still have not found a replacement for Cuban. Working on it.
Two days left... Will make another post on Tuesday about any progress made.

Color Coding System

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine

Around the World in 80 Days- Week 8

 Color Coding System

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine

This week we got quite a bit accomplished! We know we are in the final crunch of the challenge! We have only one more week left and several countries left. We also had some firsts this week! I had my first Szechuan and my first Argentinian meals. I loved my Argentinian lunch at Tango Steakhouse on Wellington. Chef Martin was a delight and it is now my NEW favorite place to eat. Seriously, check this place out! I can't afford it at their dinner price but lunch was around 100 and I had some seriously LARGE portions with some delish ingredients. The best empanada!

Szechuan on the other hand was a seriously painful experience. It hurt! My mouth went numb and I don't think I have ever eaten anything that hot before. My gay said that it was good Szechuan and if your mouth goes numb then it's cooked correctly.... WAH?! I had to go home and change my shirt after the meal!

Louise was a big help to us and knocked out Japanese noodles and hand pulled noodles! She had pleasurable experiences at both places and highly recommends both! They both have open kitchens which give you a view into the kitchen and how your food is prepared!

I also had an all chocolate experience at Awfully Chocolate in Central. I had a salted butterscotch brownie that cost me 60HKD. I know, right? Expensive ass brownie! I shared it with my friend Sarah because it was a big ass brownie and there was no way we could finish it. Share the love and the cost with a friend when you go! Super Yummy!

I also had a healthy treat with Gluten free food at O Green Cafe in Sheung Wan. I left a bit hungry but everything tasted super fresh. The staff was super nice and seemed generally concerned about all food allergies I had. (Unlike some places where they roll their eyes at you when you ask them to clean the knives between preps. You know who you are...)

We have 8 days left and 17 places left. We don't know if we'll meet the deadline or not. But we're going to sure as heck try! Cuban will have to removed from the list as we have found out that the only Cuban place in town shut down. We'll let you know what it has been replaced with once we find a viable option.

80 Days Around the World- Week 7

UPDATE
Due to a glorious suggestion from a reader named Spike! (Thank you Spike!) We have altered our color coding system so that you can see the week to week progress more easily.

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

Week Five

Week Six

Week Seven

Week Eight

Week Nine         

We knocked off Seven places this week! We are very proud of ourselves for finally getting a lot done!

A lot more was accomplished this week both good and bad things were discovered. I think we found a new candidate for worst resteraunt in Hong Kong. This honor belongs to So Bali Bali in Soho. One of the worst dining experiences of my life. I gave them an F- and frankly I would have gone lower if possible. I was the ONLY customer in the place and they still fucked up my order. They didn't even feel bad about it. And then they still charged me 20HKD for a bowl of rice. (Read that again) Yes, 20 HKD for a bowl of fucking rice. That is highway robbery and frankly it wasn't even that good. It was expensive, the chefs and the staff OBVIOUSLY didn't give a shit. It was my first taste of Balinese cuisine and frankly I could care less if I ever had it again. It was disgusting.
(Rant officially over)

Matthew found a treasure in Indonesian but has yet to give up the details... *tsk tsk* We're waiting...

Our team mate Louise also had a VERY BAD dining experience on Lamma at the Banyan. 2 hours for an order to be completed. When they still did not bring person's food they got really angry. The owner kicked them out and said he didn't need their business. Fine, we don't need their business either. It's called the hospitality industry for a reason. No one deserves to be yelled at for wanting their food done correctly when they are a paying customer. All Lamma people should avoid The Bayan for the way they treated our team mate. If we continue to give rude people our money, they will continue being rude.

We had some good things happen also! A lovely surprise at a tiny hole in the wall in Jordan where we ordered the house special "Hanan chicken rice". Super yummy and cheap. Chicken, plus rice, plus a side and a drink were 32HKD. Can't get much better than that! It didn't have an english name so just know it's the one with the green awning of Austin rd with the chickens hanging in the window. Can't miss it!

French was provided to us via a groupon at Babylon. (Am I the only person that thinks of Queer as Folk when I hear something named this?) French bistros seem to have popped up all over the place but we got a 5 course meal with wine and frois gras for less than 200HKD thanks to our groupon. The service was rude, the frois gras was not cleaned properly and the prices without the groupon were ridiculous. (600 HKD for a steak?! WTF?)

Veganism was handled by the people at Life Cafe in Soho. Now, I think the place is a little pricey. I also have a little difficulty eating any of the bread products because they LOVE to put nuts in everything they have. (It makes sense for veggies to get their protein in other sources but it would be nice to have one bread that is nut free!) I had the "fake burger with fake bacon and fake cheese". Flavors were all good but the textures were what was off. It was too chewy if that makes any sense. I also felt that the caesar salad was one of the worst things I've eaten. It had a slimey texture to it and because it was dairy free it had a funky aftertaste. Not a dish that would convert me over to the green side. We had the option of making almost anything on the menu vegan which was nice for the sake of the challenge.

80 Days Around the World- Week 6

I am a bad, bad challenger. I went on vacation and didn't keep up with the list before I left. I got super lazy and it shows! None of the food I ate on my holiday counts because the challenge must be met inside Hong Kong or Macau. So, we only have twenty days left and over thirty places to still hit!

I think part of the slump is that it's expensive to eat out this much and the other part is that the vacation made everyone deter from the mission. We need to get back on track peeps! I removed Peruvian from the list because turns out this style of food hasn't come to HK yet. (Wait a year and we'll have one. Peruvian is all the rage right now in NYC.)

Hopefully we'll meet our goal! Only 20 days left! We gotta get our butts in gear team mates!

80 Days Around the World- Week Five

Sorry for not updating on our usual day! We got super busy with lots of work things and we had a promotional performance of our next show: The Vixens present: Snow and the Deadly Seven. You can get your tickets online now thanks to our sponsor Passionately Yours!! (Shameless Shameless Plug...)  Also, one of our team mates Matty had to take a sudden journey home to be with his Daddy while he has surgery. I'm sure we speak for the entire Hong Kong Theatre Community when we wish Daddy Gillespie a quick recovery, so that his son can come back to us! We miss you Matty!

This week we got some things knocked out. The highlight of places we visited was a California Cuisine/Wine Bar in Central. This resteraunt was weird because it had wine machines where you inserted your credit card and wine came out of a spout. The food was super tasty. We loved the baja style fish tacos! Didn't care so much for the tomatoe soup because it had a very sweet aftertaste we couldn't place. I would describe it as maple-ish; not so yummy. All the food is organic and they do wine tasting on Sundays!

We journied to Egypt with Habibi, although we love their lunch menu options I would never go there for dinner as the prices are ridiculously expensive. It's better to go there at lunch time because you get enough food, lots of little portions to snack on and it won't break your bank. Dumplings were scratched off the list at Wang Fu in Central. A Michelin forked resteraunt that looks like a hole in the wall at first glance. Don't be so fooled. The food is delicous, the portions good and the prices very reasonable! When you want dumplings this is the place to go. Also, the eggplant in oyster sauce is exceptional here!

Steakhouse was taken off the list with a groupon at Angus Steakhouse. My main complaint with this place is location. It's located at the Wanchai Pier which is kind of hard to find if you don't know where you're going. The restaurant staff was very nice and personable but it felt very empty. Everyone there was on the groupon. Portions were huge and tasty! Steak was cooked well. Lots of veggies although they didn't have a seafood free salad option for my dining partner who is anti-seafood. They easily took it off no problem la! (They did give him a strange look though when he asked for his salad plain...) I don't really see how this place made a profit on us diners last night but as long as groupons are offered on steak dinners I will buy them! Next week, french lunch at a fancy place in soho...

80 Days Around the World- Week Four

We had another team member join us this week! We were running a tad behind and one of our fellow foodies in HK, Louise decided to join in on the challenge with us! She lives on Lamma Island and works in the NT a lot so she's going to help us hit some different areas. We got a lot more done this week then on previous weeks.

We had an overall issue with shitty service this week. I don't know why but all the wait staff were assholes at every place we went to. I know that waiters don't get paid a lot in HK but seriously a bad waiter can RUIN a meal. At Yorkshire Pudding in Soho we were shoved in the back corner and almost had to flash our tits to get a waiter's attention. Our waiter at Outback Steakhouse would actually sigh and roll his eyes when you asked him for something. He obviously hated his job. It took about 3 times for Delaneys in Wanchai to get my order correct. I know it was St. Patty's Day and super busy but the staff should take some pride in their work!

Louise hit up Thai food in Tsing Yi, Indian on Lamma Island, Hot Pot in Mongkok and Moroccan in Soho. She gave overall positive grades. She always looks to see if a restaurant has veggie options for the non-meat eaters in her group and that the service is good.

I'm still missing a couple places that Matty hit this week. So, most likely I'll make an update during the week. I found good fish n' chips at The Chippy on Wellington, although I think the blue banner place in Stanley right on the water is better. (Rosemary in the batter makes all the difference!) Chippy is good, fast and has deep fried Mars Bars. I really can't complain. I had great Greek food at Olive, but I always have good food here. Matty and I personally love the salmon cooked in paper.

We re-spaced the list and added the number of what's left to the end of the article. Hopefully, this will make the challenge a bit easier to understand and help any issues with formatting we were having!

80 Days Around the World- Week Three

Not as much progress as we would have liked this week! Matthew got a bout of food poisoning due to bad sushi in Jordan. (The one on Pedder street with the orange banner.) I didn't much during the week due to my busy schedule so I really stepped it up on the weekend and managed to knock of 3 entries in one saturday!

I knocked off a few latin places this week with Mexican at Agave which does a great 2-4-1 margarita deal. The margaritas are really good here and the food is ok. I think the food is better at Coyote across the street but you can't beat a 2-4-1 deal on margaritas! (Happy Birthday Matt!) They have lots of vegetarian options but the bathrooms are serial killer scary.

Spanish was taken care of by Tapas at Bacar. Great Tapa selection, although I think some are a little pricey. I don't like their dessert menu either as it has no options for people with nut allergies other than the fruit plate. (And who wants fruit for dessert!?) They have a great pizza and pitcher deal on Sundays and Mondays where you get a flatbread pizza and a pitcher of whatever you like for $150HKD. Can't beat that price!

Pizza was a little bit of a surprise at a tiny, hole in the wall place in TST called Mosaic. Great food, but I didn't particularly care for the service. They seemed more interested in watching the football match then taking orders or bringing menus. Cheap and tasty, you still can't go wrong. But you can smoke inside this restaurant so don't come if you have smoke allergies!

Pie was a delicious treat from The Real Bread Cafe. You must have dessert at this place! Super yummy options and BIG coffee cups! Lemon Meringue was excellent! Eric had the apple pie on a previous date here and also loved it. Carrot Cake is nut free here! (BONUS!)

For brunch this week we tried a new place in Sheung Wan on Hollywood Rd called Serendipity. It had plenty of veggie options and healthy options. So we went vegetarian in hopes of knocking one off this list. Food portions are TINY here! I left feeling hungry! But the food is healthier than your usual brunch and the coffee is good. (Although the cups are dollhouse small!)

Due to our slow pace this week we're really going to have to step it up next week! Hopefully the Asian countries will be much easier and cheaper to hit then all the European fare. We are still looking for great recommendations from readers!

80 Days Around the World- Week Two

Week two has been a relative success! We had a few snafoos in our original plan/budget with the Gaga ticket escapade but thankfully have been able to sort things out. It has been a relatively slow week for eating but we were able to mark off a few more countries! For Vietnam, Matt went to one of our favorite places the Bao Bao King in Jordan. They have cheap but good food and options for both the meat eaters and vegetarians in our group. Friendly staff and FYI, ask for the secret sandwhich menu.

On Monday we had German food at a resteraunt called the Berliner. We ate at the one in Olympic. I would recommend lunch time for this place as it is pricey but the food was good and you get large portions. LOVED the dessert that came with our lunch set! Scotland was handled by the Canny Man in Wanchai. Good selection including a vegetarian haggis. Very warm and comfy bar. They also are a big supporter of local theatre. Support a restaurant that supports local artists! The salmon is REALLY good!

We had brunch at Lotus. The food was ok and the service ok. I did not enjoy my laksa as it was not laksa; more like spaghetti with chili pepper sauce. There was no broth and everyone knows the best part of laksa is the broth! Matt loved his Eggs Nordic!

Matty also took a couple other establishments off the list with a visit to Dimpal Fusion in Jordan to mark off Middle Eastern. They have good food but terrible service. Food had to sent back and by the time it was ready he had to take it to go! We recommend this place for off hours rather than the lunch rush. Also, be careful with special requests. This place gave me peanuts once in my food despite being told to keep them away and often messes up orders. He also went to Cafe Bistro which is a tiny Christian establishment in Jordan with two locations. Ran by very nice people the food is getting better. They had great food when they first opened but had an unfortunate chef switch a couple months ago. Their food is now back on track although it leaves something to be desired in the veggie category. The infamous cum baby picture can only be seen at the Shanghai St. branch on the 2nd floor.

With 65 days left and a lot more countries to hit we have a lot more work to do! If you have any restaurant recommendations leave it in the comments!

80 Days Around the World- Week One

Dear Fellow Challengers,

Week one has come and gone as of tomorrow and I have eaten only 6 kinds of food. I think I need to either increase my paycheck or spend less on theatre tickets to afford this challenge. Over all the week was good. We started off the challenge with Ivan the Kozak because we got a GROUPON for it! The food is always yummy but they shrunk the portions recently and we all left still a little hungry. The chairs are also the WORST at this place. My butt hurt after sitting there for about twenty minutes.

Diner was handled by the Hong Kong classic, The Flying Pan. We went to the Wanchai one after a show and the food was good. The staff was ok, but it was late and they were probably tired. Their grits are not grits. By using yellow corn, it's technically polenta. I tried to explain this to someone once and failed to get them to understand.

Cupcakes were handled by Sweet Secrets and their amazing ability to make me nut free cupcakes! I never can eat carrot cake (despite loving it) because people love to put walnuts in it. But at Sweet Secrets I can eat them and I don't have to have fear about dropping dead!

Sushi was Genki Sushi, a large chain in HK that makes good sushi at a good price. Sushi is so cheap in HK compared to America. You can eat Sashimi for 40HK which is about a 5th of the price of the same thing in the US. I will always have a hard time paying US prices now that I know how cheap it can be.

Frites is a great little Belgian Bar in Central near the Peel St. Market. Great Fries and Kreik Beer. I'm happy. The food smelled really good but I didn't really have time to eat a full dinner. (Although the schnitzel was calling my name!!!) I recommend this place for a dinner date as it is super cozy and reminded me of all the bars in Belgium!

Around the World in 80 Days- The Challenge

So, my friend Matty just offhandedly said one day, "The boy and I are thinking of trying to eat all the different kinds of food in HK." I of course, cannot just hear something like this without thinking of how I can turn it into a challenge/game for myself and my friends to compete in.
So, I told Matty "I have an awesome idea. Let's try to eat all the food in HK in 80 days and go around the world cuisine wise in 80 days." We can do it as a team and try to hit as many as possible in twice the amount of time as baby Jesus spent in the desert.
So here are the kinds of cuisine we're going to hit.
The last 10 we had to get really creative on because we ran out of countries! Let us know if we have missed a major one or know of secret spot we should check out!
We are working in a team, we don't have to eat together for every meal. Rules to come later with posting about first meal!