Carrie Lam Fractures Elbow

Lam's selfie with her right arm in a sling after her fall

This morning Hongkongers woke up to the news that Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had fractured her right elbow from a fall on a flight of stairs at Government House last night ahead of a banquet with retired colleagues. She was rushed to Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam where she spent the night and was discharged this morning.

"At first I thought it was just an abrasion, but then my right arm became more painful and so I decided to seek treatment at Queen Mary Hospital after sending off the guests," she wrote in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon. "It's believed that it will take two or three weeks for recovery."

Lam was discharged from hospital this morning

She added in her post that she had a brain scan and additional check-ups while in hospital. Might as well, right, since Lam is so busy.

The accident was revealed shortly after midnight on Monday to announce she would follow the doctor's advice to stay overnight in the hospital for observation, and that the weekly Executive Council or Exco meeting, and media briefing on Tuesday morning would be cancelled. 

Lam said many of her friends told her the accident was a good opportunity for her to rest.

"I think it is a positive way of thinking as in fact, I have not taken any leave for three years already," she wrote. Well, most of us have not taken a break because of the coronavirus pandemic either. But Lam insists on getting the gold star for being extremely hard working.

Lee will take over as CE, but for how long?

She has proudly told the media before that she is a workaholic, and doesn't even have time to talk to her husband.

However, she admits she now finds it hard to get dressed and write. Who writes these days? And if she's resting for a few days or weeks, nothing wrong with wearing T-shirts and sweatpants like all of us did last year.

In the meantime Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu will be serving as acting chief executive but speculation is rife over how long it will be before Lam takes over the reins again.

Vaccinations with Some Benefits

Perhaps more people will get the jab with shorter quarantines?

Many things happened today. Here is a quick summary:

Former Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai was granted urgent bail on Friday morning to attend his father's funeral, but was a no-show tonight at the memorial service at the funeral hall in Diamond Hill.

It is believed he will be attending the funeral ceremony tomorrow at an undisclosed location and time.

Wu smiled when his bail application was approved.

An entire block in Quarry Bay was quarantined

"Thank you, everyone", he said, to shouts of encouragement from supporters as he was escorted out of the dock by officers. 

On the Covid-19 front, the government has finally realized it needs to create incentives for people to get vaccinated. It has relented to allow those who are fully vaccinated (plus 14 days) and are close contacts of someone infected with a mutated virus can now just do two weeks in the camp, and another seven days at home.

If someone is fully vaccinated and is a close contact of someone infected with a non-mutant strain will stay in the camp for only seven days instead of 14 days.

It's a bit of an improvement.

There are three residential buildings in Quarry Bay, Pokfulam and Tsuen Wan currently under mandatory quarantine because each one was found to have someone with a mutant virus. Originally every single resident in those affected buildings had to be sent to quarantine, but after a massive uproar that included two online petitions to Secretary of Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee, the government backtracked.

In Tsuen Wan people were escorted to quarantine

Now only close contacts to the infected person must undergo quarantine, as long as the others not deemed close contacts have tested negative four times during a self-monitoring period.

Meanwhile for those coming into Hong Kong and have been double vaccinated, there is a bit of hope in terms of shorter hotel quarantines -- but it depends on where they are coming from.

People with two does of vaccines coming in from low-risk countries, such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will just have to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days instead of 21, but they must have Covid-19 tests on two separate days afterwards.

For medium-risk countries, such as Canada, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Romania, Russia, Switzerland and the United States, fully vaccinated people can have a 14-day stay in hotel quarantine, otherwise it's the full 21 days.

However for extremely high-risk places like Brazil, India, Nepal, the Philippines and South Africa, the 21-day hotel quarantine is a must for them. 

Currently almost 14 percent of Hong Kong's population has had at least one jab, but only over 8 percent are fully vaccinated. 

Some coming to HK can shorten quarantine stays

Will this latest news help boost the city's vaccination drive? We hope so. Who wants to be stuck in a government quarantine camp with crappy food, spotty wifi and uncomfortable beds for 21 days, let alone 14 days?

I managed to persuade a relative to get his jab which he did over a week ago, and he in turn persuaded some colleagues to do the same.

However, after news broke about the mutated virus in Hong Kong, the Health Commission of Guangdong Province ruled yesterday with immediate effect that Hong Kong residents must spend 14 days in hotel quarantine, and another seven days confined in their homes or other forms of accommodation.

In effect, it's 21 days in quarantine.

This latest development has dashed hopes that the border between Hong Kong and Guangdong will be lifted anytime soon.

"It is unimaginable when the border will be restored," said Danny Lau Tat-pong, honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises, 1,700-member chamber.

"Business owners and operators including myself have waited for more than a year and are still waiting."

HK travelers to Shenzhen now 21-day quarantine

Lau said cross-border businesses have been significantly disrupted, forcing Hong Kong operators to either be stuck in the mainland and not be reunited with their families, or they are forced to manage their factories remotely, and business meetings with clients can only be contacted online.

He has not been able to visit his factory in Dalang, which produces aluminum curtain walls, since January last year.

Chinese Manufacturers' Association honorary president Dennis Ng Wang-pun urged mainland authorities to relax the 21-day quarantine requirement for Hongkongers who have been inoculated.

"Businesses cannot operate remotely forever, we still have to meet clients and visit factories in person," he said.

"The border reopening will be crucial to Hong Kong's economic recovery, and will directly throw a lifeline to tourism, retail and food and beverage sectors."

Given that China's own vaccination rates are low, surely it should give Hongkongers -- aren't they Chinese too? -- a break.

Perhaps this is something Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor should be lobbying the Guangdong authorities? Or is she too busy telling people to go to Hainan Island instead?

Scenic Southside Walk

An old battery at the U of Chicago campus

 

Today we played urban tourists and walked over 12k from Kennedy Town all the way to Ap Lei Chau! This is not a route most people would go, but it was time to visit the south side of Hong Kong Island.

Looking at Bel-Air in Cyberport from Victoria Rd

At the start of the walk we visited the University of Chicago campus that was designed by the late Vancouver architect Bing Thom. His signature clean lines, incorporating the building into the heritage site as well as the natural landscape was clear here.

He is remembered with a replica of his drawing carved in stone that says "Tree of knowledge" on it, referring to the campus offering an education to students and faculty. 

The site also includes a battery to hold a gun emplacement looking out to the sea. But the weapon has been long gone, and instead a large deep circular pit is left behind. 

A sculpture of a dragon boat

We then walked to Cyberport for a quick pit stop, a mall in the middle of no where, but offers a hodgepodge of food options for people living in the area. Nearby the grass at the park was downright deplorable, completely dry and dusty. 

Pressing on we walked up a gentle incline back up onto Victoria Road before it merged into Pok Fu Lam Road. We passed by Wah Fu Estate and then soon we were in Aberdeen. The promenade there is short but nice, a bit touristy with a model of a dragon boat and some bronze statues depicting life in the area centuries before that are related to fishing.

Then we found the entrance to the bridge to go further south to Ap Lei Chau and South Horizons. We made it to Lei Tung and then my friend pointed up to a giant hill called Yuk Kwai Shan or Mount Johnston to climb! I was not prepared for that with not enough water and we had already walked 12k! I also had a time crunch to be back in time to eat at 4.30pm (linner or dunch) before the restaurant closed at 6pm.

Lots of boats docked around Aberdeen

So we turned back and caught the bus back to Causeway Bay. Guess we head up to Yuk Kwai Shan next time but perhaps without the prologue of walking all the way there!

Picture of the Day: Lo Pan Temple

The Lo Pan Temple contrasts with highrises

 

Today from Kennedy Town I walked along Victoria Road and the Mount Davis Road. There are many nice flats in the area and I saw some girls in uniform walking down. Turns out they study at St Clare's Girls' School which was founded by missionary sisters from Quebec. That explains the students wearing red scarves with a maple leaf embroidered at the bottom.

Large Chinese-style grave sites at Pok Fu Lam

Down below I could see Mt Davis Road was parallel to Victoria Road and I could have kept going, but then decided to go along a highway overpass that took me to Pok Fu Lam Road. Below the overpass was a hillside with very large Chinese graves. 

Pok Fu Lam Road is very busy and pedestrians only have a few opportunities to cross the road via an underpass. The first one I went into was a maze with no signs for directions and I just chose a path to go on and ended up on the other side of the street! Later one I took another underpass to go back to the other side. 

Then there was a sign for Lo Pan Temple and I decided to check it out. I went down some stairs and saw the temple's roof, an archaic building in modern Hong Kong. Then I went down to see it and it is built for Lo Pan, the patron saint of Chinese builders and contractors.

The temple's curious jagged roof from the back

It was first built in 1884 for Lo Pan, or Lu Ban in Mandarin. He was a Chinese carpenter, engineer, philosopher, inventor, military thinker, and statesman during the Spring and Autumn period in China.

I took a quick look inside, though an elderly man was staring at me and I wondered if I should step inside and thought better not! But inside is a two-hall structure, with an unusual jagged roof and many colourful ceramic figurines decorating the roof.  

A quick walk along the neighbourhood revealed if I walked straight down I would hit Sands Street in Kennedy Town. So instead I took the long way, walking back up the stairs and continued a bit further down to HKU MTR station and then walked down Hill Road to Shek Tong Tsui.

The front of Lo Pan Temple

It was an interesting meander in the neighbourhood. 

Picture of the Day: Forest Bathing

Chilly but clear blue skies looking down on Hong Kong

A friend I met who I bump into at the swimming pool often (but now is closed because of the latest government restrictions), asked me if I hiked much. I admitted not, but would I be interested in joining her on Friday morning?

At 8.30am?!

Waterfalls and lots of greenery everywhere

Whenever I have to wake up early the next morning I don't get a good night's sleep, but I managed to get up and meet her at the Sai Ying Pun MTR station where she guided me up to Bonham Road and up Oakland Path to Kotewall Road which is the start of the Morning Trail up to The Peak.

However, my friend took me another way which is much longer in terms of distance and time, and not steep all the way. The path practically had no one on it though we passed some dog walkers -- and friendly dogs! -- and some trail runners getting a good workout.

The path took us through lots of forested area which was wonderful, immersing ourselves in nature and inhaling fresh oxygen. We kept walking all the way to the southside above Pokfulam and Queen Mary Hospital before we went up a wide asphalt road that seemed to wind along forever upwards with no end. And then before we knew it, over two and a half hours later, we were at the Peak Tower via the Pokfulam Reservoir Road.

A quick loo break and we walked down via the Morning Trail. Since we went up early, we saw many huffing and puffing their way up the path as we zoomed down back to Kotewall Road and then back to Sai Ying Pun. 

View of Queen Mary Hospital (left) and south HK

In the end I completed over 15.8K and spent over 1,000 calories! Needless to say I was ravenous when I got home, then took a shower and a badly needed nap!

Another friend wants to go up the Peak tomorrow too...!

Long Walks Yield Discoveries

Brilliant fuchsia flowers to brighten up an overcast day

Perhaps because the weather was overcast today, or people finally heeded the warnings of health officials, fewer people were seen out and about during the Easter holiday.

Today Hong Kong had 11 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total to exactly 1,000; of the new cases, 10 were from overseas, one was local.

Stone Manor was so intriguing I had to take a closer look

To make sure I would avoid crowds of people like along the waterfront, I walked along Victoria Road, a relatively quiet road that few people walk on because of the long incline involved, and it passes by a garbage dump area that has a certain smell... thankfully wearing a mask helps block the pungent odors!

Along Victoria Road are cemeteries and a handful of people came out to belatedly visit their ancestors for Qing Ming. I even spotted my relatives from across the street who were carrying bunches of flowers. For a second I wondered if I should join them, but decided they probably didn't want my company in our era of social distancing and continued on my way.

I passed by socialite Brenda Chau Tam Yuet-ching's home called Villa D'Oro that apparently has a gold toilet, and tycoon Cecil Chao Sze-tsung's place across the street with Happy Lodge where he has probably had numerous trysts.

There are two of these crests, one on each gate

I walked all the way to Sassoon Road and at the roundabout, spotted a house made of stone and circled round to take a closer look. After some research I find Stone Manor was built in the 1930s and is the home of the late Henry Fok Ying-tung's family. Drapes cover up the windows, but it looks like it should be in the English countryside than on a quiet street in Pokfulam.

The gates have a crest that say: Semper Fidelis", or "always loyal".

The last time the home was in the news was when Fok's son Kenneth Fok Kai-kong married former Olympic diver Guo Jingjing there in 2012.

Perhaps I should go on more walks to discover other interesting things!

Univited Help Arrives

PLA soldiers removing bricks from the road in Kowloon Tong today

This afternoon some residents who live around Pok Fu Lam Road and the University of Hong Kong began clearing the road that had been blocked for the past few days. There were some scuffles with protesters, but for the most part the volunteer clean-up crew were left alone.

Another clean-effort was underway around the Baptist University campus, but Hong Kong residents had some help from an unexpected group -- the People's Liberation Army.

A fellow soldier (right) filmed the soldiers cleaning up

From video clips it looks like several dozen soldiers from the PLA came out of their Kowloon Tong barracks around 4pm dressed in khaki T-shirts and black shorts, or in what look like colourful basketball singlets. Armed with bamboo brooms and red buckets, the soldiers started clearing broken bricks that were strewn all over Renfrew Road that the protesters had left behind.

The last time the soldiers came out was after the devastation of super typhoon Manghkut last October, when they helped to remove felled trees from Hong Kong's country parks. Their help wasn't requested that time either and today they just showed up unannounced.

Oh and yes they had a film crew document their good deed of the day.

According to Article 14 in the Basic Law:

The Central People's Government shall be responsible for the defence of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 
 
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be responsible for the maintenance of public order in the Region. 

Last year the PLA helped clean up the country parks

 
Military forces stationed by the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for defence shall not interfere in the local affairs of the Region. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region may, when necessary, ask the Central People's Government for assistance from the garrison in the maintenance of public order and in disaster relief. 
 
In addition to abiding by national laws, members of the garrison shall abide by the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 
 
Expenditure for the garrison shall be borne by the Central People's Government.

In this case the PLA is cleaning up roads... a spokesman for the garrison said the police force did not ask them to volunteer. "Stopping violence is everyone's duty," a man giving commands to the soldiers said to reporters.

But in the Basic Law, what the PLA were doing was illegal

Later when pressed by the media, the Hong Kong government replied: "The Hong Kong Garrison’s assistance... is purely a voluntary community activity initiated by themselves. The HKSAR Government has not requested the Garrison’s assistance.” 

Which means the PLA voluntary cleaning-up exercise this afternoon was illegal. 





What is this? It's a test, a trial balloon to see what the public's reaction is to the soldiers, not in uniform, but "volunteering" their time and effort in helping Hong Kong get back on its feet. Some people who watched the PLA soldiers clapped in approval, while the pan-democrats are ringing the alarm bells over this.

Security veteran and Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun believed the move by the PLA was not ordered by the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

"This time, it doesn't look like voluntary service," he said, referring to the soldiers' previous participation in tree planting. "It's more like assisting the maintenance of public order."

A lot of obstacles that need to be cleaned up in Hong Kong

He said if the operation was not based on the Garrison Law, then the soldiers should not come out to clear bricks. "It could be dangerous," To added, referring to potential clashes between them and the protesters.

"They may say PLA soldiers have been attacked... then they can use heavy weapons. This is the most worrying thing."

But the protesters did not confront the soldiers... hopefully knowing there was no point in trying to even fight them.

But having the PLA come out unannounced is rather concerning, especially since protesters are fighting to prevent further interference from Beijing...
 

Dim Sum Spot: Sun Hing Restaurant

Fried glutinous rice wrapped in egg skins that aren't found in many restaurants

There's a dim sum place called Sun Hing Restaurant in Kennedy Town that opens at 3am -- yes three in the morning -- until 4pm everyday.

A tiny, chaotic place filled with regulars and first timers

Some friends have been there and even gweilo chefs know to go there to eat after they've finished late at night and are feeling hungry.

My relatives suggested we go there this morning as today is Ching Ming and it is on the way to where our ancestors' graves are in Pokfulam.

We got there just before 9am and inside it's very small and very chaotic. People are roaming around with their dim sum cards, staff are carrying out trays of freshly steamed dishes, with lots of shouting for people to get out of the way.

Luck would have it we managed to snag a table for four of us sitting on red plastic stools -- with an extra middle-aged guy calmly taking his time, sitting there playing with his smartphone. He could tell we were newbies and suggested which dim sum for us to get -- but really he meant just get whatever comes by.

Steamed pork topped with quail eggs

Some of the dishes we had include tripe in curry sauce, salted egg yolk steamed buns, braised chicken feet, steamed turnip cake, steamed rice rolls with minced meat, dace fish balls, and siu mai. The kitchen had no time to make har gao, even though everyone was clamouring for it.

However we did have some dim sum that you don't see much these days, like steamed pork topped with quail egg, fried glutinous rice wrapped in an egg yolk skin, pork liver with pork balls, and giant tofu topped with fish paste.

Together with some more steamed buns and Malay steamed sponge cake, the total came to HK$440 which was very reasonable. No wonder people flock here and are willing to wait.

Nevertheless I have to say afterwards I felt very thirsty and wonder if the dim sum had a good dose of MSG in it...!

Sun Hing Restaurant opens at 3am until 4pm everyday

Sun Hing Restaurant
Shop C, G/F, 8 Smithfield Road
Kennedy Town
2816 0616

Donald Tsang Loses Appeal

Donald Tsang was rushed to hospital after he lost his appeal in court

Disgraced former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen did it again -- he came into court to hear the verdict of his appeal, and came out claiming illness and was carried out in a stretcher.

Today his appeal to turn over a conviction for misconduct while in public office was rejected. It was for not declaring his interest in a three-storey penthouse flat in Shenzhen that he was leasing from a company owned by Chinese businessman Bill Wong Cho-bau.

Businessman Bill Wong Cho-bau let Tsang a flat in Shenzhen

Wong was also majority shareholder of radio station Wave Media, that was applying for a  broadcasting license of which Tsang was in charge of approving these license applications.

Three Court of Appeal judges unanimously ruled the evidence was "formidable as it was compelling", that the 73-year-old Tsang had concealed this conflict of interest from the public while he was chief executive from 2005-2012.

However, his original sentence of 20 months in jail was reduced to 12 months, while his fine of HK$3 million to cover prosecution costs was dropped to only HK$1 million.

Apparently the court took into consideration the impact of paying the full amount would have had on Tsang, as he was "not a wealthy businessman but a retired civil servant", who would depend solely on his savings and pension in his remaining years.

Tsang was to live in the penthouse flat

Can we remind readers that the salary of the chief executive of Hong Kong is over HK$300,000 a month -- which is more than what then US President Barack Obama was paid at HK$260,000, while Chinese President Xi Jinping makes HK$14,000.

And being a career civil servant for 40 years, surely Tsang has a decent chunk of change in the bank -- he certainly made much more than the average person in Hong Kong -- or perhaps he is completely unaware of how us plebeians live.

How long will he be at Queen Mary Hospital in Pokfulam, and will that count for jail time as well?

Meanwhile, outside the court his wife Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei said, "Today I feel disappointed, and my heart aches."

Tsang looked fine when he arrived at court this morning

Will this be the last we hear of Tsang, the son of a police officer? Probably not...

HK Housing Prices Continue to Soar

Can you live in a 209 sq ft home that costs US$1 million?

Just when you think property prices can't get any worse, they do.

A flat slightly bigger than a shipping container has been sold for HK$7.86 million (US$1 million), which is HK$37,651 per square foot. A shipping container is 165 sq ft.

The 209-square foot flat is located on Pokfulam Road in Sai Ying Pun, which is part of an 11-unit development built by Kowloon Development. So far the company has sold 60 percent of the flats at Emerald House that range from 209 sq ft to 310 sq ft and cost as much as HK$11.29 million.

The microflats are being built in Sai Ying Pun

And just as you are shaking your head in disbelief, the latest survey shows that 27 percent of Hong Kong people don't ever expect to own a flat. The survey by REA Group, a digital advertising firm that specializes in property, says of 1,003 respondents carried out by Nielsen, 16 percent have no plan to buy property at all because the prices are beyond their reach.

Home prices rose for the 22nd consecutive month in January. If the average Hong Kong person makes about HK$17,200 per month, it will take them 30 years of monthly income to afford a HK$6 million flat. That means not buying anything, let alone eating anything.

REA Group says this inability to afford housing leads to social issues like couples delaying marriage. And as young people can only afford tiny flats that minimizes the amount of stuff they can have in them, and living in tight quarters can also cause more friction between people. Also having to live in a small place long term is hardly good for one's mental health.

How much stuff can you squeeze into a microflat?

But that's the reality in Hong Kong -- the government isn't doing enough to step in to build social housing, or help young people get their foot in the door to help them towards owning a flat.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po isn't doing much to help this segment of people, only homeowners with a small break of not having to pay government rates for a whole year. Whoohoo.

If he helped more young people move a giant step forward closer to owning a flat, perhaps there would be more optimism in the city -- that there is hope, that they can feel proud of being in the city and feel more welcome as residents.

However it seems the government doesn't have that kind of long-term thinking. It only wants to build an even bigger war chest... for what?

Photo of the Day: Bike Sharing

A Gobee bike along Victoria Road, west of Kennedy Town of all places!

Gobee Bike is a Hong Kong initiative in the bike-sharing business. It launched in April to lacklustre fanfare when it turned out the app was only available on Android and not iPhones on the first day.

Then a few days later it was back in the headlines because it was discovered that several of its green bikes were in the Shing Mun River in Sha Tin, while others were found damaged.

But somehow earlier this month, Gobee Bike got HK$9 billion -- yes billion -- from internet-of-things fund led by Mail.Ru co-founder Dmitry Grishin, with Alibaba's Hong Kong entrepreneurship fund kicking in some of the dough too.

To start up the service, Gobee previously got pre-launch seed money led by Swiss Founders Fund.

Hong Kong people are naturally skeptical about bike sharing -- not many people even ride bikes to start with since a good part of the area is too hilly, and also bike lanes are relegated to the New Territories, where leisure bike riders clog up the paths for more serious ones.

A stunning view further up from where the bike was...

So it was to my great surprise when I was walking up Victoria Road towards Pokfulam to see a Gobee Bike parked on the sidewalk. How the heck did it get all the way from the New Territories to here?

I walked and ran a bit further along Victoria Road and then turned back to go home to see the green bicycle still there!

In any event one does wonder if Gobee is making any money and who are using the bikes anyway?

Just seems like the wrong service to launch in the city when drivers don't care to share the road, nor pay much attention to pedestrians either!

Aussie Brunch Feast

Little Creatures is right by the waterfront, and caters to large groups

Yesterday I met up with my relatives for our belated grave-sweeping day in Pokfulam. In the morning it was overcast, but by the time we met up in the late morning, the sun was poking out and hardly any clouds in sight. Many other people had the same idea as us, and even the police was on standby in case there were any incidents.

Afterwards we headed to Kennedy Town, and the request from the younger generation was to eat anything not Chinese. This wasn't too hard to fulfill, with several options in mind.

The amiable uni carbonara with very fresh sea urchin on top

My first choice was Little Creatures since two in the party are interested in beer (or alcohol). Little Creatures is an Australian craft beef place and as the restaurant is very deep inside, they had no problems accommodating our group of nine.

The menu had a lot of options and we decided to share some dishes. We quite liked the beetroot and goat cheese salad (HK$95), that came with hazelnuts, greens and a sherry vinaigrette. Another straight-forward salad is the Romaine lettuce one (HK$90) with anchovy dressing and Parmesan.

The pizzas were geared more for one or two people sharing, not nine. However, we enjoyed the thin crusts and how they were quite light. I didn't get to try the mushroom one (HK$110) with truffle paste, rocket leaves, emmental and mozzarella, but the prawn one (HK$145) featured random bits of prawn with cajun spice, sweet peppers, emmental and mozzarella.

Everyone was impressed by the uni carbonara (HK$160). They were surprised a western restaurant would have sea urchin on the menu... which kind of demonstrates how locals who eat mostly Chinese food don't know that uni sells whatever cuisine you're serving.

The sinfully delicious brownie with ice cream on top

The sea urchin was very fresh, and the creaminess added another dimension to the otherwise straightforward carbonara with pancetta. The pappardelle bolognese (HK$140) was delicious too, combining lamb, beef and pork with pecorino cheese with wide pasta noodles.

A fun dish to share is the smash avocado bowl (HK$90), where the avocado is whipped up in a processor, and seasoned with lemon, coriander and bits of tomato and paprika, served with deep-fried tortillas. Corn chips would have been fine, as we had to break up the large tortillas ourselves, and you either got a big chunk or a tiny morsel.

I caught the tail end of the grilled merguez sausage (HK$120), a slightly spicy sausage, accompanied with an onsen egg, and new potatoes seasoned with harissa. This would have been my brunch choice if I ordered my own plate...

On the whole we all enjoyed the food, the portions were OK and nicely seasoned.

A ginormous house made cake with marscapone

To finish the meal we ordered three desserts, one of them being waffles (HK$95) that's part of the brunch menu. But more impressive were the brownie and house made cake.

The brownie came with a scoop of ice cream on top and then the server poured thick hot chocolate sauce on top. Oh boy. And it was sweet as expected, but had a rich chocolately taste.

A slice of house made cake is enormous! Luckily there were many of us to share it! It was a chocolate marbled cake that wasn't too sweet and came with a scoop of marscarpone.

After that I had a nap and then proceeded to hit the treadmill to burn off those calories! I'd eaten at Little Creatures when it first opened, and then again a few months ago so it's good to know the consistency and quality is still there.

Little Creatures

Shop 1, G/F, New Fortune House

5A New Praya

Kennedy Town
2833 5611

littlecreatures.hk

Getting Closer to Food Trucks in Hong Kong

The 16 winners of the cooking competition with Gregory So (in white)

Food trucks in Hong Kong are one step closer to reality after a cook-off was held yesterday at the Chinese Culinary Institute in Pokfulam.

Fifty-one applicants presented their signature dishes to nine judges, many of whom are celebrity chefs, and from there 16 winners were chosen.

What was strange was that the whole process was opaque -- the media wasn't allowed to watch the actually cooking and taste the food, nor did they taste the winning entries either.

Reporters were only shown pictures of the dishes, photographed against dark backgrounds, as if to make them look cooler, but instead made them look less like food truck food.

So wore a chef jacket, but boasts no culinary skills

At the press conference, Gregory So Kam-leung, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development wore a chef's jacket, even though he professed to not have a sophisticated enough palate to judge the applicants' food...

However, six judges came on stage and commented on the winning dishes, some of them making them sound more delicious than they looked. One example from Tan Sing Cafe was a pineapple bun "hamburger", complete with a patty, lettuce, tomato and fried egg.

Another was a whole grilled squid on a bed of greens. It immediately made me think of "chao yao yu", which means deep-fried squid, or the Cantonese slang for "being sacked".

One winning dish from Mitsu Company featured fried rice (also with a fried egg on top), served on a plate that looked like an artist's palette, and on the edge were small containers to hold several different sauces. How was that dish, called "sakura shrimp umami sauce fried rice" supposed to work in a real food truck situation? Does that mean diners have to eat the dish on the plate near the food truck and then return the dish afterwards?

We also wondered about a fish maw soup -- how much was that going to cost? And isn't fish maw expensive?

When reporters talked to some of the winners, they admitted they didn't expect this food truck venture to make much money; they looked at it as an opportunity to be pioneers in this field in Hong Kong and saw it as a way to gain more experience in the food industry.

One successful applicant, Raymond Chu Wai-man, was a chef in the UK for 17 to 18 years, and when he heard Hong Kong was starting a food truck culture, he specifically came back to his hometown to try to get a food truck license.

He'll be selling a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches and real fruit smoothies to go with them.

Turns out only a few were big players, and they weren't even Maxim's, Cafe de Coral or even Butcher's Club. However a subsidiary of Chee Kei, a famous wonton noodle chain won, as well as Beef & Liberty, best known for its burgers and its winner was the slow-cooked pulled pork burger which is already on its menu.

Winning the food test doesn't mean the 16 successful applicants will automatically get food truck licenses -- they still have to individually apply and comply with the requirements of each of the departments involved.

Seems like a lot of hoop jumping for the applicants, while legislation hasn't caught up with the demand for food trucks in the city.

Isn't that like putting the cart before the horse?

The last thing the government should do is leave these 16 winners in a lurch if laws aren't in place to help foster this fledgling industry. They really have invested a lot of time and effort into this project.

In the meantime, what about also boosting our local food culture of dai pai dongs? They're an even more interesting food attraction than food trucks, no?