Government Steps Up Testing

The five-star hotel was shut down with 300 staff in quarantine

 

Hong Kong recorded eight new coronavirus cases today, three of which were from The Royal Garden Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui East. Earlier a server in the Vietnamese restaurant Le Soleil tested positive, which prompted the Centre for Health Protection to give out test kits to all the hotel employees and three more were found, another waiter at the Sabatini Ristorante Italiano, one who works in the buffet, and a technician. 

They are all male, which the CHP deduced they all shared the same space in the male changing room and possibly lounge area.

How about drinks with a deep throat saliva test?

In the end 300 staff were sent into quarantine, and as a result the five-star hotel was shut down by management, not CHP.

All the guests' bookings were immediately cancelled, or moved to other hotels in the city, such as the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, including a wedding reception for tomorrow. Talk about an immediate upgrade.

Tonight the Hong Kong government decided to be more proactive and had a mobile testing centre stationed at Lan Kwai Fong this evening and hand out free test kits to any bar patron or staff who wanted to get tested for free.

The effort is in conjunction with Prenetics, the city's largest private laboratory and they planned to hand out 1,000 kits of specimen bottles for deep saliva tonight, another 1,000 in Tsim Sha Tsui tomorrow, and another 1,000 in Wan Chai on Sunday.

Prenetics staff hand out kits to bar goers tonight

By the way the government is subsidizing the test at HK$900 a pop.  

It'll be interesting to see how many are actually interested in having drinks with friends and a deep throat swab on the side, but it makes the tests more accessible and possible to find more positive cases...

Picture of the Day: Where's the Traffic?

The near empty Harcourt Road in Wan Chai towards Causeway Bay

This afternoon I had a lunch appointment followed by a meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong which is above Kowloon Station. I didn't finish until very late afternoon and had to get back to the office and so I took a taxi.

For traffic at 4.40pm there weren't that many cars on the road along the Western Tunnel, and then on Hong Kong Island we went along Lung Wo Road, passing by the Central Harbour front area where Clockenflap would have been set up by now if it hadn't cancelled, then cut onto Harcourt Road.

This main artery is usually choc a block with cars inching towards the Cross Harbour Tunnel, but since it has been blocked for a week by protesters, traffic was amazingly light. I could hardly believe it that I had to take a picture.

But once we got onto the Canal Road flyover, the regular traffic jam was back, slowly going up the on ramp, then passing Times Square before getting off. There were so many cars going towards the shopping mall that the taxi driver dropped me off a block away to avoid getting stuck.

The closure of the Cross Harbour Tunnel has affected hundreds of thousands of commuters daily and it is unclear when it will be reopened. But for the rest of us, having feeder routes to the tunnel completely empty have been a strange but welcome relief.

Picture of the Day: Typhoon 3

Dramatic clouds over Victoria Harbour this afternoon

These few days we have had a lot of rain thanks to a typhoon called Ewiniar that missed Hong Kong and made landfall in Guangdong.

Typhoon signal No. 1 was hoisted yesterday and then it rose to No. 3 this afternoon, with heavy rainstorms.

I had an appointment at The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong and took this picture around 5pm overlooking Victoria Harbour from the 102nd floor of ICC tower.

What a dramatic sight!

Picture of the Day: Overlooking Victoria Harbour

Clear skies and brilliant sunshine resulted in this photo looking west

After 6pm I arrived at the spa in the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong for a badly needed massage (it was painful!) and just before my treatment I managed to catch the sun about to set for the evening.

No where else in Hong Kong can you have a jaw-dropping view like this from the 116th floor! Everything looks so tiny...

Picture of the Day: Cake for Smiles

The Valrhona chocolate and banana cake is the sweetest fundraiser

Every year around this time, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong has a fundraiser that brings smiles not only to the beneficiaries but to donors too.

Smile Asia is a group of charities that help treat children with facial deformities like cleft palates and lips and The Ritz-Carlton hotels Asia Pacific have been helping to raise money through the sale of scrumptious cakes (HK$385 each) for one week.

I put in my order as soon as I heard about the fundraiser and picked up the cake yesterday as my relatives and I had an early Mother's Day gathering.

When we finished dinner and I opened up the box, the strong smell of chocolate pricked up our taste buds with anticipation.

The cake is Valrhona chocolate with banana, as the hotel pastry chef explains that children like both these ingredients. It's an unusual combination, but for a cake that's fundraising for kids, why not?

When we cut into the cake, it was pretty dense, but in a good way -- rich chocolate with hints of banana -- though more banana would have been appreciated.

Nevertheless we're glad we did our part to help children better lives.

At the Mercy of Landlords

This hotel has a good location, so why does it need to be knocked down?

A property investment company that owns a hotel in Causeway Bay wants to tear it down and turn it into an office building.

SEA Holdings, a publicly-listed company, recently applied to the Town Planning Board to demolish the 29-storey hotel and turn it into a 22-storey office tower with restaurants and shops.

Why? Because it is more profitable to rent out space on a monthly basis than hire staff to look after hotel rooms and guests, and try to fill them on a daily basis.

Remember the Ritz-Carlton and the Furama in Central?

What's also contentious is that the hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Causeway Bay is only eight years old so knocking it down would not only mean more waste in our landfills, but more importantly less rooms for visitors to stay in.

In Central there used to be a handful of hotels like the Hilton, Furama, and Ritz-Carlton; now it's only the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong and the Landmark Mandarin Oriental.

How can the Hong Kong Tourism Board lure more visitors to the city if more hotels get torn down?

But it seems like there is actually a glut in the market when it comes to hotel rooms in Hong Kong -- many low to mid-range ones are struggling to be able to charge HK$1,000 a night.

The Murray Building will be turned into a hotel by 2018

For example Ibis Hong Kong in Sheung Wan,  charges just under HK$1,000 a night on weekends, but come weekdays, it's just over HK$600 a night.

One critic of the plans to knock down the Crowne Plaza says property developers don't lose a night's sleep squeezing as much as they can out of us, neither do landlords who double our rents -- they think someone else will take it.

That's why these people are called psychopaths.

But in the meantime, The Murray Building in Central used to be an office building and is now being refurbished into a hotel by keeping the outer shell intact.

Quick fixes aren't what we need in Hong Kong. We need a more visonary, steady approach to development. Knocking down an eight-year-old building is not the way to go.

Sweet and Savoury Breakfast

Oh so good, but definitely calorific -- the signature duck and waffle dish

Duck and Waffle is a well-known restaurant in London -- for its views from the 40th floor of Heron Tower which make it the tallest dining spot in the city, and for its food -- indulgent dishes that are available 24 hours a day.

That's right. Any time of day.

It's been open for four years and its fame has spread to Hong Kong, where a number of foodies have made the pilgrimage to the restaurant and enjoyed the many dishes there including the signature duck and waffle.

It entails a buttermilk waffle as the base, a duck leg confit on top, followed by a fried sunny-side up duck egg. It comes with Canadian maple syrup (hurrah!), seasoned with spices and mustard seeds.

A dramatic skyline that brightened up later in the morning

The combination of savoury and sweet works so well, the tenderness of the duck contrasts with the crunchiness of the waffle that has that comfort food taste, combined with texture from the whole mustard seeds and of course the yolk oozing from the egg that binds everything together.

The dish is so popular in London  that the restaurant serves 300 to 400 plates of duck and waffle per day. That's a lot of duck legs...

Duck and Waffle just wrapped up a week-long residency today at Ozone in the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong; it seemed appropriate that the restaurant be situated in the tallest one in the city.

The main crew were flown over here, including group executive chef Daniel Doherty and executive chef Tom Cenci, and Ozone, which usually has a Star Wars futuristic kind of vibe was different, with proper wooden tables and chairs set up and staff wearing Duck and Waffle T-shirts with dark jeans. They must have appreciated looking casual for the week.

Duck egg en cocotte with Gruyere cheese and truffle shavings

Their biggest logistical challenge was recreating the 24-hour service of the London one by having Ozone open from noon on Saturday all the way to Sunday until 5pm.

A few foodie friends and I were worried it would be very full in the evening so we thought we'd go early in the morning for breakfast. At first they suggested 7am which seemed to too early and then settled for an hour later.

I don't normally wake up that early, but this was something not to miss -- particularly since I don't think I'll be going to London anytime soon.

When we got to Ozone we were surprised to find hardly anyone was there, but then again 8am was quite early. It's also interesting to note that the bar and restaurant isn't usually open that early either -- the brunch usually starts at noon.

Dark clouds threatened to rain, but somehow they decided to disperse and we had blue skies to enjoy.

The service staff had just changed shifts, though some chefs had worked all night but were game to keep going for another few hours.

The gorgeous English cherries waffles with yoghurt ice cream

The menu for "brunch" was tempting and hard to decide what we wanted to eat, but in the end we ordered several items to try, some to share.

First up the bacon-wrapped dates (HK$45 each) were so good. Again the play on savoury and sweet was a perfect combination here -- if you didn't read the menu you wouldn't have known you were biting in to a large date, which wasn't saccharine sweet, just a bit, and quite filling.

I then had the duck egg en cocotte (HK$165), a mini cast iron frying pan with very meaty wild mushroom slices with creamy Gryuere cheese topped with tiny truffle shavings and of course the duck egg that wasn't completely baked through so some of the yolk oozed out. It was great with the slice of sourdough rye toast.

An intriguing dish was the duck congee (HK$195) that we thought was a new one for Hong Kong, but we were told it's always been on the menu. It features plain congee, quite thick in a shallow plate and decorated with shredded confit duck, julienne of ginger, crushed hazelnuts, pink pickled pearl onions, spring onions and hot sauce.

We were surprised to see gweilos had successfully elevated congee to a gourmet dish! The congee was very thick, not quite creamy, but almost there, and the dish was so colourful it made me wonder why the Chinese ones look so plain.

Other egg dishes we ordered were the shakshuka (HK$160), an exotic named dish featuring eggs again in the cast iron frying pan spiced up with harissa yoghurt and mint, and Columbian eggs (HK$1450, which was basically scrambled eggs with avocado, grilled chorizo on sourdough rye toast.

Of course we had the signature duck and waffle (HK$220), and it was as billed, sinfully delicious. We can't get over how the combination of these ingredients work so well together. Match made in heaven.

For dessert, we were enticed to try all three Belgian waffle creations. Banana brulee (HK$125) featured the waffle decorated with bananas that were sliced lengthwise and had sugar sprinkled on them to have a caramelized and crunchy surface, with homemade "nutella" and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The signature waffle is the "full Elvis" (HK$195), a decadent dessert the King would have approved of -- waffles with peanut butter, the aforementioned caramelized bananas, chantilly cream and crushed nuts, chocolate sprinkles. The only healthy parts were the decoration of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

But in particular we all enjoyed the English cherries (HK$125), with the yoghurt ice cream topped white chocolate crumble and even yellow flower petals! Slightly tart and refreshing, a lighter option to finish the meal.

Some friends thought some of the dishes were even better than the ones they tasted in London. Quite the feat considering they are working in a tiny kitchen that is not too familiar and working overnight too.

We don't know when we'll get to Duck and Waffle in London, but when we do, we'll know what to order...

Picture of the Day: Rainy and Foggy Hong Kong

Watching the clouds go by over Hong Kong Island

Today was a drizzling day that wasn't too fun to be out and about. It meant having to be armed with an umbrella and battling out with others to get around them or try to avoid being poked in the eye.

In the afternoon had an appointment up at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, and practically every time I go up to the 102nd floor, the weather isn't very good.

Over on Kowloon side there's a thick layer of cloud!

Today was no exception, but it was pretty cool to see thick clouds covering the city, almost like a Chinese painting!

A Very Public Proposal

Interested in shooting your pre-wedding photos in Iceland?

The big story trending in Hong Kong now is the guy who spent HK$400,000 ($51,588) to propose to his girlfriend.

Thirty-seven-year-old Victor Tang spent HK$200,000 on a 1.5-carat diamond ring, then book a corner suite at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong for HK$26,000, and hired a helicopter for HK$150,000 to carry a 100kg red banner that read: "I love you! Stephanie BB, will you marry me?"

A public engagement complete with helicoptered proposal

Oh yeah and another HK$15,000 for a video crew to film it all.

What did his girlfriend Stephanie Cheung of one year say?

Well, yes.

Once this over-the-top proposal was reported, people managed to find out online that the couple had already taken their wedding photos in April -- in Iceland.

From the documentary-style video, it seems like a wedding photographer called Muse Chan persuaded the lovebirds to fly all the way to Iceland to take some dramatic and romantic photographs despite the below freezing temperatures.

Stephanie & Victor ~ Iceland Pre-wedding (冰島拍攝花絮 ) from Muse Muse on Vimeo.
Stephanie & Victor ~ Iceland Pre-wedding (冰島拍攝花絮 )

不知不覺MUSE MUSE的冰島之旅以經一個月了！
回想每一步的足跡都是經歷，都是難能可貴的。
感謝Stephanie 和Victor，也和我們一起留下美好的回憶～
同時極端驟變的天氣也是最考驗一個團隊的拍攝技巧和默契！
大家一起來感受冰島拍攝的點滴吧〜：]

Video & Edit by Man Ho @ Muse Muse Cine

** More about this Trip :
Muse Chan X Profoto - The Extreme Iceland
https://vimeo.com/125996091

Muse Muse ~ Iceland Trip Showreel 2015 ~
https://vimeo.com/125427732

Sure there are some amazing shots -- her in a strapless floor-length red dress lying on a block of ice, or her in a wedding dress and veil hugging him from behind in a barren landscape -- but there are some odd ones too like posing by the carcass of a crashed airplane? How is that romantic?

It just seemed like the shots were taken there just because they could, but not because the couple had always wanted to visit Iceland or had some mutual interest in the country.

A dramatic picture of the couple on an airplane crash site...

And yes the photographer did give out his secret of using a Pentax for the shoot...

So the media was totally had by the couple, who were totally had by the photographer.

It seems like a total publicity stunt for everyone involved while the media were duped into thinking this was an interesting story on a very slow news day.

Lots of people commented on how outrageous so much money was spent (this was before the wedding photo shoot was discovered), and mocked how Tang said, "I'm not a rich guy but I control my budget".

In the end he must have spent way more than HK$400,000 on wooing Cheung... God knows how much. But was it really worth it?

We'll find out after the wedding - if it happens... or maybe they're already hitched and they're doing everything backwards...

Picture of the Day: Bird's Eye View

A beautiful reflection of the sunset and looking towards Kennedy Town

When Felix, the Philippe Starck restaurant and bar opened in 1994 on the top floor of the Peninsula, the bathrooms were all the rage, particularly the men's where they could relieve themselves with a floor-to-ceiling view of Kowloon.

Whenever there were no men in the washroom, women could steal a quick look at the panoramic landscape.

Another bathroom that gives a nice view is that of Cafe Gray Deluxe on the 49th floor of The Upper House in Admiralty.

While the view may not be as stunning, it is an interesting angle on the city looking towards Wan Chai and beyond.

But perhaps the view that's tough to beat is that of the washrooms on the 103rd floor of The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. Past the sinks and washrooms is a small alcove area complete with comfortable seating where patrons can admire the view looking westwards towards Kennedy Town and beyond.

But it's not always like this. Most of the time the hotel, on top of the International Commerce Centre tower is surrounded by clouds. Last week I was up there for a lunch and there was barely anything to see as it was Amber rain storm warning.

So we paused for a moment and enjoyed watching the boats go by in Victoria Harbour, and the sun, as it slowly settled down into the horizon...