After we saw the monkeys, we moved on to Sham Sui Po 深水埗. It is an area in Hong Kong known for its electronics market. Everything was so cheap and anything you will ever need or anything you didn't even know you needed can be found here. There is an underground mall filled with stores like this. You would see phone chargers, adapters, cables, sound systems, and even tvs just dangling from the ceilings. There would be multiple models and colors to choose from and best of all, everything here is considerably cheaper than prices in actual stores. Normally tourists wouldn't come here because there aren't any famous sites in 深水埗. Since only locals come here, prices are always extremely cheap. I needed to buy a portable charger and there were so many to choose from. I ended up getting this pink one for 99HKD$ which is dirt cheap by American standards. It's pretty and it holds a 10,400 mAh charge which means my phone won't ever die from now on.
Next we moved on to the equivalent of the garment district in NYC. This street in 深水埗 is a fashion designer's heaven. Stores here sell raw materials for extremely cheap. The walls of one store were literally filled with rows and rows of beads and other parts to make accessories. For 10HKD$ you can buy enough raw materials to make a bracelet that will sell for 60$HKD. Talk about a good profit margin. I was really amazed at the different things you could find here. Since Hong Kong isn't known for anything special, I think I might just come here to make souvenirs for my friends. On adjacent streets, there are more markets like ladies market. Except here, things are truly the cheapest they can get because there are no tourists. There are stores that literally sell things for only $2HKD. |
OHHHH and we also went to a really local store called Wai Gay. They're most famous for their noodles with pork liver. Since I couldn't bring myself to eat that, we ended up just getting waffles with gaya and milk tea. Even those were pretty good. I'm still finding the whole sharing a table with random strangers thing a bit strange. But then again, when we're in a local place, we do what the locals do. They must be really famous for their noodles because they have 3 stores open almost right next to each other on the same block...
After we finished shopping at 深水埗, we went back to Holy's place near Lok Fu to have dinner. We had hot pot!! There was so much food on the table that we couldn't even finish. The best thing though was that everything was extremely fresh. The prawns were still alive and jumping and so were the clams. The meatballs and fishballs here are so much better than in the U.S. The texture is more bouncy and the flavor is so much sweeter. I even tried things I've never had before. I had deep fried fish skin which is exactly what it sounds like. You can either eat it as it is or soak it in the hot pot soup for a bit before eating. I also had these rolls of bean curd that you soaked in soup for 2 seconds. I didn't even know they existed before but they were so good. They were so soft and flavorful after soaking in the soup base. We were so full by the end of the night and there was even soup. Homemade soup is still the best thing ever. Yet again, we are so grateful to Holy and her family for their hospitality. They are seriously the most friendly people alive and their entire family is so warm and inviting.
When we went back, we realized we still had cake and fruit that we bought the day before. So we had round 2. We bought a New York Cheesecake and a pudding in a bottle from Panash bakery. The cheesecake was really good. It looked like a Japanese Cheesecake on the outside but it was really rich like a NY cheesecake. The pudding in a bottle wasn't as good. It was my first time trying it and I was hoping it'd be better but there was this layer of spongy sugar on top of the pudding that was kind of disgusting. I think they were trying to make something like flan but the result was something completely different. The sugar was overcooked so it was filled with air bubbles. The texture just did not work well with the egg custard. Never again. We're definitely going back for their cheesecakes and cream puffs though. |