May 2-4 '12; Hong Kong

And now, finally continuing with my posts about my trip in Asia...

Surprisingly not hit by the JetLag bug, I ventured off into the wonderful Asian city! Staying at my aunt's place is probably the best part of this trip. No hotel fees! Although you may not know this, the ability to allow people to stay over at your home is quite hard in Hong Kong since houses are much much smaller than that of Canada. Luckily, my aunt loves me (and now my friend who travelled with me) and gave us her spare bedroom to share. So, with us perfectly rested (that means an average of 5 hours of sleep in Hong Kong) we started our adventure!

First, how could anyone say they've been to Hong Kong without eating at a food stall?! Though some are fancier than others, they’re all good. Mostly. And to be honest, I have a feeling that the dirtier they are, the better they taste. Disgusting right? I know, but I can’t help it! We got grilled squid and curry fish balls – the epitome of Hong Kong street food culture. For 10 HKD (hong kong dollars) each, I’m ridiculously satisfied. For those of you who don’t know, 1 CDN dollar is roughly equal to 7.8 HKD. So the two bowls of snacks cost me a little over 2 dollars. WHAT A DEAL!!!

Hong Kong Street Food (Top: Curry Fish Balls; Bottom: Grilled Squid)

Lounge Area at the Cinema

We also decided to watch The Avengers since we knew that if we didn’t watch it now, we never would have the chance to since the movie would’ve been out of theatres by the time we came back to Canada. In Hong Kong, all movies are sold as IMAX sales in the way that you always get to pick your seat for your show. I personally prefer this method since you don’t have to get to the theatres an hour early just to get a good seat. Also, Hong Kong sells sweet popcorn as opposed to salty butter popcorn. Crazy right!? Though I still much prefer butter popcorn, I got some sweet popcorn, just because, it’s me and I’m a sucker for anything popcorn. The cinemas itself are much nicer than ones in Canada, especially since we were at the IFC mall in Central, a slightly more ritzy mall in the city. The seats were like leather lounge chairs. Quite nice. As for the actual movie? Awesome! The Avengers was much better than any of the individual movies, except Iron Man. That night was also the night that we learned that the MTR (subway system in Hong Kong) did not run past a certain hour. Since we watched the last show of the day (a midnight showing), we missed our subway and had to take a taxi home. Good thing my aunt lived close by! Though, really taking a cab in Hong Kong is probably at times cheaper than paying for TTC. How sad.

Luxurious leather seating in the cinema

Me and B.Duck

Next, we ventured off to Sogo in Causeway Bay. SOGO is an Asian department store, much like Macy’s in the States. This is where I fell in love with a brand called B. Duck. It’s an absolutely cute duck and their products range from aprons to bathroom utilities. Of course, this meant that I had to have a shopping spree here! But that will be mentioned later, as I didn’t actually do my shopping at SOGO.

Strawberry Cream Puff @CocoFrans

Venturing in the MTR system, unlike the TTC system, is a breeze and sometimes quite pleasurable (as long as you don’t go during rush hour). They tend to have many snack places and bakeries for you to buy some more food! We bought a Strawberry cream puff at CocoFrans. It was really pretty, but too bad it didn’t taste as good. Mind you, it wasn’t bad, just not as good as I expected it to be. Oh Well.

Yoshinoya Beef Bowl with a HotSpring Egg

We also had afternoon tea at my favourite fast food restaurant: Yoshinoya. This is a Japanese fast food chain. They mainly serve beef bowls but they have expanded to also offer chicken teriyaki bowls as well as Hot Pot meal sets. We went there for their teatime special (between 2pm-5pm if I remember correctly), which was $26HKD for the meal set. It has definitely stayed as my favourite fast food restaurant in Hong Kong; the taste was exactly as I remembered it.

For dinner, we went to a sushi restaurant in Mong Kok. It was really good. We had a seared sea urchin sushi, blue fin tuna with sea urchin sushi, and a whole palette of sea urchin. Can you tell that we really love Uni? The price was quite reasonable. Along with other dishes that we had, the total came up to approximately $20CAD a person. Pretty good for some fresh sushi!

A Collection of Uni items (Top Left: Seared Uni Sushi; Top Right: Blue Fin Tuna w/Uni, Bottom: Uni Sashimi Palette)

Lychee Panna Cotta

Another place that I really enjoyed was a dessert house in Sai Wan. Their Lychee Panna Cotta was to die for! A Perfect late night dessert before bed. For the three days we had in Hong Kong before heading off elsewhere, we tried to cram in as many restaurants as possible… I think I’ve succeeded.

What are you favourite restaurants during your travels? What specialty foods have you come across when traveling? Any comments on good or bad transit systems in other countries?

multicolored french tips

So, I know I haven't uploaded any new posts. So, here's one! I decided to do a bit of nail art today. I am officially in love with Red Carpet Manicure. If you haven't heard it it yet, it's an at home gel manicure kit. I've had it for about two months now and I can't express how happy I am with it, it's just that great. It applies just like normal nail polish except you use a LED UV lamp to cure the polish. Result? a completely dry-time free application! I strongly suggest that those of you who are discouraged by chips and stuff on nail polish give this a chance! You may be pleasantly surprised :)  

In White Lighting

In the picture, I am wearing RCM (red carpet manicure) 164 - it's not taupe as a base. The tips are all multicolored so I'll start from:

Thumb - étude house (korean brand) WH703

Index finger - OPI Gargantuan Green Grape

Middle finger - Essie 279 St Lucia Lilac

Ring finger - Chanel Le Vernis Chanel 551 Coco Blue

Pinky - Chanel Le Vernis 521 Rose Caché

French tip colors

In Warm Lighting

I free handed the tips so some of them aren't perfect but I think I prefer this way sometimes, as it's a bit more hassle-free. Though if you are looking for french tip guides and don't want to have to go out and buy them specifically, use paper hole reinforcements. Just cut them in half and stick them on. They create a good smile line and it's much cheaper. And if you have any papers that needs reinforcing, then it's just a bonus! 

RCM I'm not a Taupe Polish

This is the bottle of RCM gel polish that I am totally a fan of. It's a smaller bottle at 9ml (0.30 fl oz) but since I don't usually go through my polishes that quickly, it's fine for me! They're sold at Rexall for 12.99 each. While this may be a bit more expensive than your generic drugstore polishes, it really is worth the money that you spend on it. Zero dry-time is a priority for me! And plus, they're still loads cheaper than a designer brand nail polish :)

Nail Art Polishes

I used a metallic silver nail art polish just under the french tips then went over that with a glittery silvery nail art polish. I find that if you just use the glitter polish it doesn't show up as well. 

Red Carpet Manicure Kits and Essie polishes are available for purchase at Rexall drugstores. Le Vernis polishes are available at Chanel counters. OPI polishes are available for purchase at Trade Secrets. Nail art polishes are available for purchase at Sally's Beauty stores. Unfortunately, there are no licensed retailers for Étude House polishes, but you can find them at select stores in Pacific Mall or online.

I hope you guys liked this simple multi-colored french tip look. Mine aren't much of a fall tone, so what colors and shades would you use for yours? Do you prefer to freehand your tips or use a stencil? How do you prefer to do some of your nail art? with nail art polishes or with a nail art brush or something even more creative?