Hong Kong Day One - Champagne and Caviar, no big deal...
My first day was certainly decadent and indulgent!!! What an amazing day! My first views of Hong Kong were when I was on the airport express heading into the city - tall green peaks rising out of the mist on one side of the train, and a blue green ocean on the other side at dawn. It was beautiful. After a successful adventure on public transportation to Sophie's apartment, pictured below, with a Starbucks, Subway and Burger King right there, I went on a little mini walk to start my culinary adventures!! I was starving, and Sophie was fast asleep (it was just 8am!), so I ventured out to find some breakfast. I found a lovely little coffee shop/bakery and ended up with a ham and egg sandwich. How Western of me - I know, I know. But the roll was not Western-y, it was light and sweet and fluffy. And it was cheap. My sandwich and capuccino cost me $20HKD. That is right, $2.85.
Amazing! I'm going to eat like a king with those prices!!!! And eat like a king I did all day. Sophie took me to brunch to this place called Harlan's in Kowloon, the other big island. We walked in to this fancy dinning room, with floor to ceiling windows, and I had the best view of Hong Kong Island, and the ocean and the boats and everything. It was beautiful! Hong Kong is so interesting - it's a juxtaposition of nature and city, the mountains and the ocean make you feel like you are somewhere magical, and then if you adjust your gaze maybe 5 degrees, you see towering apartment buildings and business towers with their names across the top. And I got to gaze upon this for the entire two hour brunch. Yep, all you could eat buffet, endless champagne (okay, it was sparkling wine) and a main! It was out of this world. The buffet was incredible - and it was just your appetizers. There was a raw bar with oysters and clams and shrimp and crab legs and snail thingys - basically everything that spelled out death to me, but it looked incredible. There were salads, a risotto station with giant truffles (which, after cheekily asking for some shaved bits of one, turned out to be in fact not really that tasty. Disappointing.), a pasta bar, a charcuterie, and caviar! Then there was a second buffet around the corner with sushi and other Japanese dishes. Oh my lord it was insane!!! We went back and forth so many times.
Then our main dishes came. Sophie had a Boston lobster, there was a pork option, and I got a really delicious steak tenderloin. The meat (it probably came from Kansas) was so soft and tender, it just melted in my mouth. We all got that vegetable side salad - it was nice, but nothing spectacular.
And then it was time to hit the dessert buffet! There was a Cold Stone-like ice cream station, fondue, fruit, cheese cake, mousses, brownies.... So good. My favorite was the chocolate mousse!
And that my friends, was my first main meal in Hong Kong. It was amazing, particularly coupled with the views and the company! We calculated that after about 10 or so glasses of champagne, we think each glass was about $1 haha. And we ate our fill - I'm sure they don't count on people like us destroying their buffet, else they'd never make any money! Our whole meal was only about $100. Insane.Sophie and I followed this all up with massages (no happy endings, for those of you who are curious haha), and at about 7:45 the jet lag hit me, and I was asleep in bed. Can't wait for the rest of my trip!!!