Hong Kong: Glasshouse at IFC

First of all, I want to extend my condolences to everyone who is affected my any aviation accident. Who knew that it could get this bad. It really made me realize that my problems are so insignificant.

I walked out of my house this morning and remembered to yell I love you to J. I made it a point to tell my mom, dad and sisters that I love them. Just can't take anything for granted.

Anyway, on a lighter note, we finally tried the Glasshouse in IFC. By we, I mean Winnie, Chris and I.

The ambience was quite good and the service was fast.

If you sit by the bar, you will be facing the pier where you can see #TsimShaTsui.

Winnie was not please that I was taking so many photos. Haha!Yes, I was the tourist. And in many ways I still feel like one, even though, I don't feel too out of place walking around now.
People usually think I'm from #HongKong till I speak anyway. So whatevesss! If I'm genuinely leaving Hong Kong next year, I want to be able to look back at these places I've been and not feel like I've wasted my 2 years here.

Guava and ginger tea. It was pretty good.

We started with some oysters. It was actually really fresh and it has a great flavour.

Spicy sambal chicken wings. Who can say no to that?! It was a tad bit salty but still pretty good.

These crab cakes are phenomenal. This is probably the first time I was not disappointed after I ordered crab cakes.

This is an atas version of a Singapore Fried Vermicelli. There are lobster meat and goose liver in it.

Unfortunately, we had to send this back because the goose liver tasted a little funky. And the waiter was good enough to immediately take it away, including those we had on our little plates.

We ordered this organic pasta with clams as a replacement. It is definitely a safe choice but not a remarkable dish.

This was what Chris had ordered. She couldn't eat most of the dish because she was having a minor skin condition. I didn't try this but Chris didn't complain and as you can see, it was nicely cooked.

Lastly, teriyaki wagyu rump beef with rice. The beef is cooked well. We wanted medium but the rice is filled with MSG. Photo is a little blur because the rice was falling apart as I took the photo.

Going out with them is always fun. Took this photo in a hurry, dunno where to look wtf!

In the ferry. This photo was taken by my drunk boyfriend on the way home.

Hong Kong, Birthday, La Vache.

Happy Birthday Silly Man! You will always me my old man baby...or baby old man?!

My colleague Karina mentioned that we are like old married couple because I told her that J and I made arrangements that since I got him two birthday gifts, he will buy dinner! Haha 

Naturally, he always try to pick nice places (with or without an occassion) to take me and of course, he is secretly a diva and love going to nice places to eat too. Initially, he picked The Steak House at Intercontinental Hotel and up to 5.45pm today I didn't know anything about the place.

So, I asked him and when online to look at the menu and found out that just a Chateaubriand cost HKD1,700++. I told him it is too expensive to spend on a meal. He knew but he didn't mind but I feel so super painful paying that much just for the steak alone. Maybe, recently we have dined out a lot at many nice places but none of it cost that needlessly much. Okay, #MazeGrill is not counted. And that is in London. I'm sure the food will be fantastic and worth every penny.

Maybe as I grow older, I am beginning to feel the need to be more careful with my money (and now ours). I used to just buy air tickets with whatever money I have in my bank. We definitely make more than a lot of families in #HongKong but I want to make sure we have money saved for rainy days.

My boss commented that surely J already know what he has to pay when he chose the restaurant. Well, of course. He is the more switched on one between us on certain things and this is one of those things.

I actually felt bad after she said that. Maybe he wants to dine there badly..and it is his birthday. Why am I doubting his choices? 

I felt bad and told him that we could go there if he wanted. Turns out, he doesn't care. And I quote," I just want to go somewhere to eat and be happy together." I felt relieve after. He can be such a sweetheart sometimes.

I'm pretty sure I'm PMSing now as well because I've been feeling emo all day.

Anyway, we discussed and decided that we will go to #LaVache since we've always wanted to dine here together. But it was well busy and they didn't take reservation so we had to wait for an hour.

It was still relatively early so it was a great excuse for us to go and have some #cocktail around the corner. They make awesome Earl Grey Caviar Martinis.

It was at this quaint place called #Quinary.

I really liked it. Imma bring @pinkytham here when she come next month. Can't wait!!

Check out the caviar. Come to think about it, maybe they should go easy on it.

More photos of him because it is his birthday!

The cliche looking but very pro bartender making our drinks.

We were only there for merely 40 mins before La Vache gave us a call back. So we headed back to the restaurant.

When we got back to the restaurant. It was more packed than before so thank god for the waiting list.

Everything was simple at La Vache. What you see is everything there is on the menu. The only thing you get to choose is how you like your beef/the temperature of the beef (depending on which part of the world you are from). The waitress asked J what temperature would you like your beef and he said,"Warm." I burst out laughing and told him what she meant. It was so funny.

He said nobody ever asked him that before when he ordered steak at other restaurants (steak is one of his very unhealthy choice of staple food). To be fair, I only know because I watch a lot of reality TV shows like Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen. I swear I know what will bring success to any restaurant watching every single episode of them.

Green salad and walnut.

Trimmed Beef Entrecote and unlimited fries. I ordered medium and it came just right.

They served it on one of these hot metal plates to be kept warm.

The photo bomber and my #TarteTatin. I think I came back mostly for this but they were so busy so it doesn't taste the same as the first time I ordered it.

Lastly, what I bought him for his 31st Birthday. He was so excited about it, he didn't even waited till midnight last night to open his gift.

He can haz a new wallet! He took this photo himself. So rare.

I'm going to bed now. Goodnight!

My First Year in HK and How We Celebrated: Bistronomique

14th May 2013 is a very significant date for me. I took the leap of faith and ended up in Hong Kong.

I'm not going to lie, my relationship with J was pretty rocky just right before I relocated here but we decided that we loved each other and tried to work on it.

It was worth it.

My first and second month here I was still working in #Netccentric but I was frantically looking for a job since I arrived. This is because, like any other foreigner, I needed a visa to stay in Hong Kong for longer than 3 months. I know another similar couple where the girl was a SIA stewardess who quit her job to relocated to Hong Kong for her businessman boyfriend. She was going through this whole job search thing for a long time before I arrived.

So she would travel to Macau (because it is the closest different country and nobody would rather go to China for this) every 3 months and return to Hong Kong to restart her 90 days tourist visa again.

In my first week here, I honestly thought that that would be my life considering it is so hard for the locals/foreigners who are already here to find jobs, what are my chances? But J encouraged me to be positive cos he said that I'm a lot brighter than the people he have met and found jobs.

I was hopeful after he told me that. Even though I know he had to as my boyfriend. Haha.

My strategy at that point was to look for whatever reputable/non-local company that would hire me. I thought hey, new country, new directions. Story of my life and all that shit. I got in touch with the ex #HongKong #nuffies as well just to make sure I got all my bases covered. They were very helpful and gave me plenty of advise.

During my first week, I sent out loads of CV but no calls. To be honest, I was feeling rejected because I have never in my life I had to look so hard for a job.

Any job really.

So I cried a lot and J had to comfort me a lot. He said, "Come on Deng, it is only week 1. Hong Kong people is fast but not THAT fast."

And it is true. I got plenty of calls on week two, went for a few interviews and got offered a job in the next couple of weeks and by then my contract with Netccentric was coming to an end. So everything worked out perfectly.

I can't say my first job in Hong Kong was though but that is a story for another day.

Yes, my current job is my second job in my short 1 year in Hong Kong.

Okay, I guess what is important is that I've made it. J was right and I am proud of myself to a certain extend.

We celebrated it at #Bistronomique. It is a hidden restaurant in #Central. The food was truly amazing and I rarely say that.

Fish chowder. It taste a lot like a lobster bisque. So, I really liked it.

Lobster tail salad. It was really fresh.

Beef entrecote. It was done at the perfect temperature. And by the time we finished, we were too full to have dessert. Which is a shame because I'd love to try their banofee pie. Anything with banana, caramel and whip cream really. #fatdieme

We were so tan after our #KotaKinabalu trip. It is hard to get him to take a decent photo with me. So, this is a really good one though I did grumpy at him for not leaning forward - now I look like I wanted the photo more than he did (even though it is TRUE).

But you know you only have one chance or maybe two when the waiter is taking the photos for you before they dash off.

Finally, he got me a #DanielWellington watch as gift to remember my first year in Hong Kong. Also, because I lost my retro gold #Casio at Nexus. It was a surprise. I woke up on the Saturday before the dinner and he handed me the box.

I wear it everyday now.