Sulo journei: Hong Kong - Wong Tai Sin Temple and Food

Finally the day of our friend's wedding arrived, so we decided to take the day easier so that we can be ready for the wedding dinner on time. So we decided to go to the Wong Tai Sin Temple with our friends who are going there especially to pray and seek guidance.

We had breakfast in a roast meat shop somewhere in Wan Chai where our hotel: The Empire Hotel is situated. This hotel cost USD100 per night and is definitely one of the more luxurious hotels (by our standard) that we have stayed in. The breakfast in itself is uneventful, but we did witness a fight and cops chasing the perpetrator of the fight... exciting... just like in the movie Young and Dangerous. Of course our Hong Kong friends thought it was hilarious that we should have witnessed such incidents as they themselves have never seen any such action even though they have been staying in Hong Kong all their lives... So I guess Hong Kong is not like the movies after all ... hehehe...

Wong Tai Sin Temple

Outside of the Wong Tai Sin train station

Stalls outside of the temple selling all manners of praying paraphernalia for the religious. Little old ladies will also harass passengers coming out of the Wong Tai Sin train station to purchase joss sticks and praying papers.

The main entrance to the Temple. At the time we went there were some renovation going on in the temple.

It is easily one of the most crowded temple that I have ever been to... not that I have been to many... There are however, many temple workers guiding patrons to the various different parts of the temple giving some semblance of order to a place of religious chaos. There is also a loudspeaker booming every now and then to remind patrons to hold their joss sticks high and pointed upwards to avoid injuring other patrons.

The temple is so crowded that the joss sticks will be cleared immediately upon placement on the urns by the efficient temple workers.Any delay in the clearance process will result in people not having a place to dispose off their joss sticks.

This pavilion seems to be closed for renovation

A close up shot of the decorations on the roof of the temple

Food

Our friend's sister invited us to have lunch with them at a famous Dim Sum place. We were finally going to try the famous Hong Kong dim sum.

This is the restaurant that we went to. Not too sure what is the name as I can't read chinese... hahahahah...But as you can see, there are a lot of people waiting outside to get a table, so its a good sign.

This is the family of our hostess. Apparently, this restaurant has been recently renovated and the decor is quite westernized with crystal chandeliers hanging off plaster ceilings. Very elegant...

So we get right down to the food: The Seafood Fried Udon. The interesting ingredient here is the conch meat shown in the picture on the right. I thought it tasted rather Japanese :)

This is some kind of a dumpling with very expensive exotic filings.

The Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun, famous for its filings of either Char Siew (Roasted meat) or Prawns. The one in the picture has prawn filings.

The fried rice dish is traditional, its main ingredients being the chinese sausage and dried or smoked meat.

This strange looking dish is a combination of 2 types of cooking and presented in the traditional symbol of Yin and Yang. The white part is egg white sauce, I think, and the red part is ketchup. Very fusion. But for the life of me, I can't remember what this dish was all about... it could be noodles...

This dish is something that I have been looking forward to. Its steamed beef tripe and to me any kind of beef tripe is always welcomed... Yum Yum

The transparent looking dumpling at the back is the Prawn dumpling, the round bun is sweet and of course the Char Siew Pau. So that is the end of our Dim Sum journey.

Here are some pictures of other food and also the wedding festivities: