G.O.D., Ohel Leah, Jockey Banquet

An old forum post on the Interweb told me that Aveeno skincare products are available at Citysuper so we dropped by the one at Times Square this morning. Not only did we find what I was looking for, but we were very impressed by the selection of food items available. A display of fruit teas was even compelling enough for us to buy two boxes to bring home.

I've been very pleased with our Hong Kong: Encounter guide from Lonely Planet. It's a compact, pared-down version of their full guide. There are mini-maps for each neighbourhood, highlights of vegetarian restaurants, and succint descriptions of interesting places to visit. A recommendation in the guide brought us to G.O.D. (Goods of Desire), a funky "lifestyle" shop. It's like a hip, fashion and housewares store: they sell T-shirts, postcards, purses, electronics and furniture. We got some shoulder bags made from recycled Hong Kong taxi seats, some cool postcards with Chinese opera figures on them and a T-shirt for me. There's plenty of places to sit and nurse a baby in the Causeway Bay location.

 

For lunch, our guidebook had another winner with Kung Tak Lam Shanghai Vegetarian Cuisine, in the World Trade Center. Some interesting dishes: a celery-pineapple juice, tofu dumplings and excellent sweet-and-sour "pork". Definitely recommended.

 

We tried again to visit Ohel Leah Synagogue up in the Midlevels. This time, we got off the escalator, but still had to walk uphill to Robinson. The security guard wouldn't let us into the Orthodox side, but we ended up undergoing a detailed questioning and bag search with some staff at an unmarked side entrance. Once inside, we spent some time chatting with the rabbi and other congregation members. We couldn't stay for their evening service (Simchat Torah) but it was interesting to learn about the Jewish community in Hong Kong.

 

My Dad's half-siblings treated us to dinner at the Hong Kong Jockey Clubhouse in Happy Valley tonight. There is apparently a dress code, so we had to bring long pants and a fancier outfit for Gabe. The food was Chinese banquet style, with a procession of tasty dishes, with excellent desserts too (the baked chestnut-tapioca pudding was fabulous).

We have stayed more or less healthy so far, despite most of us catching Gabriel's cold. It's hit my Mom pretty hard these last few days.