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Kowloon City Thai area

Head out to Kowloon City. Also known as Little Thailand, it’s a buzzy, eclectic hotspot for amazing food and history lessons all on the edge of the Kowloon Walled City Park. The Thai community relocated to Kowloon City in the nineties from Central on Hong Kong Island when redevelopment took over. You can source wonderful Thai delicacies here – everything from curry pastes, fruit, freshly made coconut juices and desserts, to beauty products and Thai orchids.

Check out In Love Thai Healthy for coconut oils and creams, shampoos and conditioners and an exquisitely scented range of Thai beauty products. D2, G/F, 52D Nga Tsin Wai Rd, Kowloon City. Tel: +852 3487 2406. For fresh herbs, pre-made curries and Thai sweets go straight to Ban ThaiThai, G/F 52B Nga Tsin Wai Rd, Kowloon City. Tel: +852 2382 5599. If you are looking for fresh fruits such as pomegranates, mangoes and pineapples the best streets are South Wall Road and Nga Tsin Wai Road. The area makes your mouth water for Thai cuisine. Here’s a couple of recipes we’ve added below for you from Belinda.

Chinese Letter Boxes

Chinese letter box – when Belinda first moved to Hong Kong almost seven years ago she used to be fascinated by them. She loves that they are always the same size and shape and with little cut-out symbols on the front. The colours are always different, some are old and some are new, but they are the same. Belinda made it her mission to find out what the symbols mean. It represents two old Hong Kong coins set in pairs because the Chinese believe pairs to be lucky. The idea is that the letters are placed inside the boxes and will bring luck to the receiver.

Cheung Kee Copper & Iron – a little stall on Pottinger Street steps between Wellington St and Hollywood Road in Central, Hong Kong Island sells Chinese letter boxes. As well as coming in many different colours, you can choose your own pantone shade to be matched for your box if you wish.

Chinese Wooden Biscuit Moulds

Belinda got her love of freshly baked treats from her mother who always made biscuits and cakes. In my childhood, too, there were rarely packaged sweets. These biscuit moulds appeal to our love of freshly baked goodies. And Hong Kong is filled with such winning moulds for cooking in. Belinda used them to whip up a delicious biscuit with a cardamom twist (recipe below). Most of the wooden moulds were sourced from Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei.

Top two faves for baking goods are WoodWork Professor, G/F 335-339 Shanghai Street, Yaumatei, Kowloon, Tel: +852 2332 2443, www.woodwork-professor.com and New Chun Fat, 277 Shanghai Street, Yaumatei, Kowloon, Tel: +852 2388 5318.

Party time

Belinda and I recently worked on a fashion shoot for a children’s magazine based in Hong Kong. The theme was Oriental and living in Hong Kong is truly a stylist’s playground. We sourced most of the props for the food shots from Shanghai Street in Prince Edward. Our two favourite shops for all party products are Woodwork Professor, G/F 335-339, Shanghai St, Tel: +852 2332 2443, www.woodwork-professor.com and I Love Cake, G/F 338, Shanghai St, Tel: +852 2671 2671, www.ilovecake.hk.
The clothes were sourced from a great French brand: La Petite Caravane www.lapetitecaravane.com. Thy-Tien Crampton is now based in Hong Kong and is a young French designer who has a lovely eye when it comes to prints and design. Her children’s clothes are well constructed and only run in a very limited edition as fabric is often vintage and sourced from around the globe. With Belinda’s past experience in food styling she was able to create some delicious recipes. I have posted them here for you.

Tai Hang

Tai Hang, which in Chinese means The Big Water Channel, is just a few minutes walk from Causeway Bay located on the harbour side of Hong Kong Island. There are street-side stalls selling everything from plastic canvas shoes to temple offerings. My favourite kind of boutiques, selling vintage clothing, great interior pieces and good cafes add to the appeal of going here. The area is famous for its dancing Fire Dragon during the mid-autumn Lantern Festival. And this is something everyone should see. About 300 performers and over 72,000 incense sticks do some serious styling to a 67-metre straw dragon which is then paraded through the colourful streets. http://taihangfiredragon.hk/home.htm

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