Remember when milk tea was all the craze way back in the day? And does anyone remember when yogurt was popular in Hong Kong a few years ago? There were shops that were popping up all over the city…and then it just went away…
I love these little places where you can try new snacks, old snacks, reinvented little snacks!
Plus, I'm a snacker…grazer to some (Cheung Chau anyone!)
Side Note: Who was it that said that it'd be more fun to order a meal of appetizers rather than entrees?
One place that I love to go to for a boring cup of coffee or an afternoon gelato, whenever in Central is Holly Brown.
On our recent trip over to Tsuen Wan's D Park (yes…this is a continued blog posting from last week!), we decided to take a break at Holly Brown and treat ourselves to a little afternoon tea gelato. So, it was around 2pm and this place was totally sparse. Most people seemed to still be in lunch-mode…so we were feeling pretty lucky to get a seat…not like Holly Brown is like Starbucks (where seats are impossible to come by!).
Holly Brown reminds me so much of Cold Stone Creamery (back in Seattle). I'm not sure if there are Cold Stones everywhere, but, when I lived in Beijing, there was a Cold Stone Creamery that I used to go to as well. It is basically a place where they mix any ingredient you want with your choice of flavor of ice cream.
We decided on getting the waffle bowl called "Heaven," which, if memory serves me right, was a mixing of berries and some graham cracker crumbs.
I always feel like the gelatos and the mixes are quite healthy…I mean..more so than Cold Stone Creamery, but what do I know!
Anyhow, if you are in the market for an afternoon tea gelato, Holly Brown is a nice place to check out. They are found at most of the larger shopping malls on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon…and there is even one in Yuen Long's Yoho Mall!
Because the gelatos were more of our appetizer, we headed over to try one more snack at the Full House Kitchen.
I always say that it's good to try something new every now and then…and trying a remake of something old is totally apart of that line of thinking.
One of Hong Kong's popular street snacks is called the Egg Waffle (gai dan jai). It can be found pretty much anywhere that street food is found. The gimmick that brought us to eat it at Full House Kitchen was the imprint on the waffle iron. I don't think it's worth the price because it pretty much tastes the same as every other egg waffle around the city, but it does make for a cute photo. Anyhow, it was also not so expensive and I'd never really tried any other flavor besides the original.
Plus, Full House Kitchen was a pretty eye catching eatery, so I just wanted to check it out.
Plus, Full House Kitchen was a pretty eye catching eatery, so I just wanted to check it out.
We got a green tea flavored egg waffle, which had the characters of the Full House Kitchen on it. I'm not sure if these are popular cartoon characters, but they seemed to be because they had a lot of paraphernalia in the "gift shop" besides the cafe.
There were some pretty cute stationary items…if I were a student, I think I might spring for a pen or notebook.
Everything about this place was pretty cute. I really liked how they remade popular Hong Kong snacks.
This place also offered macaroons, which seem to be everywhere these days (McCafe…).
They also had a small assortment of pastries…
Like D Park, this place had a lot of backdrops to take photos by, which is probably a draw for many patrons.
It all fits in with the child-friendly vibe of the D Park mall.
