Caffe Paradiso

We usually make breakfast at home because WHO WANTS TO GET READY AND BE PRESENTABLE in the mornings?  Plus, we usually just make coffee and dig in to pre-bought pastries.  But, being it is October (we ran out of coffee), we decided to just head out for breakfast.

There was a cafe open near China Bear that we thought we'd try. It's probably been here for ages, but we just discovered it.  And it is always great to discover new places because you learn something new every time.

Caffe Paradiso Info:

Shop 8, G/F Mui Wo Centre

3 Ngan Wan Road

Mui Wo

Fun Fact:  My friends tell me it's referred to as Tom's place.  Tom was there when we were there (probably there all the time because he's the owner), but just learned that he was the owner after the fact.

The menu is really awesome.  I love an All-Day Breakfast.  And it comes in both Chinese and English.  

The food is made fresh, which is always awesome.  Actually, most of the food around here looks freshly bought and made.  I mean, there isn't a lot of frozen and thawed out food being served up.

Coffee was served up first.  THANK GOODNESS.  I thought it was really thoughtful to serve coffee before our breakfast.  It is not only necessary (!), but a great thing to sip and have a morning chat to.  I referred to Isaac Mizrahi before saying that it is always good to have something to do whilst having a chat (like knitting).  I totally believe in that.  Sipping coffee and talking about the day is a great way to start the morning.

Actually, maybe this is the norm for most places…but I have had many experiences where I have to ask the servers to bring me my ordered drink…halfway through a meal.

I digress…

As we waited for our breakfast, we checked out the cafe.  It was like a feast for the eyes.  Every nook and cranny was decorated.  It was nice and eclectic, just how I like it!

Now for the food…I know breakfast is probably the easiest thing to make…and sausage and eggs is something that is easily picked up from the grocery story…but there is something about having breakfast out and about that makes it more fancy!

I mean, I don't mind paying more to eat out because I like just having the chance to be lazy and treat myself sometimes.

I got the egg, tomato, sausage and bean breakfast with a side of toast.

My husband got the eggs, sausage, tomato, beans and bacon breakfast with a side of toast.

We had a fantastic morning!  Great home-cooked breakfasts…great coffee.

I loved our first venture to Caffe Paradiso!

Mui Wo Dai Pai Dong

The first time I really traveled on my own was when I went to Italy.  Back then, backpacking was in and going to the local grocery store for produce was key to surviving on a small budget.  I used to think that was the greatest way to really get to know the place where I was visiting…besides learning a bit of the language to last me a few days.

Life in Mui Wo is quite the same.  It's nice to be able to just pop in to the local market and pick up some fresh produce for the day's meals, but there are times (LIKE DAYS LIKE TODAY) when shopping and cooking are just too time consuming.

For quick delicious food, we went to the local dai pai dong in the Mui Wo Cooked Food Market, which sits to the side of the ferry pier.  

I LOVE dai pai dongs…especially having dinner at them because it is where the night life is at…not the crazy Lan Kwai Fong type of scene, but where the locals can be found chilling with a bottle of beer after a long day's work.

There are a handful of dai pai dongs, but this one (in the Mui Wo Cooked Food Market) is where I will start on my blog-ventures!

The menu is pretty intense.  Here had to have been everything under the sun available.

NOTE:  Bring someone who can read Chinese!

The view here is wonderful.  The seating is along the waterfront and it looks over Silvermine Bay.

It's a really great view that reminds me heavily of my times in Sichuan…eating at restaurants that floated above a river.  It really makes life seem like a paradise.  Life is slow, the food is fine and the location just puts me into that reflective sort of mood.

Tonight, we ordered a fried oyster cake, which was pretty good.  It comes with a vinegar dip and was not as greasy as some that I have had in the past.  I liked how it was nice and hot when it came out…though, I do wish there were more oysters in the dish.

I have been on a shrimp high this past summer…

So, we ordered a garlic shrimp dish, which was really nice.  Anything with garlic is nice for me!  The shrimp were all halved, so it made it quite easy to extract from the shells.  The sauce was heaped on the shrimp, which made it easy to divvy up for those who wanted more garlic.

There were four of us at dinner, so the oyster cake and also the shrimp dish was good for splitting four ways.

Another heavenly delicious dish was the deep fried squid.  Most of the dai pai dongs in Mui Wo serve up this dish.  It's really good.  The pieces of squid are nicely cut and it also comes with a vinegar dipping dish on the side.  It's also a great dish to get when going Chinese-style with friends.

One of our healthier choices of dishes was the morning glory stir fry tossed with shrimp paste.  This is always a good veggie dish.  Most times dai pai dongs offer choy sum or bok choy…this is another option for those who are tired of getting the same greens at every meal.

There are so many places to try out here in Mui Wo.  I'm not much of a foodie, but I do love to eat out. It's a nice treat for the end of a work week!

Mui Wo Market

Most districts have a wet market, which is a building that has a combination of household goods, foods, and other odds and ends.  I think of them as the main shopping area of the days of old.  In Yuen Long, the wet market was called Tai Kiu Market.  It was conveniently located near the library and surrounded by a bunch of outdoor produce vendors.  It was where I used to get all of my produce, especially hot pot stuff!

Similarly, Mui Wo's Market is located right next to the public library and Rural Committee Road (the old school center of Mui Wo…and Lantau, some friends have told me).  Mui Wo's Market is quite small and seems less frequented than the Yuen Long wet market, but I suspect it is because there is a Wellcome and Fusion supermarket near the ferry pier.  And, perhaps, those supermarkets are just more preferred.

What can you find in the Mui Wo Market:

1.  If you are a green thumb, you can find pots, soil, seeds, gardening tools and plants!

2.  If you need drapes, you can get them here!

3.  You can get seafood, whatever is available that morning.

4.  Vegetables and fruits can be bought here.

5.  Meats can be bought here: pork, chicken and beef for sure...

6.  In the need for some super casual clothes?  You can find some here.

Though the market is quite small, there are a lot of basic things that you can get here:  Food, clothing, and shelter!

Little Egret Studio

I went to visit a friend's pottery studio the other day and a thought came over me…do all artists just spew artistic-love all over the things they touch?  Like the Midas Touch?  When I was looking around the studio, every tile, every paint brush…and even the clay dust on the floors seemed to give the place a really lovely artistic vibe.  But, then the thought came to me that maybe I am just perceiving all things in this artist's studio as purposely placed for artistic-viewing?  Like, the arrangements of the glazing tiles were purposely color gradient coordinated…or the paint brushes were purposely placed like flower arrangements…but what about the clay dust on the floors?  

My mind just drifts sometimes.  I just wanted to showcase some of the lovely little things I found while taking a tour of Fatima Morrissey's Little Egret Studio.

***Some beautiful things***

1.  Located on Rural Committee Road, this studio can be found behind the beautifully rustic red No. 28 door.

2.  There is a beautifully displayed mini viewing gallery of some of her work right as you enter the studio.

3.  There is a beautiful range of mini sculptures, vessels, and creatures that can be found on these shelves that make me Ooh and Ahh and also chuckle (spotting some mini unicorns in the corner!).

4.  Some of my favorite pieces are her beautifully designed birdcages, which do have little birds within.

5.  Something else that made me chuckle with delight was spotting beautifully mini pegai (is that the plural for pegasus?) nestled atop her studio's shelves.

6.  The backroom looks like beautifully arranged chaos!

7.  Displayed in the backroom are some of her beautifully designed jewelry.

8.  There is also a beautiful little cuckoo clock hanging on the wall that makes me think of Leavenworth, WA (as close to Germany as I can get).

9.  The office area also has this beautiful window seating area that reminds me of somewhere you can do a Japanese tea ceremony (Germany…Japan…quite eclectic little studio, eh!).

10.  On top of one of her walls hangs a beautifully happy little sign endorsing the goodness of life!

11.  In the corner sat one potter's wheel beautifully covered in dried clay.

12.  The studio was covered in a beautiful layer of clay dust.

13.  Within her mini kiln were placed two beautiful works of student pottery.

14.  Glaze is such a beautiful thing in itself…colors of the rainbow!

15.  The pottery tools, though waiting to be washed or dropped into a cup, looked beautifully placed like twigs awaiting placement midway through a flower arrangement.

Being surrounded by beautiful things today made me feel like the entire world was beautiful.  It's a great feeling.  It's a positive feeling.  And I'm totally into having a positively happy life!  I am very much a believer that if you have a positive attitude you can attract a lot of great things.  I've been around many a people who are so incredibly outgoing and positive (not to the point of being annoyingly positive!) that it makes me want to spend time with them every day of the year.  Positive just invites more positives.

The artist!

China Beach Club, Mui Wo

Living so near the beach is such a joy!  If I am in the mood for a dip in the water, I can just hop in without having to travel on a bus for an hour to get there.  If I am in the mood for just tanning on the sand, I can just walk out a few minutes, lay a blanket down, and fester in the wonderful rays of the Mui Wo sun.  I'm definitely feeling like I am still on my perpetual holiday.  

I am also still enjoying exploring a lot of where I live…one inch at a time!  I love the island life!

There is a really nice walkway along Silvermine Bay beach.  It runs along the coast, past a barbecue pit area, two mini hotels and towards one of my favorite (thus far) eateries in Mui Wo:  China Beach Club.  

The China Beach Club is found at the "end of the beach."  The blue, yellow and red awnings make it easy to find.  There's also a sign advertising China Beach Club's homemade apple crumble.  The restaurant is up the stairs and has a wonderful veranda view of the beach...

The first time I stepped into the Club, it made me feel like I was in Panama City.  It must be the furniture…or maybe the eclectic decor…but, the place has a really nice vibe to it.

Because I first went here with friends, they suggested a few of their favorite dishes to try.

The number one item on our order was a pitcher of Pimms.  It's hot out these days, as I have complained about almost daily!  So, it was quite refreshing to get a cold pitcher of anything but dull water.

My favorite dish we ordered was the barbecued prawns.  There's just something about being able to be hands on with your food that makes eating it more enjoyable!  These prawns were really the highlight of my luncheon…though all of the dishes were great…this dish really spurred my interest in eating prawns again…and, since having these shrimp, I've been ordering more seafood to broaden my Mui Wo Food repertoire.

The second dish we got was moussaka, which I had never had before.  It's a mediterranean dish that was filled with egg plant.  It was really nice…and I'm a big fan of egg plant.  We also ordered a Greek Salad, but the moussaka actually came with a side of Greek Salad too.  

So, if you do want to order a separate salad…maybe ask if any of the dishes came with a complimentary side of salad…then ask…if it's Greek…then you can be sure not to double order on the salad.  (This was probably not that interesting…but, I am a salad person…so, I would rather test out two different salads that overloading on one type).

The fries were highly recommended and were probably the best fries that I'd had this decade!

Fun Fact:  When I was in high school, my friends and I would always head to one of the many fast food joints around our school.  I think I must have taste-tested everything off of everyone's menus throughout my high school career.  If asked, back then, which restaurant's fries I thought was the best…I would have said, "Jack in the Box's fries totally were the best."  I wonder if I would still think that they are the best!

For dessert, there was no other option but for us to order the infamous apple crumble, which came with vanilla ice cream and custard on the side.  This totally made the entire luncheon feel like a magnificently PERFECT luncheon.

Everything about today was amazing…the food, the location, the vibe and the company.