Kampai! (cheers)

I raced back to Hong Kong Island where I met my friends at the metro station. We took the city’s longest escalator up to the start of Soho and began our feast at Little Bao. You have to get there early because it’s tiny.

It’s the HK equivalent of a diner with literally 10 spots at the bar. The menu is small but I could have eaten everything on there. Amazing and innovative cooking using traditional Baos (baps) filled with various fish, meat or veggie filling. The side dishes were fantastic: roasted brussel sprouts, fish sauce caramel with chilli, lime and fried shallots; Truffle fries made with Shiitake tempeh (meat substitute); holy crab salad as a special.

We staggered out and fell into the next joint. I have not eaten fast food since 1998 but at Yard Bird we ordered KFC (Kimchee Fried Cauliflower) covered in sesame seeds, washed down with Japanese whisky. Inspired! These drinks maybe in tins but my God if I didn’t have an already packed backpack I would be filling the entire contents with tins of sake and whiskey.

Yard Bird’s sister bar Ronin was our third pit stop. After walking up and down a busy street several times I stopped to ask a bouncer outside another bar. An unmarked dark grey door gives nothing away. It slides open to reveal a long and rather pretentious looking bar. Very swanky. The wait we were told was about 30mins. I’m too old and not that desperate to queue so we went to a prohibition bar tucked down a market street that The Teacher knew of. Again you need to know of it or you’d never find it. Another round of hardcore liquor and I was singing Kampai (cheers!).