K's chippy opens!

K's has opened at the cooked food centre. Buffalo Wilbur was so excited he made me get there on the dot of 12.30pm, when it opened its doors.

 Chips!!

Cod is HK$158 for a large, HK$98 for a medium. Pollock is HK$80. But the portions are generous. And the side dishes are value for money at HK$18 for mushy peas or coleslaw.

As they were doing takeaways only, we had ours by the beach. It felt just like a beach holiday in Britain, complete with rain.

The cooked food centre is certainly going upmarket, especially after the opening of Como Lake, which is getting lots of rave reviews. Buffalo Wilbur was their first customer and he came back gibbering with delight.

Perfect drying weather

Now that the typhoon has gone, it's back to hot and windy weather again – just perfect for drying stuff, including fish. 

The smell takes a bit of getting used to but when dried, these will taste heavenly!

The simple life

Looking at Mui Wo now, it's hard to believe that just a couple of decades ago, it was a thriving farming community. Today, if you walk on some of the overgrown paths, you can still see footprints of old vegetable gardens, fish farms and rice fields.

Old-timers tell me the flat and muddy plot of land just outside Luk Tei Tong used to be vast paddy fields. And, just behind the municipal buildings and the Chung Hau watchtower, the acres of wastelands and ponds used to be fish, sugar cane and vegetable farms and paddy fields that could feed the 200-odd members of the Yuen clan (with some left over to sell to the other villagers).

The descendants of some of the cultivated plants still exist. In our walks, we often come across wild banana trees, some still bearing fruits. Often, we also see abandoned homes that, though highly inconvenient to our modern lifestyle, would have been ideal for sustenance – close to clear streams, with patches of sunlight and shade, and on fertile ground.

We dream of one day being able to buy one of these abandoned farm houses and restore some of the gardens. But the land laws on Lantau being what they are, I think the powers-that-be will prefer to let the houses fall into ruin than into the hands of strangers.

Tai O day trip

I've always seen people queuing up for the No 1 bus to Tai O during the weekend. It looked like a fun place to go for a day trip. We finally made it there yesterday.

The 45-minute bus ride had lovely views but I got terribly car sick. Must remember not to sit on the side of the slopes again because it can get quite claustrophobic.

But it was worth it. The fishing village on stilts was unbelievably filmic, with fish laid out to dry, live seafood splashing round in tubs and pretty houses the size of a garden shed everywhere.

There's lots of eat along the streets: grilled scallops (with extra garlic for serving), maltose syrup candy sandwiched between two crackers, glutinous rice cakes, pressed squid... you could fill your stomach just walking through the village.

But when it came to nice sit-down restaurants, there didn't seem to have many. Most were simple cha chan tengs decorated with an abundance of mosaic. Finally, we found a lovely spot along Kat Hing Street.

Shop-cum-restaurant The Balcony is a fairly new place, overlooking the river and a nice renovated stilt house. It serves espresso coffee (very important for Buffalo Wilbur), a selection of snacks and some local dishes. Go for the egg-yolk prawn. They peel the prawns for you so you can just pop them into your mouth like bar snacks.

How to find it: Cross the swing bridge, walk to the end of the road to Fook Moon Lam restaurant, turn right then continue on till you get to No 86 Kat Hing Street. (Tel: 9153-7453).