The Little Yakitori Place in Happy Valley

Yakitori is a Japanese type of skewered chicken. Its preparation involves skewering the meat with kushi, a type of skewer typically made of steel, bamboo, or similar materials. Afterwards, they are grilled over a charcoal fire. From the name you tell, Yakitoritei is a restaurant that is good at making Japanese skewered chicken and also goes beyond just chicken.

This tiny shop, aka “燒鳥亭”, has been around in Happy Valley for a decade or so. It fills up quickly with diners, and with smoky barbecue aromas, making for a buzzing atmosphere. Sounds like a perfect place for just few friends to eat and chat? This also feels quite like the right sentiment of Happy Valley as a community.

The restaurant grills more than just chicken here, expect anything you can put on a skewer, from goose liver, to lamb chops and seafood to veggies. There’s a strong range of Japanese beers and sake to keep you lubricated while you chow down.

Address: G/F, 49-51 Sing Woo Road, Happy Valley

Shanghai-style Haircut: Today and Yesterday

First haircut after I moved to Happy Valley, and of course I chose to go to the most locally famous one: the Shanghai Yangtze Barber Shop (上海揚子美髮廳), right around the corner of Sing Woo Rd and Wong Nai Chung Rd.

This Shanghai-style barber shop has been around for more half a century and its guests include business tycoons like David Li Kwok-Po (李國寶) of Bank of East Asia (東亞銀行) and movie star like Tony Leung (梁朝偉), who invited the Yangtze barbers to help to design his hairstyle for Wong Kar-wai’s (王家衛) classic movie “In the mood for love” (花樣年華).

Shanghai was the birthplace of professional modern hair salon in China, since the 1920s when Shanghai became the meeting point for Chinese and Western businesses. At the end of Chinese Civil War, which the Communist Party won, many rich Shanghai families migrated to Hong Kong and they also brought rich Shanghai culture and traditions (not to mention a lot of money) to the British colony in the 1950s, including Shanghai cuisine and Shanghai-style haircut.

Shanghai-style barber shops are now rare to find in Hong Kong. It is said only four or five authentic ones still remain in business including Yangtze in Happy Valley. The decline of the business is mostly due to technological development (while Shanghai barbers all love to do things manually by hands) and lack of interests from the younger generations of those barber shops to keep the old business.

Culture wise, the youth of Hong Kong has been influenced by K-pop and Japanese style in more recent decades, also reflecting in their fashion and hair style.

It’s lovely that I can exercise my Shanghai dialect again as I can chat nicely with my barber while having my hair cut smooth and clean. At one point, I almost fell asleep. “It’s good that you feel sleepy here because it shows your heart can settle down and have less worry at this moment,” said my barber.

Address: Shanghai Yangtze Barber Shop, 1/F, 29, Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley

Ask for Alonzo

“Alonzo Milanese” schnitzel

Ask for Alonzo is a modern trattoria in Hong Kong, serving dishes inspired by the Mediterranean provinces of Italy. The Italian hideouts have three locations, respectively in Quarry Bay, Tai Hang, and Happy Valley.

The Happy Valley branch is right at the Tram Terminus and you can just sit inside and watch all the trams (aka “ding ding”) and people moving around to get a vivid sense of daily life in Hong Kong.

The restaurant’s name comes after its founder and chef, who claims to be a big fan of home-cooking pasta which eventually led to the opening of his restaurant(s) in Hong Kong. I was there for lunch and the “Alonzo Milanese” schnitzel caught my attention more than its pasta.

My decision proved to be a great one and the only problem was the food portion there was quite big so I ended up packing the last piece (of total four) pork schnitzels home. That ultimately became my midnight snack. My gym trainer will hate me when he sees this post, I know.

I used to live in Central and we have a pretty nice restaurant in the neighborhood called Oolaa. The sentiment of Alonzo reminds me of Oolaa too. It feels like a good choice for brunch or just drinks.

When you have a glass of wine and see all the trams are moving around alongside the iconic racecourse in Happy Valley, you tell yourself: “Life in Hong Kong is not too bad!”

Address: Ask for Alonzo, G/F Hang Fung Mansion, 17-19 Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley

A Piece of Hollywood Road

Before I relocated to Happy Valley from Hollywood Road in Central, I bought myself a small souvenir for the good memory of Hollywood Road where I have lived for more than a decade. That is the “Hollywood Road” coaster.

For those who live on Hollywood Road (aka Antique Street), you won’t miss the unique feature there — the very plaque embedded in the manholes of Hollywood Road — and you can only find such road features here on the entire Hong Kong Island.

The coaster I bought from local small business “Tiny Island” may look oddly familiar. It is of course a genuine replica of the iconic plaque you see on Hollywood Road. Local media reported in the early days when the plaques were planted, they went missing quickly, forcing the police to investigate to try to catch the thieves.

The coasters — realised in solid brass and faithful to the original — are not cheap at all and they feel quite heavy. But memory is priceless, isn’t it? How fortunate now we can own a replica piece of Hollywood Road, the first modern road competed in Hong Kong by the British colonial government since the soldiers landed on the “Pearl of the Orient” more than a century ago.

Hollywood Road is a very interesting one, a reflection of the mixture of Western and Chinese culture. On one side of the road, there is the oldest Chinese temple on Hong Kong Island, Man Mo Temple, where the local tycoons and community leaders used to meet and decide on important issues, often in closed-door “dark box” manner; on the other side, there is the former Police Headquarters where the British government tried to keep social orders through the rule of law.

Nowadays the old Police HQ has been already turned into a big art and culture complex. “Hong Kong will only get better tomorrow.” (香港明天會更好) That’s what ex-Chinese President Jiang Zemin once famously said.

Good Chicken Schnitzel in Happy Valley

Feather & Bone (F&B) is not exclusively in Happy Valley, but it’s not like every F&B venue that can easily remind you of the Chelsea Market in New York City. The Happy Valley branch of F&B can just do that.

F&B wants to be a kind of different restaurant — a mixture of convenience shop for the neighbourhood, good butcher for fresh meat lovers (especially chicken, beef, and lamb), and restaurant where you can just hang out with several friends for brunch or dinner — without worrying if the menu is too complicated for you to decide on food, or whether it’s overpriced.

F&B Happy Valley branch’s interior design intends to pay tribute to traditional 20th century neighbourhood butchers and grocers. Just like its other stores and restaurants, the Happy Valley branch, with more focus on nostalgic feel, also has a wall-mounted faux cow head that reinforces the concept of F&B as a butcher-restaurant, which means you can order whatever you see here and food will stay as fresh as possible for you.

I ordered chicken schnitzel for my brunch. I’m a big fan of schnitzel. I once tried several iconic restaurants in Vienna, arguably the hometown of schnitzel, and I can prove the F&B chicken schnitzel a very good one in Hong Kong. Surprisingly the chef cut the chicken breasts into four smaller pieces — each tastes pretty juicy, and you get a half lemon to squeeze. That certainly adds more fresh flavour. I will definitely order that again when I miss schnitzel.

Address: Feather & Bone, 11 Wong Nai Chung Rd, Happy Valley