Al Maidah Halal Restaurant in Tsim Tsa Shui Hong Kong

Al-Maidah is a small food joint located in between shops in Tsim Tsa Shui, Kowloon. The restaurant has obtained the Halal Logo and Certification from Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong. The address is:

G/F, 13, Tsim Sha Tsui Mansion, 

83-97 Nathan Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 
Tel : 23677288

In between Sasa makeup shops alongside Nathan Road, look for an old looking building known as Tsim Sha Tsui Mansion. Go inside entrance 13, you will see a small joint with few seating areas which probably can only fit 8 people at most.

Tsim Tsa Shui Mansion

Alongside the walkway of Tsim Sha Tsui mansion, there is a big signboard of Ziafat halal restaurant which is a step away from Al Maidah.

Al Maidah is a convenient joint to stop for starving shopaholics in between browsing Sasa makeups and Prada handbags. During a trip to Hong Kong with a shopaholic girlfriend, we have had lunch and dinner several time at Al Maidah.

There are several other choice of halal food around here too. I cringed remembering our experience of having to use stairs of Chung King Mansion. We stucked in the elevator situation as there is only one lift serving every block. It is not because of going down the stairs with high heels or being an unfit person. I have done 37 flights while rushing down barefoot in Jakarta during earth quake chads, therefore going down six floors is nothing. Chung King house is old dilapidated building full of rubbish,smelly and claustrophic. While running down the stairs and not touching the handrail I prayed hard not to bump into a thief, pimp and drug dealer.

Al Maidah serves middle eastern food such as biryani rice, arab salads,pratha, shawarma, kebab, kofta and curries. The food was good and come in a big portion. However, the price is pretty steep compare to other nearby halal restaurants. The cook and waiter were friendly and nice. My friend who is in a habit of shopping and leaving her shopping spree everywhere has left hers at AlMaidah overnight. The waiter was nice enough to keep  the goods for her.

 For more address of halalfood in Kowloon and Hong Kong you may purchase AN EXTENSIVE GUIDE FOR HALAL RESTAURANTS AND SHOPS IN HONG KONG. Click here

Halal stalls at Koh Phi Phi wet market

We had a family gathering in Phi Phi island which include seven children, tweens and teens. The intention was to unwind for a week by the beach, read good books and allow the young ones to let loose for a week. It turned out that Koh Phi Phi was the perfect location. It was fairly safe for a group of 7 cousins to roam around even at night. There were no cars but only bicycles and motor bikes. Halal food was easy to get. I will talk about this in a while. There are a lot of activities in and around Phi Phi for them like snorkeling, hiking to view point, swimming all day at the pool and kayaking. At night Phi Phi is alive with beach bars. Some of the bars are a bit appalling to children but there are beach shows organized by bars alongside beach like fire show. You need to walk down to Loh Dalum beach at night to catch a fire dance show. A group of dancers with sticks of fire were doing all sort of acts. I got a shock that Amanda came back at night showing me a video of drunken woman who tried to participate in the fire show and burned her hair but was still laughing, probably of too much of Singha beer.

The vacation was organized by my brother, who frequent all nearby islands to satiate his addiction in scuba diving. I used to dive around Malaysian water but have decided to hang my licence on the wall and opt for a much simpler activity, which is snorkeling.

We stayed at Charlie Beach Resort which conveniently located right close to Loh Dalum beach and just besides Ton Sai Village shopping areas ( or town?). The resort is an affordable basic room with air condition, tv, coffe making facilities and fridge. My top of the list requirements which is cleanliness was fulfilled so I have no complaint about the resort. Kids had a blast at the infinity swimming pool overlooking Loh Dalum bay. My sister in law and I was amused with the rows and rows of shops outside Charlie.

Halal Stalls in Ton Sai Village Wet Market
One top secret that was disclosed by my brother is about a row of halal stalls at fruit/wet market in the middle of Tonsai village. This has kept our budget at bay during our one week stay. Besides dining together at night at seafood restaurants, breakfast and lunch and tea were mostly spent at the stalls. Price of food at beach restaurants can be pretty steep and may not taste better than stall food. The stall food price was very reasonable starting from 15 baht for skewer of veges, meat or fish. Most stalls located at the wet market are halal. Just look out for Bismillah or halal logo or hijab clad women attending the stalls. For a 100 baht you can get prepacked lunch of mixed rice with 3 dishes.
The stalls open during breakfast and throughout the day until diner.

Phi Phi Island Map. Circled in red is Ton Sai wet market and Al Aslah Mosque

How to get there? It is a bit tricky but don't worry as you will not get lost in Ton Sai Village. You will need to walk through the shopping alleys (see map) and just ask locals where is talad (market).

Walk pass this alley to reach wet market

Our favorite breakfast is sticky rice eaten with fried chicken and Khanom Cheen (or thai laksa). Khanom Cheen is fish based green curry with thin rice noodle and garnished with lots of thai salad. 

Menu is hardly in English as the stalls are meant for locals. The sellers do not speak English or very little English. However, there were few bigger stalls with english menu and proper dining area. Once we tried to order food with an stall and almost gave up when a waiter appeared at the stall, happily taking order in english for eight people. He then carefully translated our orders to the cook and turned back at us and said, "anyway, I don't work here , I am a boat kapitan (captain) and I want to eat too."

I tried green curry paste with rice and ice tea that cost me less than 400 baht. The food was yummy and fulfilling. A tray of delicious local fruits sold at 30baht per tray. My favorite fruit was exotic sweet and sour pomelo which cost 30baht/tray.

 tweens & teens waiting for food

menu for lunch and diner

Depilated stall but yummy food

Ready packed rice cost from 70 to 100 baht is useful for snorkeling trips on nearby island. We booked a private boat for snorkeling and swimming which was worthy as they took us at a secret spot for swimming in between the cliffs and rock formation. We had a blast swimming in the emerald green water.

For a complete list of halal food around Krabi, Phuket and Southern Thailand please refer to Halal Ebook, click here

Bangi Kopitiam in Denpasar and Ngurah Rai airport

My latest holiday in Bali was during Christmas 2013 with my usual partner in crime which i described as a hectic holiday. We arrived almost near midnight and our first blunder was that the guy that I usually rent a car from has mistaken my arrival for a different date or different month probably, I normally drive myself around in Bali but do not recommend this for first timers. The drivers seem to have unwritten rules and as a driver in Bali you are given an extra job scope to watch for  safety of motorbike riders. However, once you ventured towards more remote and quieter neighborhood driving is a such a bliss. It is rewarding passing through row of rice terrace in Gianyar, beautiful lakes near Bedugul, small winding road to Lovina to name a  few.

During my few recent visits I have noted that Malaysian based coffee shop, Bangi Kopitiam is now opened in Bali.You will definitely not missed the one at located Ngurah Rai airport. This is convenient for visitors who arrived late and want a quick halal grab prior to starting a holiday in Bali. Personally I try not to feast upon any home based food when abroad.

Another bigger branch that can be easily spotted from the main road (even when driving a manual car and looking after the safety of bikers) is located at Jalan Teuku Umar, Kecamatan, Denpasar Barat, Bali. For a complete list of 100 Halal Restaurants in Bali, please click here or go to Halal e book page.

Frustrated by the car rental blunder we took a cab to our resort in Sukawati nearby Ubud town. It cost us 350k rupiah to get there. We reached the remotely located Bhanuswari resort by 1 a.m. Half day of the next day gone to looking for a rental car in Ubud town. Due to a long Christmas holiday all cars were taken. Finally we got an old MPV with a manual transmission. My left leg has developed handsome muscles as a result of driving for 4 days due to the car's stiffed clutch.

One experience worth to mentioned is the communal bathing in Bali. To get to Bhanuswari, from the main road to Goa Gajah, we took a turn to a smaller road that  passed through villages along a small stream. I was curious passing through group of partially clothed villagers near the stream. It was a communal bathing spot for the villagers. The population is dominated by Hindu but halal food is ample in Gianyar area.

Please go to Halal ebook page for a complete guide to Halal Bali.

Halal Canteen at Masjid Ammar, Wan Chai Hong Kong

Halal food in Hong Kong is quite limited and expensive in comparison to price of non halal food. There is a canteen located at the 5th floor of Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Center which is a great alternative to indian and middle eastern food which is abundant in Hong Kong.The most important is the food is cheap and delicious. The canteen is well known for its dim sum that is served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The canteen get a bit crowded with visitors around the world during lunch hour. It also open for breakfast and serve Cantonese food for diner.

The mosque is a bit difficult to find. It takes a bit of walking from Wan Chai MRT station. My advise is don't go there when you are hungry thinking that a 10 minutes walk will take you there. During our first visit, we used a google map as a guide and we walk through shops, park and dilapidated buildings. My tiring food was about to give up, triggered with growling tummy and cold air. At that moment, we saw a building with a dome that looked like a mosque. We practically ran to the place only to find out that it was a Sikh temple. Out of frustration I wanted to turn back but then we saw Oi Kwan Road which led us to the mosque. My second visit to the mosque was a breeze walk from Johnston Street to Wan Chai road to the mosque as shown in the wan chai mtr sreet map.

If you arrived during lunch hour, the canteen is a bit busy filled by muslim visitors mostly from south east asia. The waiters do not speak english but the menu is written in english therefore you just need to point which food you want to order. The food was prepared pretty fast. The taste is authentically chinese and delicous. It is actually worth going (or walking).

Masjid Ammar is at no 91. Get full map of Wan Chai street here

Once you are done with the lunch walking back to Wan Chai MTR seems like a short walk and made me feel that this canteen is to be visited again when i come to Hong Kong.

For a complete list of 50 halal restaurants in Hong Kong click here.

Eat Pray Love in Bali

Pretty woman, Julia Roberts starred in Eat Pray Love Movie adapted from Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir. Juliaplayed a divorced and depressed writer who travelled to Itali (Eat), India (Pray) and Bali (Love) to seek solace and find herself. Bali was the last place Liz stopped after stuffing herself with pasta, pizza and gellatos in Italy and prayed in India. I couldn't help but get all excited watching the movie, tracing the places that Julia Roberts had gone in Bali. There is something common that I share with Julia and Liz. We straddled bikes in Ubud and fell of the bikes. In my scene, I was not knocked down by Javier Badiem but I lost control of my bike on a steep road in Monkey Forest. After visiting Bali several times, I upgraded my bike to a cute but rugged jeep which is similar to the one Felippe was driving in Eat Pray Love.

In the movie Julia visited Pak Ketut Leyar, a toothless dukun (shaman) who taught her about looking the beauty of life through her liver (heart). A toothless Pak Ketut was hillarious in his broken English. Pictured (top) was a scene where Julia visited Ketut. If you go to Penastanan Village in Bali's central foothills, a dull, blue-stained signboard points toward the house of Ketut Liyar,a ninth generation of medicine man. Ketut is now famous with Julia and Liz's fans seeking for his advise and for palm reading.

Shooting of Eat Pray Love were done in Banjar Bentuyung, Banjar Nyuh Kuning, Pengosekan, the Ubud Art Market and Monkey Forest Park, all within Ubud/Gianyar Regency and some other venues including Jimbaran and Uluwatu in Badung Regency.

Pictured below is Julia Roberts and Javier visiting Ubud market.