Batgung

I’m always on the search for new restaurants with good food. That’s why it was with a minor infusion of joy that I noticed a new restaurant opening just down the road from my church. Look, a new lunch place – and it had the air of a place that might be kind of bistro-like, yet cheap! Perfect.

But then I had a closer look. It was not a bistro. It was not a coffee shop, or a fast-food joint, at least not quite. It was a salad place. Read more »

The other day I found myself staring forlornly into the rapidly enmist-ifying depths of my freezer. I was looking for a pack of bread to set out to thaw for my lunch the next day. And all I could see through the swirling fog was a clinical white plain of barren nothingness . . . there was none.

I recovered from my horror with a little trip down to Park N Shop to buy some of its floppy, over-risen, vaguely sweet bread. Read more »

We’ve all seen those lists: ‘You know you’re a redneck when . . .’ or ‘You know you’ve been abducted, probed and brainwashed by aliens when . . .’, and so on.

Well, I’ve got an entry in the ‘You know you’ve been an expat in Hong Kong for long time when . . .’ list. That is: ‘I know I’ve been in Hong Kong for a long time when I get excited by the prospect of going to Fairwood Fast Food for a weekend breakfast.’

No, really!  Read more »

Soup doesn't get much attention in the UK. You might reheat a canned soup when you're too full for a proper meal, or mix powdered soup with boiling water when you're camping. But that's about it.

Things are different here – soup is a big deal. MrsB summed it up: “Don't drink soup? Then you'll get sick!” Read more »

A few weeks ago I introduced a new component in our set of articles on the cost of living in Hong Kong. In that first installment, I compared the prices of fresh produce and meats in Hong Kong's markets, ordinary supermarkets, and high-end 'expat-oriented' food halls.
 Read more »

We Batgung are asked the same question by many commenters and emailers: ‘How much does it cost to live in Hong Kong?’

The easy answer is ‘quite a lot, but maybe not so much as you might think, so long as you know where to look for things’.

What’s much harder is demonstrating by anecdote or isolated example how much difference it makes in Hong Kong if you buy your goods and services from expat-centric providers, as opposed to local ones.

I recently read an interesting book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The author, Michael Pollan, traced the sources of all the food in four very different meals: a McDonald’s fast food lunch; a couple of organic dinners, one from ‘industrial’ organic sources, i.e. Read more »

If you’re planning to visit Hong Kong, you’ll no doubt run into someone who’s lived here, or you’ll read a guidebook or website, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: you’re going to love all that great Chinese food in HK! It’s the world’s best!! Read more »

Question: What about food in Hong Kong? Will I be able to find any decent western food when I get homesick? Is food really expensive?  Read more »

Question: How about some basic info on things like rent prices, typical wages, cost of living, etc?

Mr B replies: For wages, a rough translation is that an HKD monthly salary is about the same value as an equivalent GBP annual salary (e.g. getting HKD30K a month is like getting GBP30K a year). Accommodation may be more expensive (though it's dropped a lot in the last six years), but you'll pay a lot less tax. I felt better off here on the same salary.  Read more »