Happy birthday to me! And what better way to celebrate turning 34 than gorging on dumplings?

Last night we left the lovely sanctuary of Lantau and took the ferry to Central to go out on date night. But the question was where to go?

Much like Tokyo and other mega cities like London and Paris and New York, Hong Kong has an incredible array of restaurants of every cuisine under the sun, and with such tough competition you can be sure that the food will be top notch.

But, as I previously mentioned, I’m not really a fancy kind of girl, and while I did want to have a nice meal in a place with a good view, I wasn’t willing to spend hundreds of dollars to do so. Even on my birthday.

(Yes, I’m cheap! Frugal? No, just cheap. There, I admitted it.)

However, there are lots of fun, cheap things you can do in Hong Kong that don’t cost a fortune. So we had a great. fun date on a shoestring, and got the view to boot.

First we hopped on the Star Ferry, and sat at my most favourite spot in all of Hong Kong — the observation deck outside the Clock Tower in Tsim Sha Tsui, which has an amazing view of the Hong Kong island skyline. It is a popular photography spot for tourists and locals alike, but being a Monday afternoon, it was thankfully not crowded at all. It was an incredibly beautiful day, and as we sat nestled amongst mainland Chinese tourists in frilly lace dresses and expensive Nikons, we sipped on some ice cold beer, did some people watching, and enjoyed the sunset over what I think is one of the best things about Hong Kong — its mind blowing skyline.

After the beer was done and the sun was down, up Nathan Road we went, seeking out a restaurant in Jordan which I had read about online. It has a really strange name — Osama Tony. The name by itself is weird, but even weirder is that it is a dim sum restaurant that specialises in xiao long bao, these juicy, fatty Shanghai style dumplings that you have to pick up ever so delicately with your chopsticks or the skin breaks and all the juice falls out. Why is it called Osama Tony? No idea. But it was delish.

Then, after gorging on plate after plate of dumplings and meatballs and cabbage and all kinds of yumminess, and feeling fat and bloated like a snake who swallowed an agouti, we took a stroll through Temple Street Night Market which was a stone’s throw away.  Temple Street has all kinds of action going on — stalls selling touristy junk, fortune tellers who have birds that choose cards that determine your destiny, Cantonese opera singers, sex toys, and a jade market.

When we got tired, we hopped in a cab, went back to the Star Ferry, and headed home to Lantau. It was an excellent night out, and I wouldn’t trade it for all the fancy pants restaurants in the world.