Shatin's Newtown Plaza the new Canton Road?

Not long ago has Shatin's Newtown Plaza opened up a Victoria's Secret beauty store, and now along side with it's novelty Michael Kors shop, I am starting to ruminate: Is Newtown Plaza becoming the new Canton Road? Although the VS store is by no comparison as satisfying as the ones in US, it was however able to create a frenzy on the opening day. With Newtown's growing clientele of international designer brands and high accessibility to Shenzhen, Shatin seems to have bloomed as mainlanders' new amusement park. You're starting to hear more Mandarin being spoken then Cantonese and I can't really blame them, there are fashion and food outlets galore that lure them to linger. This trend has become vividly apparent to me during my visit today.

I started off hunting for a place to satisfy my gastronomic needs, and found this Thai place called Tom Yum Kung Kung crowded with people. So I went over and saw their promotional limited 50 bowls per day Tom Yum Vermicelli with Canadian Crab Leg for only HK$36!! After inquiring if there were any left I was escorted to a table. Given the price you would imagine you're not sitting in a 5star environment but that was okay because the food was great! Note: You do need to know how to read Chinese or at least go with someone who can as the ordering sheets are in Chinese. I ordered a fish cake as an appetizer, the vermicelli and a soda. Which in total came down to a mere $64! Great option for a quick lunch!=)

The fish cake was your typical Thai fish cake accompanied with sweet chili sauce that I did not try so I wouldn't comment. The cake itself however was nice and hot and tasted great.

The vermicelli was thoroughly satisfying. Because of the price I was expecting mediocre food, but the crab leg was a surprising portion, and the tom yum tasted a great mix of spice and lime. Though the crab leg was not filleted with no genuine tools but chopsticks to help open it, it was however considerably hammered open and came with wet-naps. Pretty good for $36!!=)






I then headed to check out the new Michael Kors store. This is only the second Michael Kors shop in Hong Kong after the Peninsula Haute Coutour store. Differing from the Peninsula one, the Shatin one is a lifestyle store, translate: more wallet-friendly. I was trying to look for a tote I saw at the airport duty free but failed. I however, after chatting with one of the friendly and knowledgeable saleswomen, found out that Michael Kors not only designed an Asia limited edition bag called Jetset, but also designed sunglasses that catered to Asian noses. That's very cute Mr. Kors!=)