A HONG KONG KIND OF FEBRUARY 香港2月
Ushering in the Year of the Dog with fireworks, Hemingway cocktails and the city’s best new eats 以煙花、海明威式雞尾酒及一流新餐廳歡慶狗年
THE NEAREST HONG Kong gets to a winter is February. The days are squashy and cool, and the clouds hang low.
All of which means we can get away with nothing else but eating, drinking and getting nicely round to keep ourselves warm before once again reaching for the aircon switch in another few weeks. It’s also Chinese New Year, which means plenty of celebrating and, most importantly, days off work.
How to celebrate? Eating: on newly reinvigorated Staunton Street. It’s gone from being an expatty, slightly grubby place to being the location of this season’s best new openings: Meats (1) (so meaty they give you tongs to pick at the bones with) and Big Sur (2) (packed with Californian casualistas eating tacos). On even less reputable Wyndham Street, seek out
The New Punjab Club (3): Tatler’s best new HK restaurant and just the thing for stoking your internal fires.
Then: drinking. It’s been open for a while, but speakeasy The Old Man (4)
– from Staunton, turn left on Aberdeen Street and dive down the lane on the right – is constantly packed with an elite group of boozers drinking Hemingway-inspired cocktails. A few stumbles down the hill from Staunton on Pottinger is
Yojimbo (5), a new Japanese club with live music and entertainment (actors were writhing around on the bar drapped in sakura when we visited), masterminded by Australian design visionary Ashley Sutton, of Iron Fairies and J Boroski fame. The bar at the excellent Piedmontese La Piola (6) in one of Wan Chai’s noblest buildings is getting a loyal following, too.
And if you’re in town over the CNY weekend (16-19 February), there’s the usual tinselly fireworks display and parade through Tsim Sha Tsui to mark the new Year of the Dog (see page 24 to meet Hong Kong’s best Instagram dog star).
While you’re there, you might notice Victoria Harbour looking a little different (or, er, not). Enter the Symphony of Lights 2.0 (7), a subtle upgrade on Hong Kong’s top tourist attraction: expect more installations, more buildings and more bling, naturally.
香港的2月最有冬天的感覺：雲層壓得低低的，天色陰陰沉沉，寒意襲人。
這種日子最好以飲食驅寒保暖，然後到外面舒服地閒逛，因為過不了多久，開冷氣的日子又會悄然來了。本月還有 農曆新年，自然有許多親朋相聚、互相拜年的機會，不過最重要的還是可以放幾天假，不用上班！
如何歡度新歲呢？民以食為天，最宜到煥然一新的士丹頓街來一趟美食遊。這條街以前有點髒，前來的大多是外籍人士，現在街上進駐了多家全新開業的高級餐廳，例如主打各式肉類的 Meats（1）（餐廳會提供鉗子，讓你可將連著骨頭的肉夾起來）以及散發加州悠閒氣氛的Big Sur（2)（裡面擠滿仔細品嚐墨西哥玉米餅的顧客）。雲咸街雖然不及士丹頓街那般廣受注目，但那條街上有獲《Tatler》雜誌選為最佳全新香港餐廳的The
New Punjab Club（3），那裡的美食定能令你大飽口福，渾身暖洋洋。
飽餐一頓之後，最好就是來一杯美酒。從士丹頓街一直走到鴨巴甸街，然後左轉，向著鴨巴甸街的盡頭走，右面就是私房酒吧The Old Man（4）。它已開業一段日子，裡面的酒客都是文學精英，他們杯中的雞尾酒全都受小說家海明威的啟發。由士丹頓街往山下走，不久就來到砵甸乍街的Yojimbo（5），這是一家全新的日式夜店，有現場音樂及娛樂表演（我們去的時候一群演員跳上酒吧檯，在垂吊的櫻花裝飾下扭動身體）。酒吧由著名澳洲設計師Ashley Sutton設計，他曾經設計的酒吧括Iron Fairies與J Boroski。而位於灣仔一座古色古香建築內的餐廳兼酒吧La Piola（6），主打意大利皮埃蒙特大區風味美酒佳餚，亦有不少捧場客。
今年農曆新年（ 2月16至19日）適逢周末，如果你在香港的話，可以到尖沙咀欣賞農曆新年煙花匯演和巡遊，迎接戊戌狗年來臨（參閱24頁在Instagram上最受歡迎的香港狗明星）。
既然來到尖沙咀，不妨到維多利亞港兩旁，欣賞全新版本的「幻彩詠香江」（ 7）。新的表演加入更多燈光效果和圖案，並有更多建築物參與，為觀眾帶來耳目一新的視聽體驗。