At the beginning of 2023, some
excitements in fast food industry happened here. We saw another restaurant
chain setting their feet on Hongkong. The name of the restaurant is Dicos. At
the time of writing, it ranked 29th on the Wikipedia list of largest
fast food restaurant chains.
Dicos, a fast food chain from China
“What is Dicos? The 29th
largest fast food restaurant chain? Never heard.” I guess this would be the
answer for most people. Yes, Dicos is not that international. It is a fast food
restaurant chain originated from China. The restaurant is specialized in
selling fried chicken and chicken burger. Dicos is very popular in mainland
China and has almost as many restaurants as McDonald's. At the time of writing,
there are more than 2500 Dicos nationwide. This is why it comes up on the list.
People nowadays like to mix
politics with everything. After all those hassles in 2019, locals here have a
mix feeling on Chinese brands. But I don’t care! I was overjoyed to see Dicos
coming here. After hearing their opening news, I grabbed my friend to try their
chicken together in no time.
First Dicos in the city, opened in North Point
Their first outlet was not
opened in the Central Business District. It is in North Point, one of the old
districts of Hongkong. Most residents in that area have a strong tie with China
and they are normally pro-government. I am not sure if this is the reason for Dicos
to choose North Point to open their first restaurant. And the restaurant is not
large. It is a smart move indeed. There would not be much to lose if the
business ended up failing.
However, the business is surprisingly good. It was already 8pm but the restaurant was almost full. We only managed to find a seat at the far end of the restaurant.
Cashier of Dicos, looks just like a normal fast food restaurant
The interior of Dicos looks
similar to those of other fast food restaurants. Their food also look similar
to those selling in KFC. But a closer look will show some differences. First,
they don’t sell chicken breasts. You can find nuggets, legs and drumsticks but
no breasts. And apart from the standalone shrimp patty burger, all other
burgers are chicken. No beef, no pork, no vegetarian. Only chicken, chicken and
shrimp, nothing else. And it also got some unique dishes such as the side dish “Chicken
strips with cumin”. Cumin is a popular ingredient in the Xinjiang area of China.
The menus of Dicos. They also sell curry chicken rice.
I show you their menus so that
you can also know their price.
We ordered chicken nuggets, the “Xinjiang”
chicken strips, 5 pieces of fried chicken drumsticks, some French fries, and a
cup of Pepsi. Food is nice. It tastes better than KFC’s but not as good as Jolly
Bee’s. However, their ketchup is horrible. They don’t know how to make ketchup.
Our food -- Fried chicken drumsticks, Chicken nuggets, Chicken strips with cumin, French fries and a cup of Pepsi
If you do not know (or care)
about their background, Dicos is just another fast food restaurant. But the waiters
are all from mainland. I can tell from their accent. And they speak with each other
in Mandarin. Also, over half of the customers inside the restaurant speak
Mandarin. I bet they are all from mainland China, being happy to find some ‘local’
food in this semi-foreign city.
Their Sichuan pepper powder is good. But the ketchup is horrible.
Do give Dicos a try if you got
any chance to visit Hongkong or mainland China. You can find Dicos in Taiwan as
well.
It is time to continue our adventure
in epic fantasy. In the next few posts, I will move slightly away from traditional
screen adaptations, i.e. movies or TV dramas, to fantasy role-playing video
games. And the first I would like to talk about is the well acclaimed action
RPG published on Nintendo switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Chinese version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Being published in 2017, Breath
of the Wild is already 6 years old by now. However, at the time of writing,
it is still the latest work in the series. People have already written enormous
number of articles talking about this game. So instead of going straight into the
game and writing another similar article, I would like to take you through my
journey into 3D epic fantasy gaming.
From Travelholic to TV fanatic
Let us rewind back to 2019. I
have did a lot of travel in that year.
First, I had a family trip to
Bangkok to spend the summer. Shortly afterwards, I got a business trip to Munich,
and another short stay in Bangkok during my return trip. It was great to visit
this vibrant city twice in a single month. In Autumn, I got another business
trip, to Singapore that time. And near the year end, I had visited my brother
in Melbourne and then made a short trip to Hobart just before Christmas to
conclude the year.
For most Hongkongers, 2019 was not an easy year. Just that no one could imagine 2020 would be even more difficult. I remembered when walking along the coast of Hobart, I told myself that I have been travelled too much and should stay more at home. God listened to my “prayer” and bounded me in this city for the next 1000 days.
I was sitting inside Mure's Seafood Restaurant at Hobart waterfront on the 13th of Dec, 2019. Who can imagine what would happen in just one month's time?
Time flies. 2020 was still okay
to me. I was packed with different projects from my job. I spent my limited
leisure time to travel around this small city and it was still fulfilling. But the
pandemic lasted way longer than I expected.
In 2021, I started filling
nervous. I missed travelling. I need travel, desperately. I need to find a way
out. So, I started watching different travel documentaries, visiting different
restaurants, trying every international cuisines, just to imagine that I was
travelling around the world. I also tried to walk inside a football field, lay
on the grasses with my eyes closed, trying to hypnotize myself to believe that
I was riding a horse in Kyrgyzstan. But I just could not fool myself with all
those. Fortunately, I was given a way out. Thanks to my wife.
My way out, sort of
Ever since my marriage, we used
to have oversea family trips at least once a year. Being locked in this small
city, we did save a lot in travelling. One day, my wife suggested to use the
money to buy a Nintendo Switch.
I have not been playing console
games for years. And I still believe kids should stay away from game consoles
until, at least, 10 years old maybe. That is the reason why I introduce so many
card and dice games to my kids. I do have 2 consoles at home, a Wii and an Xbox
360. They are still working but have been mothballed for ages.
“The console is almost $2500 and
a game is another $500? That’s expensive.” But my wife insisted. So, I grabbed the
switch and Mario 3D. But just about to pay, I saw this distinguishing
game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Opening scene of Breath of the Wild is just breath-taking Image Source: Nintendo
“It is a good game. It has been
sold out for months. We just got some copies back earlier this week.” The
salesman told me. I have heard about the game before. But buying this would
mean another $500. “What the heck!”, I said to myself. “$500 is just a JR
Shinkansen ticket.” So, I dumped $3500 on the cashier desk and left the shop
with the console and 2 games. I tell you what. There is no regret of buying
this game. Breath of the Wild is just gorgeous!
My date with Zelda
I used to be a diehard Zelda
fan. I played the original The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of
Link when young. I still remembered the many sleepless nights playing A
Link to the Past during my college time. I also enjoyed the black and white
Link’s Awakening on Gameboy a lot. But since then, I started working. There
is little work-life balance in this busy city. I have given up playing console
games completely. So, don’t ask me about those Zelda games after that. Ocarina
of Time? Majora's Mask? Never heard.
Everything is now in 3D, no more top down view Image Source: Nintendo
Playing a new Zelda game after
all those years is like meeting an old friend. And the old friend has a new
look now. It is in 3D. The game received critical acclaim in almost everywhere,
from almost everyone. Graphics are beautiful. Gameplay is nice. Map is large.
And the storyline is attractive. Everything is just awesome. Furthermore, it is
an open world game set in the epic fantasy genre.
The chill of modern day gaming
I always treat The Lord of
the Rings trilogy as the dividing range between classic and modern day
movies. Movies produced after that time always give audience a more recent
feeling. Movies before that are more in old-school style. There are exceptions.
Alien is ahead of its time. However, Predator is more old-school.
Alien vs. Predator? Well, it was produced after The Lord of the Rings
so it is modern. If you have watched all those movies, you would agree on what
I said.
The transition on TV dramas was
5 to 10 years later than that. The turning point is digital switchover. TV
channels started filming in HD from around 2007. And the success in streaming services
kicked TV shows to a further level. I would say, any TV show produced after
2007 belongs to the modern era.
But for games, the transition happens
even later. Breath of the Wild is not the first 3D game I have ever
played. I played Doom. But the first 3D game that made me dived myself
into is Gabriel Knight 3. I also played GTA IV on my old Xbox
360. It is the one of the two games I ever bought for that console. Both games
are good. But Gabriel Knight 3 is 1999 and the graphics are chunky. GTA
IV is more advanced but still with lot of imperfections. I think ever since
2011, we started having some decent 3D games. But their picture quality is
still not comparable to movies. I would say, playing a modern 3D game with good
graphics is more comparable to watching an anime.
In Breath of the Wild, you can find desert and oasis... Image Source: Nintendo
But also, you can find snowy peaks to climb and wooden cottage on mountain top. Image Source: Nintendo
Breath of the Wild is one of these. After 6 years,
it is hard to say that the graphics are flawless. Nintendo switch is not very
strong in terms of hardware. Plenty of 3D games nowadays have better graphics.
But Breath of the Wild is all enough for me. I can ride a horse on the
endless grasslands, climb up snowy peaks, dive into the hot springs, travel
between different villages, and talk to different people around. In its open world
environment, I can go almost anywhere I like. Sometimes, I just load up the
game, grab my horse from the stable, walk around randomly, doing nothing at
all. I just love enjoying the atmosphere that the game gives me. It is my game.
The pace is up to me. There is no hurry of doing anything.
The best part of the game is definitely the horse-riding part Image Source: Nintendo
Many people have been writing reviews
on this game and I am not going to repeat. If you want to know how good it is,
or if you want to know its plot, who is Zelda, what is the master sword, or if
you are stuck in somewhere and seeking for help, please google. Below, I put a
video showing the complete gameplay, with no commentary. Even though you do not
have this game, I hope you can also enjoy Breath of the Wild.
In one sunny winter morning,
there was an extraordinary long queue inside a local McDonald’s restaurant. We
like McDonald’s. There are always long queues. But that time was different.
The long queue inside a McDonald's
It was only 10:55am, a time that
was too late for breakfast but too early for lunch. People in the queue were
not looking for food. They were looking for a card.
Big Mac family combo, but this is not what people wanted
It is the cards that people wanted
“Mirror Card” is a set of
collectable trading cards bear the images of Hongkong’s (probably) most popular
boyband, Mirror. The card is a promotional product distributed by McDonald’s
together with their Crispy Thighs lunch set. The card set is a limited edition
so people gathered in restaurants early to make sure that they can get a copy.
The Crispy Thighs set of McDonald’s costs around 5 USD here. But the card can
be sold at 10 USD or more on internet. Technically, that would mean free lunch.
There were 2 rounds of promotion recently. The first round is for promoting a TV drama on ViuTV.
The second round is more a promotion of McDonald's own food
-- the Chicken Thighs set.
I got an Ian card. The card is about the size of a Pokemon card but without round corners.
Popstar photo
Popstar culture exists everywhere.
Even North Koreans have their famous actors. Hongkong is one of the cradles of
Asian popstars. We have our homebrew singers and movie actors. Their names may
not be heard in the western world. But they are very popular here.
Since young, I saw friends
started collecting photos of their favorite popstars. Popstar photos are
normally in 3R or 4R sizes. Apart from the images, they are just ordinary
photos. My friends keep them as bookmarks. Some are printed in smaller 2R size
for keeping inside wallets.
An art gallery in Aberdeen has a section selling Mirror soveniors
Bookmarks, A4 folders, badges, keyrings -- all sort of stuffs that can be carried around with you
One of the eye-catching item is the photo pack of Mirror
I bought a pack Anson Lo photos for my daughter. The pack costed me $25, which means $5 per photo.
And they are real photos with image only on one side.
Selling popstar photos can
really make a profit in the 90s. A popular photo can be sold up to 5 HKD, which
is around 80 cents. That was quite a lot as you can get a lunch set at around 10
to 15 HKD at that time. And developing a 3R photo back then would only cost 0.5
HKD. Since there is no portrait rights in Hongkong, if you managed to get you some
negatives of popstar photos on hand, you can make some easy fortune instantly.
Back in the 80s and 90s, many
stationary shops sold popstar photos to make some extra money. There were even
shops dedicated in selling popstar photos. Some of those shops still exist nowadays.
But their businesses started to decline with the launch of “yes!! card”.
yes!! card, & copycats
Being first launched in 1991,
“yes!! card” is a wallet size photo card with the image of popstar on one side
and some random messages on the other. It is published by the then most popular
youngsters magazine, “yes!!”. With the advance in printing technology, the
quality of the image is comparable to photo. But printing a card is definitely
cheaper. And they are waterproof and doubled-sided. Soon, they replaced popstar
photos and collecting “yes!! card” became a trend among young people. Back in
the 90s or early 2000, nearly every young people was keeping at least one or
two “yes!! card” in their wallet. Hope that I am not surprising you, one of my
friend is still keeping a Vivian Chow “yes!! card” as bookmark and carry it
around every day.
My friend is still carrying a Vivian Chow "yes!! card" around every day.
“yes!! card” renews its series
every 3 weeks. There are around 60 to 90 different cards in a series. And they
only include the most popular popstars in their collection. So, “yes!! card”
also serves as an indicator to the popularity of different popstars. “yes!! card”
does not only feature local popstars. You can find “yes!! card” of western
popstars as well.
"yes!! card" vending machine outside a trading card shop in Wan Chai. The shop also sell Pokemon and baseball cards.
A close-up of the "yes!! card" vending machine. The machine is 100% mechanics and it only takes coins!
I spent $4 and got a Jason Kui card and a Polly Lau + Andy Lai card. Don't ask me. I've never listened to their songs. I don't even know who they are!
The back sides of "yes!! card" are rather random. The Jason Kui card shows his zodiac sign. The Polly Lau + Andy Lai card shows details of the event where the photo was taken.
"yes!! card" is the same size as a Pokemon card.
Printing of photo card is
nothing rocket science. Ever since the launch of “yes!! card”, copycats started
floating around. But “yes!!” is very smart, yet controversial, in marketing. They
encouraged their readers to bully others if they found anyone buying or carrying
a fake card.
A photo developing store in Wah Fu has one of this "fake" card vending machine.
The machine looks exactly the same as the "yes!! card" machine, only the colour is different.
Each card also costs $2. And it only sells Mirror cards.
The card is in credit card size. On the back, you can find the logo of the boyband.
"yes!! card", together with its magazine, was popular for nearly 2 decades until smart phones became popular. The magazine went out of print in 2014 but “yes!! card” survives. At the time of writing, they are in their 90th series. Though they are much less popular than before. The cards are sold through specially made vending machines. Each card only costs $2 HKD. The price has been frozen for nearly 3 decades!
Their vending machines are also
very old-fashioned. They are 100% mechanics and only take $1 coins. Don’t worry
if you don’t have coins on hand. The storekeeper will give you change.
You can find the official
website of “yes!! card” below. The site is in Chinese language but you can get
a look of how their cards look like.
That is all I wanted to say. I
was first considered to put this post under the chapter “Card Games”. But that
does not seem proper. It is okay to call a popstar photo a card but it is definitely
not a game. So, I decided to put the post under the chapter “Hong Kong”.
Am I a big fan of “yes!! card”
or Mirror? No way. I can hardly know who they are and I don’t collect photo
cards. I wrote this post is just to tell you that we have this kind of things in
this city.
