Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
I am hosting a party next month and the theme is “Chinese kitsch.” I want to buy a box of fortune cookies to distribute to guests, but as luck would have it, I can’t find them anywhere! Can you point me in the right direction?
—Out of Luck

The American-invented pseudo-prophetic cookies that purport to predict one's fortune are barely known in the Far East, and are therefore quite tricky to find—how unfortunate for tacky parties like yours.

Luckily, Garden Bakery sells them by the box for $40, or $110 for three boxes. You can find them on the G/F, 58 Castle Peak Road, Sham Shui Po and they also have a couple of branches in Yuen Long and Tai Po. Alternatively, contact them at 2720 1055 or visit www.garden.com.hk. The bakery is open from 10:00Am to 6:00PM Mondays to Saturdays and closed on Sundays and public holidays.


Dear Mr. Know-It-All,
I was amused that you called a foosball enthusiast a fooser, because he enjoyed the sport more than Hong Kong’s nightlife.

I recently played for the first time in many years, and thought it was fun, although I enjoyed ping-pong much more, perhaps because I’m better at it.
Are there any bars, parks, or sporting facilities near Central (or anywhere not in godforsaken New Territories) with ping-pong facilities? I would also be interested in any leagues or organizations of similar ping-pong enthusiasts.
—Ping Pong in Hong Kong

Would it also amuse you if I call you a ponger? No offense meant, of course...
You can pong until your heart’s content at the Hong Kong Park Sports Centre (29 Cotton Tree Drive, Central, 2521 5077), the Shek Tong Tsui Sports Centre (5/F-6/F, Shek Tong Tsui Municipal Services Building (470 Queen’s Road West, Hong Kong, 2858 0541) or the Smithfield Sports Centre, which even offers two table tennis rooms (4/F-7/F, Smithfield Municipal Services Building, 12K Smithfield, Kennedy Town, Hong Kong, 2855 7321).

It costs $21/hour with rackets and balls included at all three centres.
As for finding like-minded pongers, there aren’t any official organizations in Hong Kong, unless you speak Cantonese. So you have two options: you could start your own club or, failing that, you could make some new ping-pong chums on the www.geoexpat.com forum. There are a lot of options under the Living in Hong Kong Sports and Fitness section.