My plan was straight from the cat-burglar playbook and went something like this: get in, rummage around a bit, grab some stuff you need and get out as quickly as possible. I gathered beforehand that this was the preferred approach of most people when it came to shopping for fancy dress costumes in Sham Shui Po. The problem was that, although I had a good general plan I had no idea of the specifics. What was I actually going to dress up as and what do I need to buy to do that? I yearned for the easy wins of the costume shops on Pottinger Street and told myself to pull it together. "Remember, you came here because it is probably a bit cheaper" I thought, whilst also cursing myself for not factoring into the trip the price of transport or personal misery (the latter of which had potential for being significantly more substantial), as the throng of the Saturday shopping crowd hustled past me from every angle.
As it was, the afternoon was bright, the weather cool and my mood much improved as it turns out that it is actually quite easy to come up with costume ideas in a series of markets selling nothing but assorted terrible clothing and a diverse range of accessories. Still, the process was taking a while and the crowds were starting to get to me after an inadequate lunch, so I went to my phone for inspiration. By "inspiration", in these scenarios I typically mean "somewhere to eat", as this is a guaranteed mood-lifter and general all-round good thing. I had fortuitously starred the location on my Googlemaps of Kung Wo Dou Bun Chong, well-renowned for producing fresh tofu on a daily basis and serving it up to customers in various delicious guises.
Being mid-afternoon and in need of a sugar hit, I went in, sat down and managed to point/gesticulate enough in the direction of what someone else was eating to get a bowl of the cold "tofu fa" (tofu pudding), where silky tofu is served in a bowl and mingled with sweeter-than-sweet sugar syrup. Tofu haters out there will say that tofu can be spongy, tasteless and often gross, but I dare those people to try this and not concede ground even a little bit. This is really as good as it gets – sweet, silky, break-apart tofu that is so soft your toothless grandma would gulp it down with a spade. It's also HK$12, so you really have no excuse not to try.
The atmosphere is "local", by which I mean you eat as quickly as possible and get the fuck out, but it's still a great way to kill a few minutes and take a break from looking for a way to dress up like Action Man.