Oops, a month late

I went to Hong Kong for a long weekend! A whole month ago, and I forgot to upload my pictures!

This trip was solely for the purpose of spending time with family, and in the requisite Chinese fashion, that meant squeezing as many meals as possible into one long weekend. I didn't see any sights, I barely bought anything at all. But yep, I ate. And ate. And ate.

Hong Kong at dawn

My trip didn't start off so fortuitously. I rushed to the airport on a Friday afternoon after work, only to find that bad weather delayed my flight. This was only conveyed to us after boarding, so I sat in the plane for hours... and hours... and hours. So much for a short skip and a hop to Hong Kong! By the time I landed, it was nearly 2am in the morning, way after public transportation had stopped for the evening in HKG. So I napped in the terminal until the first bus arrived at 6am.

Luckily, the rest of the visit was framed in sunny cool weather. I saw many relatives, spent time with the parents, and ate my weight in seafood.

Seafood, BEFORE

Seafood, AFTER

My favorite still has got to be the mantis shrimp. It's hard to find them anywhere else, and these were so large and plump,
and the flesh was so sweet and tender. It's a treat I only seem to have in Hong Kong.

Not quite HK food but delicious (and pretty!) just the same.

Besides fancy meals, of course I had to find some time for some old favorites. Looking back at these pictures though, it's probably a good thing I don't get to eat like this often... I'd develop some pretty serious health issues very quickly!

A breakfast I often dream of: instant ramen in borscht (or, the Cantonese version of it), toast topped with butter and
condensed milk, and the always unique HK style milk tea served in a thick porcelain cup.

Street-style rice crepes... I could write poetry to its amazingness.
The classic trio in the background aren't slouches either: curried
fish balls, braised pork skin, and stewed turnip.

I did, however, notice something different about Hong Kong this visit. People seemed so unhappy there. The populace seemed to be in a constant rush, everyone was hustling hard to get through the day. And even in that, there was no joy. People were often rude, and easily aggravated and grumpy.

Is it them? Or is it me... have I changed? Have I been away from New York City for too long? Have I already become accustomed to the more laid-back charm of the Taiwanese people?

In the end, this visit made me feel pretty happy about my decision to come to Taiwan. Hong Kong will always have a special place in my heart. I have family there, people who touch me with their sincerity every time I visit. But in the end, I have decided that Hong Kong is like a bad boyfriend... you'll always love him, but you know you just can't be together. :P

So I'll enjoy my occasional visits, especially now that I'm so close by, but I think I can finally put that vague desire to live in Hong Kong to rest.

Experiencing Hong Kong, through food

Whenever I land in Hong Kong, there's always a special feeling of coming home for me.

For the majority of this visit, I stayed at an airbnb apartment in Mongkok. I chose the place mainly due to its relatively reasonable price, and I figured it would be pretty accessible to public transportation. Also, I am originally a Mongkok girl, this neighborhood being the one I lived in for the first 5 years of my life. My choice was a great one, as I was literally steps from countless food options.

Fa Yuen street. I stayed in the building on the left corner.
There are dozens of food options in these few blocks,
along with lots of shopping.

For a month, I spent time with relatives, walked around the busy streets, and basically ate enough to gain over 5 pounds. Warning: upcoming pictures may induce feelings of hunger. Writer of this blog is not responsible for any keyboards broken due to reader salivation. :P

My uncle and his family took me to have an all-seafood meal. It was very
very amazing. First up, was large shrimp wok-fried in soy sauce.

Scallops in their shell, steamed with lots of garlic.

Lobster, served with noodles on the bottom. All the lovely lobster gravy
dripped onto the noodles and made them super delicious.

Salt-pepper fried mantis shrimp.

Fresh abalone. It was surprisingly tender and sweet.

Besides fancy meals, I also got to sample a variety of food available from street vendors.

Hot and sour potato starch noodles. This was an
intensely flavored bowl of noodles!

The meal of my dreams! A big bao, filled with pork and vegetables ($6 HKD),
a skewer of curry fish balls along with rice crepes ($8 HKD), and a mango
ice ($14 HKD)... it's perfect!

Braised beef brisket with turnip. 

Staying on Fa Yuen street had another perk: there were lots of fresh fruit stands on the street, all offering a wide array of fruit usually for less money than the supermarket. Being in Hong Kong during the hot and humid late Spring has its benefits: the fruit selection was amazing!

I had some of the best lychee I've ever had during this
trip. This particular strain (糯米糍) is known for its
small seed. This resulted in an unusually large, juicy,
and sweet mouthful of fruit.

My first experience with mangosteen! This fruit has a really unique
flavor, not really like any other fruit. It is sweet, with a faint tanginess, and
an interesting floral finish that you taste more with the nose than the mouth.

Look at these tiny cute mangoes! 

Additional food...

Classic Hakka dish, braised pork belly with preserved
mustard greens (梅菜扣肉). The pork was suuuper
rich and fatty, but the greasiness was cut by the tangy
greens.

Cantonese style fast food: baked pork chop served over rice, and a red
bean ice. 

An extremely large and fulfilling breakfast at a local
Mongkok 茶餐廳. The HK style milk tea is unique and
utterly delicious. I miss it already!

I dream about this dish a lot when I'm not in Hong Kong or New York...
thick rice noodles stir fried with black bean gravy. 

Before leaving, I had to have one last meal at an airport restaurant. I
decided on Shanghai xiaolongbao, and a cold jellyfish appetizer.

Ironically, Hong Kong girls are some of the skinniest women I've ever seen. With all this food, how do they do it??? Such a mystery!

Rice crepes

Ah. Warmer temperatures in New York always signal a hankering to venture outside for some food. Like bears after a winter of hibernation, hungry New Yorkers flock to food carts and trucks scattered around town. The other day, I bought a warm, steamy container of rice crepes from a vendor in Chinatown.

New York Rice crepes

The rice crepes were warm from the steamer, its texture smooth. Little bursts of extra savoriness came from the scallions and dried shrimp dotted throughout. The combination of sweet soy and peanut sauce gave the rice crepes a flavorful nutty aroma. As a bonus, I also got some fish balls as an accompaniment. For $1.75, this was a satisfying and filling lunch.

I definitely finished my quick meal with a smile on my face, but these rice crepes made me wish for some others that I had, halfway around the world.

HK Rice crepes

Mmm. There is no comparison; the rice crepes from Hong Kong are superior, especially in texture. While the NY rice crepes bordered on soft-going-on-gummy, the HK rice crepes were silken, each one providing a bouncy toothsome chew. I loved the sprinkle of sesame seeds on top, and at a mere 75 cents USD for a small serving of 4 crepe ribbons (or $1.25 for 8, I think), this was an eminently affordable snack.

Of course, I feel very lucky to even have rice crepes so readily available nearby. But isn't it great that we live in a world where we can have so many comparisons? And... aren't you hungry now? :)

Goodbye Hong Kong

This trip has been flying by. It seems only like yesterday when I was feeling giddy about landing in London, and now I am on the home stretch.

Hong Kong will always be my original hometown. I didn't remember much of it from when I was a little girl, and so I wanted this visit to be about absorbing the city. Maybe Hong Kong is why I feel so at home in New York; I was born in a city and am a city girl at heart. Hong Kong is vibrant and crowded, and fascinating in a thousand ways. Even dirty streets and old buildings have their own story to tell; I have really enjoyed strolling around some of the more pedestrian neighborhoods and spending time with family.

Truth is, I am a little sad about leaving. It's funny that Southeast Asia made me feel American in a way I've never felt before, because Hong Kong makes me feel very Chinese.

I'll be back!! In the meantime, next stop: San Francisco.

Bye bye!

Last entry on Hong Kong food!

Tonight is my last evening in Hong Kong. I had managed to avoid weight gain throughout Europe and SE Asia... but I couldn't escape it in this food-filled wonderland. There's just so much to eat, it's a shame to not at least try a lot of it. As a matter of fact, as I sit here (after a very hearty dinner) writing this entry, I have a bag of something yummy next to me:

Can anyone tell what this is? It's crispy fried fish skin! Seriously, it
doesn't sound appetizing, but is better than chips!

There are two last meals that I wanted to write about that are worth remembering. The first is at Tai Ping Koon (太平館), a very old and established restaurant that was founded in 1860. Their specialties are dishes that have a Western bent to it... fusion cuisine from the 19th century! They claim to be the originators of Swiss sauce chicken wings, which is now a staple dish in many homes.

Ack! Sorry, bad picture! The sauce was salty and not too sweet,
 with a hint of caramelization from the sugar.
The wings were plump and cooked until tender.

Tai Ping Koon is also known for their Beef Chow Fun. It was a good rendition; slightly charred from the wok and full of flavor.

Yummy!

The second meal I wanted to remember was at Kings' Lodge (霸王山莊), a restaurant within the Olympian City shopping center. Their specialty is Shanghai food, including a delicious house-roasted Peking Duck!

Steamed dumplings, and cold cucumber salad

Cold chicken marinated with rice wine (literally, the dish is called
'drunk chicken'), and Shanghai noodle soup.

Hmm. I think this is the Shanghai version of headcheese. Compressed
pig head parts suspended in gelatinous goo. Eaten cold, this had a
great texture.

Shanghai soup dumplings. These were really soupy and had
a fantastic meaty flavor. The skin was also super delicate and thin,
which I like a lot.

HOW PRETTY IS THIS!?! Peking duck, sliced and ready to fold
into a pancake to eat. The skin was amazingly crispy, and the meat
was tender and flavorful. The remnant meat from the duck didn't go
to waste either; it was chopped up and made into another dish, which
we ate wrapped in lettuce leaves.

I think I could eat for a year in Hong Kong without making a dent into its culinary diversity. While I do miss good old NY style pizza, I have to give HK props for having a huge variety of food. Some impressively memorable dishes aren't even pictured in this blog... I admit that I may have forgotten to take my camera out once the food arrived! I will miss the wonderfully silky DouFuFa (豆腐花) at Kung Wo (公和荳品廠), an old tofu shop that has been open since the early 1900s. And I will miss the sweet dessert soups at Luk Lam (綠林甜品); my favorite ended up being the rather old-fashioned sweet potato and ginger soup.

Wait. Writing this made me hungry. Is it too late to get some for takeout right now?!? Hmm.......

Nothing but seafood

I just realized my most immediate current problem is that I'm eating way too many good meals to be able to blog about all of them. Wow, life is good. I have at least 2 more meals to write about, which will have to wait until another day... because tonight's dinner was AMAZING.

Dinner tonight was with my uncle and his family, and I have quickly realized that my family (on both sides) know how to EAT. I really have to thank them all for taking me to these great places that I otherwise wouldn't have a chance to go to.

Tucked away in Clearwater Bay, in a valley amidst the shadows of rocky hills is a small fishing community. The houses are modest, the air is quiet and clean... and if you walk to a certain area, there are a couple restaurants grouped together that is packed to the gills to local Hong Kongers. What are they eating? Why, only some of the freshest, most exotic-looking seafood around. I absolutely love shellfish, and I felt like a personal Disneyland was opened before my eyes.

Me, looking hungry.

HUGE selection of freshly caught seafood

Clams and lobsters and crabs!

These were freaky looking. Called 'Mantis Shrimp' in English (which is
much nicer than the Cantonese name). This is the BEFORE picture.

Mantis Shrimp, AFTER. Cooked in spiced salt, the meat was sweet and
reminiscent of lobster. But incredibly, this is almost BETTER than
lobster, because the meat is much more tender.

Clams in black bean sauce. The freshness of the clams made them
extra sweet and juicy!

Steamed razor clams, topped with garlic and bean threads.

Fresh abalone! Not sure how these were cooked, my mouth was
too busy chewing to ask.

Sliced geoduck sashimi. I couldn't believe that something so ugly
(seriously, google 'geoduck') could be so delicately tasty! The thin slices
were slightly chewy and sweet. The non-sashimi portion of the geoduck
was used to make a rice congee, which was so good that I ate two
bowls of it!

Fresh scallops, steamed with ginger and bean threads

Seaweed fried rice, mixed with roe. I only had a couple bites of this
because I was too busy with the congee.

Even the veggie dish had seafood in it!
Baby bok choy stir fried with squid.

Teenage memories

When I was a teenager in Miami, I developed a taste for Hong Kong Pop music, of all things. With the popularity of karaoke in Asia and hot new stars, I strangely ignored the American scene and went back to my roots. Of course, this is a big reason why I speak Cantonese without an accent, so it was all for the good. And tonight, due to an old friend's generosity, I got to take a trip down my memory lane.

Finally got to go to the Hong Kong Coliseum!

I wasn't a huge Sally Yeh fan, but liked her enough to own a few cassette tapes. (Ha! Remember those?) She also hasn't put out new music in at least a decade, so I figured that I would recognize at least half her songs.

The stadium before the concert. We got great seats!

I wonder if it is every generation's ego that makes them think that they are cooler than the last. As Sally sang and danced across the stage, I wondered if mine was the first generation to stay so hip and energetic. And then she mentioned that she just turned 51. FIFTY ONE?!?! Three hours of belting out songs at full volume, dancing in 3 inch heels and she's 51!?? Amazing.

Yeah, the camera zoom doesn't work so well. This was outfit #2 of 5.

I did end up recognizing over half the songs, and the best were the ones I haven't heard in years. They sharply took me back to when I was a teenager listening to these songs in my room (sorry Pui, for blaring them so loudly!).

Guest stars: her stepson, and husband!

I'm glad I got to experience a live concert in Hong Kong, and from an artist whose songs I know! I have less than a week left here, and this was a very fun way to close out my trip.