Street Food

Have I eaten any weird food?  I have been asked this question a lot recently.  Being a vegetarian, I have avoided a lot of the stranger things that I have come across in Hong Kong.  This includes the meats-on-a-stick in every size shape and color, hunks of meats in steaming broth of who-knows-what, and even the donkey meat jerky that is hanging out in the lab "snack drawer." I have, however, sampled many of the various types of pastries that can be found on every street corner.  I tried the banana rice dough rolls, chewy and with the flavor of banana laffy taffy (pretty gross really), the giant white bun whose name in chinese means "stale white bread," and the Lotus pastries that have a preserved candied egg yolk inside (two thumbs up). As most foods in Hong Kong are labeled in Chinese, I have to say that I have no means to determine what something is until I put it in my mouth.  Perhaps I will have to take a sabbatical from my veg status and figure out what some of those mystery meats are...

a day in food

I didn't make it out of the house until a little after 11 (finally got to sleep in!), so I grabbed a Milk Tea at the cafe on the corner and quickly reviewed the mass transit map in my handy Resident's Guide to Hong Kong (aka the Bible).  

I jumped on the M11 bus to Hang Hau, navigated my way to the metro station and jumped on the Tseung Kwan O Line to Hong Kong Island.  I made my way to Central and wandered around this ritzy borough all day (more details to come in later posts).  I think I found the Cantonese version of Perkins... just replace the biscuits and gravy with rice and noodles...  The place was PACKED but I was able to get a table and slurp down some fish ball noodle soup.  My chopstick skills are getting better, but those damn noodles are slippery.  

After wandering around all afternoon my legs felt like rubber so I decided to pamper myself and arranged for a hair cut (it was time to clean up the hack job that the Moroccan lady in KAUST gave me)!!  I had and hour to kill before my appointment and I didn't think I could possibly walk another meter, when there, right in front of me, I see the words... Pastis.  Joy to the World.  My savior had come.  I hadn't had this delicious anise beverage since I was in Toulouse over a year ago.  So, I chilled out on a very comfortable veranda tucked on a side street a bit removed from the madness that is Hong Kong, and I let the licorice alcohol transport me away from Chinatown to the land of baguettes, saucisson, and crazy men.  

Luckily, despite my buzz, I made it to my hair appointment, and enjoyed possibly the most amazing shampoo/ head massage of my life.  I was comatose.  Seriously.  They had to wake me up for the trimming.  But after chatting with my Chinese hair stylist and feeling decidedly more girly and refreshed, I made my way to the Thai restaurant down the street and ordered some sort of slightly spicy coconut soup with shrimp and a tangy cashew salad.  I washed it all down with a glass of red wine and decided it was time to get this party animal home.

Two metro lines and one bus later and I back in my warm bed ready to recharge for tomorrow's adventures.