Kowloon and the Ladies/Night Markets

So, I apologize about my lack of writing as of late.  I had an entire post, carefully written and thoughtfully composed, ready to set free on the world when a mix up with a wireless signal jettisoned my words into oblivion.  Needless to say, I was fairly annoyed. And to punish the vast world of the wide web, I took a nap, read a book and took a shower.

Unfortunately, I cannot remember all that the post entailed, but I can start a brand new one.  I'm sure I will eventually remember, or rediscover rather, everything that I found of consequence to mention.  Tonight, I begin with the Night Markets.

Being a Friday night in Hong Kong, Nicholas and I really didn't want to stay in and watch another movie.  We've been laying low all week and were ready to let loose and get some of the city pumping through our veins.  Hopping on the MTR, we headed to Kowloon. Destination: Night Market and the loads of fake hand bags within.  I will also mention that on a Friday night in Hong Kong all 9 million people that live in this city are out and about and in the way.  I have never seen so many people in one place in my entire life, and I hadn't even made it to Times Square (the mall across the street where my MTR entrance is.) Seriously, more people than live in the entire city of Cincinnati were on the streets within a block of my building.  Moving on.  Two MTR transfers later, we emerged in the middle of Kowloon, the shopping center/flea market of Hong Kong.  Weaving through throngs of people, we finally found our bearings and headed to the Ladies Market; a stretch of streets, several blocks long, dedicated to bric-a-brac, knock-off bags, watches and sunglasses, and charms for your cell phone (my favorite being the lucky waving cat attached to chili peppers.)  Stall after stall held cheap knick knacks that any tourist would be shocked and awed at.  One of my favorite stalls, although unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos there, offered naughty costumes for both ladies and men.  Among the usual outfits such as the French Maid and Naughty Geisha, there stood out from the rest, the Elephant... This one most certainly being a costume por homme sported elastic butt straps and the smiling eyes and ears of an elephant; his nose, obviously a roomy encasement for soon to be happy male genitalia.  I almost bought one to send home, as a joke, to my beloved father, a pastor.

The Night Market varied only in people, although the same types existed in both.  If any interest was shown in a hand bag or keychain, the stall proprietor leapt to your side, ready to offer any color you could want and "wholesale" prices.  I also feel that I should mention the unbelievable amount of us gwailos present at the markets.  I completely enjoy being a minority for once in my 21 years, and find it funny that I now notice the amount of white people I run across on a daily basis and can usually count them on my fingers and toes.

After the markets, healthy appetites were worked up.  Wandering the side streets and following our noses we finally found ourselves across the street from the most divine of smells: meat... sweet grilling meat.  Hello Sichuan Barbecue joint!  Unbeknownst to me, Sichuan barbecue means meat on skewers (or at least it did in this case.)  We were handed a menu, much like a sushi menu, listing the types of meats and skewers and other side dishes offered.  In turn, we were supposed to list the number of whatever items our hungry stomachs desired on the order sheet and wait till the food was brought to our rickety makeshift table set out on the sidewalk.  Of course we had to order the pork jowl (a new favorite of mine,) and the black truffled wagyu  could't be passed up either.  Rounding out our meal was the grilled garlic skewer and the plate of chicken steak.  Oh. My. God.  This food was food for the gods!  The wagyu melted in our mouths in an earthy spicy way from the truffles.  The pork jowl was marinated in a lemon pepper something and the fat had soaked up all those happy flavors.  Chicken here, for some reason, just tastes better.  The flavor is full and fresh and the texture is meaty, while still being succulent and juicy.  One can't go wrong with garlic, so I wont mention the happiness our mouths experienced upon its entrance into them.  We literally could have spent $1000 HKD at this place but, unfortunately, the night had to end at some point.

Neons

Chicken steak and steamed rice

Pork Jowl

Truffled Wagyu

Chopstick Master

After dinner, a refreshing walk to the closest MTR station had us reveling in our good fortune at finding such good food on such an untrodden side street.  We passed a model train store, which reminded me of the Krohn Conservatory during Christmas time.

Nicholas with a Carlsburg in front of the trains

Finally, to finish off the night, we stopped at McDonald's (because, while dinner had been excellent, it had not been completely filling.)  They serve breakfast all day long here so I was stoked to finish my night with a sausage egg mcmuffin. Mmm, Hong Kong.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab

As many of you who follow Anthony Bourdain know, he visited my new great city in Season 4.  As luck would have it, I live literally around the corner from one of the stops he visited during that episode; Under Bridge Spicy Crab.  The atmosphere is much different now that their spicy crab can be dubbed "famous" spicy crab; and understandably so.  The prices have more than doubled and their clientele has gained a large amount of "gwailos" (white ghost: a term of endearment [in the case of those that i've come to meet and know, probably wasn't, and isn't, always a good slang] for us non-asians).  Mario, our cheeky server, seemed to be the only staff in the restaurant who spoke any English, and it was broken English at that.  He would stop by and drop off peanuts or watermelon slices to the table and smile saying "eat! eat!"  Little did I know that there are no "freebies" in Hong Kong.  $641 HKD later, Nicholas and I practically rolled ourselves out smiling and mumbling "xiexie" (thank you; pronounced 'shayshay'). Boy, did Mario know how to up-sell.  Being that it was my first time at the spicy crab rodeo, I can only give the guy props for milking the new gwailos on the block for all they were worth. Next time, however, I wont be so easy!

As for the food itself: Yum. It was a massive crab covered in fried pieces of chili and crushed garlic. We ordered the "medium" spicy, and it was the most perfect lip-numbing blend of spice, garlic and chili.  We also ordered a plate of vegetables. I'm actually not certain what they were called but they seem to be a mix between spinach, mustard greens and broccoli. Yum nonetheless.  And while the crab could have gone on forever and I would have been a happy little camper, the evening had to come to an end sooner or later.  Mario bid us farewell and every smiling staff member, in the most proper of pronunciations, half yelled "Thank you! Come again!" Yum.

Photo Update 4/24

Meat Shop in the Market downstairs

Mangos, Mangosteen, Bananas and Lychee at a fruit stand next to one of my building doors

Chef making Udon Noodles at one of the cafes in the mall food court (this food is great for a small price and brings shame of the mall food courts of America)

The aforementioned Lego World at the mall

     View of the high rises and mountains from the pedestrian overpass in the park in Quarry Bay

Quarry Bay

South China Sea

Chopped chicken at Hot Pot (look at that foot!)

Jason displaying our broth selection (pig intestines on the left and drunken chicken on the right)

You can see top L the taro noodles and pork jowl then above that to the right you can see the sliced beef and lamb. Sooooo good.

Fresh watermelon juice! Jason is one happy man

Picture Update 4/25

Stanley Beach

This is considered a "busy" beach (and there were more people here today because of the Easter Holiday) = not busy at all by American standards

The trees here have the most amazing twists and turns and gnarly roots

This building was originally built in Central but was moved stone by stone here to Stanley.. Typical 20th Century architecture

Stanley Market

Knick-knacks and Tourist traps

At a large multi-religious temple (best I could tell was that it was Hindi/Buddhist)

Dinner at Otemachi (Japanese!) Cooked salmon on the left, in the red box (from top L then clockwise): Octopus salad; yellow fin tuna, shrimp, salmon, and some other delicious fish sashimi; shaved cucumber; tuna sushi rolls, Urchin roll, and some sort of Roe roll.  

The Urchin was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever put in my mouth.  Now I know, had to try it once.

My next Photo Update will be from before the 25th, somehow I got them out of order. Oops!

OK-Laaaaaaaaa

Yesterday was my most thoroughly tiring day yet.  Being perky and awake at 7 am doesn't last too long when one still goes to bed between 12 and 1 am trying to teach my body a new set of sleeping skills.  We started the day by visiting the coffee shop. Drank some lattes and caught up on the world news printed in the Sunday Post.  Hong Kong Sunday post has a cute little section titled: "Lies to tell Tourists." This Sunday's lie was, "the only crime still punishable by death is walking your cat on a leash" and was followed by a picture of the cutest little Siamese cat on a leash… Oh Hong Kong, we're going to get along just fine.  After breakfast we began making our way to somewhere. I honestly cannot remember where we went next.  You'll have that though.  At 9 am on Easter Sunday one would think the streets would be empty and quiet. No ho ho! Not in Hong Kong.  Its trample or be trampled on these streets and none of it is meant maliciously.  There are just so many people in this one space that collisions are bound to happen and all you can do is brush it off and make sure you're more solid in your stance next time.  

Hong Kong park! Duh, the photos that I took and posted yesterday probably should have been my first go-to when memory failed me only a short paragraph before.  I will say, for HK being such a massive city filled with millions of people, the government sure does recognize the importance of immaculately kept green space.  HK park was simply beautiful; think Krohn Conservatory with no glass house.  Trees and flowers were labeled and in some cases history was given on the flora (see the photo of the Jujube tree.)  Water features provided a calming barrier to the sounds of the streets surrounding the park.  There were also several badminton courts, tennis courts, soccer fields and benches with shade to simply sit on and relax.

Speaking of shade… People here are so anti sun its almost funny.  When walking down the street, a Hong Kong-er will make sure to walk in the shadows of the buildings towering above to prevent the suns rays from darkening their skin.  Every Walgreens type corner store is packed to the brim with serums, creams and masks used to whiten skin.  Ads in the MTR offer a more radical approach to skin whitening by showing dermatologists work on previously dark, speckled, and sun damaged skin.  Ladies and gentlemen alike walk around with pocket umbrellas to protect them from the sun in addition to the rain (which can start up whenever, we are an island.)  I even saw an elderly lady wearing gardening gloves, holding an umbrella, wearing a head visor and wrapped from the neck to her nose in a scarf to prevent even a single UV ray from touching her porcelain skin.  Looks like I'm White Skin Royalty over here!!

After HK Park, we took the MTR to SoHo which is a super hilly area very similar in topography and people types to Mt. Adams in good ole' Cincinnati.  The main streets are packed with bars, clubs and restaurants aimed at getting young people drunk and fed late at night.  We passed a 5 story dance club and a corner spot owned and operated by a 19 year old (which I think is just crazy! call me old fashioned). The narrower side streets are blocked off from car traffic and hundreds of vendors bring out their stuff in attempts to make a little money from the partiers last night who have sobered up in time for another night of crazy reckless debauchery.  I will say that SoHo is beautiful; the rolling hills with buildings perched almost precariously atop them, the winding alleys with nick-knacks, disposable fashion and freshly picked vegetables and finally, the giant escalators that take you to the top of the hill so you don't actually have to walk every ridiculously steep step.  And don't think that I'm being a Lazy Fatty American.  I AM NOT!!!  I've probably walked over 10 miles in the three days that I've been here!

After SoHo we hopped on the MTR and headed back home and towards food.  A few blocks form the apartment, we stopped at a Cantina (cheap local fare similar to a diner almost.)  I was too famished to take photos of the food, but let me tell you, for $36 HKD ($4.60 USD) was a ton of food and it was delicious!  Food coma setting in (and it was a light food coma, theres nothing too heavy about sliced sauteed beef atop plain rice and some soy sauce) we headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit and stretch out our (my) tired legs.  Naps were followed by a trip to yet another mall in a more local part of town (prices are much cheaper there since tourists rarely visit) with our roommate, Jason, to grab a snack and check out the ice skating rink (inside the mall) and the Lego History display in the middle of the first floor.  Sincerely epic.  Asians take the gold in this lego championship. I don't have photos because there were just too many people already in the little lego world and we didn't feel like wrestling the crowd.  After the mall we parted ways for a bit, Jason heading home and Nicholas and I heading to the Quarry Bay Park.  This park was a long lovely walk through lush greenery, soccer fields, basketball courts, a children's playground and tennis courts.  Talking advantage of the walkways over the highway gave us plenty of views of the South China Sea, the high-rises and the mountains on which they sit.  The weather was warm and breezy and the smell of the water was just lovely.  As exhausted as my legs were, it was hard to think about anything but the view in front of us.  One final MTR ride home to Causeway Bay (which sounds like it would be restful, except for the fact that one walks for about half a mile up a steep incline to get out of the station…)  One final nap at the apartment before Hot Pot!

Hot Pot is a style of dining where you are given your choice of broth and 2 hours to order and eat as much as you want for $100 HKD (~ $13 USD.)  We got a split pot with Drunken Chicken broth and Pig Intestine broth.  My stomach is still queasy a little from the jet-lag so I opted out of the Pig Intestine broth… this time.  For our meats/additives we ordered Pork Jowl (the jaw), sliced chicken, chopped chicken, sliced beef, sliced lamb, dried fish skin, golden mushrooms (super thin, long, tiny capped mushrooms with a consistency close to squid or noodles), lobster balls, fish cakes and taro noodles (super light thin white noodles that they tie in knots to keep them together in the broth).  You are then poured some soy sauce (Kikoman has nothing on HK soy Sauce) and sliced chilies and freshly minced garlic to add to your sauce should you please.  Let the cooking begin!  It was seriously some of the best food ever and well worth the money.  The drink specials were even cheaper in price though.  Three Carlsberg cans for $10 HKD ($1.30 USD)!  And the beers are served by Carlsberg Girls who run around in Carlsberg uniforms (jackets and mini skirts with matching go-go boots) making sure that your glass is always full.  I opted for a sprite this time and some of Jason's freshly made watermelon juice (which was exceptionally delicious) saving my alcohol calories for The Queen Vic and their Blackthorn (yummy yummy hard apple cider beer, just fantastic.)  The night ended and bedtime was divine!

Pictures to come later, the computer doesnt want to upload them right now.

Hong Kong Park and SoHo

At Pacific Coast Coffee shop (A Hong Kong Starbucks)

This tree is literally growing out of the wall. So cool

Temple

Architecture from the early 20th century that was mostly torn down to make room for sky scrapers.

Bamboo scaffolding around a tree for pruning. It'll probably be shaped like a square after the holiday.

          Bamboo is still used as a scaffolding on buildings under construction. Its pretty incredible.

People hang their clothes out to dry under their balconies. Keeping green! I would hate to live on the top floor and chase some clothing down to the street if it got blown down!

Coach store in SoHo (the Mt. Adams of HK)

Escalator down to the MTR (our subway system)

Hong Kong Park

Tourist!!

Blue Butterfly flowers

400 year old Jujube tree! Incredible

DONT FEED THE PIGEONS!! They make poop. (close to $200 fine)

Turtle sun tan!

 Lucky Koi