Oh My Goodness

So, a few pretty interesting things have happened recently this past week that I've unfortunately not been able to photographically document as it hasn't stopped raining for long enough to warrant risking my D-40 in a torrential downpour.  This is summer time in Hong Kong now which is the rainy season, so photos might be few and far between (my point-and-shoot doesn't work the way it used to and isn't worth using.)

Nicholas and I ate dinner at a local burger joint that many locals refer to as "The best burger joint in town." I wont go quite that far, but with options like the Lobster Burger, Chili Burger and Soft Shell Crab Burger among more traditional choices, the BurgeRoom could definitely be a contender.  Nicholas ordered the afore mentioned Chili Burger which wasn't really a chili burger in the Cincinnati sense, it was more like chili mixed with cole slaw on top of the burger.  I ordered the Mushroom Burger which is exactly what it sounds like it was, with the exception of some "magic sauce" slathered on the mushrooms (and yes, it was called magic sauce on the menu.)  I would probably rank the BurgeRoom more along the lines of a Five Guys with some more exceptional offerings.  If the customer was allowed to choose the temperature on their burgers, I think the effect would be much improved; but, as is, all the burgers are cooked like a fast food joint... till all pink is a well and distant memory.  The ambiance was nice, although cramped (which is not uncommon in Hong Kong Boutique Restaurants.)

On a quiet side street off of Caroline Hill Road

Their fries were amazing! Actually twice fried fries instead of the frozen ones that are served at most places.

Chili Burger

Mushroom Burger

Food Porn

And all gone!

I know I've talked about our new pepper plant, Jimmy.  He's a studly little plant that is tall and lanky like the man who brought him home.

Jimmy!

In other news, I spent this afternoon pigging out at the Excelsior Hotel's Dickens restaurant.  Tuesday afternoons are their Curry Buffet special and its the first time I've had my Indian food fix since I left the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Can I just say, the best Chicken Masala I've had, ever.  It was fantastic to spend the afternoon girl talking with my friend Alba and eating lip numbing Indian food with some traditional Hong Kong iced lemon tea.  After lunch, we took a spin around some malls in the Causeway Bay area; checked out the skinny on some good, cheap shoes and adorable accessories.  When Causeway Bay grew boring, a trip to Mong Kok became necessary.  If you know where to look, you can get some great bags and clutches at some fantastic prices; and if you can pick out the smell, they're often real leather too.  Alba and I stalked some local stores and then made our way to a cantina that specialized in fruit sorbets and deserts.  Being Mango week, I ordered some sort of pulpy mango juice with tapioca pearls and pieces of fresh honeydew mellon, mango, watermelon and strawberries.  Alba ordered the frozen coconut with cubes of gelled coconut juice and fresh fruit.  So Good!!!!  On the way to the cantina we passed through the famous Goldfish market.  One can literally buy anything they would need for an aquarium.  One thing I found particularly adorable was the amount of cats that were present as pets in the fish shops!  I will say, these were the laziest, fattest, most nonchalant cats that could possibly sit in a fish shop.  The shop keepers literally had to pick up the cat's head to move it out of the way to grab merchandise to sell to a customer.  Annoyed kitty looks at the disruption of their sleep was adorable!  Alba also made me try Smelly Tofu; a sort of deep fried fermented tofu.  It was Disgusting, with a capital D.  The smell alone was rough to endure, but the taste was worse.  Think morning breath mixed with bile.  One of my mottos in life is to always to try anything once. This is one thing I will not be trying any other time...

Sunday Funday and the Sheung Wan Markets

Being avid antique-ers, Nicholas and I set out in search of some of Hong Kong's antique markets this morning... er, afternoon.  Having heard that the Sheung Wan (pronounced sheun wan; g's for some reason aren't often heard in words in which you would assume they would) was home to a few random antique shops, we set off to explore.  At the end of the MTR's Island Line (our home line), Sheung Wan is architecturally similar to our home of Causeway Bay, but it has a much more chill vibe.  Being the home of the locals, this quiet little maze of streets is surprisingly free of the mobs of people so associated with this city and home to some, well, interesting antique shops.  Most of the antiques consisted of jade knick-knacks and currency from dynasties past.  One rather upscale spot sported the most intricately carved elephant tusk.  Antique markets aside, it was just nice to walk down a street and not worry that at any moment we might be run into by a tiny Chinese man who, instead of looking where he is walking, is reading an Anime book while talking on the phone.

So many Buddahs

These street shrines are so common and are frequently found next to gambling houses

Incredible, but a little sad at the same time. Ivory

On our way out of the building this morning, we happened across the fish stall outside of our door that had just gotten a delivery of some sort of incredibly large fish.  Needless to say, a crowd of people surrounded the fisherman as he unloaded his fish onto the wet dirty street to butcher it.  The fish was probably 4 feet long and maybe 200 lbs? Yummy.

It was not fond of its head being hacked into

The following are the photos, as promised of the new kitchen and of our first meal made therein.

Hot sake and salmon atop rice, green onions, baby cabbage and green beans with enoki mushrooms

Lack of Life

Notoriously delicious and also dangerous, the Hong Kong Cantina is something you have to try, try and try again.  Not all cantinas are created equal either and a good cantina can very quickly become a very baaaad cantina. A cantina, as I've come to figure out, is a small restaurant that serves local fare. Its essentially a diner where you get large amounts of sometimes questionable food at a very low price.  The cantina can be your friend, if you treat them warily and are cautious when feeling them out. Unfortunately, my most recent encounter with the cantina turned out to be pretty awful; food poisening awful.  Nicholas and I ordered the curry chicken, which is my regular at this particular joint, and he ordered the sweet and sour chicken, which we've ordered before and was quite delicious, and to share, a sticky bun (which I will come back to.)  I don't know if it was because it was late at night and the chicken had been sitting out a bit too long, or if that evening's particular kitchen staff (who we've spotted cooking without shirts on) were peeved at us ordering such an "American" Chinese dish, but we experienced General Tso's Revenge for the rest of the night and the next day. Bummer town.  The biggest surprise was that it was this particular place that had done us in. We've eaten there several times before, at least once a week, sometimes twice, and have never had any issue with it.  One of the waitresses speaks exceptional English, its clean and bright and we never saw it coming.  Sei la vie!

Back to the sticky bun situation.  Yum.  I know for a fact that it was definitely not the sticky bun's fault that the pair of us got so sick.  It is a heavenly combination of  buns, often fresh, that have been halved, toasted, coated in butter and then slathered with sweetened condensed milk.  D-E-LICIOUS!  If you've ever made a pumpkin pie with your mom during Thanksgiving or Christmas, and if you're anything like me, you were the best little helper who was in charge of clearing every last drop of the condensed milk from the Carnation can with fingers, spatulas, your tongue, whatever it was that was closest and would get the job done.  So I'm sure you can imagine how great it tastes when added to the rest of it.  There's nothing quite like it and it now maintains the foremost position in my heart for sweet breakfast/anytime foods.

I didn't actually take this picture, not even sure who to credit, I just know that when I get mine its not around long enough for me to take a picture of it.

My kitchen is now almost completely together.  Our latest purchases include a wok, steaming baskets, a rice cooker and some bowls and spoons and chopsticks, a terrifying Henkle cleaver and a butchers block.  Tonight, we put the kitchen to the test.  Before tonight, the only home cooking we've done consisted of making a sandwhich.  We've had the wok for a few days now and have gotten the seasoning process underway.  See, I didn't know this until I purchased one and did some research on how to cook with one, but one must season a wok (make it black with heat, oil, and, in our case, ginger and spring ramps) before you can cook with it in a useful and traditional way.  It helps to impart flavor to all the food that passes through it and keep it from sticking and keep the stainless steel flavors from being imparted to the food by instead imparting the flavors of your seasonings to the food.  So, we've seasoned our wok, we've bought food, and tonight, we cook!  Or rather, Nicholas cooks while I putz around on the computer and laze on the couch.  Its not that I don't want to help out, I just can't fit in our kitchen with Nicholas at the same time.  Anyway, as far as the menu tonight, I've done all the shopping.  Fresh Tasmanian Salmon from the City Super across the street, fresh organic garlic, ginger and baby cabbage from one of the stalls on the streets around my building, some green beans and some Japanese Enokitake mushrooms.  All will be served over rice and I think he's steaming the fish and stir frying they veggies.  As the aromas of food start to waft through our tiny apartment I'm finding it more and more difficult to focus on grammer and thoughts and putting it all together in cohesive sentences that are meant to inform anyone of anything. So until next time, 再见 (goodbye.)

A shrine to a deity in our housewares store...

Groupa: he was still alive when we picked him out for dinner at the shop on the ground floor of our building.

Utter decimation

My little Eskimo! Veronica

Award for the shortest escalator in Hong Kong goes to the SOGO in Kowloon

The skies were clear and the view tremendous.  This is home now.

Octopus, Red Snapper with salt and lemon, and Ahi tuna sashimi... Word of the wise, don't order Ahi here, it travels too far to stay fresh and just doesn't taste nearly as good as the Yellow Tail

There comes a time, when living in this city, when the sheer volume of people begins to get on your nerves.  Whether you’re exhausted from an almost fruitless day of walking around the city (only to find that the shops you wanted to visit are closed and the shoe size you needed isn’t available at the location you made it to) or just a general exhaustion from restless sleep on a mattress that would be better suited as a box spring or even the mental exhaustion of dealing with your mom, who you called internationally on mother’s day to be a good daughter, who couldn’t muster any more approval of you than she could when you still lived in the same city as her, the people will start to get to you.  Now, after a fantastic night’s sleep and a little yoga, I’m ready to face the always busy streets of Hong Kong.  Today it doesn’t matter to me when the old lady in front of me on the escalator just stops when she gets to the top making it impossible for any of the 60 people behind her, myself included, to get off without practically trampling one another.  I don’t mind the domestic helper dragging 3 kids behind her down the street and “accidentally” shoving me off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic.  I can even understandingly shake my head when I finally sit down on a bench to eat my lunch and open my computer and there are, almost instantaneously, so many people crowded around all nonchalantly looking over my shoulder and blowing smoke into my face.  This city is home now and the unintentional rudeness of nearly everyone on the street is an easy thing to suffer through when I consider how it could be.  Thankfully there is no smell of bum piss on my building doors in the morning, something I had gotten quite used to at home.  There aren’t actually any bums here at all, the exceptions being: 1. seriously maimed and obviously disabled elderly people that sometimes sit, or huddle, under the highway overpasses next to pedestrian thoroughfares with a cup out just in case someone wanted to throw down a dollar or two, and 2. the men who dress up as Buddhist monks to beg at the big tourist markets such as Temple Street Market or the Ladies and Night Markets.  I’ve not heard a drive by shooting since I arrived, and I’m pretty sure they don’t exist here.  The streets aren’t covered in litter as in a majority of big cities. There are at least 5 individual means of public transportation that are clean, affordable and safe.  I really don’t have it that bad when the biggest worry of my day is “I hope I don’t knock anyone down on accident while walking from A to B today.”  And I have to remember, Sundays are always bigger and busier days than others in Hong Kong and I'm not the only person on the streets. I think I'll be able to suffer through the pains of getting used to this city, and like my momma always told me, "things will look better in the morning."  So all I can do is be understanding and go to sleep, hoping that the sun will rise on a brighter and more understanding Micah Gabrielle.

I'm aware that I need to spice this blog up a bit. The first shock and awe of being in an entirely new environment is starting to wear off and I'm beginning to fall into a routine. The little things are starting to become evident to me.  The way I chose my bakery, for instance, is solely due to the fact that the little woman who runs the shop knows, simply by looking at me, that I don't speak very much, if any, Chinese, but that doesn't stop her from babbling on with hardly a breath while she's checking me out with my purchases.  At the end of the transaction, with a bob of her head, she says "Sank you sank you. Bye now!" and moves on to the next customer.  I dont mind at all that the pork and egg luncheon roll that I buy costs $.50 less at the shop two doors down, or that the other shop has much more room and more natural light and less people crowding in and jostling about, snatching that last bun before I can.  The other shop is stark and has not nearly the level of friendliness or personality that is posessed by the quaint little St. Honour Cake Shop.

My laundry place, on the other hand, I'm starting to think is a rip off.  Yesterday morning I dropped off my laundry and was told it would be ready for pick up by the evening.  It wasn't.  My only set of bed sheets was in that batch of laundry, thus sending me to Muji (Its the Japanese version of IKEA but with a full line of stationaries, clothing and dried food.) for another set of sheets.  This afternoon, I went back to check on my laundry and received very blank stares from the two boys running the shop.  After several minutes of searching through bag after bag after bag of laundry, they realized that my laundry still hadn't been started! Sweet, glad I bought those new sheets though. I think I need a new laundry lady, and I definitely need to get a photo of the organized chaos that is the inside of most laundries around town.

Anyway, tonight I attend trivia night with Nicholas, Mr. Mau and his lady Alba. Lets see if I can understand any of it!

Set-Lunch (The recovered post that I thought I'd lost)

I do apologize for being slack with the photo taking.  I'm in the process of learning how to get to and from some of the more important places that play a part in my daily life (the laundry, the coffee shop, the MTR station among others.)  And lets talk about laundry for a moment, shall we?  For $30 HKD ($3.80 USD) I can drop my laundry off in the morning and pick it up, hassle free, at the end of the day; freshly laundered, dried and folded.  Considering that it cost $2.50 USD back home just to do the laundry and more than $1.30 worth of my time and effort, I feel like its a pretty sweet deal.  Moving on...

I wanted to just say a bit about the awesome phenomenon known as the Set-Lunch.  Here in Hong Kong, every restaurant (as they're practically forced to comply due to the competition) take part in the Set - Lunch.  What is it?  It is an option (or options) on the menu that offers a combo meal of sorts for a waaaaay discounted price.  The other day, Nicholas and I went to a French styled spot in the mall food court and had the set lunch; he had the egg salad wrap with mushroom soup and an iced lemon tea and I had the same with the exception of a ham and mozzarella panini and the total cost was $76 HKD ($9 USD) for the entire meal (which was filling and yummy.)  If you do the set lunch at a local cantina the prices are usually less and you get more food.  Sometimes a dessert is even included (which makes my sweet tooth happy!)

Yesterday I located the post office and sent off postcards to my sister, nieces, mother and only Asian friend from home, June.  So, if you'd like to be on the mailing list (an international stamp for a post card costs about $0.23 USD!)  I also found a public pool thats right next to the post office and just about a 2 minute walk from my building.  They open at 6 am and close at 10:30 pm and close twice a day for pool cleaning (the Asian OCD is an uber win here.)  Oh! Did I mention that daily admittance is only $5 HKD ($.40 USD!!!!!!!)? Unfortunately, they're closing on the first of May for 2 months for renovations.  Good to know for July though, because its going to be hot and humid and I'm going to want close hydro refreshment.

Speaking of Hydro-Refreshment... I know I haven't mentioned the Open Container Laws here in the great HK.  There are none.  We can stop by the closest 7-Eleven, grab a beer (or cheap bottle of champaign) and crack it open in the street to quench our unbearable thirst in the street. This is a win.

Tonight we visited a Sichuan restaurant. Let me start by saying that I was completely open to the prospect of ridiculously hot food and the atmosphere of the place was pretty nice and clean and inviting. We ordered, by means of pointing at pictures (you generally know the food is good and the prices fair if your server doesn't know English and the menus are predominantly in Chinese,) half of a chicken in Sichuan spices, the chilled pork belly with cucumber and chili paste and the beef noodle dish.  As good as the food looked on first inspection, Nicholas and I were somewhat disappointed.  The issue was more with the chicken (it came out chilled and that wasn't specified on the menu) than with anything else.  The beef noodles had a great texture and delicious lip-numbing spiciness, the pork belly was awesome and refreshing chilled with the cucumber (not a combination of which I would have thought) and the hot Chinese tea that was served with the meal, instead of water, was perfectly soothing.  The chicken however; awful.  Think of boiled chicken, all with fatty cold skin still attached, smothered in spicy oil.  Yuck.    Dinner was followed by a walk around town and a glass of wine at the QueenVig

May Day

There's nothing quite like an escapade into the full streets of Hong Kong on a Sunday afternoon to make one feel small.  The domestic helpers finally have a day off from the drudgery of indentured servitude and make their way to the parks, underpasses or any minorly shady and breezy spot with their luggage packed with lunch and a sheet and anything else they might need to stay out of their places of residence for the entire day.  The subways are even more congested with dazed and confused tourists from mainland China visiting town for some high-society shopping.  Hoards of teen aged locals dressed to impress clog the escalators, sidewalks and markets.  A quick walk through Victoria Park, weaving through the throngs of Filipino lesbians decked out in 80's gear, adorable elderly couples slowly meandering and the domestic helpers who have set up camp in the shade,spits us out in Tin Hau, a quieter and calmer part of town.  Here the shops offer luxuries like plants and pet fish.  The pace is slower and there are more families, as evidenced by the increased amount of strollers and baby hammocks.Our light afternoon walk ends at the MTR station for a quick ride back home for a lazy Sunday rest in the air conditioning to prepare ourselves for Sunday night Hot Pot. (I'll take better pictures this time!)

Spending my afternoon searching the net, I came across the website for the Hong Kong Dog Rescue. My heart is broken for 480 of Hong Kongs abandoned dogs.  This is Whizz:

I want him; or at least the opportunity to foster him until someone is able to give him a home.  He's a Chihuahua mix that proved to be so neurotic when he was dropped off at the rescue that he would incessantly chase his tail; and issue which eventually led them to amputate his tail! I want to give him kisses!  So that's something I'll be looking into; volunteering at the rescue. 

There really isn't much else to say about today. Literally a boring, lazy day in anticipation of delicious bits of meat at hot pot this evening!