Posts tagged with "Hong Kong"

Hong Kong Food Diary: Week 3

Buffet plate

Thumbnail: Buffet plate
Thumbnail: Buffet plate 3
Thumbnail: Dessert plate
Thumbnail: Asparagus with beef
Thumbnail: Baby bak choi
Thumbnail: Baked spare ribs
Thumbnail: Barley tea
Thumbnail: BBQ pork buns
Thumbnail: Beef tripe
Thumbnail: Beef tripe noodles
Thumbnail: Beet sweet corn
Thumbnail: Birds nest soup
Thumbnail: Chicken sweet corn
Thumbnail: Chiffon cake
Thumbnail: Chinese doughnut
Thumbnail: Chinese grapefruit
Thumbnail: Chinese greens
Thumbnail: Crabs black bean
Thumbnail: Almond tofu flower
Thumbnail: Cream of garlic
Thumbnail: Curry chicken
Thumbnail: Deep fried fish
Thumbnail: Lotus leaf chicken
Thumbnail: Drunken chicken
Thumbnail: Egg fried rice
Thumbnail: Egg white and milk
Thumbnail: Fish black bean
Thumbnail: Fish Chinese onions
Thumbnail: Fish mixed vegetables
Thumbnail: Steamed red coat
Thumbnail: Four seasons beans
Thumbnail: French hot dog
Thumbnail: Fried egg whites
Thumbnail: Fried onion biscuit
Thumbnail: Fried sesame dessert
Thumbnail: Green beens beef
Thumbnail: Ham egg bread
Thumbnail: Stewed egg
Thumbnail: King soya chicken
Thumbnail: Kiwifruit juice
Thumbnail: Lotus seed paste bun
Thumbnail: Milk buns
Thumbnail: Minced pork
Thumbnail: Stuffed cabbage
Thumbnail: Mushroom chicken
Thumbnail: Ox tail
Thumbnail: Won ton with spicy sauce
Thumbnail: Shrimp cocktail
Thumbnail: Packaged biscuits
Thumbnail: Lotus paste tart
Thumbnail: Phoenix talons
Thumbnail: Pork cold cuts
Thumbnail: Polk rice bowl
Thumbnail: Pork rice noodles
Thumbnail: Rice balls in mango
Thumbnail: Rice spare ribs
Thumbnail: Roasted pigeon
Thumbnail: Sea coconut fruit
Thumbnail: Shanghai dumplings
Thumbnail: Shredded chicken
Thumbnail: Shrimp celery cashews
Thumbnail: Shrimp dumplings
Thumbnail: Sichuan noodles
Thumbnail: Snack platter
Thumbnail: Snake soup fungi
Thumbnail: Lemongrass
Thumbnail: Soya chicken wings
Thumbnail: Spare ribs
Thumbnail: Spare ribs black bean
Thumbnail: Sponge cake
Thumbnail: Steamed beef balls
Thumbnail: Steamed white buns
Thumbnail: Stuffed mushrooms
Thumbnail: Sui mai
Thumbnail: Sweet and sour pork
Thumbnail: Tiramisu
Thumbnail: Tofu shrimp mushrooms
Thumbnail: Tossed noodles
Thumbnail: Won ton soup
Thumbnail: Yakult
 

The final week of my Hong Kong food diary. It’s safe to say that I gained a few pounds, as I would con­tin­ue eat­ing even after full. The weight is most­ly in my face (good) and mid­sec­tion (bad). Yes, my cheeks have filled out, but now I have a muf­fin top. It was total­ly worth it though, as I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to eat many of these dish­es again.

Other weeks in my Hong Kong Food Diary

Food decisions

Kwun Yam Shrine

Kwun Yam Shrine entranceway

Thumbnail: Guan Yin Statue
Thumbnail: Tin Hau statue
Thumbnail: Longevity Bridge
Thumbnail: Longevity Bridge plaque
Thumbnail: Buddha of Wealth
Thumbnail: Dragon scholar
Thumbnail: Alleyway
Thumbnail: Pillar
Thumbnail: Seal script
Thumbnail: Small Statues
Thumbnail: Statue pedestals
Thumbnail: Three celestial rams
Thumbnail: Yue Lao strings
 

The Kwun Yam Shrine is a Buddhist shrine off Repulse Bay (named so after the British fleet repulsed pirates based there who would ter­ror­ize Chinese mer­chants). Unlike oth­er Buddhist shrines, this one was­n’t off-lim­its to pho­tog­ra­phy. It was quite inter­est­ing, as there are so many dif­fer­ent and colour­ful stat­ues, large and small.

Each stat­ue rep­re­sents a dif­fer­ent fig­ure in Chinese mythol­o­gy, and it’s said that if you per­form a cer­tain action to a stat­ue, some­thing pos­i­tive will hap­pen. For exam­ple, there was the stat­ue of a fish god there, and if you throw a coin into it’s mouth, it’s said you’ll have good for­tune. There’s also the Longevity Bridge; a plaque pro­claims that every time you cross the bridge, you’ll have three days added to your life. The two biggest stat­ues at the entrance — Guan Yin and Tin Hau — were wor­shiped as god­dess­es of the mer­cy and the sea, par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant if you’re a fish­er­man.

At one point, I came to a stat­ue of a rock with writ­ing engraved on it, and red rib­bons around the base. My dad said, “Jeff, you need to take a lot of rib­bons and tie it around the rock”. “Why?” “Because this is the god of mar­riage. This way you’ll meet a lot of girls.” Funny, dad.

Kowloon City

Old apartments

Thumbnail: Alleyway
Thumbnail: Sundries
Thumbnail: Candy stand
Thumbnail: Crossing street
Thumbnail: Fresh seafood
Thumbnail: Fruit stand
Thumbnail: Fruit stand
Thumbnail: Old buildings
Thumbnail: Jewellery store
Thumbnail: Jewellery store
Thumbnail: Magazine stand
Thumbnail: Munchies stand
Thumbnail: Old apartments
Thumbnail: One way street
Thumbnail: Street corner
Thumbnail: Subway route
Thumbnail: Alleyway
Thumbnail: Sundries shop
Thumbnail: Traffic
Thumbnail: Waiting at light
 

My grand­ma’s apart­ment is in Kowloon City, a very old area of Kowloon, char­ac­ter­ized by dirty build­ings and slum­my areas. There’s so much char­ac­ter here. It seems like every shop has a sto­ry, and every street a his­to­ry. My dad told me that since it’s so hard to find park­ing, some restau­rants have a valet park your car for you if you go in.

Since it’s a long-estab­lished area, there’s pret­ty much every­thing you need with­in a cou­ple blocks, or a few min­utes walk. This includes:

  • fruit stands
  • car deal­er­ship
  • restau­rants of many eth­nic­i­ties
  • Chinese med­i­cine shops
  • snack and pas­try shops
  • a toy shop
  • a mod­ern shop­ping mall
  • butch­ers
  • a famous park
  • a shop­ping mall
  • elec­tron­ics and appli­ance stores
  • mag­a­zine stands
  • gro­cery stores
  • den­tist
  • scrap met­al stores
  • cof­fin shop
  • tire shop

One of Hong Kong’s famous real estate agents said that liv­ing in such high den­si­ty is a habit, and that Hong Kongers could expand out­ward (instead of upward) if they want­ed to. I can under­stand why this is true, because every­thing is so close and con­ve­nient. When you live in the mid­dle of all this, you real­ly feel like you’re part of the city’s pulse.

Octopus Card

Octopus card

Everyone car­ries an Octopus card in Hong Kong, because it’s used every­where. When you take the bus, you pay the fare by tap­ping your wal­let (with Octopus card in it) on the scan­ner; the fare may change depend­ing on whether you take it before or after cross­ing the har­bour. Subway fares aren’t flat-rate either, so short­er routes are cheap­er. The dis­tance you trav­el is tracked by scan­ning your card when you get on and again when you get off, and the appro­pri­ate amount is deduct­ed.

Even vend­ing machines, park­ing meters, con­ve­nience stores, and restau­rants have Octopus scan­ners used to pay for their ser­vices. It’s also used as an iden­ti­ty sys­tem, where stu­dents sign-in to class by tap­ping their cards on door scan­ners, or res­i­dents enter their apart­ment build­ings with­out need­ing a key.

The Chinese name for the card is “eight arrived pass”, because eight has spe­cial mean­ing in Chinese, espe­cial­ly when it comes to direc­tions. The English name comes from an octo­pus hav­ing eight ten­ta­cles, and the logo is an infin­i­ty sym­bol that’s also in the shape of an eight. So clever.

Victoria Harbour

Victoria Harbour panorama

(This is a 360° panora­ma that pops up in a new win­dow. Be warned: it’s big.)

Thumbnail: Newsstands
Thumbnail: Bruce Lee statue
Thumbnail: Jet Li handprints
Thumbnail: Night lights
Thumbnail: Train station
 

The best place to see Hong Kong’s sky­line is at Victoria Harbour. Along the walk­way is the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong’s ver­sion of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as a bus ter­mi­nal, and the dock­ing area for the Star Ferry.

The world’s largest per­ma­nent light show is here, run­ning every night at 8:00, where many build­ings across the water time their lights to music. I record­ed it, but my footage did­n’t turn out so well with the fog. So here’s some­one else’s awe­some record­ing, that does the show jus­tice.