Arriving in Hong Kong
7 Sep 2005 — Onward with my China tour, today I’m flying to Hong Kong to meet up with Peiling and Shihui. Yipee! As a semi-farewell thing (since I’ll be back after 2 weeks), Lynn and Tommy brought me to a steamboat place last night. So here we are again, doing what we do best.
Seeing how it was steamboat, which is very soupy and saucey, and may get potentially messy, the restaurant even provides its guests with little aprons. Don’t we look adorable?
And see, with some ingenuity, you can look like a milkmaid, just like Lynn!
So first, here’s the soup you chuck all the food into. You can choose up to two kinds. We had the herbal-black chicken, and the herbal-herbal ones. Typically, they also have a soup called 麻辣汤 “numbing spicy soup”, ‘cos it literally does that. But seeing how prone we are to stomach upsets, we thought we better not tempt fate.
On the left, we have the cold dishes that accompany the meal, sort of like appetisers, and on the right, is the wide variety of sauces that you can have your food with. YUM-MY!
And all that makes for yet another festive spread!
But back to the present moment, I’m flying on China Eastern Airlines and have just been presented with a far less appetising, very dubious-looking meal.
Er yah… these internal flights are so distressing on so many levels… But thankfully, we soon arrived in Hong Kong without further dramas. Rather than grab a cab, I was advised to catch the Airport Express, HK’s rapid transit system, which brings one into the heart of the city in just 24 mins flat.
Whoa… you feel the difference straight away. You know you’ve left mainland China ‘cos look, the surroundings are so clean and tidy, and you actually have room to breathe… Ahh…. Speaking of luxurious surroundings, I’ll be living the high-life on this leg of the journey, ‘cos Peiling is here on a business trip from Singapore and she has warmly invited me to stay with her at the… JW Marriott! (Cue: Scream!!! And again: Scream!!!) Wow! 5-Star comfort in downtown HK. Yes, surely that deserves another Scream!!! Haha, my Billie has always called me a “hotel-junkie” and I guess you can say that there’s something about those turned-down sheets, complimentary toiletries and cable TV that just turn me on… So, Thank You Peiling! (Hey Tommy, not to say that the living conditions at your place was less than, but I’m sure you can understand my excitement…)
A queen size bed each, how indulgent!
And a nice-warm shower straight from the shower-head… what more can a girl ask for?
Unfortunately, these perks do come with a catch. As mentioned, this is a business trip, so being the Asian, Peiling kind of have to play host to her Pakistani counterparts who aren’t very familir with the place. So for tonight, as much as I would have loved to hog her, we were obliged to have dinner with two of her colleagues.
As far as Cantonese cuisine go, there’s no going past roast goose and roast pigeon, which are exactly what we started our gastronomic adventure with this evening. I say “adventure” ‘cos indeed it was quite a “Fear Factor” experience for the two Pakistani boys.
Here’s one of them trying out a century egg for the first time, and he was feeling rather groovy about it till we informed him what it was exactly that transformed a good ol’ normal egg into a “century” one…
Oh, and by the way, Shihui, my other friend who’s living in HK, has just joined us. When she heard that I was travelling without a mobile phone, she freaked out and rushed down to the restaurant to pass me one. Haha! She more kan cheong than me. But it’s crucial that she has come ‘cos who else would we have to initiate us into the art of eating the pigeon, or well, namely its head.
So here’s Shihui, and the pigeon head in its full glory. With the picture on the right, Shihui has turned the head around to showcase the “best” part: the brain. It’s the whitish stuff. For those of you who don’t know any better, the head is apparently the choicest part of the pigeon, and ‘cos there’s obviously only one per bird, it’s usually reserved for the guest in these sort of social setting. Erm, not today. After several failed attempts in trying to get the rest of us to try it, Singaporeans and Pakistanis alike, Shihui proceeded to savour it on her own, much to our relief.
Yes, I’m very content with the tamer stuff like the breast, drumstick and wings, which by the way, on both goose and pigeon, were just delectable!
After dinner, since we were already in the Lan Kwai Fong area, which has become HK’s icon of nightlife and entertainment, we easily found our way into a pub for a couple of drinks.
Here are the boys having a flaming lambo each. Whoo hoo! The rest of us were coerced into having a shot of tequila each, which in my case, was more than enough to send me into a sleepy mood, so good night everybody!