Hong Kong food. Let me start by saying, that Hong Kong food can be
much more exotic and interesting than I am accustom to. I saw things on the menu and in person this trip, that is the subject of myths and legends back in the USA. During my stay in Hong Kong, I was with another colleague from Malaysia and we went with local people to show us around and take us to places to eat. They were wonderful people to meet, we really had a great time. I think they tried to keep from freaking me completely out, but somehow it was still very exotic to me.
We arrived late in Hong Kong, maybe around midnight, so we didn't do anything in the city the first night. The next morning we went to work, and then GeokSan took us to lunch. It was a nice place maybe a fifteen minute walk from our office building. Because I had inquired earlier about Chinese Dim Sum, they decide to take me for traditional lunch of dim sum--which is a style of food rather than a type of food. The locals would probably say I'm describing it incorrectly, but in my own words it was small plates with small individual portions meant to be shared with others at the table. Similar to tapas at Spanish restaurants. I took pictures with my cell phone of the meal. They are below:
Spring rolls:
Steamed rice flour rolls fried rice flour stripem
Roasted Pigeon (look really closely, that's its head in the center!)
Spicy Fried Chicken Feet
To the right BBQ Pork Steamed Bun
Our coworker and host, GeokSan along with left dish is steamed shark's fin dumpling in soup, center dish is a shrimp dumpling, next dish is a Steamed Glutinous Rice roll, & Chinese tea.
Next is a close up of the shrimp dumplings and glutinous rice roll.
Inside of the glutinous rice roll:
Tablescape:
After work, we met up with another colleague in supply chain operations. The four of us went to a typical Hong Kong restaurant for dinner. Our meal there consisted of larger portions of several dishes that were put in the table and served family style. Here are some of the dishes from that meal:
Roast Goose & pork belly:
Green beans, cashews, garlic, octopus, maybe something else, and chives
Fried grouper topped with cream corn, and can't rember what is on the left side, maybe a chicken dish. ??
After dinner, we walked down the streets to a night market. They wanted me to try a local dish called "smelly tofu". Feeling more adventurous than ever, I agreed. So we set off to find the delicacy. I kept asking if they knew where to get it, and they reassured me that it was no problem to find. I didn't put it together in my mind exactly what they were saying to me, but later I realized exactly what they meant.
So we're walking down the street, and turn the corner. My first thought was OMG, I think a sewer main has busted.....and their first comment was "we can get it here". Yes, my sewer main smell was actually what I'd agreed to try....smelly tofu. It looks so innocent in photos, but it packs a smelly punch. The taste wasn't near as bad as the smell, but I can't imagine what you could do to tofu to make it smell like that. [probably don't want to know either]
Look closely at the sign at the bottom of the display case, you can make out most of the letters smelly tofu.
Milk pudding. They were also eager for me to try this dish as well. After the smelly tofu, there was no turning back now. To my pleasant surprise, it was something I'd describe as a milk custard, but probably cold-set instead of heated or baked. It was very delicious. I had mine plain and one of the coworkers had his with beans. Highly recommend it, try it if you go to Hong Kong!
And with beans!
Lastly on the food tour of Hong Kong, I'll end with lunch the next day. We walked to another restaurant close to the offices. I think there were 5 or 6 of us. I don't have pictures of this so it will be all narrative. We start by entering the first floor of an extremely busy restaurant. I can not put into English words how many people or how tight everything was in here. They took us up two flights of stairs to the 3rd floor, where we walked through tables to get to our space. We sat down, ordered individual plates this time--no sharing. After we ordered, the staff kept bringing random people to our table to sit with us. So now our table is beyond packed and we have 2 groups of people at 'our' table. The food comes, and I would have took a picture, but I thought it would be too outrageous. There was all kinds of stuff on the table. There was one guy that had chicken soup, and no kidding, it had a chicken foot coming up out of the broth, as if the poor chicken had drowned in the soup and turned upside down. Oh my goodness, it was just too much for my small GA mind to comprehend. What an adventure, what an experience!
If you missed the blog post with Hong Kong City Pictures, it is located at this link:
http://carltyson.blogspot.com/2011/06/quick-trip-to-hong-kong.html
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