Hong Kong: food and the occasional building

[oyceter]

Alas, I am not still in Hong Kong, though I really wish I were. Instead, I am about two months late in posting these pictures!

ETA: apologies for some of the smudgy photos; I hadn't realized I had a fingerprint on my lens for about ten pictures or so.



More subway photos! I thought this looked a lot like the London Tube, which also has fast, steep escalators lined with ads?




A cloudy Hong Kong skyline from around the Kowloon ferry terminal.




More of the ferries and Hong Kong.




MANGOSTEENS OMG!!!!! I came back to discover that Taiwan has outlawed importing mangosteens. I have not had them for five years! Thankfully, my aunt was incredibly nice and bought an entire bagful for me in Hong Kong. So tasty!




The insides are these fleshy white lobes. If the seed is small or underdeveloped, you can just eat a slice, but otherwise, you have to gnaw around the seed. I don't know how to describe the taste... they're a little tart and just very fragrant and not quite like anything else I've had. I am so sad I will not be able to get any more until next year, if I can make it back to Hong Kong for the summer.




All the following photos are smudgy, as I didn't realize I had a fingerprint on my lens until later. These are little fried taro dim sum things.




Deep fried egg batter! They have the same texture as sha qi ma and are covered with sticky honey. Yum!




Bwahaha, roast squab!




Fish maw (stomach) and chicken. I think. Fish maw is very weird and sort of spongy like bamboo pith.




Deep-fried something... I think I photographed it because I haven't had it before, and now I've forgotten what it was!




Tasty congee!




A really good dessert called jin sha liu bao (I think). The outside is just like a baozi, and the inside is cooked egg yolk mixed with egg, and somehow it's liquidy, like the texture of a soft-boiled egg yolk, and a wee bit salty and sweet and so good!




Turnip cake in XO sauce is ten times yummier than plain turnip cake.




Roast pork with very, very crispy skin. Yum!




Possibly one of the oddest ice cream flavors I've seen for a while. Sadly, I didn't have a chance to get it because I was so full.




The clock tower somewhere near the ferry terminal in Kowloon, framed by the arts center.




More Hong Kong skyline! What? I am greatly fond of it.




I tried to get a photo of a very typical Hong Kong scene: a narrow street bridged by blinking store signs. Alas, no such luck, so instead you get a view of some billboards in Causeway Bay and small look at the double-decker buses (normal public transportation, not for tourists).




The best vending machine EVER! BOOKS!




Another shot of the Hong Kong MTR, because the Causeway Bay station reminded me so much of some Tube stations (only missing the Cadbury vending machines). I think it's the curving walls, though possibly I am confusing them with another city's public transportation.




Afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel! So tasty! So much food!




Mmmmmm, scones.




I tried to get a picture of the mountains that are everywhere in Hong Kong, but the picture's a little blurry because it was taken from a taxi going to the airport.




Another view of the mountains.

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Wow. I CAN HAZ FOODGASM!

[oracne.livejournal.com]

The mountains are really pretty.

That egg-yolky thing looked tasty.

[cofax7]

So cool to see pictures from you of someplace I have been! I have been to that ferry terminal! I have taken pictures of the Hong Kong skyline from Kowloon! I have taken that subway! I have seen those hills (and wished to go hiking in them)!

I also found the HK streets amazing. So quiet and empty in the morning, and then by late afternoon, simply packed with people, teeming with life. And shopping opportunities. *g*

We walked through the Peninsula Hotel lobby but felt far too underdressed and under-financed to stay. *g*

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

Oh... Oh... Delicious fruits and taro dumplings and all that luscious green... I love the book-vending machine, that is such a good idea. I would definitely go for something like that in any waiting area. And I know where I can get some mangosteens -- will definitely have to get some now!

Also? I know it's not the same, but oh I am SO HOME(?)SICK for Taipei now, ow ow ow!

[slrose.livejournal.com]

After looking at your pictures of beautiful scenery and food, I need to go have dinner. (The scone with jam was the last straw.)

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I thought this looked a lot like the London Tube, which also has fast, steep escalators lined with ads?

It does! Only the London Tube adverts are much more cluttered and closer together.

Mangosteeeens! I heard about those from my mother, who had them in Vietnam in the 70s and never forgot them since. She had me track them down with only a vague description in Beijing, and the first taste knocked my socks off.


A really good dessert called jin sha liu bao (I think).

I love those! ... I'm momentarily blanking on where I've had them, but I do! I have a real weakness for Chinese deserts that prominently feature eggs.


Possibly one of the oddest ice cream flavors I've seen for a while.

I had corn ice cream once. It was shaped like it was on the cob (Popsicle stick), with a light wafer casing stamped to look like kernels. Surprisingly tasty.


And on top of all that, scones and double-decker buses? ... I may have to relocate to Hong Kong.

[estara.livejournal.com]

The relevant pictures also give me Tube flashbacks. I think considering that Hong Kong was only given back in 1997, if I remember correctly, it makes sense that the Brits would build any Underground in their imperial image ^^.

[jiawen]

Note to self: don't read Oyce's posts while hungry.

I have lots of photos of the mountain surrounding Taibei that look like your photos of the mountains in Hong Kong.

[oyceter]

I knoooow! I miss being in Asia now!

[oyceter]

I love the mountains so much! I'm just sad I didn't get the view of the drive from the airport to HK (instead of Kowloon)—you're in the middle of the green mountains, then suddenly, these narrow metal spikes of buildings begin to appear. Then the bridge, then the island itself. I saw that the first time I visited HK and promptly fell in love.

[larryhammer]

"Octopus Card"?

---L.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

What reason was given for Taiwain banning import of mangosteens?

[oyceter]

Yay! OMG I love HK so much. Kowloon was nice, but I still like HK better.

Hee, I might go hiking in the hills some time that is not summer—just walking around in the streets had me almost keeling over from the humidity. Though I love that all the subway stations are air conditioned, so you can walk a good ways between places under ground and cool.

When we were at the Peninsula, I stood in front of all the super fancy jewelry stores and just boggled at the size of some of the stones.

[oyceter]

Waaaah you have access to mangosteens I AM SO JEALOUS!

And yeah... I am getting homesick too =(.

[oyceter]

Mmmm scone...

[oyceter]

Mangosteens! So wonderful! So sadly impossible to get in the US!

And oh, I love eggs in dessert! When I was a kid, I used to be grossed out by the egg yolk in the middle of moon cakes, but now I think they are the best part.

Hee, I've seen the corn ice cream around, though I haven't tried it yet.

Hong Kong is AWESOME! Have you been? I love it so!

[oyceter]

Ha, oh definitely! And the MTR was definitely built waaaay before the handover. It's funny, because HK doesn't feel very British at all, and then there are random reminders.

[oyceter]

Yes! Except everything in Hong Kong is like Taiwan, only even smaller and taller and more everything!

[oyceter]

Oh, that's what they call the card you put on lots of fare so you don't have to buy single tickets all the time.

[oyceter]

I honestly have no idea! I asked, but no one seemed to know...

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

Hah! I had the same change of mind regarding moon cakes. And egg tarts -- I put those away at such a rate I end up embarrassed at myself.

You might like the corn ice cream -- it's very lightly sweet, and I thought any lingering oddness about the taste vanished quickly.

I haven't been to Hong Kong, but oh I so want to. (And Japan and South Korea and Singapore...) I'm actually arranging my move to Taiwan right now. If everything goes well I should be there in November.

S today I was browsing Taiwan guidebooks and found what is possibly the coolest effect of the internet age ever -- at least a dozen listings of popular expat or native blogs (in English) noted in the margins as supplementary material. So when they talked about the bubble tea phenom they provided the address to a blog that reviews bubble tea stands, or Taipei restaurants, or music venues...

[larryhammer]

It's an ... interesting term.

---L.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Hong Kong is the epicenter of food heaven.

[jiawen]

I mostly meant the "slightly blurry with road signs and taxi window in foreground" aspect. :)

[onthehill]

I think it was termed 'octopus' because there were 8 different things you could use it for - bus, tram, mtr, ferry, light rail, main rail.. err... whatever. Now though, you can use them to pay for stuff at 7-11, the supermarket, your library fines, all sorts of stuff. They're FAB!

[larryhammer]

That explains it. Probably had a cute octopod mascot on it, too. Thanks!

---L.

[oyceter]

Very yes!

[oyceter]

OMG you are moving to Taiwan! I mean, I knew, but still! Awesome!

Also, I feel you should pass along any cool Taiwan blogs ;).

I love the Portuguese-style egg tarts so much! I wish they had them at KFCs here.

[oyceter]

Oh, hee, yes ^_^.

[tatterpunk.livejournal.com]

I'm so excited about Taiwan! So in my naturally pessimistic way, part of me is convinced something is going to go horribly wrong.

Cool Taiwan blogs will not only be featured but celebrated, I promise.

If you're ever in London I can give you the location of my absolute favorite hang-out spot in that city: the twenty square feet encompassing a Chinese bakery (which sells the celebrated egg tarts by the box) two shops down from a cheap Japanese bento joint, across the street from an indie cinema with tickets starting at a pound.

[oyceter]

Oh, I only wish London were in future plans!