Hong Kong, Day 2

[oyceter]

Today started rather slowly for me, as I think I am still recovering from slight sleep deprivation. Rachel and I walked around a local neighborhood and ate at a tiny and very crowded cafe. I got a set meal, which had hot water with lemon and honey, a little omelette with corn and ham that I ate on buttered slices of toast, and duck breast on spaghetti noodles in broth. It was a very HK-feeling Chinese + Western mix. Rachel had a giant heaping mound of rice topped with a giant omelette with ham and barbequed pork and shrimp. We wanered around for a bit after, and Rachel bought a ton of HK movie VCDs that sadly did not end up working on her computer.

After I woke up from my long nap, we headed out to Causeway Bay again. We'd gone there yesterday too when the hotel was still prepping our room for check-in, but didn't have a chance to really wander around the streets. On the walk there, we encountered a 菜市場/traditional market selling all sorts of meat and seafood (fewer veggies), a little street stand selling Rachel's favorite black sesame rolls, and a little dive of a store that seemed to specialize in all things soy: soy milk, soy bean curd, tofu, etc. Since I wasn't able to get 豆花/dou hua in Taiwan, and since the store seemed very busy and crowded, I dragged Rachel in. It was different from Taiwan dou hua; here, they seem to pick sweet soups to put the dou hua in, whereas in Taiwan, we usually put the dou hua in a malty syrup and then top it with red beans, mung beans, peanuts, or tapioca pearls. Rachel got the one in sesame soup, and I thought I was ordering 杏仁豆腐/this jello-like substance made from almond milk usually topped with fruit cocktail, but either I said it wrong or they misheard or it just means something different here, because I ended up getting dou hua in almond milk. That said, it was incredibly delicious and very fragrant! The dou hua here is more silky and delicate than the one at my favorite store in Taiwan, which is creamier in consistency and tastes nuttier, but both were very good.

Then we eventually found our way to Times Square. Sadly, there's no giant crosswalk in the middle of the area, so you can't see the hordes of people crossing every time the light turns green. There are hordes of people nonetheless. And! I found an awesome taiyaki place that has taiyaki named after different countries. "Italian" has sausage, cheese, onions, tuna, corn, and tomato; "French" has cinnamon apple; "Japan" has the traditional red bean; and "German" has potato, onion, and bacon. There were also bacon and egg taiyaki; bacon, egg, and tomato taiyaki; and tuna, corn and onion taiyaki. Amazingly, I passed over the tuna for the German taiyaki, which was so incredibly delicious that Rachel ended up eating half despite protesting initially that she wanted to save room for dinner.

Oh! Rachel also says to say that today she wore her very cool punk shirt that she got at the night market at Taiwan. However, because the collar is very frilly and there is lace-up stuff underneath, she says it feels more like a gothic-punk fusion. "Pothic?" she said. "Or it could be... hrm. 'Gunk' isn't really a good name."

Dinner was at Chee Wai, which seems to be a fairly well-known wonton noodle shop considering the number of articles about it pasted in the windows, the extremely crowded interior, and the sign on the door saying, "Please line up outside." I said we had to get wonton noodles because it's an HK thing, even though I didn't admit until later that I actually am not all that fond of shrimp wontons. Alas, their pork wontons were sold out, so Rachel got the shrimp wonton noodle soup and I changed my mind at the last minute to get crab congee rather than have the two of us get the same thing. Although the wonton soup was pretty good—silky wontons, noodles that were nicely al dente and not overcooked, shrimpy broth—the crab congee was amazing. It had an entire small crab in it, and the whole bowl was yellow-colored from the crab insides (蟹黃*). It was wonderfully crab-flavored without being overpowering, and there were little bits of the crab insides (what do you call that in English? The yellow bits in the main body of the crab that taste very sea-like?). I thought it was extremely good, and I eat a lot of congee. And Rachel, who actually dislikes congee, also thought it was so good that she had two bowlfuls as well! I feel that should be a good recommendation if someone who loves congee and someone who hates congee both thought it was delicious.

* The restaurant menu called the dish something-蟹皇 though my computer spell check only brings up "蟹黃." So I have no idea how to actually spell it because I don't have internet right now.

And currently in the hotel room, we are being baffled by an orchestra performance that had ballerinas dancing in a museum, a piece called "Champagne Gallop" with little pop gun being fired every so often, and random images of many European countries to Strauss' "Blue Danube."

Comments

[heresluck]

...now I want congee. But I already had dinner! Lunch tomorrow it is, then. Also, now *I* want German taiyaki, and I don't even know what taiyaki is. (Some sort of dumpling?) In conclusion, yay food post!

[oyceter]

Taiyaki! It is this Japanese street snack that is a waffle-like batter brushed into a fish mold. Traditionally, it's filled with red bean, though I've also seen it in Taiwan with butter, peanut sauce (really good), and chocolate. But never with potato, onions, cheese, and bacon!

They were so good I had another one today, and the tuna one as well. The tuna one was sadly not as good as the potato one.

[thistleingrey]

Wow, I had no idea that taiyaki came with anything but red bean inside! The local (and tiny) Japanese grocery has them frozen (and I have forgotten their Korean name).

[(Anonymous)]

Hong Kong seems heavenly! I love eating focused vacations and the taiyaki sounds delicious! :)

[(Anonymous)]

-kothithelegu (sorry always forget to sign in!) :)

[wintersweet]

Oh, the taiyaki sound fantastic! Man, I thought I was livin' large when I discovered custard and chocolate and peanut butter taiyaki!

I believe the stuff inside the crab is called crab butter (defined on one site as "the white-yellow fat inside the back of the shell of a large crab. It is considered a delicacy and is often added to dressings and sauces served with crab"). Keep in mind I'm likely allergic to crustaceans, so this is about as good as when I describe what India Pale Ale is. (Although I was right about that...)

The stuff labeled "punk" in magazines like Kera is often, um...interesting. I guess this top might be "sweet punk" style. :P

[wintersweet]

Well, I just told my Japanese friend about the taiyaki and I think he's trying to decide between offense and envy. Heh.

[oyceter]

Ohhhhh, thanks! That sounds so much better than "crab yellow," haha.

The taiyaki were so good that today we went back and had just taiyaki for dinner! We may also go back tomorrow since we discovered the bacon and egg taiyaki actually has a whole egg cracked into the taiyaki, not something scrambled like we had thought.

[thomasyan]

Hm, the green stuff in lobsters is tomalley. I would expect the yellow/orange stuff in crab to also be called tomalley. I don't think it is fat, but rather their equivalent of a liver. I love tomalley, but since it is the detoxifying organ, poisons ingested by the animal build up there, so I try to not indulge too much.

[wintersweet]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/18440 and a quick skim of other discussions indicate that some people use "crab butter" to mean just the fat and some use it to mean both the fat and the tomalley because "tomalley" seems to be more strongly associated with lobster. But I don't know, because like I said, I don't eat crustaceans. :)

And now I know what "kani miso" is--I'd always thought it was literally kani (crab) and miso. :)

[badgerbag]

oh, so jealous! I wish I could be there and just wander around for a while!

[dichroic]

I have a possible hunch about the orchestra concert - I think you may have found the Vienna Philaharmonic's New Year's Concert. anghara describes it much more lovingly than I ever could, here.

[estara.livejournal.com]

That was exactly my thought! My parents watch it religiously every year. It's always shown on Austrian and German TV.

[laurashapiro]

OMG THE FOOD THE FOOD.

::whines and drools like a puppy::

The yellow bits inside the crab? I'm pretty sure I've only heard Americans call them "guts" and ask for them to be removed. We don't know much over here. (:

[wintersweet]

hmm, maybe Dungeness-crab-eaters are different? Haha...

[laurashapiro]

I hadn't thought of "crab butter" until I saw your comment, but now that you mention it I have heard that phrase! My primary exposure to crab cookery is "plop it in boiling water and kill until dead", so I haven't actually dealt with recipes that feature crab butter. But it does sound vaguely familiar...

[daedala]

Oh, that all sounds amazing. Though the pop gun sounds very strange!

Have you seen Jewel in the Palace? I tried checking your kdrama link (I think that qualifies as kdrama?). It sounded like something you might like.

[oyceter]

It is indeed kdrama! I've watched some of it (it's under the "Dae Jang Geum" tag), but I tend to bounce off the historical dramas more because they are less funny (er, at least, less intentionally funny). Also, long! But I intend to finish some day, since one of my libraries actually has the DVDs....

[coffeeandink]

Now I am hungry.

P.S. - I like congee.