My friend arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday night for the last leg of her round-the-world jaunt and will be staying with us until Saturday morning. She was previously in Brazil and Singapore for a business-school related project. With guests to show around, I find my social calendar has been unusually exciting and jam-packed as of late.
On Tuesday night, I took her to the dai pai dong to get local fresh clams sauteed in black chili bean sauce, garlic (really garlic!) steamed shrimp, and steamed rabbit fish with ginger and scallion, then introduced her to the super secret hidden speakeasy (001) located smack dab in the Central wet markets. I had to really concentrate to locate the single dim light and illuminated doorbell, but at the same time I didn't want to look too closely for fear of finding creeping crawlies and scurrying fuzzies that I have absolutely zero zilch zip desire to see.
On Wednesday, we filled up for breakfast at the local congee shop, savoring the hot gruel cooked to a silky white perfection, clouded with shreds of pork and chunks of preserved thousand year old egg. In the evening, we indulged in a half hour of foot massage each, wincing but also enjoying the masseuses' firm, insistent rubbing and knuckling. ("Does it hurt?" "Yes...!" "OK." (said in the satisfied tone that implied, if-it-hurts-then-I'm-doing-my-job))
We then headed to a banquet dinner at the Shanghai Fraternity Club, a members' only eating club, at the invitation of an old college friend. Yes, you can take the student out of Princeton, but eating clubs in some form or shape exist wherever alumnae go! There we sampled very traditional southern Chinese cuisine, from drunken chicken (dunked in ShaoXing wine), peanut chicken sesame cold noodles, steamed pork soup buns, to fried fish fillets and pine nuts, fried tofu skin stuffed with mushroom, and fresh river shrimp. It was delicious and a wonderful experience, made all the more so by the incredibly generosity of our old college friend and his wife, who paid for everything!
I finished up the night with a frozen margarita with my friend in the romantic, dimly lit Isola bar looking out to Kowloon from the floor-to-ceiling glass panels.
On Tuesday night, I took her to the dai pai dong to get local fresh clams sauteed in black chili bean sauce, garlic (really garlic!) steamed shrimp, and steamed rabbit fish with ginger and scallion, then introduced her to the super secret hidden speakeasy (001) located smack dab in the Central wet markets. I had to really concentrate to locate the single dim light and illuminated doorbell, but at the same time I didn't want to look too closely for fear of finding creeping crawlies and scurrying fuzzies that I have absolutely zero zilch zip desire to see.
On Wednesday, we filled up for breakfast at the local congee shop, savoring the hot gruel cooked to a silky white perfection, clouded with shreds of pork and chunks of preserved thousand year old egg. In the evening, we indulged in a half hour of foot massage each, wincing but also enjoying the masseuses' firm, insistent rubbing and knuckling. ("Does it hurt?" "Yes...!" "OK." (said in the satisfied tone that implied, if-it-hurts-then-I'm-doing-my-job))
We then headed to a banquet dinner at the Shanghai Fraternity Club, a members' only eating club, at the invitation of an old college friend. Yes, you can take the student out of Princeton, but eating clubs in some form or shape exist wherever alumnae go! There we sampled very traditional southern Chinese cuisine, from drunken chicken (dunked in ShaoXing wine), peanut chicken sesame cold noodles, steamed pork soup buns, to fried fish fillets and pine nuts, fried tofu skin stuffed with mushroom, and fresh river shrimp. It was delicious and a wonderful experience, made all the more so by the incredibly generosity of our old college friend and his wife, who paid for everything!
I finished up the night with a frozen margarita with my friend in the romantic, dimly lit Isola bar looking out to Kowloon from the floor-to-ceiling glass panels.
No comments:
Post a Comment