Hong Kong, Travel

"Bun Mountains" at Hong Kong's Annual Bun Festival

dianakuan — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:21:03 +0000

I had first heard about Hong Kong's Cheung Chau Bun Festival by watching My Life as McDull, an existential cartoon about a Hong Kongese pig who trains to climb a mountain of Chinese steamed buns. A mountain of Chinese steamed buns!?! At first I thought such a thing was made up, until I saw real black & white footage of climbers interspersed with the animation. How odd, I thought.

Coincidentally, Jacob and I were in Hong Kong for Buddha's Birthday, the holiday on which the annual Bun Festival takes place on the island of Cheung Chau. There was supposed to be a parade, some other festivities, and the climbing competition at midnight. As a foodie who revels in weird food festivals, I had to go, mostly to see how they construct a mountain of buns.

We hopped on a ferry from Central along with 95% of Hong Kong island, and an hour later arrived on the banks of the small fishing village. The first thing we saw outside the ferry terminal were crowds of people waiting for the parade.

Hong Kong Comfort Food

dianakuan — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:32:01 +0000

Native Hong Kongers and savvy travelers know that some of the best food, the kind you crave at 3pm or 3am, is not found at elaborate banquet halls or pricey fusion establishments. The best food is the kind Hong Kongers would make for themselves, if they only had the time. The city's noodle shops and coffee chops, called cha chaan tengs, provide the backbone of comfort food for people who are always on the move, but still like to duck into a place to relax and eat for a while.

Daisanne McLane has a good article in this week's New York Times on cha chaan tengs. These basic hole-in-the-walls, usually outfitted with formica tables and worn booths or plastic chairs, provide a kind of comforting nostalgia for the food and an old way of life. The menu usually consists of both Cantonese staples like beef brisket noodles and holdovers from HK's colonial days, like toast slathered with thickened sweet condensed milk. Wonton soup, another cha chaan teng staple, is something I could eat every other day and not get sick of. (If you can't make it to Hong Kong or have a good Cantonese restaurant in your town, see my recipe on making your own wontons.)

Temple Street Night Market

dianakuan — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:41:29 +0000

Hong Kong's shopping scene has long been more than just glitzy malls and department stores. Open-air night markets like the one on Temple Street has long drawn both locals and tourists in search of bargains and a little fun.

Located in Tsim Sha Tsui near the Jordan and Yau Ma Tei subway stops, Temple Street transforms into a circus of bargain ware after dark. There are so many stalls you will need at least half and hour to an hour to walk through, if you don't stop. You can get kitschy trinkets, clothes, DVDs, and toys, and even those kinds of DVDs and toys. (This is one of the few places in the world where you can walk around outdoors and see someone haggling over $5 for a toy usually sold in curtained shops.) And of course, there are the requisite Mao souvenirs, for irony, of course.

Other than shopping, you can also listen to Cantopop sung by people at makeshift karaoke stands, or visit one of the 20 or 30 fortune tellers. Or eat at one of the many street hawker stands or restaurants.

Cantonese Roast Chicken and Other HK Eats

dianakuan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:10:48 +0000

Hong Kong may not be under snow and ice like Hunan province, but it has its fair share of winter weather. After seeing some wild monkeys at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, we trekked back to North Point to meet up with my relatives for dinner. Even incessant rain couldn't dampen my spirits, because I knew my relatives always pick out the best places for Cantonese specialties.

Fung Shing Restaurant at the South China Hotel is one of those clean, brightly lit banquet halls where Hong Kongers go for both special occasions and no-special-occasions. And of course, we ordered a bunch of dishes to serve family-style.

I've had Cantonese roast chicken more times than I can count, and tonight's was one of the best I've ever tasted. The skin was amazingly crisp, the meat amazingly juicy. Usually you get skin and meat of this caliber only on a duck, but this chicken was prepare almost the same way. By repeatedly spooning the sugary sauce over chicken as it roasts, you can get a glistening, perfectly crisp skin.

Video: Monkeys in a Monastery

dianakuan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:01:27 +0000

Today, we braved rain and wind and trekked out to Sha Tin in the New Territories. We visited the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, a peaceful retreat with bamboo groves, pagodas, and pavilions to which people bring food for their ancestors to enjoy in the afterlife.

Walking around the compound, I saw that many of the offerings that been ransacked, with plates and half-eaten food all over the ground. Vagabonds? Bandits? How disrepectful, I thought.

The answer came face to face with me once I turned a corner. A wild monkey was sitting outside one of the pavilions, munching on a pink bun. We stared at each other for a few minutes, me in awe and him stuffing his face. Then his friend appeared, as if telling him, Psst...let's wait 'till these humans are gone, then come back. The two disppeared over the roof of the pavilion.

Sure enough, once we pretended to walk away, the monkeys came back and took some more food before retreating back onto the roof.

I recounted the story to my relatives over dinner. "Oh yeah, Monkey Mountain is just behind the Monastery," my aunt said matter-of-factly. "They're probably stealing food because it's too cold to forage."

Well, I guess monkeys need to eat too.

And apparently wild monkeys sightings in Hong Kong are quite commonplace, like in this photo (scroll about 1/3 down).

Where Hikers and Beach Bums Meet and Eat

dianakuan — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:19:23 +0000

High temperatures and little breeze did not stop us from hiking the Dragon's Back trail on eastern Hong Kong island on Sunday. Nevertheless, by the time we finished the 2-hour long hike, we were in need food and ice-cold drinks.

Big Wave Bay (Tai Long Wan), a scenic little beach where the trail ended, had a few restaurants scattered between surf shops. Tong Kee, a noodle shop that also rents surf and boogie boards, had a no-frills outdoor eating area that was filling up with beach-goers. Always a good sign. We struck up a conversation with the family that owns the eatery, who told us that Tong Kee has been opened off-and-on for 40 years, long before the other restaurants on the strip moved from town.

You wouldn't think a hot bowl of noodle soup would be good after a long hike in the scorcing sun. But sitting in the shade under a fan and sipping lemon iced tea has a remarkable cooling effect. (AC, you were not missed.) We ordered a plate of stir-fried choi sum (Chinese flowering cabbage) and big bowls of pork and beef tendon soup. What's in the broth, we asked one of the owners, that makes it so flavorful? She brought out the magic spices: bay leaf, star anise, and nutmeg. Also, she added, we cook the beef - lean cuts, fatty cuts, and offal alike) - in it for at least 4 hours.

After lunch, we were rested enough to endure the 3 minute walk to dip our feet in the ocean.

Video: Tai O - Houses on Stilts in Hong Kong

dianakuan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:24:09 +0000

Think Hong Kong is all skyscrapers and crowded streets? On the southwestern coast of Lantau, one of Hong Kong's outlying islands, is a fishing village called Tai O. It's one of the last remaining fishing villages with stilt houses built hundreds of years ago.

We take a boat ride around these houses built on water, get lost on the "boardwalk", and eat spicy prawns with an off-color Chinese name.