4 posts tagged “hong kong”
a.k.a. shanghai soup dumplings -- heaven in a bamboo steamer! dim sum in hong kong is so good. even the randomly-picked restaurant we wandered into was miles better than anything i've experienced in new york's chinatown (and i've been to more than a few).
if you're not lia and don't live and breathe siu lung bao, here's a short description: thin, doughy wrapper around a ground pork meatball floating in broth, tied off and then steamed. put the whole thing in your mouth and let the whole thing come undone in a juicy burst of flavor. putting the whole thing together is a delicate affair, which is the only reason i can think of for the heinous crime of these being impossible to find in seattle.
still, these will tide me over for awhile. yum!
i realize i complained inordinately about starbucks in my macau entry, so i should put in a good word: i admit, starbucks in asia rocks my world, because they serve tazo mango tea frappucino! possibly the best virgin iced drink ever, and doubly so in the sauna-like conditions of southest asia. seriously, it's like they crushed a frozen mango directly into a cup, and if you've had mangoes in asia, you know things don't get much better than that.
felt kind of ashamed & very ugly american, going into a starbucks every day for a little dose of nirvana. on this trip alone i spent time sipping mango in hong kong, macau, and japan*, and i'm no coffee drinker but i'd go to starbucks every day in seattle if they carried them here. no shame.
okay, just a little shame.
*in japan, they only list short, tall, and grande on the starbucks menu. i didn't even know short was even an option! short coffees come in the cutest little cups, but being japan, they still cost something like forty dollars each.
culture shock: the women in hong kong's version of the dove campaign
for real beauty are all super-thin and tiny.
correspondingly, shopping for clothing there almost requires one to be a u. s. size 4 or smaller.
as promised, a mcdonald's trip report, featuring the chicken and beef fan-tastic sandwiches. first thing to notice is the packaging, which resembles a large fry cup, sealed on both ends. the sandwich is removed by pulling on a tear strip about a third of the way down, which leaves you with a convenient carry-and-eat case. as you might be able to tell by looking at the photos, mcdonald's has succeeded in making the "official" menu pictures of these sandwiches frightneningly unappealing. too much texture, i think.
the formed-rice "buns" are savory and surprisingly unmessy, imagine grilled patties of mushroom risotto and you'll have the general idea. the chicken fan-tastic contains a battered breast filet with a strongly seasoned crust, as well as mayonnaise and lettuce. at times the flavors of rice and batter come in conflict, but overall -- pretty tasty. the beef version contains slices of beef and grilled onions in "teriyaki" sauce, though i use scare quotes because i couldn't taste much flavor from inside the sandwich at all. here the strong flavor of the rice patties are a deifnitely minus.
(incidentally, two sandwiches is a bit much. the rice makes these much heavier than your average bun-equipped fast food sandwich. recommend finding a group of like-minded adventurers if you want to try both...)
anyway! fans of onigiri and omusubi probably need no further convincing. but i think the real winner here was the small nestea honey pear iced tea which i washed down my bites of sandwich with. i detest normal lemon nestea, but this flavor was super-yummy. if only we had it stateside!
as an aside, hong kong mcdonald's also have a "grilled chicken burger" on the menu, which it turns out is a sandwich containing cantonese soy sauce chicken breast, complete with skin. looked really good, but was not equipped to give it a try. i think i've exhausted my tolerance for fast food this trip, so unless there's special demand, we'll stop here.
tomorrow: off to the mainland, expect internet access to sporadic at best, so please don't worry if i disappear for a bit. drop me a line so i won't be lonely when i log in, okay?
this painting hangs in the hotel room in kowloon. i find it relentlessly unsettling.
food here is really, really good. it kind of makes you forget that it's such a sauna outside that the simple act of walking kind of bleeds out any nourishment received while eating. thus the routine becomes one of walking between restaurants, sampling the goods. but I've a feeling that this is how one best experiences hong kong.
today was just footing it between tsim sha sui and mongkok, sampling dim sum and fruit desserts (i'm in love with the mangoes here -- they're so good!). admit to browsing the clothing racks too. kowloon is very much urban -- at least along nathan road, there was no evidence of vegetation and a solid sea of high rises blocked any view of the gau lung (nine dragons) which give the peninsula its name. amazing how very much new york city's chinatown really replicates this place! the feel is uncannily similar. am looking forward to visiting hong kong island or the new territories (tomorrow's goals are sai kung and lantau island's big buddha), where supposedly nature is still much in evidence.
and just so you know it's still me writing -- a mcdonald's report. have not had the opportunity to sample any of the local dishes, but in addition to containing intriguing-looking dishes like korean bbq flatbread and a breakfast ham-and-egg burger, the menu contains something called a chicken fan-tastic sandwich. which, if you know any cantonese at all, has probably already brought an image to your mind. it's a chicken sandwich with glutinous rice patties instead of buns. longtime readers will recognize this as a neon epiphany natural, and we'll certainly strive to bring you a report on this important taste sensation as soon as humanly possible.
