88 WONG MA KOK

Hong Kong. A sweet sojourn. A welcomed respite. I am such a glutton. Hollerluyeah for good genes.
I went to HK to run an errand for my dad. Basically, he wanted me to cover the outdoor furniture on the roof decks of the condo he owns with these custom made rubbers that he had me bring over from Korea. That was the reason but for me, it was an opportunity to get some sun and eat some kill-ah chinese food with some friends. That I did. We are talking elephantine shits.
But first, my dad's place. It's out on Stanley Island. Very nice location: remote, serene, right on the water. It's about a 30 minute drive from Central. Very windy (not windy, windy) roads and drivers there---taxi drivers, minibus drivers, bus drivers, my dad's friend---well, the word reckless doesn't exist in their vocabulary (though you figure it would considering the shitload of characters that are in use these days). So yeah, every time I'd commute to and fro, I'd get car sick. Plus folks there drive on the left side of the road so that was just sweat...sweet.
Yeah, so my dad's place: ridiculous. Brobdingnagian (sp probably). No one really lives there so it felt more like a museum than a residence. And being preserved like that, all the furniture and sheets and blankets and pillows etc. etc. reeked of that awful chemical odor that at first tells you that the thing that smells like that is new, but after awhile of rolling around and sitting on and sleeping in the things that smell like that, well, motherfucker done gave me a splitting headache!Two times! Other than that, it was nice not having to talk to anyone in the morning.

I met up with a fellow SCer who treated me to the following:
1) xiao long bao (soup dumplings)
2) shanghainese rice cakes
3) fried eel crackers
4) dan dan noodles
5) vegetable dim sum
6) wine soaked chicken
7) ma po tofu (spicy bean curd with pork)
8) steamed milk with 2 films served hot
9) mango and taro tapioca in milk

It was actually quite funny eating items 1-7 in one sitting. The two couples on either side of us on the 6-seat table ordered at most 3 dishes between them, but William and I, being gluttons/gourmands/epicureans/ASSHOLES, well we just had to get everything. (and I don't want to mention the lunch my dad's friend took me out to early that day: whoa.) All of the above were delicious though the Chinese in LA do a fine job as well.

The next day, I walked around Causeway Bay, Central, Lan Kwai Fong, Soho, and Kowloon before meeting up with ETing (that's for you BTalbs!) for dinner. I had visited Hong Kong 4 years ago so I soaked up the sights then but it was nice to walk around and see how much had changed in the past 4 years. Restaurants that I had gone to then are no longer there but the tailor shop in the Mid-Levels Escalator terminus was still thriving. The major difference is that there were more Chinese tourists than before. You can tell them apart because the men all wear grey suit jackets and have greasy short hair and the women carry around LV, Chanel, Balenciaga etc., shopping bags. For lunch, I hopped into a random noodle shop that was packed. They had an English menu, but it was obvious that their customers were exclusively Chinese. I ordered noodles with tripe and tendon. It was delicious. The tripe and tendon were cut generously. The tripe was amazing tender, sort of like the stewed tripe you'd get at an Italian restaurant, and the tendon was like eating warm stiff jello. Actually, those were two of the more conservatives meat items available. I'd had congealed blood and intestine before, but I don't particularly care for either. Surprise.

ETing is an old NY friend. She took me where young professional HKers like to go: AQUA. It's on the 30th floor of some building in Kowloon and as you can imagine, the view of the harbor was terrific. It has a club feel not dissimilar from Matsuri or Koi. The menu was split into Italian and Japanese. Weird combo. Overpriced and not particularly tasty but the view and the company made it well worth it. It was great to catch up with her over a huge ass scoop of gelato after dinner.

The next day, I met up with a nice lady who's family developed the condo complex as well as heads an international hotel chain. She treated me to a ridiculous dim sum breakfast at one of her family's hotels in Causeway Bay. Dim sum I've never seen before. Like this fried miniature gourd that was to die for.

GOD I LOVE THE CHINESE AND THEIR FOOD!

LOVE
ALEX