A Saturday morning on Centre Street...

You people are in trouble now: on our way to a beautiful Chinese wedding banquet last night, Katherine and I picked up a new digital camera! The route to the banquet took us right by a Broadway shop (one of the major electronics chains in Hong Kong), so we popped in and found the blogger-friendly camera I had been eying on-line. After an overnight battery charge, we were ready to go have a quick walk to Centre Street, just about two blocks from where we live...



It's actually quite steep - and is the very same street where Katherine sprained her ankle. If you follow the street all the way down, you'll run smack-dab into Hong Kong harbor, which you can sort-of see in the distance, but the lighting conditions have mostly overexposed it.

Our walk had a purpose: breakfast. So, we stopped in at a favorite traditional Chinese breakfast spot to get some belly-filling goodness. I present two...



This is "ngau lei sou" - a delicious deep-fried bread that has a touch of sweetness. If you literally translate the name into English, though, you might be less inclined to try it: "crispy cow tongue". No cow tongues are used in its preparation, though, I promise you.

Next we have "zaa leung" (literally "fried two" - no idea why)...


This is a pretty common dim sum dish and consists of a long stick of fried bread (similar to the cow tongue above, but not sweetened) wrapped in a steamed rice roll, then sliced into chunks. Soy sauce and sesame seeds are poured on top just before it is served.

The process by which this is made is actually somewhat dangerous. An extremely hot pan is used to steam the rice roll and, once it is ready, the cook will use his or her bare hands to peel the rice roll out, place the fried bread, and roll it all up. I was able to capture the last step of the process in a little video for you...




The metal surface below the plank he's working on is what is used to make the rice roll - scalding steam is constantly rising from it, hitting his hands, and the rice roll itself is piping hot as he handles it. It's nearly a crime that we only paid him US$1 to eat the product of such pain!