A treat from Greece...

I thought I'd show you a special gift that Carson picked up for me in Greece...

Every time I read this, it makes me laugh.

Yep, that's nuts "deeped" in honey alright

I made crêpes for breakfast this morning and this made for a tasty topping. The nuts, having spent much time soaked in honey, are quite soft. The honey is very thick and definitely the sweetest I've ever tasted. It's also a bit granular, which makes me wonder if sugar has been added (though I suppose it could just be that it isn't as refined as the honey I'm used to).

At any rate, it's delicious, and I highly recommend it!

An overdue trip to McSweety...

About three weeks ago, after enjoying two nights of laksa, we passed by the "McSweety" dessert shop in Sheung Wan...and I've been wanting to find time to go back and try it. Finally, last night, the opportunity arrived...

Trying to decide what to order

豆腐花 ("tofu flower") in a mango sauce full of fresh mango chunks

Shaved guava ice cream with yogurt-drink-filled tapioca balls, lychee jellies, and dragon fruit

Bon appétit!

Everything was excellent!

Licensed to drive!

I've often found driving to be more of a burden than a pleasure, so one of my favorite aspects of Hong Kong is the incredible public transportation system. The buses, minibuses, MTR subway trains, light rail trains, trolleys, ferries, and taxis have freed me from the need to drive and, considering that driving is the part of life in the United States that I miss the least, that makes me quite happy.

Still, that being said, it certainly can't hurt to have a Hong Kong driver's license...especially when I can directly transfer my Michigan driver's license, so the effort is very minimal. I only needed to fill out a one-page form, present some documentation (former license, proof of address, HK ID card, passport), and pay US$115. Then, a week later...

...I'm ready for the roads. Again, I don't actually plan on using it, but at least I have the option (without needing to take any driving tests, etc).

Promoting cat literacy...

Sometimes, when Katherine is reading, Fui Fui joins her. Such was the case this week...

"Call me Ishmael."

Let us read in peace!

Katherine hatches a wonderful surprise...

On Saturday, Katherine asked if I was free Monday night (which, of course, I was ;>) and requested that I reserve it for her. She was excited about what she was up to, but also very tight-lipped. Since do I enjoy surprises, though, I didn't pry too much.

Monday arrived and, after we both finished work, we took a bus to Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. From there we entered the Silvercord shopping center, ascended the escalators to the top floor, and found the dinner spot she had chosen...

This is Hong Kong's branch of Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), a famous Taiwanese restaurant chain that specializes in Shanghainese food (how's that for a crazy mash-up of three Chinese places?!). They are particularly well-known for their Shanghainese "soup dumplings" (小籠包, literally "little steamer buns"), one of my favorite foods, so I was on cloud nine...

Baby bok choy

Sweet and sour soup

"Dam dam" noodles (in a spicy peanut sauce)

紅油抄手 (literally "red oil dipped hands"),
a variant of a classic Sichuan dumpling dish

The primary reason we came: soup dumplings!

Dig in!

After dinner, we walked out of the restaurant and ran into someone who I hadn't seen in nearly five years: Edward Lo, a buddy of mine at Virginia Tech who was in the Hong Kong student organization (and someone who helped me begin my Cantonese and Hong Kong culture learning). He recognized me from a distance and approached me - I was shocked into near speechlessness. I mean, how does something like that happen?! The odds must be astronomical. After catching up for a little while, we agreed to meet again soon and parted ways. Katherine had more planned for the evening, after all.

We grabbed a taxi bound for Hung Hom and Katherine had it drop us off at the Hong Kong Coliseum...

...which you may remember from the concert I attended in June. The big surprise? Tickets to an extremely rare performance from my favorite Hong Kong singer/songwriter: Sam Hui! Sam has been in retirement for over fifteen years, so I never thought I'd get to see him perform, but it appears that he does host a concert once every few years. This time, I was fortunate enough to get to see him (thanks to Katherine!)...

The Coliseum was packed!

Sam has always loved outlandish stage clothing

Note the "Elvis Lives" sticker - Sam was heavily influenced by Elvis, both in music style and stage presence

During his rise to popularity through the late 60s and early 70s, Sam (now 61 years old) almost single-handedly created the Cantopop genre through a unique blend of Chinese and American music styles. Cantopop would not exist today, at least not in the same way, without his revolutionary work.

He also has an amazing way of using his music to describe moments in the development of Hong Kong while capturing the associated emotions, like little musical time capsules. (In fact, portions of his discography read like a fascinating cultural history book.) He is also unusual among Cantonese songwriters in that his songs are crafted as one would speak Cantonese, full of colloquialisms and accurate tones. Since Cantonese is a tonal language, mixing it with music is quite challenging, and many songwriters don't even try. They write the words they want to write, then sing them in whatever way the melody demands, often creating unintelligible results (since the same base pronunciation of a Cantonese word, spoken in different tones, invariably means completely different things). Sam's music is in stark contrast to this norm and can actually be used as a Cantonese learning tool (which is why Katherine first introduced his work to me).

Some other highlights of the concert...

At times, Sam was led around the stage by two of his dancers,
handing out gifts to the audience while performing

He invited a number of fans to sing along with him

His elder brother, Ricky, joined him for a few numbers

In the last half hour, he opened the floor for requests!
Fans were prepared with large printouts of complete lyrics (which he didn't actually need)

A snippet from one of my favorite songs

It was a gargantuan surprise that made for a magical evening and allowed me to bask in the performance of my favorite Hong Kong entertainer. A big "thank you" to my wonderful wife!

Traditions: Cookout with the 2nd Floor

Last year, in the first week of the school term, the second floor came up to our balcony for a round-the-campfire-like cookout. Last night we hosted them again (a little more than 20 people), so I'd say it's now officially a tradition.

It is also now a tradition that I handle the dessert, so before everyone arrived, I put together a peach cobbler (I made a mango cobbler earlier in the year, when peaches were out of season, but it was time to give them the real deal)...

Blanching the peaches...

...so that the skin falls right off

Sliced and mixed with sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice

Flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, butter (and then heavy cream)...

...became the crust dough

The whole package before baking

Time to rest

The second floor guys brought everything else (charcoal, grills, grillables, drinks, etc). Once the fires got rolling, we loaded up the skewers and huddled around the fire...

They even roasted a whole pig(!) in Cantonese style...

Delicious, but very hard, hot work

It might not be easy to make out, but I'm helping to carve the pig

Once everyone had their fill of meat, I pulled the cobbler out of the oven and it was completely consumed within minutes (along with about a gallon of vanilla ice cream)...

Like last year, as the evening came to a close, the whole group transformed into Merry Maids, cleaning everything in sight (grills, dishes, silverware, tables, floors, countertops, etc). Such wonderful guests!

Oreo goes crazy!

(But perhaps not as crazy as Ritz.)

Kraft is pushing two new flavors of Oreo over here these days, so I thought I'd let you see them...

Let's call the first one "Reese's Oreos" and the second one "Hong Kong Palate Oreos" (given the lowered tolerance for sugary sweetness here).

A unique and traditional family meal with the second floor...

We have a bit of a personnel shortage, so even though Katherine is the Warden, she is also the official "tutor" (like a "resident assistant") for the first and second floors in our residence hall. For that reason, the second floor invited us to join them on Wednesday for a big first-week-of-school dinner...


They were serving a very traditional family meal called poon choi...

The entire meal is slow-cooked together in a giant pot.

The pot has layer upon layer of different ingredients (mostly meat and seafood)

Each pot of poon choi is as unique as the imagination of its chef. Ours contained a whole chicken, fish balls, mushrooms, taro, daikon, pork, fried pork skin, tofu skin, eel, and shrimp. It was my first time trying it and it was wonderful!

Numbers turn on the old odometer...

My birthday fell on the calendar this past Monday, and I wanted to celebrate by spending an evening out with Katherine. I didn't have a dinner spot in mind - I thought we'd just let the wind take us - so we hitched a ride on a minibus, hopped out close to the middle of Hong Kong Island), and started walking north. As it happened, we soon passed by a favorite restaurant of mine that we hadn't sampled in over a year, and I couldn't resist. Welcome back to Duke's Burger...

The advantage of eating at 6PM or earlier!

Katherine's "Temple Street"
(exactly like a "Shirley Temple", but with fresh watermelon juice added)

My fresh strawberry juice

Outstanding onion rings (so crispy!)

Fried brie (served with a tangy-sweet raspberry sauce)

My oxtail and chorizo burger

Katherine's veggie burger

After the meal, we spent some time window-shopping and then returned home. Upon arrival, a group of our students surprised me with a very nice "Happy Birthday to You" serenade. A quality birthday evening. :>