Carson returns to Hong Kong!

i-Learner, an English-teaching company in Hong Kong, has hired Carson as a consultant for the next two months! He recently arrived and will be staying until the end of June.

Carson arriving safely in the Hong Kong airport

What does that make us want to do? Why, go to Ocean Park and throw fish at sea lions, of course!

Locked and loaded

Carson launches the first volley

I follow suit

And Katherine bounces on a trampobungeeline

Here's to a great visit!

Rock on Pok!

This week our residence hall band (a group that I've become quite involved with) performed as part of a larger University of Hong Kong rock concert...

The performance was wonderful, but not without considerable drama: Our lead singer for three of the songs (pictured here, arm outstretched) was scheduled to fly back to Hong Kong from his hometown in Sichuan on the morning of the performance. Unfortunately, his plane was seriously delayed, and he still hadn't arrived when the time came for us to perform (about 10:15PM). Two songs were unaffected, but we had to quickly reassign the singer for one song (with someone who had never sung it before), and replace the final two with songs that we hadn't practiced in months. Harrowing! Miraculously, just as we were about to start the final song, our missing member darted into the venue and up on stage. The band was shocked, but immediately energized, and they reverted back to the song we originally intended to close with.

After the performance, we feasted on a Sichuan delicacy that our wayward singer brought with him: skinned rabbit heads soaked in a very spicy oil. We didn't get a good picture of the heads, but this is me enjoying the tongue after splitting the skull open at the jawline. It was surprisingly delicious.

GameNight 7!

The Easter holiday weekend presented the perfect opportunity for us to host another GameNight, so that's just what we did...

One bowl from about 5 gallons of gumbo

Swedish meatballs, prepared by one of our residential tutors

For another taste of New Orleans: fresh pralines!

The first of two mango cobblers (served hot with vanilla ice cream)

Nearly 30 mangoes were sacrificed to make this picture

With the food wiped out, we introduced two new (well, new to GameNight, anyway) mass games...

Taboo, the say-it-without-saying-it game

The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, an Agatha-Christie-mystery-style role-playing game

Both were perfect choices because they are highly interactive and allowed the entire group of attendees to play together at the same time.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Visiting the 2010 Hong Kong Flower Show

The end of March brings the Hong Kong Flower Show to Causeway Bay's Victoria Park, and we've made visiting it a yearly ritual (2008, 2009)...

"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"

Making like wallflowers

Buying many orchids (among other flowers)

After a few hours at the show, we had lunch at the Causeway Bay branch of Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), a Taiwanese-Shanghainese restaurant that has quickly become one of my favorites (exhibit A, exhibit B)...

Hot and sour soup

Stir-fried string beans

Dried beef shank

Smoked fish

"Little steamer dumplings" (小籠包)

Sesame-peanut noodles

紅油抄手 (literally "red oil dipped hands")

A very satisfying Saturday!

Happy Birthday, King Monkey!

This week we attended a gigantic celebration for the 80th birthday of Dr Lawrence Hou (aka "猴子" / "Monkey"). Dr Hou is an active alumnus of our residence hall and, if the guest list to his birthday party is any indication, quite a prominent figure in Hong Kong. The party was held in the Grand Hall of Hong Kong's Convention and Exhibition Centre, a place we visited a little over a year ago for a similarly astonishing event.

Top billing on the Convention Centre's event board

Entering the reception area of Grand Hall...

...where the 1200+ guests mingled while waiting for the dinner call...

...and where the guest of honor (in bow tie and boutonnière) was patiently posing for pictures

Entering the Grand Hall

The motley crew of table 9

Seven of our hall residents (for whom Dr Hou is a mentor) were also in attendance

A standing ovation for King Monkey's entrance

Dr Hou receiving gifts from his family on-stage

Even with Dr Hou deservedly garnering so much attention, one of his guests might have been an equal amount (particularly from the younger females in attendance)...

Alex Fong (standing on the right), an Olympic swimmer turned actor/singer, gracefully receiving wave after wave of adoring fans

The whole event lasted a little under six hours, included a nine-course meal, and was chock-full of speeches and singing performances given by a host of Hong Kong celebrities. Truly a night to remember for King Monkey and his guests, and I'm so glad we could be a part of it.

Happy Birthday, King Monkey!

Surprise: some new food!

(...at least, new to me. :>)

Some highlights from a delicious meal we had last night in Prince Edward...

Caterpillar fungus (冬蟲夏草) served in double-steamed soup (燉湯)

The dark half (that I'm holding with my mouth) is the fungus, the other half is the caterpillar

Quail, also in double-steamed soup

Stewed duck (with taro, though that isn't pictured)

Stir-fried sweet potato shoots

It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find things that I haven't yet eaten here, but I know they're out there, so my quest continues.

Administrative note: After a little over two years of living in Hong Kong (and 220 blog posts), life has settled into a fairly stable routine, so the frequency of blog-worthy events (that aren't just slight variations of earlier events) has slowed down considerably. I'll still have eruptions of posts from time to time (during unique events, like when we have visitors), but the weekly posts will probably continue to taper off. The easiest way to keep up with them would be to plug the blog's RSS URL into an RSS reader/aggregator (like Google Reader). That way you don't have to continually check the blog for new posts, the posts will be pushed to you whenever they are made.

GameNight 6!

After almost exactly six months (last semester was just too busy), this weekend we finally hosted another GameNight! There weren't any classes this week (because of the Chinese New Year holiday), so most residents had gone home to spend time with their families, but we sill had over 30 people attend.

"Soup's on!"

I made about 5 gallons of Sally's famous chili (both beef and vegetarian versions) and we served it with toasted baguette...

Not easy to find in Hong Kong (except perhaps on hot dogs)

...but, as it turns out, it can be eaten in a rice bowl with chopsticks

I also made four peanut butter pies for dessert

Soon after our meal was finished, the games began...

Settlers of Catan and PlayStation 3 gamers coexisting peacefully

Practicing our acting skills with Moods

Concluding the first of two Settlers rounds

A riotous (and very close) game of Pictionary

The action lasted about 6 hours (ending around 1AM), so we opted to clean up later and hit the sack immediately...

"Good night!"

(Note for posterity: An hour before GameNight began, the line supplying our kitchen sink with hot water burst, so things were a little more exciting than we anticipated. It happened right beside the shut-off valve, though, so we were able to quickly stop the flow. About 50 minutes later we had all the water cleaned up and our guests weren't impacted at all. Close one. ;>)