Sleeping at a discothèque

I woke up this morning with a bunch of weather warning signals showing up on my HK District Weather app. Apparently the Hong Kong Observatory had issued a Black Rainstorm Warning Signal, among other warnings for thunderstorms, landslides, and flooding early in the morning. I wasn't really surprised with the thunderstorm warning, because I saw flashes of lightning and heard sounds of thunder all throughout the night. The lightning was so frequent overnight that I really felt like I was sleeping inside a discothèque. I never realized just how thin the curtains in my room are-sleeping with an eye mask might be a good idea!

The local tv news station had a pretty coverage of the Black Rainstorm Warning Signal. They sent reporters to a variety of bus stations to interview drivers and commuters to see if they were working and/or knew about the storm. But this one reporter got sent out during the middle of the rain to where a landslide had occured earlier in the morning. The poor guy was soaked at the peak of the rainstorm!

Fortunately, I am in a flat is minimally affected by the storm. And honestly, I was a little excited to see the warning because it means no going into work while the warning is in effect! The general rule here is that you have 2 hours to get into work after the warning has been lifted. The warning ended up being lifted at 9:45 am so I ended up having a nice leisurely breakfast while watching the news.

Surprisingly there wasn't much of a line up at the minibus stop and I made it into work without any incident. So thanks to all the minibus drivers out there today, you guys did a good job on driving up that windy hill of ours!

A photo of the news showing the black rainstorm warning and the aftermath of a local landslide.; water was pouring down the side of a hill at work; enjoying the Hiymalayan tea once I got into work. (Photo CathC)

Street food and the Cheung Chau Bun Festival

Friday was the start of the long weekend in HK, celebrating Buddha's Birthday. The islanders of Cheung Chau marked the occasion every year with the Bun Festival, which traditionally started out as a Taoist rituals to drive off the evil spirits from the island. Today in addition the Taoist ceremonies, the Cheung Chau Bun Festival also includes: a parade of marching bands, children on floats, lion dancer, drummers, and a Bun Scrambling Competition up a tower of buns.

Enjoyed a coffee and bacon and onion salé while waiting to board the ferry to Cheung Chau. (Photo: CathC)

Paying a little more to take the Fast Ferry was a good idea, since the trip over to the island only took half an hour--compared to an hour on the ordinary ferry. I was at the front of the boat and had a great view of the different outlying islands from Hong Kong.

It was a busy day for boats and ships on Victoria Harbour. You can see a hydrofoil and our ferry. (Photo: CathC)

Here`s an image of Lamma Island where the electrical plant is located (the three stacks). (Photo: CathC)

I stood at the edge of the street and watched the parade members file through to take their place at the start of the parade. I was really impressed by the detailed costumes they were wearing.

The kids appear to be standing ontop of these floats, but they are actually siting on a small wooden plank, as you can see from the dismantled float. (Photo: CathC)

(Photo:CathC)

Here's the playground area where all the members of the parade gather before their start. This is also where the Bun scambling competition takes place. The tower in the front is made with plastic buns which competitor grab and fill their baskets with as they climb to the top of the tower. The three towers in the back are the offerings to the Taoist dieties.

The main bun towers offering . (Photo: CathC)

These mini bun towers off to the side are offerings by individual groups and organizations of the Cheung Chau community. (Photo: CathC)

After watching the parade, I wandered around the island to try the various street foods. I was really happy with all the different types of street foods and stalls I came across--deep fried dried shrimp, sugar cake (白糖糕), sesame cake, mochi. The festival must have been a great day for the islanders they most of the stalls I came across had huge line ups of people. 

Dried seafood is a popular item brought back from Cheung Chau. Dried shrimp being sold and dried on the docks. (Photo: CathC)

The fish balls I ended up trying are much larger than then ones you normally find on the streets of HK and they also come with many different flavour--sweet, spicy, and of course curry. I also think these fish balls have better texture than the more commonly found ones. There are so many street stalls selling delicious smell treats that I didn`t even go to a restaurant for lunch but rather filled up on snacks.

One of my favourite ways of exploring a new place is by sampling their street food. (Photo: CathC)

The deep fried mochi was a smart idea. They were quickly made by just coating prepackaged mochi ice cream in an additional mochi layer then deep frying the whole thing. It was a really hot day so having a bite of hot mochi coating together with the cold ice cream was a fantastic snack. And what a better spot to enjoy my deep fried ice cream than by the beach. It`s no wonder Cheung Chau is such a popular resort area. The view from the beach is absolutely stunning. Next time I come back I will try to make my way to the outlook peak at the edge of the beach. I can image the view is even more stunning from there.

You can see Hong Kong island from the beaches of Cheung Chau. (Photo: CathC)

Dinner was at a restaurant that seemed to be pretty popular with the locals as well. The local seafood did not disappoint. The ginger and onion stir-fried crab were really sweet and fresh. The octopus pancake was surprisingly delicious as well!

This restaurant was very popular with both the locals and tourists, and had a very typical outdoor food stall (大排擋) atmosphere. (Photo: CathC)

The restaurant was so popular that even a local HK film crew came by to interview the  owner a few patrons as well. I think I was even in the background of some of the shots :) I had a good time in Cheung Chau and will visit again. The island has a nice local, small town charm and I'm sure it'll be a more relaxing weekend getaway when it's not a long weekend!

Another take on the traditional pork patty

After moving to HK, CharK and I have been experimenting with different dishes to try to speed up our cooking time. One of my favourite cooking shows that I've started watching is TVB's Good Cheap Eats (食平D). I've found the combination of the host's blunt personality and efficient cooking approach to be really helpful in giving me recipes ideas and tips on cooking techniques.

Pork patties are a staple at our place because they are simple to prepare and they can be left to steam on their own. We typically just chop up some mushrooms and add it to the half-lean and half-fat minced pork which is marinated with the typical "Chinese flavourings": soy sauce, sugar, corn starch, sesame oil, and salt.

On a recent episode of Good Cheap Eats, the host demonstrated how to make pork patties with a twist--pork balls encrusted with rice. The other interesting change was substituting corn starch with oatmeal. It turns out oatmeal serves the same purpose as the cornstarch--acts as a binder and softens the pork patty.

Here's how the dish turn out:

Rice encrusted minced pork and mushroom balls (Photo: CathC)

I know, you're probably thinking the pork balls look a little on the spiky side--resembling a blow fish even. But they were delicious! The oatmeal does make the pork balls juicer than our normal patties and the rice soaks up the meat juices nicely. But I might have been a little heavy handed with the rice--next time I'll retry the recipe with a fewer tablespoons of rice.

What are your favourite cooking shows? Leave your comments below--I'd love to hear about any tips for your favourite quick and easy recipes!

There's a rubber ducky in the harbour!

Have you seen the latest art piece that has floated into Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour?

Photo credit: FLORENTIJN HOFMAN

This is 16.5 meter tall inflatable Rubber Duck is Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's creation which has been traveling around the world since 2007. Hong Kong is the latest stop in his showcase. This duck has also made appearances in St. Nazaire (FR), Sao Paulo (BR), Auckland (NZ), Hasselt (BE),Osaka and Hiroshima (JP), Sydney (AUS), Nürnberg (DE), Amsterdam (NL).

I decided to brave the crowds this past weekend to check out this unique exhibition. Since the duck is anchored at the pier everyone was packed at the entrance of Ocean Terminal, Harbour City. Being in the huge crowd was definitely a new experience. It was literally wall to wall people and I slowly inched my way along the corridor while taking some photos along the way.

I completely under estimated the size of the crowd that would gather to see the opening weekend of the Rubber Duck Exhibition (Photo: CathC)

I have to say the people here are very entrepreneurial. I came across a bunch of different "Rubber Duck" themed restaurant menus; yellowed coloured crocs, rubber duck toys everywhere inside the mall.

The exhibition really was an interesting idea. Even though I'm not an art critic I enjoyed the contrast of the idly floating, child like (almost comical) ducky and the skyline of HK's high strung financial district. The only thing that would have made the exhibition even more special is if the ducky had actually floated across the  ocean as it traveled from city to city, rather than being inflated at each site. But seeing the cheery Rubber Duck really made my day, and I'm glad I went down to check it out in person.

HK's Labour Day

Wednesday was Labour Day here in HK. It was nice to have a public holiday in the middle work week even though I'd rather have a holiday fall on a Monday or Friday for a long weekend!

Labour Day is usually associated with marches and rallies as was seen throughout Hong Kong's central areas, but in the suburbs it's more of a holiday to spend time with kids.

The East Point City Mall set up a carnival for Labour Day and the kids absolutely loved all the activities that were going on. That's one of the cool things about the malls here is that there's usually some interactive display or event going on in the square just about every day of the week. I guess this is a good way to encourage people to come by the mall even if they weren't planning to shop!

The kids moved themselves around the track by rocking their horse/donkey forwards and backwards. There were some very patient parents at the mall today. The line for this activity looked more than a 30 minute wait--and I think each round was only about a 5-10 minute ride.  (photo: CathC)

The bouncy house was another big hit with the kids. (photo: CathC)

I've recently discovered that the food court in the local malls is a great place for brunch/late lunch. Some of the most tasty congee and snacks I've had so far were from the stalls in the food court. More importantly you can get a variety of food for not a lot of money! Two mini Chinese fritters and a bowl of fish congee will only set you back about 27 HKD.

These mini versions of Chinese fritters are just enough to go with the sliced fish congee! (Photo: CathC)

The whole plate of fish siu mai, fish balls, and rice noodles was only 12 HKD. The rice noodles were freshly made in front of me too-yum! (Photo: CathC)

That's it for now...tomorrow is the start of another weekend and a chance to explore the city. Maybe it's time to check out the giant rubber ducky that floated into Victoria Harbour. Have you seen it yet? What do you think?