Beach blanket sweatfest

When it’s 92 degrees with 87% humidity, there’s nothing like spending the evening at the beach…sitting around a fire pit.

Yesterday evening was spent at a BBQ establishment on the beach in Tuen Mun:

This is how it works: you pay 80 HK dollars to get in, and they provide you with a huge firepit, long metal forks, and tons of food to roast in the flames. You grab a great slimy hunk of raw meat, jam it on your fork and hold it over the fire, sweating profusely, until it’s done. We had fish balls, meatballs, pork, beef, chicken, some things I couldn’t identify and, of course, hot dogs.

They also provide veggies wrapped in foil that you throw in the pit. These veggies come to you already wrapped up, so you have no idea what they are or how long they should be on the fire – you just toss them on the coals, drink several beers, sweat, drink several more beers, remember that there were vegetables somewhere and wonder where they are, see them on the fire, attempt to pull them out of the fire using two huge forks, drop them several times, finally manage to flick one out of the fire and across the floor, get it on your plate, unwrap it and wolf.

Then the power goes out. But you just stick another fish ball on your fork and keep on cookin'.

And it's the best thing you've ever eaten.

Last night was also a triumph because Kelly and I were able to use ALL of the Cantonese phrases that we've learned so far. These are pere dzao ("beer") and Lingnam dai hok (this is how you ask the taxi driver to take you home). As you can see, we have adapted well and are now almost completely native.