The Noble Path

My sis is visiting Hong Kong and I am, of course, taking her to all of the high points.

Today we took the ferry to Lantau to visit the Po Lin monastery and the giant Buddha...

...but we just ended up drinking beer and watching this trampoline hip-hop performance instead.

Wedding bells and sea cucumbers

On Monday Kelly and I attended our first Chinese wedding. In many aspects it was similar to American weddings - the church, the dress, the reception. In others, it was quite different - the fake wedding cake, the start time of 2 p.m. and end time of 12:30 a.m., the fish head with fangs...

But let's start from the beginning.

Kelly and I got all cleaned up...

... and headed to St. Margaret's Church in Happy Valley.

It was a Catholic service, so there was lots of standing up, sitting down, standing up, praying, sitting down, communion, standing up, etc. But a very touching ceremony.

Next was a reception at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, with pâté, gravelox, crab samosas, mango cheesecake, sangria, and other goodies.

The next scheduled event was mahjong and cards at the Peninsula, which a few of us skipped. We went to The Pawn instead - an excellent bar in Causeway Bay.

And on to the Peninsula for the wedding banquet. The place was gorgeous:

The wedding cake, which was fake but still beautiful:

And now to the 12-course banquet...

Course one - barbecued suckling pig:

Course two - sauteed sea cucumber with vegetables and sweetened walnuts:

Course three - deep-fried crab patties with conpoy and jellyfish:

Course four - stewed green vegetables with bamboo pith and Yunnan ham:

Course five - bird's nest soup with seafood and fungus:

Course six - braised sliced abalone with cloud fungus and vegetables:

Course seven - steamed spotted garoupa:

(and the garoupa's head, which was placed on our table, and whose cheeks I ate):

Course eight - Cantonese-style deep-fried chicken:

Course nine - fried rice with diced roasted duck and taro:

Course ten - braised e-fu noodles with black mushrooms:

Course eleven - sweetened chestnut cream with rice dumplings:

And course twelve - Chinese petits fours:

We got home around 2 a.m. I think. It's a bit of a blur.

Decorating the flat for Easter

When preparing to take a shower Kelly likes to kick off his boxers, aiming for my head. He thinks this is hilarious. Except when they fly out the window.

Keepin' it classy in Tuen Mun.

Japan frenzy

I ran to the grocery store on Friday for beer, and it was a MADHOUSE. People crowded the aisles (well, the beer aisle was clear, which was nice - usually it's full of elderly men spending 20 minutes picking out the ONE can of beer they're going to buy), the lines reached the back of the store - you could barely move. I finally got home, checked out the Hong Kong news, and it turns out that people were madly buying up all of the salt (iodine), bananas (potassium) and rice (just 'cause) in town in response to the threat of radiation.

But Friday afternoon I had to meet a friend at Starbucks. When I got there it was packed. No seats, a line of about fifty people snaking around the restaurant and down the stairs - again, you couldn't even move.

I thought "Great - some jerk has started a rumor that coffee protects you from radiation and now there won't be coffee in Hong Kong for weeks." But I'm a cynical ass. From 4:30-5:30 on Friday Starbucks was donating all profits to aid for Japan. And I'm even more of an ass for seeing the long line, being too lazy to wait, and buying a Nescafe at 7-11 instead.

Donate here.

Because "CAUTION - WET FLOOR" just isn't how China rolls.

Well, yes. Yes, that's true.

A romantic cruise in Shenzhen (Part II: OMG TACOS!)

The primary reason we traveled to this area of Shenzhen was that the last time we'd been there we saw that holy grail of all displaced Americans - a Tex-Mex restaurant. After almost two taco-less years in Hong Kong (soft tacos DO NOT COUNT), we were desperate. So in we walked to:

We started with chips and four kinds of salsa: red, tomatillo, black bean, and pico de gallo, and all were excellent. Tasted straight out of Texas. I have no idea where they get the tomatillos, but that was some damn fine salsa.

Kelly had one of the only vegetarian options - the Mexican crepe. Basically crepes filled with cheese and peppers. He said it was good, but didn't look terribly excited.

But here's what I'd been waiting for - TACOS. Four beautiful, crunchy, heavenly tacos.

One of the happiest moments of my life.

But we didn't only have Tex-Mex (although that would've been fine by me). We also had Indian:

Uh... "European":

And possibly the worst thing I've ever had in my life - Dunkin' Donut's "NEW Salty Munchikins!"

After we ate one the guy behind the counter saw the looks on our faces and just started laughing - "Hahaha! Terrible! Terrible! Hahahahaha!"

And they truly were.