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From the archives - Food adventures Part I
At the end of January through the beginning of February, I spent Chinese New Year in Hong Kong with mom. She travels every year and because she did not have a companion this year, I joined her. To be sensitive to her feelings, I made sure I went on a trip with her before I go to Germany with Ed in September. Mom can be difficult at times. She's unhappy that dad can't go with her, but if dad went with her, she'd be utterly bored because she wouldn't be able to shop and eat at all the random places she liked. My dad dislikes shopping and rarely partakes in trying other cuisines other than chinese. Big yawn for mom.

I think I had every cuisine possible in HK: Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, "American", "Western HK", Italian, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and of course, authentic HK seafood, street eats, desserts, and traditional Chinese food.

Asides from the food adventures, I'm glad I had a chance to spend Chinese New Year with my aunts and cousins in HK. Most people regularly return to HK for the same reasons: visiting HK is all about shopping and eating. When we arrived in Hong Kong, we booked another trip to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for 3 days. HK locals visit Taiwan just to frequent the night market - to eat. That's what I did in Taiwan, I ate more.

In HK, you can have any dessert you can imagine. I love, love, LOVE desserts. The most popular cold desserts in HK focus on combinations of fruits and added elements for enhancement.

At a dessert house called "Healthy Desserts" I ordered this mango, red bean, grass jelly in coconut juice dessert.





My cousin ordered a mixed fruit with aloe dessert.



The "Healthy Desserts" house



Another crowded dessert house




My favorite mango drink - mango drink with jello-like aloe at the bottom. This dessert house is located everywhere in HK. When my mom and I were tired from walking, we'd pull up a chair at this place and I'd have this.

or this:

Mango mochi.

Or this, just to name a few:

Mango sago dessert containing bits of small tapioca.



I visited Mc Donald's in HK. I like to check out the McDs at different countries I visit just to see if there was a difference in taste for their fast food. I did the same when I visited Europe. McD ads in HK:





On one of these ads, I noticed that the ice cream cone in chocolate was available. But the chocolate ice cream appeared peculiar as the color of the chocolate appeared very dark in the picture. So I ordered it to see what it was like.


It was quite interesting. If you asked for chocolate, they would dispense the regular vanilla into a cone, then turn it upside down and dip it into chocolate, just like making chocolate-dipped strawberries! It's fantastic :)



I was rather in awe of this concept.


Ok, I'll eat it already!






Here are some of the hot desserts I thoroughly enjoyed:

It doesn't look too appetizing here but it was perfect when I escaped the chilly streets to sip this combination of black and white sesame dessert.


This hot tofu dessert with black sesame peeking out in the center was also unforgettable.




At 11pm one night, mom and I were exhausted from walking all day. So we sat down and had egg and milk pudding, overstuffing ourselves more after having an elaborate dinner of fresh seafood.





It's good to see my little cousins who aren't so little anymore.

Renee, age 9.


Cousin Chloe, at age 22, is dating more boys than I ever had.