A little taste of the empire...

We've been doing most of our food shopping at 'Wellcome', the local super market which is just around the corner. You may recal their large selection of 'western bread'. So far we've been fairing really well using what we can find there. It's actually a very big store and totally dominates the smaller food and produce vendors, but let's just say they've got a lot more ramen than barilla - and as we tend to eat a lot of Italian food, the choice between two cheeses (Australian cheddar, and American cheddar) has been a bit of a drag. Plus their section of western cuisine is limited to Philadelphia Cream Cheese (in stick form) which despite being yummy isn't all that useful in general cooking.

Just a few stops away on the subway from where we live is Central. The heart of the island metropolis, Central is where the vestiges of colonialism can best be seen, mostly in the high proportion of whities wandering the streets. Every time we walk through the mall which towers above the Central MTR stop (the IFC) we've been tempted to make a stop at 'City Super'. 'City Super' is probably the most posh, western, and well stocked grocery store in the city.

Yesterday we finally caved and made a trip there to check it out and pick up a "few things". The experience was in many ways bittersweet. I imagine my feelings were similar to those of a Englishman arriving in Hong Kong by boat in 1902, at first feeling as though I was somewhere totally foreign, and then sitting down to have high tea. Super City was my high tea. Even by my inflated standards it was an impressive store - slack jawed, I wandered through it passing through a enormous array of cheeses, fresh pasta, imported produce and herbs (basil, sage, chives), fish without heads... there were also a number of items that I had not yet seen this side of Europe yet such as rootbeer, and Annie's, and turkey pepperoni.

We wound up getting a bit more than 'a few things', but I think it was worth stocking up, the trip back with groceries was a bit grueling. The total cost was about 4 times what we spend on groceries, though I would have paid just to stand in the store and inhale.

Here's what we got:

-Raspberries
-Fresh Baked Bread (Still warm)
-Tomatoes on the vine
-Spreadable Philly Cream Cheese
-String beans
-Chives
-Turkey Pepperoni
-4 Mug Rootbeers
-Olivio Spread (just like at home)
-Garlic Chicken Sausage
-Chicken Apple Sausage
-Horizon Yogurt
-Fresh Tagliatelle
-Fresh Ravioli (two types)
-Real maple syrup
-Red onions (impossible to find here)
-Honey Nut Cheerios
-Grana Padana Parmesan
-Pesto
-Alfredo Sauce
-Tortilla Chips
-Lox

The things we leave behind...

We've been here 3 months, now. Enough time to make some lasting friendships, embark on a few wild adventures, and surely leave a lasting impression on at least a handful of locals... 3 of whom work at the hair salon just down the street. Last weekend, Misha woke up and decided he no longer enjoyed his lovely long locks. Upon hearing that Richard disdained his own medium length locks, both boys agreed it was a good day for a haircut. Luckily, there are no less than 15 hair cutteries in our local vicinity. So to spice things up, they chose the one not next door, but the one next to the one next door the aptly named "Vogue Salon".

It dosen't take Vidal Sasoon to tell you that white people hair is different than Asian people hair, so it came as no surprise that the staff of the Vogue Salon began to scramble frantically as soon as we all walked in the door. One gweilo would have been hard enough to trim...but 3! Luckily for them I was not in a hair cutting mood. Rich and Misha were soon ushered off to be shampooed as the staff of the salon drew straws to determine who would have the honor of messing up a rich white guys haircut. We found out afterwards that the manager himself cut Rich's hair, which actually came out pretty good. He looked a little like a choirboy, not quite like the picture of the chiseled model he had brought as a guide. Mish, however, was not so trusting. He went with the only cut he knew they couldn't mess up, even if they gave him the new guy. Upon announcing that he wanted "5mm" his stylist yelled out "skinhead?" to which all the other stylists responded "skinhead! skinhead!" in hushed exuberance. It wasn't clear whether they were relieved by his choice or just surprised that anyone would cut off so much perfectly good hair (most guys here have long hair and carry purses)(no joke)(I mean that's cool, I like a nice man-purse every once in a while).

20 Seconds later Mish was all but bald. 5mm it was. Thankfully his head was not nearly as misshapen as he had expected. It actually looked...OK. Sort of like a slightly tougher choirboy.

All in all the whole venture was pretty successful. The cuts were only $10 US each which even here is a steal. Both boys were pretty happy and I think rather like Mish's new look so much that perhaps... someday... I might go with the 5mm too.

Professional Jazz Musician     -     Professional Tennis Player

Caveman Development

I'm not sure what to say about this. Your guess at what the 'Caveman Developing Department' is for is as good as mine. I guess it just goes to show that HK is a place for anyone, even Homo Habili to get ahead in life.

Adrift in Macau

Speaking of being in town it's crazy that we're half way through our stay here. Last week we took a short (5 hour) trip to Macau (a neighboring special administrative region of the good old People's Republic of China). Like HK it used to be a colony, though it was under Portuguese rule rather than British - today it's a massive gambling hot spot. I was told the Casinos there make more money than those in Vegas. It's probably because Vegas is sort of a place you'd take your family - Macau is not. It is the best place around for baccarat, booze, and brothels. I guess that's why they do so much business. To get there we took a high speed ferry, which was actually pretty classy. I guess I was expecting the place to be a bit more like rustic Portugal (whatever that is like) and less like a cross breed of Hong Kong and Las Vegas. My opinion might be a bit biased as we only saw Macau at night - we had meant to leave around noon but didn't make it to the boat until 4ish. By the time we got there the sun was setting and we were getting hungry.

For the first time since we got here we used out lonely planet 'Hong Kong & Macau' guide book. We picked out an area that looked like it'd be good for restaurants and set out on a long walk past the casinos to get there.

We eventually found an Italian place that the book recommended, we probably should have had Portuguese food, but the Italian turned out to be the best we'd had since we got here so I think it was the right choice. And Portugal is sorta close to Italy..right?

I'm going to go grab some breakfast - I have the day off for Easter, so I guess I'll go eat some eggs.

-m

Back in the HKSAR

Wow. It's been a month since I got back to HK after TED...Our lack of blog posts is pretty despicable especially given my former promise to write every day. All I can do now is promise once again to keep up with the writing during the next two months. First a little recap. The night I got back from the states Rich was kind enough to prepare (not bake - we don't have an oven) a cake in my honor. You might remember Rich's cake making skills from the post about Mel's birthday - while that cake was delicious, it was really just a practice run for this recent culinary masterpiece. Notice the precise 'arrow cut' technique used to divide the cake. It might seem self serving to put a picture on the blog which includes "WE LOVE MISCHA", but I'm writing about this cake becuase it was so amazing, not because I am so amazing. Here we are eating the cake:
I'm not sure why I'm making such an odd face, but mel was lucky enough to capture it on film - er... I mean solid state memory - Look how happy Rich is that his video game partner is back in town.

I know that was short, there are a few more posts coming tomorrow - we have a 4 day weekend for Easter so there will be plenty of time to write. For now Mel needs to get to sleep, she has a beauty school class to teach tomorrow.

-Night