I got my first real meal in Hong Kong yesterday. But I'm getting ahead of myself already.
Smell - Smelling is one of our most fascinating senses. It's the one that is probably most closely linked to memory and has quite a bit to do with taste as well. Anyone who has ever walked into a room in which a turkey was roasting, in which there was a large pool, or that contained horse manure knows that breathing with your mouth open can be a delightful or dangerous affair. This is the way of Hong Kong. As I step out of the apartment, much in the way of sounds and sights hit me, but the smell has an impact. The first step usually smells like city. I can't explain that one, but it's normal, run of the mill city. The next bit of the block usually smells like bakery. This is mostly because Colin and I go out early (6ish) and the bakeries are opening up to feed people on their way to work/exercise or on their way home from work/exercise.
Then all of a sudden the invisible clouds hit you.
If you've read my last entry you know that Hong Kong is home to large flocks of mechanical geese (ship loading cranes) who bob up and down as they eat. Imagine one of these giants, opening its large mouth and exhaling a giant sulfurous (but invisible) cloud of gas. They don't really do this. In fact, I doubt they have little exhaust at all, but this is the image I get, because yesterday morning as Colin and strolled along the edge of the water, looking through the smog/fog cloud between us and Kowloon (type it in your google map folks), I opened my mouth to talk and got a mouth and nose full of sulfur. It was like taking a shower from the well back in Wilmington. Rotten eggs. But then two and a half breaths later we were back to normal city/dock smell. This happens all over the city. One minute your mouth is watering at the smell of a custard bun at the bakery and the next your smelling sewage.
Then you walk through the dried "marine products" market. AKA dried fish, starfish, squid, eel - you name something from the ocean that you can eat (or possibly that you think you shouldn't eat) and they've got it. Most internet forums or guides to Hong Kong will warn you: IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE STRONG SMELLS DO NOT ENTER THIS AREA OF THE MARKETS. It's a bit overstated, to be honest. It's not that bad. I mean, you don't want to go walking around with your mouth open all over the city, but really? The city doesn't smell that bad. It's not always pleasant, but it's also got it's good sides - bakeries and restaurants are enough to leave your mouth watering as you pass.
So, to the meal. Colin and I had yet to really make it to a full meal until yesterday. He promised me we'd stay awake long enough to have one, so we did. We had bakery buns for breakfast (yummy custard, and ham and egg in delicious fresh baked rolls), then went to Central. We came back to the apartment and did things there for a while, but then got hungry, so we went back out. We went to a restaurant that Colin has been to before once. It was quite nice. We sat down and were given the special English version of the menu and served hot tea. In the US you're served ice water, but they never serve a cold drink here (apparently) so instead of water they serve tea. Also much of the menu had a form of soup or a broth served as part of the meal. Colin pointed out that as hot as it normally is around here, people need to keep hydrated so they keep the liquids coming. As is customary in the US with water, we were served our tea at no charge and received a second glass when we were done.
Colin got noodles in oyster sauce with bbq pork and I got "Chinese rice" with bbq pork and egg. I thought this like be like pork fried rice, where they mix the egg in with it and fry it up, but I was mistaken. The woman brought me a large plate of white rice with pork and three over-medium fried eggs on top. My favorite way. It was delicious. Breaking the egg yolks into the rice was surprisingly good and the bbq pork was delicious, if a little gristly for my liking.
On the way back, I got to smell the other kind of shop that is second most frequent around our apartment (second to bakeries) - the meat shops. Now, it's not as bad as a slaughter house as we might think of them in the US. It's not an enclosed space, so there's plenty of air movement and it doesn't stagnate. In fact, yesterday at whatever ridiculously early time we left, I got to see them loading the whole pigs off the trucks and into the meat shops. By 7 or 8 am, there is not much of this sight left, as the pigs are mostly butchered by then and much of the meat is hanging and ready to be sold for the day. For those of you who've never smelled a butchery, it's not tinny like blood, but not the smell you get when opening a vacuum sealed pack of ground beef either. It's heavy and meaty and a little more moist than that. It's also not cold. I have been surprised (when prepared again by internet guides about what areas to avoid for strong smells) that this smell is as unoffensive as it is. I guess I just was never as bothered. At any rate, once I start learning to order food from people who only speak Cantonese and my sign language is coming along, I look forward to getting some fresh meat from the markets for cooking.
It's almost 5 and Colin will be back soon. It's time to get up and get started for the day.
I hope everyone is well.
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