How are people not fat in Hong Kong?

Dim sum.

Seriously. People are eating at all hours of the day/night here. The above image is from dim sum yesterday. We met up with my mom's brother who lives in Kowloon and my aunt Dennies from San Francisco (she is here on business). This was around 2pm in a giant restaurant in Kowloon. The entire place was packed when we got there at 1.30pm. We stayed til around 3pm and there was a never ending revolution of people coming in and out. Don't anyone have to work in Hong Kong? The joke about Hong Kong is that there is nothing to do but eat and go shopping. Which is so true. There are so many malls in Hong Kong it's not even funny.

I don't know how people can eat congee and noodles for breakfast. I mean, I do. I use to be able to when I was younger. I wouldn't eat American breakfast. Then I went to college and started eating more American breakfast (like I had a choice in Alfred, NY!). Now I can't eat Chinese breakfast anymore.


Typical Hong Kong breakfast- congee and a side of (I don't know what it's called in English).

The breakfast in all the hotels we stayed at in China had food similar to this, but also- fried rice, choy, noodles, etc. HOW IS THIS BREAKFAST? It's too heavy.


Rice noodles with beef and fried fish skin.

We can't get fried fish skin in the states (the plate on the right). I don't think the type of fish they use can be found in the states. It's really good. This is the brunch I had the morning after the day we arrived in Hong Kong.


Macaroni in soup is also a popular breakfast item in HK.

A breakfast combo at a place we just ate at. Main, side, coffee or tea. There were 5 different combos with similar things. I got a....Chinese style steak sandwich. Honestly, I don't know how people aren't fat here eating all this food. It's a lot of food too. I haven't seen any fat people in Hong Kong. Everyone is pretty normal, or skinny.

These types of places are "extremely" cheap too. The above combo costs $22 HKD which comes out to around $3 USD. My steak sandwich/coffee combo was $20 HKD.

Man, people live relaxed lives here.

Hong Kong Day 2

Finally made it. The flight was not bad, at first. But after about 12 hours of sitting, I got restless. Was sitting for way too long. The weather here is low 80s. Totally extending my summer into November!

I'm still jetlagged and couldn't really sleep last night. My parents and I got up and went to a congee shop for breakfast. We went here the last time we visited Hong Kong.



The menus are all in Chinese- no English at all. Not at out of the way places like this. Most of the places in Central Hong Kong will have English.



My bowl of congee. I don't even like congee but I had it anyway. The coffee I got (left) tasted terrible. I had one this morning and knew the taste but couldn't put my finger on it. Then I ordered this iced one and they topped it off with coffee powder and I knew right away- it was Folgers instant coffee. Ugh. No one here brews coffee. I don't know what the rice thing on top is called in English so don't ask me. Yup, this is a typical Chinese breakfast.

Tonight, we're going to a wedding in Tsim Sha Sui, Kowloon. I'm very excited, it better be as traditional as fuck or I'm going to be disappointed. Kowloon is north of Hong Kong island. It is sort of like Hong Kong's Brooklyn (if Hong Kong island was Manhattan). It's more hip and gritty.

Random thoughs:
-Hong Kong itself is pretty boring as a subject to photograph. I'm way more interested in China proper so I'm not even carrying my DSLR around. iPhone photos will be sufficient.

-Buns here are MAD CHEAP. This place I went to this morning was selling any bun for 2 HKD which is equivalent to 25 cents USD.

-We are leaving for China on Tuesday. Staying for 6 days sight seeing. I am trying to refrain from running off to MUJI tomorrow and buying a bunch of crap. I should wait til I come back to Hong Kong from China.

Things only a minority can notice

Sandy and I went to a new (to us) restaurant for dinner over the weekend. It was a french bistro called Cafe Leot (or something) on West 13th and 6th Ave. It's not a spot we would usually hit up. The crowd there is old- over 30. Like, people with actual incomes and can afford ~$25 entrees. I only found it because I really wanted to have good Belgium frites and this place got pretty good reviews for it from New York Magazine.

They sat us way in the back (like the back corner that's tucked in) which I didn't care or think much about at first. But then a little into our meal, they sat another Asian couple right next to us in the corner. Sandy and I both instantly tried to contain our laughter. It's so great to know someone who can think on the same wavelength as me and can appreciate/see the humor in such situations.

I'm sure it was pure coincidence that they sat the only 2 Asian tables in the entire restaurant (and it's a pretty big restaurant) next to each other in the back corner. They weren't even close to capacity either. What's even more funny is that a little bit later they sat a gay couple next to the Asian couple next to us. And one of them was Asian! Again, Sandy and I couldn't help but try not to laugh.

Well, the food was pretty good. I had the burger and frites. I can say that the frites were worth it. They are about as good as the ones from Metro Marche, which is my favorite. I haven't had them in a long time though, so I don't remember if they are better. Will be going back there in the future and hey, the back isn't so bad. It's less noisy than the front, where the bar is.

Sweet Gezus

Chicken over rice from the new Hallel Cart in Dumbo. This guy grills to order and uses chunks of chicken breast, not the (cheaper) dark meat like all the carts in Manhattan. Already ate it twice this week and didn't throw up.

Sorry for the crappy photo, I took it really fast at work because I didn't want Cecilia to look at me funny for photographing my lunch.

New food!

Praise the lord, a hallel/gyro kart appeared in DUMBO today. Now I can get chicken over rice with white sauce all the time until I get sick of it again, like last summer!

Pane alla olive

For the upcoming Food and Drink issue. We didn't end up using this version in the mag, but I still like it. Cover shot coming soon.

Food From Marche

I was at Metro Marche today. Shot all (most?) of the dinner entrees. Bought all my lights over and crap, but couldn't shoot in the restuarant because they had to serve lunch and stuff. So we set up a table in the back kitchen, but that didn't turn out so hot because I had no background and too much florescent light interference.

So Simon (the chef) and I said "fuck it" and shot in the kitchen, which worked out really well.







Rest on flickr

New Food Photography

I'm in the process of taking photographs of every single item in the Cafe Metro menu for their website. I have been shooting all last week. I'll probably be shooting for another week or two straight to get everything done.

The big boss also wants me to photograph most of Metro Marche's dishes too...so I've been photographing like crazy in the past week. I'm enjoying it very much, even though it has been my most busiest week working for them yet. I've also been styling all the food too!

Here are some photo's I've taken so far. And of course the rest is on FLICKr.

Go! Go! Curry!

A new place called GO!GO!Curry! Opened up on 38th and 8th 2 weeks ago. It's a Japanese fast food-ish (good food fast?) chain that's obsessed with the number 5. "Go" means, or sounds similar to "5" in Japanese. I should know this, I use to take Japanese, but I don't remember. I'm sure Colleen will correct me. So they had this crazy promotion where they sold all their entrees for .55 cents for the first week. Now it's $5 until the end of May (5th month).

The "5" thing kinda gets out of hand, as their hours of operation are 10:55am-9:55pm, and every time Hideki (is that even his name) something, the Japanese Yankee (who's number is 5 or 55) hits a homer, they give out free topping cards the next day.

What they serve is basically a dish of rice with a meat of your choice over curry. They have chicken katsu, pork katsu, shrimp, and sausage. I went with Paul today and I got the chicken and he got the pork (I didn't get the pork, guyz). It was pretty good for a $5 dollar meal. But come June, a small is like $7, medium $7.50 etc. I dunno if I'd want to pay that much for lunch. Especially when all your getting is more rice over curry the larger size you go. The meat amount stays the same (its a generous portion anyway).

But for now, I'll most likely go back one more time before the $5 deal expires at the end of the month.

PS Their mascot is a huge giant Ape [for no reason?]. AWESOME.