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 of Passing out between the 3rd and 4th course

Went to the wedding of a couple I barely know. It was a 6 hour affair. We got there at 5pm. By 7pm I was passing out at my seat because of jetlag. Here are some notable dishes of the evening.



Barbecued whole suckling pig
48 tables at this wedding = 48 baby pigs sacrificed for our eating enjoyment. Pretty sure baby pigs are illegal for consumption in the U.S. (It's tasty!)



Braised shark's fin with assorted seafood in lobster bisque
A waste of perfectly good shark's fin and lobster. Why mess with a perfectly fine shark's fin soup by making it a lobster bisque? The taste of the shark's fin gets drowned out by the lobster bisque. Lobster bisque is also a waste of lobster IMO.



Braised sliced abolone with Chinese mushrooms and vegetables
Pretty good abolone, not too chewy.



Baked mini egg tarts with bird's nest and deep fried sesame dumplings with lotus paste
A waste of bird's nest! Ahhh! This egg tart is very showy but it's a a waste of bird's nest. The tart itself was not very good- I like the crust to be flaky and this one was too hard and compressed. The deep fried sesame dumpling was good. I'm not usually into then enough to order them at dim sum in the states.

Notes:
-This was a 13 course dinner (3 were dessert). By the 7th or 8th I was already really full (and taking naps between courses)

-The east and west truly do everything opposite. All the wedding activities were done backwards as compared to a typical Chinese wedding in America. What I mean to say is, they did photos on the stage first (for like the first 3 hours!), then they had the sappy slide show of the bride and groom (usually reserved for near the end at most American weddings), then the bridesmaid and best man made there speeches, then the couple came and said a few words. Then we started eating.

-The waitstaff proportion every course at a side table. In America, a big plate would just be put on the table and everyone would serve themselves. (more differences!).

-There was no open bar which made me highly not want to be there about 2 seconds after I found out. Just a lot of low quality red wine, which I drank (but not too much).

-Just realized the majority of my posts in Hong Kong will be about food. Which reminds me, I should go pick up some mango Tic Tacs.

-Sorry for the crappy iPhone photos!

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.