Best of Hong Kong

So. It’s been over a month since we returned from Hong Kong and I have no great excuse for the delay other than we've been busy [more on that soon]. Hong Kong is a really unique place, a true fusion of east and west, ancient and modern - a place where all the signs are bilingual and one can buy medicinal deer hooves and a glass of good pinot noir on adjacent streets. Needless to say, we totally dug it. While there is certainly a lot to see in Hong Kong, there’s even more to eat. And eat we did. At least thrice a day, we packed our stomachs with piles of dim sum, fresh mozzarella, spicy sizchuan peppers, much-missed Kashi brand cereal and more.

In the interest of brevity, and getting this post up, here are some highlights from our trip:

1. Best Meal: Dim Sum at Metropol

Maybe it’s the newness of a place or maybe it’s coincidence, but we are making an unintentional habit of having the best food at each destination during our very first meal. In Tokyo, it was a little back-alley izakaya; in Vietnam, it was lunch at Quan An Ngon; and in Hong Kong, it was dim sum at Metropol. After an early morning hike, we opted for Metropol over our first choice Maxim’s because we couldn’t stomach the 2 hour wait. I can’t actually fathom how delicious Maxim’s might be because the dim sum we were served at Metropol was utterly amazing. We were super fortunate throughout our visit to have our hostess, Jessie, who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, do most of the ordering. But even alone we could have managed Metropol where the food circulates the dining room on roving carts and trying something you don’t recognize/can’t pronounce is as easy as point and eat.

The dining room at Metropol is gigantic and rather resembles a generic banquet hall you might accidentally stumble into at an airport hotel while trying to find the pool. The cavernous room was packed with diners (in fact, we may have received the only open seats amongst several hundred) and servers pushing carts piled high with steamer baskets, boiling cauldrons, and glass cases displaying assorted desserts and cuts of meat. Dim Sum means "little dishes" (it originated as a family style snack) but it might as well mean ‘the best freakin' little dishes you’ve ever eaten.’ It’s traditionally consumed as a relaxed brunch and unfortunately, with so many courses, it’s not something we will often make at home. At Metropol, we tried an assortment of items including crispy fried taro croquettes (wu gok), steamed Chinese broccoli, shrimp dumplings (har gau), subtly sweet tofu pudding (dou fu fa/tofu flower), hunks of bbq pork spareribs (char siu), steamed rice noodles filled with pork (chee cheong fun), and a fabulous glutinous rice and honey dessert. I won't go into the details of our enormous meal but, suffice to say, that dim sum is probably reason enough to settle in Hong Kong.

2. Hottest View: China Club

We took in some killer views during our trip – Repulse Bay seen from our morning hike, the skyline at night from the 38th floor at Hutong, and the world famous panorama of Hong Kong harbor from the top of Victoria Peak were all stunners. But I have to give hottest view to the interior of the China Club. The China Club is where important people lunch...where multi-million dollar deals are closed and secret political pacts made; where the chopsticks are made of silver, waiters in white coats pour tea from long spouts, and you don’t enter without a membership. Not to mention, a place with a dress code…. Per our usual travel routine, Nat came to Hong Kong with a single pair of well-worn Levi’s and sneakers and my own attire didn’t fare much better. Somehow we managed to make it through the scrutiny of the front desk in order for lunch with Jessie’s mother at the Club.

Designed in the style of a 1930's Shanghai tea house (think blackwood and marble tables, oriental textiles, antique ceiling fans and the color red), offset with an impressive art collection, it occupies the top three floors of the old Bank of China building. It contains an extensive library of collectible political, philosophy and Chinese art books, though their arrangement by size and color does cast doubt on whether anyone actually reads them. The club's walls are hung with marvelous art, which runs the gamut from Maoist memorabilia to contemporary Chinese oil painting to a small LCD screen laid horizontally outside the bathroom playing a video of waterfalls (a la Pippilotti Rist). With Jessie’s permission, we snuck around the library and private rooms hoping to stumble upon a high-stakes game of maj jong before having a memorable meal in the main dining room. The food, which is MSG free, was delicious but the ambience is what made it so unique. Unfortunately, unless you’re lucky enough to know a member, you won't be able to sneak a peek.

3. Biggest surprise (3-way tie): tall buildings, rowdy rugby and spicy Sichuan (Sounds surprising, right?)

First surprise. It sounds silly but I was shocked by how unbelievably…tall…Hong Kong is. We knew well before arrival that Hong Kong is famous for it’s skyscrapers and that, being an island, there isn’t a lot of space for horizontal development. We’ve both been to Manhattan more times than we can count on our digits. None of those rational thoughts, however, completely compared me for the sheer verticality of Hong Kong, apparent from the moment we left the airport. Hotels, apartment complexes, commercial space, private offices…they’re all built straight up (not to mention very narrowly), which makes for a really striking and pretty futuristic landscape, even in quieter, residential areas, that is unlike anything I've previously seen.

Second surprise. The sheer joy of spending an afternoon watching the premier world tournament for rugby sevens; a raucous, deafening, beer-spilling, sporting event, on a perfectly sunny afternoon at lovely Hong Kong stadium. By the third match we had our beer sneaking tactics down pat and our teams for rooting picked. The rugby was fast, rough, and really entertaining, though no match topped the streaker we saw climb the uprights, do a booty dance, and then sprint the entire length of the field before being tackled by security. Who knew a sport you've never heard of could be so much fun?

Third surprise. Sichuan - we all understand that it's really spicy. And yet, when we hit up Chili Fagara with Jessie and Ben for a bit of heat, we had no idea what we were in for. Promptly after being seated, we were served a warm-up appetizer - a set of three small dishes described as being neutral, hot and numbing, respectively. This was the first time I've experienced a food that is so spicy, you can't even taste it, because it has an immediate numbing effect on the tongue that feels like the pins and needles. Next came the main courses: prawns in 1oo chilis, stewed eggplant, and an almost greek-style grilled lamb that was so delicious we kept eating despite significant protests from our mouths and stomachs! Even though our bodies paid for the heat for much of the following day, the sensation of a buzzing, tingly tongue and a little icy bowl of beer was probably worth it.

4. Best Purchase (tie): A close call between these amazing purple Asics Ontsuaka Tigers ($40 on Sneaker Street) and a very utilitarian bamboo steamer ($.50 at Wan Chai market), both of which have already been put to good use back home.

5. Longest walk: A day in Mong Kok

During the lone day that our hostess was working, we took a marathon walk through Mong Kok, a busy commercial district on the Kowloon side of the city. Hanging out with Jessie and her finance-industry friends, we had thus far experienced mostly the rather posh life of Hong Kong based in the modern, cosmopolitan Central. So we hopped on the MTA to Kowloon for a little taste of China. We started our walk in the Sai Yee Street flower market, a series of blocks packed with plant and flower vendors. A flower fanatic, I especially enjoyed ogling the dozens of varieties of orchids in each shop.

From there it was a short walk to the Yuen Po bird garden, where we were greeted by a cacophony of chirping, nervous movements, and mesh bags filled with live crickets the size of a thumb. Yuen Po is where mostly older men come to purchase a bird. There are innumerable species to choose from – from colorful parakeets and finches to macaus and African grey parrots. Before buying a bird, the men take it in it’s tiny plastic cage and walk it slowly around the garden, often pausing to prop the cage on a ledge or wedge it into a tree – a small ritual performed to surmise the character and temperament of the bird. The little creatures are beautiful but also frantic and tightly packed. We initially explored and photographed with gusto but after a bit of observation, it became rather sad. For anyone who wonders whether its cruel to cage a bird…put 25 in that cage and the answer becomes fairly clear.

Leaving Yuen Po, we passed through ‘Goldfish Street,’ a long stretch of vendors selling aquatic and reptilian products. The street bore some resemblance to the bird market except the birds were replaced with exotic fish, eel, lizards and turtles and the cages with clear plastic bags. That and there was no observing of character. Both in Mong Kok and on one of many streets peddling unusual ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine (deer hoof and antler, fish stomach, shark fin, birds nest, etc), it was apparent that a not insignificant population has very different opinions on environmental issues than we do. Our appetite for caged creatures satiated, we passed through the main market area where vendors in make-shift tents were hawking everything from Comme de Garcon sweaters (both real and knock offs) to freshly roasted ducks and bean buns. Finally, we arrived at our destination: Sneaker Street, the holy grail for sneaker lovers like my husband, who has owned no less than 20 pairs of sneakers in the four years that we’ve been acquainted. We roamed up and down the dozens of shops lined floor to ceiling with Pumas, Adidas, Nikes, Lacoste, Le Coq Sportif, Asics, Converse, Vans, Reeboks (the list goes on) for nearly two hours before finally collapsing, exhausted at a mediocre café for soup. Though Mong Kok is undeniably touristy (foreigners have gotta get those cheap sneakers somewhere!), there was a clear authenticity in it’s choked, chaotic, pungent, tenement-lined streets. At last, overstimulated and underfed, we slid into the cool subway car and crossed the harbor toward home.

6. Hostess with the Mostest: Miss Jessie King and her gracious family who fed, entertained and loaned us sweaters for the duration of our stay.