HONG KONG GIRL TALKING

A few years ago when one of my colleagues came back from a cruise with her siblings and parents along the Alaskan coast, she insisted that we look at her BIG album of vacation pictures.
And you know there's nothing worse than other peoples' vacation pictures.

"Here's Martha in front of a big dam."

"Here's Martha in front of the oldest log cabin in....."

"Here's Martha in front of our camper."


And Martha shows up in every frame. Dutifully smiling her coy little smile and waving a friendly little wave.

It's scary.

I need not have worried. My coworker's refined artistic sense guaranteed that these pictures would not be those. Dare I say it, her photos spoke a language with universal appeal.

SHEER YUMMINESS!

Several hundred pictures of food. The shipboard chef out did himself. There was lobster, and big, BIG shrimp! Swordfish steaks. Patés. Lovely chops.
Vegetables done in classic ways.
Breads, cakes, puddings.

Not a single picture of Alaska.

The few images of people showed them in the back ground, often with only part of their faces visible - a picture of her mom behind a tray of sumptuous pastries, her dad and her sister off to the side of a veritable banquet.
Not a single picture of her husband - probably too busy with his own camera right next to her.

The last picture get everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing.

It was a closeup of a frosted glass of melon drinkie with tapioca pearls.
The only photo not taken on the cruise ship.
Seattle, somewhere.

Which brings up a recent post by another blogger.


HK GIRL TALK

"Chinese people like food, Cantonese people like food even more, but Hong Kong people are the most crazy about food. They talk about food from dawn till dusk, they show pictures of food from their Facebook to food review websites, they pick food as if picking their spouse."

Source:
http://hongkonggirltalk.com/2011/06/20/food-culture-hong-kong/

There's a beautiful image of a frosty glass of ice-tea in that post.
FOUR slices of lemon.
So cool-looking, so refreshing!
I want it.

She also writes: " Soup noodles with beef offal, normally intestines (牛什麵) is very popular all over Hong Kong. People also eat goose intestines as a cold dish and put pork intestines into congee. Don’t ask me why it’s always intestines, this is also a myth to me."

Quirky interesting writing. Fascinating subjects.
Hong Kong Girl Talk - it's a Hong Kong girl, talking.
Please read it.


FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!

Largely, she's right. Hong Kong people are very food-conscious.


The other day I was at one of my favourite eateries on Stockton Street.

The table with young Europeans was eating some technicolour dish I can't even try to identify.
The Indian gentleman was having orange fried chicken bits with his little son.
The Midwestern family was eating fried yellow things with fried noodles.
The two Mandarin-speaking women were dining on two plates of fried rice.
Some gal yakking on her cell-phone in Shanghainese had sugar prawns.

The Cantonese speakers, however, were eating real food. Savoury noodle soups.
Half a dozen Cantonese speakers happily slurping.

The place specializes in soup noodle.
The menu clearly indicates that it is THE thing.
The signage on the outside is also blatant on that score.
Noodle soups.
Their broth is very good, their ingredients are honest and fresh, their attention to detail precise and particular.

They also do a number of other stellar things.

Oh, PLUS fried stuff with glazy neon sauces for folks who don't understand the concept.


AFTER WORD

Yes, my colleague was Cantonese.
From Hong Kong.


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