JUST FILLED WITH GOODNESS. AND SWEET CREAM.

There are several food places near the apartment where I live that I have not patronized, and others where I have not eaten in months or years. The neighborhood has changed a bit. Restaurants now cater to a modern and mostly techno-yuppie crowd, whose ability to try new things is limited by Midwestern and East-Coast food conservatism coupled with a love for hip Franco-Newyorkish pretensions. Plus glutenfree, meatless, and "natural". What this means is boring Thai, boring Pizza, and absolutely repulsive Chinese, and at least three restaurants where you can get Alice Waters inspired expensive "cuisine". Which is'precious'.

I have never been very fond of "cuisine".

Food, hot sauce, coffee or tea.

Plus friendly staff.


The burrito joint has vegan and vegetarian, the nearest Chinese restaurant does a fabulous trade in egg rolls, General Tso, and sweet and sour, plus kungpao vegetables, plus there's an "American" restaurant.
Biscuits covered with artisanal cheddar and gravy.
Champagne cocktails!

Which means that old folks, natives, and kids, can all go piss up a rope.

No, this ain't gonna be one of those long old man ranting what is this world coming to kids these days, back in my day, or grandpa Simpson wearing the onion on his belt essays. This blogger is NOT creaky enough for that!
On the plus side, there is an excellent bakery nearby, and also a restaurant with great burgers and fries. Plus a crêpe place and a donut shop that does good Vietnamese type sandwiches, which unfortunately closes too early.
And the only real issue is that none of these businesses will let me smoke my pipe inside and chase away the flies and vegetarians with my fumes.


Basically, it's all about demographics, and I am not it.


That's a primary reason I head over to Chinatown on my off days for lunch and snackipoos. Fewer people staring at their cell phones, and better food. More interesting conversations to overhear too. Locutions!

It's a calmer and far less hip environment.


[No, can't smoke inside there either. Dang.]


No one really wants to listen to the latest sports events while chomping on a scrumptious pastry or chowing down on bitter melon omelette with rice. If a teevee is on, there's a soap opera or a news broadcast, and no eyes are glued in rapt attention to the screen. Primarily because that takes away from the food and talk.

Most places do have WiFi, but I have never seen anyone working on their laptop while the ice melts or their food goes cold.

That's what BoBa places might be for.



單小茶粿
EINE KURZE LISTE KLEINE SNACKEREIEN

Because I mentioned 'snackipoos', which for me are mostly pastries, here's a partial list of fun things to eat at the bakeries in Chinatown, most of which also have HK milk tea, as well as other drinks.
They want you to be happy.

芝士蘑菇包 ('ji si mo gu baau'): Cheese and mushroom bun.
雞包 ('gai baau'): Chicken bun (steamed).
叉燒包 ('chaa siu baau'): Charsiu bun (steamed).
焗叉燒包 ('guk chaa siu baau'): baked charsiu bun.
菠蘿叉燒包 ('bo lo chaa siu baau'): Pineapple charsiu bun (does not contain pineapple, vaguely looks like pineapple).
奶油包 ('naai yau baau'): Cream bun.
蔥油條 ('chung yau baau'): Scallion bun.
菠蘿奶黃包 ('bo lo naai wong baau'): Pineapple cream bun.
火腿蛋包 ('fo teui daan baau'): Ham and egg bun.
毛毛蟲 ('mou mou chung'): "Hairy hairy bug"; cream and jam bun.
蔥油肉鬆卷 ('chung yau yiuk sung kuen'): Scallion and pork floss roll.
紅豆菠蘿包 ('hung dau bo lo baau'): Red bean paste filled pineapple bun.
肉鬆包 ('yiuk sung baau'): Pork floss bun.
菠蘿包 ('bo lo baau'): Pineapple bun.
椰香包 ('ye heung baau'): Coconut bun.
豆沙包 ('dau saa baau') Red bean paste bun, which is very old school.
瑞士捲 ('seui si kuen'): Swiss roll; a rolled sheet cake with sweet cream filling.
咖啡牛奶捲 ('gaa fei ngau naai kuen'): Coffee cream Swiss roll.
朱古力瑞士卷 ('chiu gu lik seui si kuen'): Chocolate cream Swis roll.
香蘭瑞士卷 ('heung laan seui si kuen'): Pandan (fragrant screwpine) flavoured cream Swiss roll.
芒果瑞士捲 ('mong gwo seui si kuen'): Mango Swiss roll.
芋頭瑞士捲 ('wu tau seui si kuen'): Sweet taro paste Swiss roll.
鲜草莓瑞士卷 ('sin chou mui seui si keun'): Fresh Strawberries Swiss Roll, also called 士多啤梨瑞士卷 ('si do bei li seui si kuen').
奶油筒 ('naai yau tung'): Cream horn.
咖啡奶油筒 ('gaa fei naai yau tung'): Coffee cream horn.
合桃酥 ('hap tou sou'): Walnut pastry.
皮蛋酥 ('pei daan sou'): Preserved egg pastry.
椰撻 ('ye taat'): Coconut tart.
紙包蛋糕 ('ji bau daan gou'): Paper wrapped cupcake. 蛋糕 ('daan gou') means Western style cake.
老婆餠 ('lou pou beng') Wife cake; an old-fashioned pastry with a candied winter melon paste inside.
蛋撻 ('daan taat') Egg tart. There are truly excellent ones at Double A Bakery (永興餅家 'wing hing bing kaa') on Stockton Street.
叉燒酥 ('chaa siu sou') a flaky turnover with barbecued pork inside.
煎堆 ('jin dui') sesame seed balls, deep-fried hollow glutinous rice flour dough balls, commonly filled with lotus-seed paste (蓮蓉 'lin yong').
豆沙餅 ('dau saa beng') sweet red bean paste pastry.


Usually I simply go for one of the last five items listed (老婆餠 、蛋撻 、叉燒酥 、煎堆、豆沙餅). The kindly folks at Chinese Hospital have told me to watch my diet (I do, I do; food always looks so beautiful), so I've cut down on snackipoos and increased my vegetable intake, and, speaking of which, steamed broccoli is fit only for a snack while watching horror movies or mulching the yard, nothing else.


Yeah, no, there are no frikandellen or kroketten anywhere nearby, nor a decent berenklauw or bamischijf. As for herring, forget it.
One cannot have everything.

Alors, let's eat!

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