Feet, Large And Small

We arrived safely in Hong Kong. However, our duffels, containing all the gear we would need for the upcoming trek, did not. Our connection had been too tight in Chicago. We filed a notice with the Cathay staff, and they advised they would keep us posted.

Setting worries about baggage aside, we turned our attention to food. Mandy, a friend and coworker, had arranged a dim sum lunch for us and a number of folks from the local office. Having gotten in quite late the night before, we had simply gone to the hotel café for dinner. A bit muzzy and still getting our feet on the ground the next morning, for breakfast we had done the same. We were now eager to get out into the city and actually start sampling the food for which Hong Kong is justifiably famous.

Serves twelve

I would love to be able to describe all of the various items that we had, but the unfortunate reality is that most of the time I didn't know what I was eating. All of it was quite tasty, though I confess that I had difficulty with the chicken claws, because I didn't know how to eat them. Julia, being possessed of a much greater degree of cool than I... asked. As a result, she didn't do what I did, which was to crunch down on skin, bones and all, make an attempt at chewing it all up, and then look for an opportunity to furtively deposit the wad into a napkin when that approach didn't work out.  For the record, the proper method is to bite a joint off at the knuckle, work it around in your mouth to nibble off the skin, and then spit out the bone.

Chicken claws (left) posed a challenge.
Pig stomach with pepper (right) was a tasty slam-dunk.

As we cast about after lunch, Julia noticed that we were standing in front of an establishment that offered foot massages. She suggested we go for it. We entered, and commenced being pampered. I would have thought that if someone spent fifty whole minutes just rubbing my feet and calves that they would run out of ideas. This, however, was not the case. We both left feeling pretty blissed out. I can see more massages in our near future.

As Yoda is reported to have said, “Bliss leads to napping.  Napping leads to hunger,” then, leaning in closer and with great intensity, “Hunger leads to dinner…” On deck for dinner was another rendezvous with Mandy, who had arranged a reservation at a restaurant that offered a good Peking duck – something I had never had before and very much wanted to try. Roasted slowly until the skin turns into a crisp, fatty shell, the duck is then thinly sliced and arranged on platters. It is accompanied by wraps, into which one placed the slices of duck along with spears of cucumber and leek. Hoisin sauce completes the scenario. Rich and succulent.

A moment I had been waiting for.  It did not disappoint.

Along with the duck, we also ordered a sweet and sour fish. The fish was ‘yellow fish’, and was quite mild. In fact, the sweet and sour sauce and seasonings seemed to overshadow the flavor of the fish to a fair degree. The presentation, however, was dazzling.

Gaze upon me.  Do it now.

We had made plans to head out into the Hong Kong evening after dinner, and explore the night markets in Mong Kok. Unfortunately, we both started feeling lagged out after dinner, and we decided to call it a night.  This was fortunate, as we both crashed hard moments after we returned to our room.