Chicken Wings With French Toast, or How the West has Influenced Hong Kong

Hong Kong – First Day Exploration 6pm HK time and going to bed. November 10
Note: McDonalds has “Taro” Pies.

This Morning, We began exploring early. Jet Lag is a remarkable thing. Anyways, We wandered down Nathan Road, went into the Infamous ChungKing mansions to check it out. Not nearly as bad as I had expected, although I wouldn't want to stay there necessarily. The “Touts” are not as bad as everyone said. We walked past the Peninsula, one of the most luxourious hotels on Kowloon, with the Louie Vuitton, Dior, Fendo etc promanade at the base. We then took the Central Harbour Ferry (Star Ferry) to the Main Island of Hong Kong. It costs $2.2 HKD or $.31. It is worth the ride just for the scenery.

Hong Kong Island is far more cosmopolitan and “Authentic” than Kowloon. Kowloon is Neon-Lights, Karaoke bars, Tourism, Shopping Markets with cheap purses.. Although Beautiful. Massive Banyan Trees line the main streets, and grow out of walls everywhere. Kowloon feels younger, it is also cheaper, and the crowd everywhere is younger. When you exit the ferry, Hong Kong island starts out as a glittering financial and shopping Mecca with the tallest building in Hong Kong, the Two International Finance Center. It has that big city feel immediately. There is water lining one side of the main area, and mountain behind. The city slopes upwards to the peak, sometimes drastically so. We walked past the Financial and Shopping District, Stopping at a Market called Yuen St East and West to browse souveniers, I didn't see anything immediately appealing.

From there, we went to Pottinger St, and headed to Soho. (Hollywood Road). This is where the concentration of Britih ExPats are. This is a beautiful area. CobbleStone streets lined with markets slope upwards towards the slope. We met a British Artist named Malcom who has been living in the area for 20 years. He uses oil pastels on paper that he has handmade in Tibet. The result is a very gritty texture, that is just beautiful. He minds his friends antique shop and creates art all day. There is an entire area here devoted to international foods and wines, expensive restaurants, mostly cacausian people. There is another area here entirely devoted to antiques. The antique market has literally PRICELESS and Ancient goods. Furniture salvaged from temples, statutes, and a multitude of Chairman Mao figurines. It was a truly enjoyable trip. When I return to Hong Kong, there are definately a few items that are coming home with me.
Near this area is the Man Mo Temple, which we paid a visit to. The entire center space is filled with hanging insence cones that spiral and smoke all day long. From here we wandered out of tourist area into a more authentic Cantonese area called Sheung Wan. In Toronto's china Town, they sell live crab in buckets. Here, they are lined up in cafeteria style display cases, and are wrapped tightly so they cannot move. We found a crab-wrapper (for lack of a better term) who showed us how it was done. This area was great. see the Video Here

After Last night, we decided that in If we were going to eat Cantonese, it better be Vegetarian. In this neighbourhood we couldnt find much english, so we went searching for food options. We found an Indian Restaurant, and got there just in time for the lunch special. Catering to British Expats, this place was a little more expensive. We had Bagan Bharta, Chana Masala, Salad, Soup Rice and Naan for about $140HKD or $20. It was really very good, and spicy. It is called Masala Modern Indian Cusine, on Mercer St. The Owner, a Hong Kong native was extremely friendly and was helping us with our sightseeing plans.

After late Lunch, we went down to Rue DeVeux and explored a $10HKD shop (dollar store) and a grocery store. That was fun. They sell everything in the grocery stores here, Cereals we are familiar with to Old Elpaso Taco kits, Wine and Beer, and of course a million things that we could not identify. I have not seen cheese anywhere. There are tonnes of bakerys though, and “Western” Restaurants that are truly an experience. We saw a menu that served hot dogs, breakfasts of eggs with luncheon meat (fried spam) and Noodles, and my favorite – Chicken Wings with French toast. There are street venders everywhere but everything is un-identifiable and terrifying, and definately not vegetarian.