this post actually continues right along where i left off. we got off the plane and it's morning in the kong. we take a bus from the airport right up to our doorstep and begin our day......again.
settling in to our digs- i find 3 guys waiting for me in my HK bedwomb. their names are Fuk, Luk, and Sau:
DMFP- if you're out there listening, think of them like the kitchen gods. but for your house. or your mattress rape room in the hobo basement- whichever. fuk is good fortune, luk is prosperity, and sau is longevity. i hope they will watch over me and my nutritious eating habits...speaking of!-- the view from my bathroom:
a view of unka's apartment right across from ours (the tall buildings to the left- i think his is the 3rd column from the right and the 37th story up.....see it?????? just kidding):
every single building i see when i walk out the door is so huge and ridiculous it's stoopid. so we march on and subway it from tung chung (where we are) to mong kok to go check on unka congo's pad. the public transit is awesome here. i don't have to look at homeless men pee themselves, there are no caffeine-saturated HS students screaming "N!&&@H!" at each other, and i don't feel an urge to curbstomp some BU undergrad wearing uggs and a northface jacket. it's ever-present, fast and clean (i know so cause there's a million of them orientals in face masks). that being said-- we made a short snack stop.
for anyone who knows me- i enjoy a tasty beverage. several. smoothies, ICED TEA, grape drink, coca cola, ginger ale, the list continues....this balanced out the fact that this snack stop was a sweet snack stop. jess li does not enjoy sweets (a phenomenon yet tbd as to why). thusly, we ordered an iced mango slush thing and an iced coconut slush thing. mama li loves mango/coconut iced things. so do i- it runs in the family. to the left, i ordered the least sweet thing on the menu: black sesame pudding and tofu bean curd. verdict: gross. it looks like the la brea tar pits and i should find a teacup t-rex swimming in there. everyone else enjoyed it. papa li ordered the mango dao fu fa (bean curd) with fresh mango chunks on top (dish on center). and mama li ordered the mango glutinous rice dumpling in coconut (dish on right). blech.
so, we're in mong kok. this is it harborside. a bunch of ships and shit. it's pretty crazy since this is only a small portion of the harbor. let's make this educational, shall we? fact: mong kok has the highest population density in the WORLD at 340,000 per square mile according to guinness world records (and/or wikipedia). mong kok is also like times square. but with markets. and residents. and schools......mong kok is not like times square. but it is really effing cool. carrying on....
on our way home we stopped by "the ding store". my parents gave it this name since we purchase a lot of microwaveable glutard fewds for my mother. i snagged some shark fin soup for myself and, of course, some congee. booyah.
it's business time. (cue music, disco balls, and new zealanders)
"FIRST CHINESE BEE-AH!
WELCOME TO CHI-NEES!"
(that was for you karnes)
i had my first chinese brew to accompany dinner. it was better than high life. and cheaper.
"in chinese culture first wife washes the dishes at the table and pours tea even at restaurants" (mom). np mom, less work for me. we have video of my witnessing this for my first time and my father calls me by the dog's name by accident. at their protests, i am no longer posting said video. if they're lucky- i'll bury it with the archived footage with me in a gold unitard and whore shoes doing the "single ladies" dance at a house party.
papa li knows what he's up against with me at the table and ordered a whole fish. my memory evades me but i believe, with careful wikipedia research, this is opakapaka (hawaiian pink snapper). it was dressed with green onion and ginger and was friggin tasty.
