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March 31, 2006
Skyline on Crack & John Tesh
Click image to see and hear light show
In Hong Kong we stayed at a hotel run by Jesus' people: The YMCA Salisbury. We stayed there not because we're practicing Christians needing to find fellowship with other Jesus worshippers from around the globe, but because the views from the hotel were spectacular and the room rate was over $200 cheaper a night than the luxury hotel next door. The area we stayed in is in an area called Kowloon and it's situated across Victoria Harbor from Hong Kong Island - Hong Kong's Brooklyn. And just as Brooklyn is the best place to see the Manhattan skyline, Kowloon is the best vantage point to see the illuminated skyscraper cubes that climb Hong Kong Islands dramatic hills.
On our second night in Hong Kong, having recovered from our sugar crash and woken from our jet lag recovery nap we looked out the window and wondered aloud, why the whole sky was flashing with laser lights.
Every night Hong Kong's tourism bureau puts on a laser light show that could rival the Pink Floyd light show thousands of times over. And even more exciting was when we learned that there's a radio station which plays music to which the light show is choreographed. Think John Tesh on crack.
Over 30 buildings in the Hong Kong skyline have lights up and down the sides so they can participate in this fantastic spectacle. We've seen nothing like it before but hope that cities across the great USA will begin to adopt this approach to urban planning.
Posted by Cakehead at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2006
Hong Kong Sugar High
Hong Kong's Mr. Softee
We arrived in Hong Kong at 8 PM. That's sixteen and half hours after we departed New York and 24 hours since we had slept. But in the end, we discovered that sacrificing sleep for airplane food and bad new movie releases was the right move to overcome jet lag. By the time midnight rolled around we were sufficiently exhausted and ready to sleep through the night without disoriented interruption.
But before we slept, we ate - eager to try some of the city's culinary offerings.
Hong Kong easily rivals New York, London and Tokyo with its restaurant prices and our goal was to eat for cheap. Why waste money on food that will be consumed in a jetlag haze? We stumbled into one of the ubiquitous noodle shops for some Hong Kong comfort grub. The vegetarian I was traveling with (really more of a pescatarian) had shrimp dumplings with noodles which he proclaimed to be the best he had ever had. The highlight of my barbequed pork on rice was the slightly burnt crust of rice found at the bottom of my clay pot. I later learned that others like the crust too - so much that it has a name, guoba, which translates from mandarin to "pot scar." There are even restaurants dedicated to featuring these delicious scars. Smeared with barbeque sauce or some of the oyster sauce from the baby bok choy dish was like eating a sweet rice crunch.
After dinner, we spotted Hong Kong's own Mr. Softee truck across the busy road on the far side of the median barrier. We had not yet figured out that the signs for the subway were not for the underground train, but rather the passageways through which one crosses under the street. Quivering with sugar withdrawal I stumbled forward (sans Softee) hoping that we might find another place to satiate my sugar craving. The vegetarian has certain theories about gender and sugar and proclaims he does not need the sweet stuff the way women do. He did, however, need beer to bring back to our hotel. So we stopped at the local Sev (Seven-Eleven) to stock up on cans of San Miguel.
But I was soon distracted by the ice cream freezer chest. Over the junk-food lined shelves I spotted it: icy and loaded with the Hong Kong version of the Good Humor ice cream products. But they weren't Good Humor bars, they were from a Unilever (yeah, the same people who brought us Olestra and Lever 2000 for your 2000 parts) subsidary called Wall's. I stocked up on several frozen ice cream products to do some late night sampling.
Wall's Vienneta ice cream snack
Wall's Vienneta is a Viennese-like pastry made of ice "cream." The cream is in quotes because upon examining the label I discovered that there was a hell of a lot more coconut oil and sugar than cow product. It is pretty to look at. Ripples of "chocolate" soft-serve ice cream are folded into a rectangular box. Unfortunately the ripples had hardened into a crystallized hunk and the block was dusted with ice. With my first bite the high contents of coconut oil became apparent. When I ran my tongue over my teeth a felt a mossy coating of lard. The Vienneta snack gets an A for presentation and a D for flavor. Unilever should stick to making soap.
Hazelnut Ice Cream Roll
The Hazelnut roll was a lot more satisfying. The vanilla ice cream log was filled with a hazelnut core and dipped in a thick coating of milk chocolate. However, after reading the label I discovered that hazelnut was the last ingredients on the list, leading me to conclude that there's not enough of the nut to legitimately call it a hazelnut roll.
Disappointed but buzzing with sugar I crawled into bed and allowed my jet lag buzz to overpower my sugar one and fell into a deep Asia slumber.
Posted by Cakehead at 03:43 PM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2006
Airplane Food
Cathay Pacific Flight # 831, New York to Hong Kong dinner
In all there were seven different flights that we took during our trip to, in and from Southeast Asia. Translation: there were seven opportunities to savor the airlines' culinary offerings and evaluate. New York to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Hanoi; Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City; Siem Reap, Cambodia to Hanoi; Hanoi to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Vancouver; Vancouver to New York City.
chocolate mint mousse cake
Each leg provided at least one full course meal. But aside from the chocolate-mint mouse cake served on the Hong Kong to Vancouver flight and the garlic shrimp served when we flew from Hanoi to Hong Kong, we weren't impressed with the Hong Kong-based airline, Cathay Pacific and its Vietnam based counterpart, Vietnam Airlines.
What? Surprise that airline food is a let down? Yes. I admit, that part of the joy I find in traveling comes from discovering what the airlines can fit into those cute little compartments - the compartments that are the closest thing adults can find to resemble the school lunch tray.
But there were other factors besides the flavors that detracted from my mile-high dining experiences.
Maybe it was the grumbling of my flying partner, a vegetarian whose special meal request wasn't conveyed by the travel agent for the early part of the trip. When The Vegetarian discovered the error, a visit was paid to the Cathay Pacific food specialist who offered to make the change in the system for the return flight. The vegetarian options were endless: lacto vegetarian, Asian vegetarian, vegan, Seventh Day Adventist special meal, pescatarian, Indian vegetarian.
Indian vegetarian sounded intriguing so he selected that choice. Then, three times the duration of the 13 hour flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver and then once on the 5 hour flight from Vancouver to NYC, my traveling companion was offered breakfast, lunch and dinner - all "Indian style." Not Native American Indian. Actually if they had alternated between American Indian & India the country's cuisine it wouldn't have been so bad. But every meal contained the same undercooked bean Masala, dry basmati rice, spinach slop and two round sweetened balls made of corn and coconut. The only edible item was the accompanying beverage: Tiger Beer. Having established that the full-on carnivore menu was equally appalling (the lamb shank was dog-food grade) by the flight to Hanoi, I had switched from selecting the meat options to the choosing the vegetarian meal - the version that required no special requesting (unlike the Indian Vegetarian tray). The generic vegetarian meal - the meal he would have received if no special request was made - was perfectly fine pasta with creamy pesto.
It took over 36 hours of flying to establish, but I'm sorry to report that the rumors that have been circulating about airline food are true.
Posted by Cakehead at 02:11 PM | Comments (2)
