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.