You know how sometimes you don’t fancy something at first yet it somehow grows on you eventually, well this is one of those times, Connie Chan being so jarringly agreeable back in 1967. Looks like I just have to scratch beyond the surface a little to discover more of Hong Kong’s appeal.
The post-war boom and influx of immigrants meant Hong Kong ran short of housing
My interest in tong laus was piqued not long after reading this article. Exactly one month ago, I had the chance to visit my first tong lau apartment. It’s cool to live in a building with a small factory workshop on the ground floor and access to a dingy shared rooftop space (oh so familiar after years of watching various TVB series) though perhaps not so cool for my friend who has to climb seven flights of stairs daily just to get home.
Vintage food packaging
Hong Kong appears to be a treasure chest of exotic old-school food packaging designs as I’ve come to realize over the past months, complete with Wade-Giles romanization. Not all products originate from Hong Kong though, such as these bottles of medicinal liquor. Comparatively speaking from my own experience, I’m surprised how such vintage designs are actually less pervasive on the Mainland (give and take the occasional Feiyue and Warrior shoe packaging). Anyone knows why ?
Weekend snippets #11
Much of Saturday night was spent inside shipping containers. We ended the night with barbeque and beer, no pictures as my fingers were too greasy to fiddle with the camera.
Finally remembered to get some pork lard from the butcher when I was at the market to season my cast iron grill pan and wok. They don’t seem quite evenly seasoned though, rather greasy at the sides still. Will know if they are alright next time I grill/stir-fry something.
J bought himself a PS3. I never even knew he was into gaming. The things one learns after marriage these days ahaha.
Gave Sabah one more try over the weekend. Still can’t wrap my head around it. Sure the assam laksa was tasty and the curry laksa was dubious (as usual)… Then we ordered the murtabak partly because it was too cheap to pass up (HKD 35) and I was kinda craving for it after Tom’s post. Despite being prata-thin with a minimal filling of minced beef, it actually tasted pretty good. Thumbs up for the side of curry too. So well, guess I will be back.
I learnt how to pronounce plum green tea in Cantonese, thanks to a very helpful bubble tea stall staff.
Summing up 2010
* I visited my ancestral hometown and met relatives I didn’t know I had.
* I got married. We signed the papers in Shanghai and celebrated with friends at a karaoke parlor on the same night, followed by a proper celebration with half of the family in Singapore in December just past.
* I had to plan a wedding celebration long-distance.
* I blogged far lesser than I would have liked to, not just on my own blog but also with respect to commitments elsewhere. Resolved to change this in 2011.
* I became (hopelessly) addicted to Tabasco sauce, chuan’r and malatang, not necessarily in this order though I usually also have no trouble consuming them all in the same meal.
* I went backpacking with my sister for the first time. We took a 20+ hour train ride and rode camels in the desert. I think she enjoyed herself.
* I said goodbye to Shanghai.
* I was unemployed for the first time without a new job lined up and felt extremely insecure.
* I wished I had traveled more around China, Shantou alone altered my impression of coastal China.
* I didn’t swim as much as I should, which meant my old back injury would probably come bite me in the arse one day very soon.
* I spent part of the summer in Europe.
* I found out I was unable to eat wanton/fishball/fish dumpling noodles on a daily basis, unlike chuan’r or mommy’s fishball noodles which I apparently could not get sick of.
* I left my moleskine schedule book in a taxi in September. Nine months of my life plus some scheduling and reminders, gone, just like that.
* I wore contact lenses for the first time.
* I bade farewell to my trusty N2630 and became a smartphone user (merci J, you spoil me too much).
* I revisited Shanghai on the second last day of the year and it felt like I still live there. What a fitting end to the year which acted like nothing had changed when in fact everything had.