HK On Heat

Summer in HK was no joke. The temperature soared, and combined with the mad crowds and concrete jungle (where are the trees?!), I was not a very happy cat. The only thing that motivated me to leave the airconditioned apartment was the food - in particular the dim sum, and boy did I enjoy them. On the 2nd morning in HK, gran and mamma got up early to buy chee cheong fan which was freshly made downstairs. The old man poured a scoop of watery flour batter onto a flat basket steamer, and in a matter of minutes he cut it up, stuffed and rolled each piece expertly. Why couldn't we have this in S'pore?

Anyway our first stop was at the 'Tian Hou' temple nearby, which was gazetted the oldest building in that area. We offered our prayers to the deities and tried not to lose our patience over the rude ladies there. It still puzzled me why some locals still remained so hostile and unpleasant especially at the street level, even though the general service standard at the malls and restaurants had gone up. Being here for 2 months now, my sis advised us to be stern with these incorrigible bad eggs and don't let them affect our mood.

We took the metro to Mongkok and were promptly soothed by the excellent dim sum and service at the elegant Ming Court restaurant in Langham Place Hotel (which sis reviewed). True to her word, the custard buns were da bomb; molten golden yellow custard tinged with delicious salty egg yolks encased in fluffy white bun! We were so orgasmic over each mouthful we ordered 2 baskets and devoured 3 buns each. Now that's sisterly joy.

At high noon, we skipped over to the nearby open-air Ladies Market - a mistake - because it was unpleasantly hot and crowded, plus the vendors had no humour at the bargaining game. For someone who's very patient and chatty, my mom was very turned off by their attitude and switched off eventually. So we seeked refuge in the mall where we slurped up some chilled fruity desserts and then stopped over at the supermercato for groceries. Sis was craving for some homecooked food so I decided to whip up dinner in her small kitchen.

The only problem was a lack of dining table and chairs but that was easily solved as we tucked into the porridge, chicken stew, fried vegs with prawns and the tiniest baby kidney mangoes on our cosy sofa bed. At sunset, the eagles came out to play and soared high in the skies. They kept us entertained till 8pm when the city put on its daily show of lights and fireworks on both shores to mark HK's 10th year since the handover to China.

We watched memerised in the dark, a shared moment of simple family bliss, as the buildings and skyline were illuminated with a choreographed dance of lightbeams and explosion of colours.