Transit complete!

Greetings! Apparently people are actually reading this. It’s actually pretty exciting/terrifying that people (aka my friends) are interested in my shenanigans, meaning:

a) People are interested in my (somewhat) spontaneous adventures through places I don’t particularly know

b) I’ll probably be more horrified when reading through old entries and see all the ridiculous spelling/grammar errors.

But, hopefully I’ll get better at it as time goes on and I’m not writing like a gimp.

Anyways, so not too many pictures taken today, which is actually a good thing; for the technologically-backward (me) Blogspot makes it ridiculously difficult to add pictures into the post, despite having an uploader built into the site. Although yesterday after formatting HTML code, (which I understand less than French, more than Elf), I discovered the site has a regular composition format which is more like Microsoft word, and for me that’s just awesome. Hopefully more pictures later in Sydney.

Here's my uncle and I wandering through the street markets in Wan Chai, please note that these cars are moving and the drivers are super pissed.

So yesterday (I guess today for those back in North America), I went to go meet my great grand-uncle for Dim Sum. To the uninitiated, Dim Sum which like brunch on steroids, with more pork and seafood. In Markham/Toronto, I’d actually vouche for the Dim Sum being not bad, as it’s pretty comparable (although a bit different) then the legit authentic stuff in Hong Kong. But my great grand-uncle is part of a rather large and confusing family tree who is the brother to my Great Grandma (who is turning 104-5 pretty soon? I doubt she remembers either!). I haven’t seen him in like 5 years so that was really nice, and he commented on my improving Cantonese, which is something I’m going to try and work at since I don’t know the language particularly well. Plus when our Chinese overlords come to take over the world, I can tell them how awesome they are (They speak Mandarin?!)

So after eating Breakfast my uncle took me to a local hobby shop. I think if you know me well enough then you know what I’m talking about when I refer to “the hobby”. It’s pretty embarrassing but I’ve been doing it for pretty much 10 years and it’s kind of kooky that I stumbled onto this place. I also noticed everyone in the store had American accents which was also a nice change. Anyways, this place was actually really cool and had tons of space, so when I get back I suspect this will be my Heroes World in Hong Kong.

After geeking out over the toys that I left back in Canada, I went on the subway and met up with my Aunt and cousin Joshua in the subway station. We then went to Mong Kok, which is a district (I hesitate to call it a suburb) in Kowloon, one of the islands that make up Hong Kong. I think the best way to think of Hong Kong is probably like New York, down to the ridiculous number of taxi’s and crazies roaming around. We did a bit of shopping and I ended up finding a little street vendor who was hawking Vans. As my dear reader will know, I love those slip-ons. So after inspecting the sketchiness of the place/shoe I haggled the lady down to $120 HK, so a little under $20 for a new pair of shoes. I figure it’s all made in China anyway, so how sketchy is it really? Here's a picture of my aunt and her husband via my mom's side. The uncle I'm staying with is via my dad's side. I suppose I should have put that into the narrative that is my life a little better!

Also, I think presenting scale is important, so here is a side-by-side of my cousin Joshua while we were eating lunch, (Roast Duck with Noodles and a curious/bizarre drink that I guess should be called Almond Milk – surprisingly good!).

For dinner, my uncle treated me to the previously mentioned Amuse Bouche, a pretty swanky French restaurant near his apartment/workplace. I ended up going all out and ordered the tasting menu, which was a ridiculous 8-course meal that lasted a fair bit of time. Having never been to a fancy restaurant that had a sampling of salts to wet the palate, or a place where the staff explain how to eat the food, I was in for a real treat. I think I’ll write a formal review of the place later, as I think it provoked a number of interesting reactions for me. Here’s a couple of the courses (Also excuse the amateurishness of the photos, I know some of those Food Blogs out there present some absolutely ridiculous [see: pornographic] pictures of food, but the dim light/me having no idea what I’m doing might detract from these pictures):

The one on the left is sea salt, and the one on the right is Volcanic Ash Salt (Neat!)

So this was one of the more hilarious dishes just because it reminded me of canned tuna and chips. (Tuna Mousse with Crispy Bread)

This suspicious looking beverage was Black Truffle Soup, a pretty decadent little Amuse Bouche (I'm witty aren't I?). The one on the left was a truffle custard with a little bit of chicken stock. The one of the right was just straight up salty/savoury truffle goodness. Despite being placed in shooters, I tried taking a shot of both but ended up scalding my mouth. Who said the customer is always right?

One of the signature dishes at the restaurant; suckling pig done three ways.

And the delightfully surprising dessert of Chocolate Gateau with a Lime Sorbet and Fresh Berries

I promised my uncle I’d take him to Bo Innovation, which is another restaurant nearby that has had some pretty critical acclaim (Apparently it had 2-Michelin Stars at one point? Plus the chef looks like he’d kick the shit out of you if you said you didn’t like the meal), when I got back.

So right now I’m sitting in the airport, taking advantage of the free wireless (Pearson Airport, take note!) and watching the Powerpuff Girls on a TV. I also noticed the PS3 that you can play on while waiting for your flight at the gate. I guess there may or may not be another post for awhile, since It’ll be pretty hectic between

a) Getting a place to stay

b) Finding internet

c) Opening a bank account so I can actually have some money

Oh and happy Valentines Day! I just realized that that movie that has everyone in Hollywood in it, so someone tell me how awesome/terrible Taylor Swift is in it.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Rick

P.S. After doing a Google search, I realized that Google/generic websites have ALL switched to Chinese. So I imagine my surprise trying to use Google/Wikipedia and having it default in an unintelligible language. I also like how Wikipedia is a real word now. Crazy times we live in folks!