Hike and Hot Pot

Last night I spent the night at my Third Great Uncle's house. My cousin (well, she's not MY cousin. She's really more like my mom's cousin but she's younger than me) Bonnie picked up some breakfast from Cafe Coral.

I guess you can say this is the typical breakfast of a young Hong Kong kid. This East-meets-West of 萝卜糕 (lo bat go or radish cake) and bologna with toast. As an American, it's kinda funny.

After that, I journeyed back to my dorm to get ready for the day.

Yesterday, I orientation, I met some graduate students from China newly coming to HKU. They were part of the Faculty of Medicine, which was going to have an anniversary hiking event and invited me to join.

We had lunch together at one of the school's cafeterias. It was my first time! I played it safe and ordered some roast duck rice. It was pretty good! Not amazing, but probably on par with Maxim's.
This is us after our hike!
Like I said, they're all from mainland China, so they all speak Mandarin. They didn't know any Cantonese and their English is as broken as my Mandarin, haha! So I tried my best to communicate with them in Chinese. Yay opportunity to practice!
At orientation the other day, I did a better job. I think it's because I've been speaking more Cantonese since then that today was so difficult. Everytime I opened my mouth to speak, I'd start off in Mandarin and somehow end up in Cantonese! Needless to say, they always looked at me very confusedly.


People also brought their dogs out to hike with us.
SO BIG AND WHITE AND FLUFFY! OH I WANT TO SQUISHHH IT!!!
Don't you?

This is that iconic Chinese market place. The narrow walkways are like a maze through endless stands selling all different kinds of produce and meats. The floor is wet with sea water from make-shift fish tanks and all you hear are the owners yelling out what they have for what prices.
I'll post again about markets later, I'm sure.
Ah, now what would a bunch of Hong Kong people do at a get-together on a Saturday night? That's right, hot pot!

Hot pot is extremely popular in Hong Kong. It's fun and it allows you to slowly eat and chat at the same time.
So what is hotpot?
Well, it's everything really.
In the middle of the table you have a pot full of boiling water, usually also with a soup base of some sort. You buy a lot of raw delicious foods: thinly sliced meat, fish balls, raw vegetables, fish cake, squid, mushrooms, tofu, noodles, etc
You grab what you like, stick it in the pot until it's cooked, pull it back out, and enjoy!
I like to dip it in soy sauce with a little bit of chili oil and sesame oil.

The fish balls are my favorite!



My relatives!On the left there is my Second Great Uncle and that's his wife in the picture.
Okay, a little family tree explanation: he is my grandfather's younger brother. My Third Great Uncle is my grandfather's half-brother, but as you can see, there is kinda a big age gap between them. My great great grandfather had two wives, the second one was much younger. So while Second Great Uncle is my grandmother's age-bracket, Third Great Uncle is younger than my mom. This is confusing because his daughter Bonnie is four years younger than me, but technically I should call her Auntie.




Look at all the food we ate! But there's still so much left over! 慢慢吃！