Thoughts on Hong Kong 3

Concerning the food in Hong Kong, there's a lot that I can talk about. Naturally I have to start with the now infamous tofu pig and our "vegetarian" dinner the first night out. Like everyone else at our table my initial reaction was one of surprise, confusion and mild disgust and amusement. It was so realistic looking that it reminded me of the fetal pig I had to dissect in highschool biology class. Not exactly the most appetizing way to start off a meal. I ate two pieces just to see what it was like and that was enough for me. It did in fact taste like pork and the texture was a match too. This made me wonder about what the restaurant considered to be vegetarian. Was there essence of pig mixed in with the tofu to give it that pig-like taste? If there was then I wouldn't consider that vegetarian. The same goes for the tofu shrimp, which looked and tasted like shrimp. I don't know what the other tables were offered, but maybe they did this for the sake of all the tables being offered similar looking courses. Or maybe it was supposed to be a funny thing just for the Westerners. The only thing that resembled an animal that did taste good was the fish, made out of what I think were purple mashed potatoes with a sort of crispy cinnamon crust baked over it. The only vegetable dishes I can remember were mushrooms and baby bokchoy, not much to fill up on. Surely being a vegetarian in Honk Kong means eating more than just tofu! I know there are all sorts of wonderful and exotic Asian vegetables that could have been used instead to make a vegetarian meal. By the end of the dinner we were all just craving noodles or rice, something plain and simple. I kept wondering where the dim sum was! Everything I had read about Hong Kong cuisine always praised the almighty dim sum, so I thought for sure that would be a part of our first dinner. I thought there would be dim sum served everywhere in the city, but actually other than the hotel, I only had it in one other restaurant (the Flower Trump; which I later found out was Shanghainese, not Cantonese). The wait staff at the first restaurant were very efficient, almost too efficient. The minute my glass was half way empty they would sneak up and refill it, sometimes with something different than what I had been drinking. There was plenty of tea, which I adored, but the time between courses took too long. I left the restaurant still hungry and loathing the very thought of tofu.

Later on in the trip I relented and did try tofu in another dish. This time is was a dessert and the tofu was soft and creamy like custard with a caramel syrup topping. It was really good!

Another nice surprise was when we went to the food court at the Plaza Hollywood mall. I ate Japanese and discovered that I LOVE octopus balls! (*snicker*) Something I never thought I would ever consider trying, but I'm glad that I did. The fish soup that came with it though, I couldn't get used to. There's something about eating fish in liquid form that just didn't taste quite right to me.