Nee Hao ma?

Nee Hao ma - mandarin for you, meaning - how are you? needs that nasal touch to get it right. Before you get ideas, lemme clarify - thats the one of the few words/ sentences I picked up during my 8 month existence in HongKOng (HK). And that too from my wife (surprised?) - hang on hang on .. my wife is neither chinese nor has she mastered mandarin / cantonese. It is just that she picked up a bit of that language during her 45 day stint in HK.

I guess it would make sense for me to add a note saying folks who cannot 'digest' some facts related to eating, please keep away from this posting. :) Yes, this is a piece on food related stuff in HK.

HK, one thought that comes to our minds when we think about these parts of the world is -the culinary 'delights' and the eating habits. I was not too surprised to hear them mention about things they eat which we have kind of come to terms with. I am coming to the point that anything that moves is considered edible. Chill folks I am not talking about the robots. Spare a thought for the arachnids, I had a colleague of mine who said - scorpions tastes good wt beer!!!! whew isnt that a 'stinging' combo ?. There was this other colleague of mine who attached a medicinal value to Pearls and as per him I believe they are crushed and taken in the form of powder for that lovely skin. The fellow commuter in the bus was trying to extol the virtues of having snake soup during winter and he told me about the place I hould head to for that. Dont ask me if I found that place. ;)

The food habits I figured out, is more to do with specifics - sample this - OX's tongue, chicken neck, duck tongue (I liked it!). At the super market, my daughter was all excited to show me the container labelled 'edible frogs' and an other 'crocodile tongue'. I asked the person I worked for - as to how that tasted, her reply was a classic "t(h)ongue on t(h)ongue huh" smiles. Tongue fixation? :) Along with that she had that little story of going to meet her elders back in mainland and as part of their family dinner - she had to eat bugs :). Mummy Returns!!!!! .I did want to try frog leg soup (considered a delicacy in this part of the world), alas, I couldnt until the end. The list is never ending.

Leaving aside all that I spoke of, from what I learnt HK is a gastronomers delight. I had folks from Philippines who would talk to me about the stuff which I should try out here. Try?? yes I did... a little bit. Didnt have the time for everything. hahahahahahah. Intresting fare I would say, specially if you had that drive within yourself to try out new things. I did develop a liking for some chinese, japanese and thai food.

Dimsum, nothing too fancy about that - it is steam cooked stuff so all the health conscious folks - this is the right thing. My wife likened this to the modak. Ofcourse the filling is where the difference is - out here it could be anything from pork to chicken to prawns to beef. Snails, was something I found intresting to eat, I sampled a few and yes its good. Variety they say is the spice of life. :)oh yes, I can vouch for that. Folks out in HK like stuff to be fresh, head to spicy crab (a popular restaurant amongst locals) -and you would see what freshness is all about. The waiter would walk up to you with a live crab in hand "ok?" he would ask - all you do is nod your head - and in sometime that crab is cooked and served on a platter for you. Gooooooooooooood stuff - goes well with beer. Talking about freshness I can never forget that expression on my daughter's face when screamed "appa the prawns are moving" looking at the ones we had picked up in a polythene container - apparently a few of them were live.

Japanese - yes you got it - sushi. Its all about clearing out the mental block about eating something raw. Come on dont we eat raw vegetables - so why not meat. Trust me, once you get over it, you would relish sushi. The best part is the fish eggs and the wasabi sauce combo which kinda seem to explode in your mouth when you chew on it. One of the folks I was working with over there said this "u need to feel the raw meat on ur tongue" - thats the right way to eat sushi. Is that taking you back to the prehistoric period?. Eel, I didnt get electrocuted when I tried the eel dish I had one of those days

Thai Simple - IS THE place in Causeway bay if you develop a liking for thai food. Pad thai and satay - is palatable rather I would say good. Keep away from the avacodo prawn, for the presentation one would give it a 10/10, unless and until you wouldnt wanna see a obese caterpillar like presentation which you are expected to eat.:)

Coming to our own Indian cuisine, I did get to savour some new stuff as well, Murgh chat - a first of its kinds for me (maybe it is available in India as well). What is it? - a spicy concoction similar to all the chat varieties we get in india. Only difference - add a few chunks of tandoori chicken instead of the mandatory aaloo, poori etc, and garnish it with some greens. Voila!!! what do we have? Murgh chat. Goes well with a sip of JD. Go to Bombay Dreams within central for the best of this. Moving on to drinks, I fell in love with the frozen margharita served at Jashan (within central again) - try that with the chicken kaali mirch they serve. There are quite a few indian restaurants which serve good food - Tandoor (central again) - is in a class of its own, with a couple of folks entertaining your request for filmi songs. Wouldnt it be wonderful to listen to these guys singing "thodi thodi peeya karo" while you are sipping on your JD. Khaana Khazana (wanchai district) - a veggies delight - touch on the expensive side, but yes it is purely a Veggie restaurant. Intrestingly this purely Veg restaurant serve drinks as well :). More indian restaurants? - oh yes - there are heaps. Viceroy, Jojo, CurryPot (all in wanchai) does cater good food.

Hungry anyone, well I am. Adios folks - dinner time. Nothing fancy tonite - chapathi,daal and aloo/bhendi - the chef happens to be ..... your truly