Hong Kong and Tokyo Food Porn!
Holy moly it's been eons since I've updated. That's what happens when the summer hits! I've been meaning to post my food pictures from my jaunt to Hong Kong and Tokyo back in late April, so now I finally have a moment.
My first stop was Hong Kong, where I stayed with a friend I hadn't seen in 10 years. It was a wonderful reunion, and I felt I got a good taste of what her day to day life was like in HK, along with a few touristy outings. The icing on the cake? Or should I say the "dumpling in the soup", I finally found the Shanghai soup dumplings (or "juicy buns" as we called them) I had as a kid growing up in Vancouver, B.C.. I mean, I know there's famous Din Tai Fung, and those are pretty close. But the exact type of dumpling I remember as a child we found at Liu Yuan Pavilion in Wan Chai, and I almost cried when I slurped my first bite of that juicy pork dumpling. I WANT TO EAT THEM EVERYDAY! I didn't even pull out my camera the entire meal, because I wanted to be in the moment savoring every last bite of our special meal. I felt like my camera could never capture what I was experiencing. We had some other dishes as well, but honestly I can't remember what they were. I was in Dumpling Heaven. There was another place I went to a couple of times called Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bau in Times Square. Great food, and you could watch them hand pull noodles through a glass enclosed kitchen, and their dumplings were very tasty. Honestly I could eat that style of cooking every day. I also traveled about an hour and a half outside of Hong Kong to try and grab some of those noodles from Ping Kee Noodles in Tai Po that Anthony Bourdain featured in his early Hong Kong episode...but alas, he had already sold out by 10:30am! There were many curious people there wondering why I was aimlessly wandering around the food court, but through some very broken English, and my broken Cantonese, this one vendor offered me the best wonton soup I think I ever had. SCORE! Made my trip out there totally worth it.
In Tokyo, my diet seemed to be less fatty and pork-centric. Lots of veggies, tofu, rice, fish, etc. WONDERFUL! And I was there to see a friend I hadn't seen in 30 YEARS. Yes you heard me right. That is a looooong time to be pen pals isn't it?? We met in Vancouver, B.C. when we were 8 years old and her family lived for a few years there. We became BFF's, but sadly she had to leave back to Japan. We kept in touch at first the old fashioned way through snail mail correspondence, and then in later years through email. Seeing her after such a long time was incredible...almost like no time had past, and we were chatting and giggling like childhood friends once more. What a surreal and beautiful experience! We saw many neighborhoods, temples, shrines, museums, her sister's family and of course had many delicious meals.
So here's all my food porn from my 2 week trip! ENJOY!
Hong Kong:
Best wonton noodle soup!
Tokyo:
My first stop was Hong Kong, where I stayed with a friend I hadn't seen in 10 years. It was a wonderful reunion, and I felt I got a good taste of what her day to day life was like in HK, along with a few touristy outings. The icing on the cake? Or should I say the "dumpling in the soup", I finally found the Shanghai soup dumplings (or "juicy buns" as we called them) I had as a kid growing up in Vancouver, B.C.. I mean, I know there's famous Din Tai Fung, and those are pretty close. But the exact type of dumpling I remember as a child we found at Liu Yuan Pavilion in Wan Chai, and I almost cried when I slurped my first bite of that juicy pork dumpling. I WANT TO EAT THEM EVERYDAY! I didn't even pull out my camera the entire meal, because I wanted to be in the moment savoring every last bite of our special meal. I felt like my camera could never capture what I was experiencing. We had some other dishes as well, but honestly I can't remember what they were. I was in Dumpling Heaven. There was another place I went to a couple of times called Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bau in Times Square. Great food, and you could watch them hand pull noodles through a glass enclosed kitchen, and their dumplings were very tasty. Honestly I could eat that style of cooking every day. I also traveled about an hour and a half outside of Hong Kong to try and grab some of those noodles from Ping Kee Noodles in Tai Po that Anthony Bourdain featured in his early Hong Kong episode...but alas, he had already sold out by 10:30am! There were many curious people there wondering why I was aimlessly wandering around the food court, but through some very broken English, and my broken Cantonese, this one vendor offered me the best wonton soup I think I ever had. SCORE! Made my trip out there totally worth it.
In Tokyo, my diet seemed to be less fatty and pork-centric. Lots of veggies, tofu, rice, fish, etc. WONDERFUL! And I was there to see a friend I hadn't seen in 30 YEARS. Yes you heard me right. That is a looooong time to be pen pals isn't it?? We met in Vancouver, B.C. when we were 8 years old and her family lived for a few years there. We became BFF's, but sadly she had to leave back to Japan. We kept in touch at first the old fashioned way through snail mail correspondence, and then in later years through email. Seeing her after such a long time was incredible...almost like no time had past, and we were chatting and giggling like childhood friends once more. What a surreal and beautiful experience! We saw many neighborhoods, temples, shrines, museums, her sister's family and of course had many delicious meals.
So here's all my food porn from my 2 week trip! ENJOY!
Hong Kong:
Best wonton noodle soup!
Tokyo:
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