Ka-Blog!

Four of us harassed protesters here in Hong Kong have been
bonding together every chance we’ve got to salve our frayed nerves with cheap
but delicious Chinese food—Ina, Ron, Pao and myself. We agreed to sample one unique fare everyday.
        Last Sunday, it was boiled Chinese
chicken cooked along with the rice. On
Monday, it was the weird but attractive dragon fruit.
        Two nights ago, we explored Hong Kong’s alleys a bit and stumbled into a row of
eateries that I used to see on old Jackie Chan movies—steamy little ovens and
vats full of boiling entrails. They
smelled nice.
        Yesterday, in the hunt for cheap
eateries, we went back to that alley and sampled what to me is one of my most
satisfying noodle meals in a long time. The noodles were thin and undercooked a bit. And I found out that the Chinese love their egg noodless very long–for long life?  But its main attraction is the huge chunks of
tender cow entrails I saw cooking the night before. A liberal sprinkling of herbs gave it a tangy
kick that I have never tasted before.
        My tongue was so romanced by this
concoction that Ron Papag and I keep on coming back to that alley, not
necessarily the same resto, these past three days.
        For HK$16
per bellyful, it’s a nice bargain. Plus, I get to practice my chopsticks skills.
        Across the
upscale Sogo department store on East Point Road is a crowded and dirty-looking
stand-while-you-eat establishment that offers all sorts of juices and
vegetables on skewers. My favorite is a
hotdog, eggplant, bell pepper and green pepper combo. They fry it with some sort of egg-based
filling which they sprinkle with a soy-based condiment before serving it to the
customer on a paper bag.
          First I eat
the hotdog, then the eggplant, then the bell pepper and, finally, after
steeling myself, the green pepper. The
last always makes me hop like crazy. It’s hot! But it is my best
discovery so far to keep the chill away, even for just a few minutes.         
        Along Paterson Road, at
the ground level of the condominium unit we are bunking in is the 24-hour
Wellcome Supermart. For quick bites,
this is the best we’ve got so far. Here,
fried rice meals go for less than HK$10. They are nothing to be excited about but a ride down the lift is all
that is needed to fill our grumbling bellies. Plus they have lots of free bread on sample trays, which its Pinay
salesclerks keep on refilling for our benefit.
        Despite our
very tight food budgets, we have been able to sample some very exciting fares.  We have four more days to go. After all these hullabaloos are over, we may
be able to discover more eating places and more exciting food.
        The one and
only time I ate at McDonalds in a food haven like Hong
Kong should be my first and last. To eat in Western-style fast food joints here is unforgivable.