lanterns, dumplings and comedy
This week was my first week at work, so sadly I now have a lot less time to be a tourist. Although in saying that I am looking forward to 3 public holidays within my first 4 weeks, so I can’t complain too loudly.
In fact after just day one I already had the next day off, for Chinese Mid Autumn Festival. Part of the festival includes a tradition where a long dragon type figure with incense smoking from it’s spine weaves it’s way through the streets. This sounded pretty cool and worth checking out so we headed to Tai Hang to see the “fire dragon” but we were not the only ones who thought it sounded cool apparently. The streets were unbelievably packed, we briefly saw a peek off in the distance and soon realised it wasn’t going to get any better than that. It was going to head to a nearby park in a couple of hours so we thought if we went there right away we might beat the dragon there and get a spot. After battling the crowds to get to the park we found some sort of a festival happening. There were various light displays, a stage with dubious sounding singing and little stalls selling unidentifiable bits and pieces. We wandered around a bit lost checking it all out and trying to see where we needed to be to see that Dragon. Then the rain came, not quite full on summer rain where it feels like you are swimming but heavy enough to be annoying. Sometimes it isn’t the rain itself but the many umbrellas that are actually most annoying, I find my eyes are very close to the average height that the average Hong Konger holds the umbrella so its like a constant game of ‘dodge the eye-gouge’. We decided with the rain, crowds and odd festival situation that we were just as good to head home and try and see the fire dragon next year instead. I was given two “mooncakes” as a welcome gift at work which seem to be the traditional food of this festival. They are kind of a cakey surrounding with a hard boiled egg yolk in the middle, not as gross as it sounds but for me it was a mental nope so I didn’t enjoy it much regardless. So that was our lame attempt at celebrating Chinese Mid Autum Festival.
A couple of nights later we decided to try a particular dumpling restaurant, Northern Dumpling, it came highly recommended for yummy cheap dumplings, which somehow or other we hadn’t actually had yet! We hit the jackpot, just as described in the reviews the service is kind of gruff, the decor is basic and the food is great. We had 3 flavours of dumplings (Pork&Prawn, Pork&Leek, Vegetarian) with the Pork&Leek the star of the show and Vegetarian in 2nd place. We got them all fried and they were super crispy, yummy generous filling and a huge serving for a next to nothing price. We walked out of there grinning like cheshire cats and will definitely be back on the regular.
Our adventure to end the week was our first comedy show in HK, but surely not our last. It was intimate to say the least, two rows with about 8 seats a row and they handed out free beers from a chilly bin so definitely not your standard setup. The 3 guys were reasonably funny and hey I walked away with sore cheeks from smiling and a slight ab-ache from laughing so it was all good by me. Our intended dinner stop afterwards was The Butchers Club where they are well known for their standard beef burgers but also offer a “beyond” burger (the ones that look and taste like meat but are made out of who-knows-what instead). On the way the other two Pilots we were out with (yes I know a lot about planes by now) suggested we stop at Wooloomooloo for a drink. We thought we were headed to some standard bar, potentially Australian themed. But after stepping into an elevator and whooshing up to the 31st floor rooftop bar we found ourselves in and amongst the skyline, such a good spot for a drink.
We did eventually make it to The Butchers club where the burgers were very delicious, but kind of small, if I was to offer any criticism. They were so yummy and we were chatting too much such that I didn’t even get a snap of them, so we grabbed the “beyond” flag and put it in my ice cream sandwhich (also delicious) instead. Not a bad way to wrap up the week.
