7 Quick Takes: The Foodie Update

1/  Those who have known me long enough, will know that if there is food in the room, that’s exactly where you will find me. I unashamedly love good food. In that regard, moving to Kong Kong was both exciting, because it has a reputation for great food; and frightening, because grocery shopping is known to be very different to what I am used to. I warned Kev that the home cooked meals and the nicely packaged, balanced, lunch boxes for the family, could be a thing of the past.

2/   For the first two weeks we pretty much ate out for suppers, besides some delivered meals from new friends. Mcdonalds take aways went down well as an alternative to fried rice on one or two occasions. Moving into our home, shortly followed by the start of January, Kev starting work and the girls going to school, meant real life began. No more take-outs and expensive convenience shopping. Once again, we had a food budget, like the good old days. Grocery shopping is a whole new ball game here. You don't just pop into your local grocery store and get everything for the week, or even just for dinner that night. There are many different types of grocery stores, with different products, different quality and different pricing. If you’re vaguely concerned about prices, quality, or the origin of the food, a stop at three different grocery stores is fairly common. We hosted some friends for dinner last week. Needless to say, I spent the entire 2 and a half hours, while Shiloh was at school, finding what I needed for the simple meal. I ended up with a backpack of groceries and four big packets, trying to catch the minibus home (and not being able to fit through the door because of all my food!). As a result, I have already put a super sexy granny trolley on my birthday wish list for this year. Everyone uses them here. When in Hong Kong, do as Hong Kong-ers do, right? Why do I keep thinking there is actually something really Hipster about them? I could totally see Sharyn Sassen in her long socks, wheeling one down Bree Street.

 3/  I may sound like I am complaining and that is EXACTLY what I was doing after that particular food shop! On the other hand, I have spent one or two mornings browsing through the supermarkets, out of choice, because it satisfies the foodie within. I find it fascinating seeing what different shops sell and working out where best to fill our bellies from. There are loads of 2-for-1 type deals (and I love nothing more than a good deal!) which have been great for buying the more familiar items to us, which are usually priced higher here; like cheese, yoghurt and cream. On my first kid free morning, I caught the mini bus straight from Shiley's school to Central and spent the time wondering up the lanes where the fruit and veg sellers find themselves.

Shiley loving her Dragon Fruit

Possibly the worlds longest green beans?
Look at the size in comparison to the sweet potatoes

4/     The wet market is another option for grocery shopping. It has the name, because they generally sell wet food - so fresh meat and produce like fruit and veg. I am not yet sure how I feel about this one. Its pretty much a huge market space (with a wet floor) with loads of veggie sellers, meat sellers and fish sellers. We took the girls to look through the one day and they were fascinated. Somehow, they weren’t put off by the chicken feet, pigs trotters, eels, jumping frogs or gutsy fish. It was all going ok until I spotted the baby turtles. It was at that point that I eyed Kev and we swiftly made our way out. Apparently turtle soup is a thing. Im still struggling to come round to that idea. Maybe I am not such a foodie after all.

5/     Jen, my mom-in-law, has always said ‘the recipes that work in Cape Town, wont necessarily work in Hong Kong’ and that was proved right pretty early one. As I said, I cant resist a good deal, so on one of my grocery browsing mornings I bought self raising flour and buttermilk, both marked down due to impending expiry dates. When you see buttermilk and self raising flour, of course, you have to make rusks! Well what a disaster. All the ingredients were mixed, melted and ready to go and then I opened the greatly reduced organic flour that I thought was such a great find, only to find some weevils came with for free. What a deal! I will admit, I googled ‘is it dangerous to eat flour with weevils in it?’ and incase you're interested to know, its not so bad. They wont make you sick and they're actually a great source of protein.  Mom – don’t worry, my conscious kicked in and I chucked it out :) When a deal turns out to be no deal at all. I made a (makeshift) plan and used the (wrong) flour I had in the cupboard but something was still wrong. The mixture was way more runny than normal, with only half the liquid added. So of course, I just added it all anyway, threw in the box of (over priced, super average tasting) muesli we had in the cupboard, baked them overnight, and pretended like nothing was wrong when I served them with tea the next morning. They don’t taste terrible but they don’t taste like rusks.

6/     I had to redeem myself and so I made fried rice for dinner that same night. Why have I never made this before? It can totally be improved with time, but it was yummy and the family loved it too. On a side note, hot lunch at school, is a real thing. The 'normal' lunch box with a sandwich, fruit, yoghurt and pretzels is just not cool. I was introduced to this early on when a friend gave Sierra a Thermos flask for her hot school lunches. We kept with the western lunch box for the first few days and then off Sierra went to school the fried rice leftovers warm in her Thermos flask J

7/     Egg tarts. These things are so good. We have tasted a fair number already and made it our mission to find the best in Hong Kong. We may have had them after dinner the one evening and then on our way out the next morning, we had some more as a post-breakfast snack. The next best foodie experience has been dumplings. These things are amazing! Kev and I are very overdue a date night, but when it happens, dumplings, followed by egg tarts will definitely be on the menu. There is no lack of eating out options in Hong Kong, from super local to really top restaurants. I look forward to exploring the food world of Hong Kong a whole lot more. 

Before I end, here is a classic from Shiloh. We are out for a quick supper one evening and she tastes something that has chilli in it. She then pipes up: ‘Mom, I don’t like the chilli, it makes my brain wobble!’