New Apartment and Turkey Meatballs Barley and Garlic Sauce Dish

I just moved from my parents' place to an apartment closer to work and I am so happy! I've been commuting since January and the commute can be anywhere from 1-2 hours, depending on traffic. It's about 60 miles each way. My dad has been doing this commute for over 10 years now. It's very taxing and you lose 3-4 hours of your day every weekday. I gained weight because I did not exercise as much, plus I would typically get sucked into my work and end up sitting for several hours. I try to walk periodically, and take a 15-20 minute walk after lunch, but it's not enough to combat a 9-10 hour sitting session. Finally, I got a place that is steps from the beach! It is such a great deal. Pretty good price for LA, though the room is small, but can't beat being close to the beach and in this nice area. Plus, my commute is only 30 minutes each way! It's only been 1 week since moving in but I am so much happier. :)

Another reason I wanted to move out and closer to work was to get back into cooking! My mom cooks a lot at home, and she is a FANTASTIC cook, but at times I really enjoy the process of cooking and getting the chance to experiment. Now that I'm in my own place and with more time (come home at 7 instead of 9!), I can get back to cooking!

Tonight I made a turkey meatball and veggie dish over barley. We had a pint of this great garlic sauce leftover from a work lunch, and I knew it would be great on nearly anything. I finished cooking around 9:30 and was very pleased. I did not take a picture of this because I still need to figure out how to plate it best, but the dish was very delicious despite its simplicity. I am proud because the turkey meatballs turned out very juicy! Earlier in the year, I had attempted to make Swedish meatballs, followed a recipe, and it came out very dry. I brought it to work too and feel like I forever shamed myself "-_-

The garlic sauce is this delicious thick creamy white sauce from Chicken Maison, which is famous for this sauce. It's delicious. It's probably based on this Lebanese garlic sauce ("toum") recipe, but is thicker and creamier, maybe closer to this garlic recipe here. Here's what I did:

Turkey meatballs:
1/2 lb of ground lean turkey (95% lean)
1/2 large yellow onion, minced
1/2 tsp of Texas barbecue seasoning (salt, black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, paprika, oregano)
1 large egg
4-6 crumbled Saltine crackers

Mix together and let sit 15 minutes while you prepare the vegetables. I used mushrooms and broccoli here, cooked with caramelized minced onion in avocado oil. Once cooked to a crisp tender and caramelized state, remove contents to a bowl.

Meanwhile, cook pearled barley according to packet directions. I used 1 3/4 cup of water to 1/2 cup of barley, and probably cooked it for 45-60 minutes, but it was too much water and I had to drain the excess.

Using a mini cookie scoop, shape meat mixture into tight little balls. I got 11 out of the 1/2 lb meat mix.

In the same pan that the vegetables cooked in, heat another tsp of oil. Place the meatballs gently in the pan and cook over medium until browned. Turn meatballs and cook until browned on all sides. Make sure to cover the pan at some point to allow the meatballs to cook through without losing moisture. Once browned on all sides, turn off heat and remove pan from heat.

To serve:
Scoop barley into a wide bowl. Top with meatballs and vegetables, then drizzle garlic sauce over. You can garnish with paprika and parsley, a squeeze of lemon. Enjoy!

Here's another Mediterranean garlic sauce (copied from this link)

"GARLIC SAUCE:
- 4 cloves garlic minced with
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 egg white

In a food processor add garlic minced with salt, begin processor and slowly add oil and lemon juice alternating them until gone, scape down sides intermittently. Add one to two egg whites while the processor is blending until you reach mayonnaise consistency. Serve with chicken or meat and cover and refrigerate remainder. Lasts about a week refrigerated"

 

Till next time!

The magic of the City in one week

As I sit here watching the sun set
in Sunset
It is hard to believe the pleasure this trip has been
I came in with no real plans
No expectations
Just hope and happiness
To return to what I call my homeland
The Bay Area.
Long ago, I had said I did not want to live in San Francisco,
"The City," as they say,
For it was too crowded, too busy, too expensive.
Too hilly, too too too too much.
But now, after having spent a week here,
Generously guided by my host,
I have fallen under the San Franciscan charm.
West of the tourist area of San Francisco,
West of Union, Pier 39, SOMA,
Lies Sunset, Golden Gate, Land's End, Twin Peaks,
Haight and Ashbury, UCSF Parnassus.
All of it beautiful and unique and bustling in its own charm,
Without the hectic feel of the east part of SF.
Little local shops, individual and unique
Yet fitting into the San Francisco culture all the same.
The shops: Tibetan, vintage, boutique, hippie, retro, random, bizarre.
The food: classy, one-of-a-kind, fresh, local genius, diverse.
Oh, the food! What can I say?
What can I do to engulf all the edible beauty before me?
The carefully constructed platters, pieces, pastries.
A tender, careful eye to ingredient selection.
Artistry and culinary expertise in the composition.
Walk down Irving Street and oggle
At the Chinese, Vietnamese, Eritrean, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Korean restaurants;
At the adorable little Japanese shop, the Posh Bagel shop that sells cronuts,
A store dedicated to vacuums, to glasses, to tarts.
Everything just being there beckons to you,
Come, experience what I have to offer,
But one week is not enough to see it all.

What I did in these past few days are many, but they will forever be held lovingly within my memory:
The view of the City from Twin Peaks at night
The hike up to and view from Land's End
Reindeer and butterflies and more at the California Academy of the Sciences
The ramen with the Japanese breaded fried egg at Ikazaya Sozai
Swing dancing at 9:20 social with my old instructor/buddy
Walking around Haight, browsing the vintage shops and sampling artisan chocolate
The dry-fried chicken wings at San Tung
Touring Genentech in South San Francisco
Watching soccer in the 37 degree weather in San Jose at night and witnessing a short tussle
Seeing all the unique trees decorated by organizations at Christmas in the Park, San Jose

Then there was the return to my old home
Berkeley...

How I have missed you, Berkeley.
Your cracked and hilly streets,
The vagabonds and hobos and smell of weed down those same streets
Students going about their own business, worried about classes,
About relationships, about organizations.
New shops popped up, old shops still there, others gone, maybe replaced.
Holiday craft street fair, showcasing local unique gifts
Things always bustling, always exciting
Music, people chatting.
Walk, continue walking, through the campus, up the hills.
Past the beautiful buildings, colors not just brown, different.
Big grassy Memorial Glade.
People with dogs and frisbees, the Campanile rings its bells in the background.
The breeze plus the sun combine into the best of feelings.
If happy had a recipe, this was it.
The feel of walking all over again, instead of driving everywhere,
Invigorating, healthy.
Visit old friends, blend in with the students,
Sit on the steps of Sproul, munch on a sandwich,
People watch.
Man with milk crate heralding some speech or dialogue or opinions.
Shorter man break dancing
Girl asks directions to architecture building
Lots of Asians, I am surprised by Caucasians.
Leave, wander, buy Cal gear,
Because now after being in the middle of nowhere Texas for a while
I appreciate what I had and left.
Cal, Berkeley, a Bear: this is who I am and who I will always be
I am proud to be a Cal Bear,
Proud to bleed Blue and Gold.

Better yet, proud to be a Californian,
Spurred on by the collective progressive mindset,
To be the leaders in the green movement, sustainable, active, proactive.
Integrate it into all aspects of life.
So what, not every man is a Southern gentleman,
There is not cheap BBQ everywhere,
and there are a lot of more homeless and a lot less free parking,
But this is the exciting life, where one can explore everything one can be.
This is why I shall return to you, Bay Area, California,
I will come back and embrace you with all my heart,
Because you and I are one.

It is..
Love.

Tomorrow, I say good bye to the things that captured my heart.
Good bye, and I hope we reunite again.
May fate bring us together in the future,
The future, uncertain but always promising...

I refuse

Maybe these repeated occurrences means it's just not for me. I am capable, but my happiness is elsewhere. I know I am hard working, inquisitive, eloquent, but maybe this is just not my style and I need to find the place that fits me, rather than crumpling my paper heart up to fit it. My mind and heart are fragile like paper, lightweight such that I fly away in the free breeze. The hard times do make the achievements all the greater, but must the hard times be like a fatigue test, stressing you till you finally break with catastrophic results? A psyche should not be turned into a psycho, but nurtured into a science about yourself. Some may say I don't know how to cope; maybe the truth is that I refuse to...

Skin Healing and Hormones

One of the reasons I joined the bimoaterials and tissue regeneration lab at my grad university is because I wanted to take part in the research behind wound healing. I have always had a history of being highly susceptible to cuts, bruises, abrasions. You name it, my skin can't handle it.

It does not help that I am also very careless and thus accident-prone. Just a few weeks ago I was digging through these shelves at Michaels and shoved my hand into one of the little bars that shape the shelf. The little circular edge lifted up a good chunk of skin and started bleeding. I had to go get a band-aid and the Michaels' workers were like, "How did you get hurt here?" I am so unique and amazing like that, I just can.

I have had to get stitches twice: once when I slammed my shin into the edge of a concrete fountain and it shoved a whole patch of skin through the dermis and right above the fatty tissue upwards into a wrinkly mass of dermal tissue. I saw some kind of white in the hole and just thought, "That is way too deep. I should NOT be seeing this."

Rushed to the ER at 2 am, got stitches, had to wrap it up for several weeks to heal and now I have this ugly lighter color scar tissue on my left shin. Second time was when I was washing dishes and a cracked cup decided to finish cracking as I was scrubbing it, slicing across my pointer. I washed it, tied a napkin tight around it and proceeded to finish cooking my tikka masala that night. By the end of cooking it still didn't stop bleeding, so I thought, "I don't want to bleed to death. Looks like I gotta ask my friends to drive me to the ER again at night." Off we went to the ER and I got more stitches. I had to wear this large clasp over my finger to keep it from moving and ripping the stitches and healing tissue. The scar still is a little tender.

So, yeah, my skin is not that great a barrier against physical assault. I always wondered what was wrong with my skin. What biologically and chemically was different about my body that made its skin weaker than the normal person?

Opening my homepage today, I saw that they were talking about the "Healing Power" of skin. Intrigued by the relevancy, I read on: skin is remarkable because it heals itself by forming a blood clot then a scab. As the scab dries and falls off, the process of wound healing fills the wound gap with new cells and extracellular matrix. A variety of factors contribute to this complex process, including hormones.

The big draw to this article is how important estrogen (or, as they spell it: oestrogen) is to wound healing. Mice that have no ovaries and thus are incapable of producing estrogen do not proceed through the wound healing process. The conclusion is that estrogen is an essential player in wound healing.

I have low levels of estrogen. I don't know if that is just how my body is naturally or if it occurred as a result of a phase in my life, but that is the truth. My low levels of estrogen are likely one reason for the weakness of my skin and the subpar aesthetics of my healed skin.

Just thought this was interesting. Hormones do a lot for your body. It's nice when they are in balance, sucks when they aren't (right, ladies PMSing now?).

If you get the chance, go to the actual page I got this from and also check out the other archived pictures/research.

Hong Kong Day 3

There are a lot of little boutiques, food shops, and other shops around the hotel. BF and I woke up and went out to get breakfast and head to any mall nearby.

On Cameron Road, there is a very small shop that sells fresh fruit and vegetable juices. You can get a wide selection of fruit and even vegetables juiced: pear, dragonfruit, bittermelon, starfruit, kiwi, celery, tomato, carrot, orange, mango...Each is about $15 HKD, which is about $1.88USD. We went with the mango with sago (little tapioca pearls), which was only $8 HKD and came in a small cup (about 8 or 12 oz, I think).

We were trying to head to a mall called "The One," which was supposedly nearby but with my limp was much farther. Plus the rain started coming down a bit and so we stopped into some little restaurant for breakfast. BF got a plate of ramen with chicken wings and a bit of veggies. I got the Hong Kong style (french?) toast. The noodle plate was rather small and underwhelming.

 I poured sweetened condensed milk and some liquidy peanut butter on top of my toast. This is how the Hong Kong people eat their french toast: with condensed milk, peanut butter, and honey. Pretty tasty and different than the french toast I'm used to eating. Not bad. The price tag for these two items plus a drink was around $8.50 USD, which is very affordable.

 For lunch, we met up with the grandma and aunt, uncle, and cousins on BF's dad's side at Maxim's Palace. This restaurant is housed in what used to be a theater. Going inside, I was awestruck by the grandeur of the interior. There were two stories, chandeliers, and fancy wall decorations.

Click image to see full size of the panaroma shot!

Maxim's Palace is a dim sum restaurant. Ladies go around pushing carts with various dim sum, but we primarily put in orders from the papers on the table.

Fried noodle with some sauce, chicken, and bean sprouts

Bitter melon with fish

Honeydew panna cotta: yum!

Sweet tofu pudding with longan and dates

Everytime we go to dim sum, we get so much food and I get so stuffed by the end of it, trying a bite here, a bite there. Also ordered were char siu bao (BBQ pork buns), fried rice, beef rice rolls in soy sauce, porridge, and more.

We then went karaoking at Red Mr with the cousins. You can rent out a room, in which there are several couches, coffee tables, and a TV. A touchscreen next to the TV lets you browse music and then add music to the queue. They had a good selection of old and new songs, popular and not as well known artists as well. Some that we sang were: Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, LFMAO, One Republic, Usher, Chris Brown, Lonely Island (I'm on a BOAT!), Justin Timberlake, Pink, Beyonce, Jay-Z and Kanye West, and Kelly Clarkson.

We spent over 3 hours in there singing. It was pretty fun. Each person gets 2 free non-alcoholic drinks. The parents (BF's mom, aunt, uncle) ordered some food for us: fried platter (fries, shrimp, onion rings) and a meat platter (skewers, cucumber with pork floss or something). BF's grandma came and stayed the whole time. I was soo amazed by her and felt a lot of respect for her because it's hard to be patient and stay doing nothing for 3 hours just to be with her grandsons. She also managed to nap while we sang really loud and horribly, which I thought was also amazing.

  A famous tourist attraction is the light show at the Kowloon Public Pier (south Tsim Sha Tsui), which occurs every day at 8pm. We gathered amidst the other tourists (and locals, I'm sure) on the edge of the pier and waited for the show to start. Across the water, you can see all the tall buildings and the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center in Wanchai. At the start, the Samsung building has a large LED banner that proclaims "Symphony of Lights". Basically, lots of buildings light up with many colors in coordination with the background music. People can also take the ferry around the harbor to watch. It was a little underwhelming. Pretty, but I got bored after 5-10 minutes.

Click to see full-size panaroma image!

Once it ended, we headed back to the hotel while window shopping. BF's family stopped by a jerky store. Jerky in Asia is sooo much better than in America. The jerky is not tough; rather, it's sweet, soft, and super flavorful. The flavor is dynamic, not just like smoked meat flavor like in America.

I wanted to walk around a digest still, so we wandered a bit. Went into a McDonalds and was impressed by their McCafe. Totally classy like a Starbucks. Fast food usually seems to be so much nicer in countries other than the USA.

Cheesecake, lamingtons, and muffins!?

After this long day, we finally headed back and passed out on the wonderfully hard beds. I knew I was excited for the next day and fell asleep planning what I could potentially do and eat...

Hong Kong Day 2

I think I have lost track of everything already! So much has happened already. It is hard to believe that it is already the end of Sunday here and coming onto Monday.

(Happy Fathers' Day too, by the way!)

We are currently staying at the Ramada in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is in the heart of many tourist spots and shopping in Hong Kong. The hotel is an old one and, therefore, has rather small rooms but is good enough, considering that we are out all day and only come back at 10 or 11 pm to clean up and sleep. The room has two twin beds pushed together to make it look like a large full or queen bed occupies the small space. The bed is rather hard, but we can still sleep fine in them. They give you a fruit basket (apple, orange, bananas) and some water. A small refrigerator and mini-bar is in the room as well, but drinks are for purchase (single-serve Bacardi, whiskey, vodka...).

BBQ pork bun

Shrimp in fried tofu

Late Friday (6/14) morning, we got dim sum at Star Seafood Restaurant near Amoy Plaza. For all these meals with my BF's family, I just let the adults do all the picking, because I cannot speak or read Cantonese and the locals know what's best. The spread is always generous and quite tasty. Everything is served in the center and you can pick and choose as you please, allowing you to eat as much or as little as you want. The two twos are the same as before: Ti Kuan Yum and Pu-erh.

Steamed meat and bitter melon rice

I got to meet the grandparents on my BF's dad's side of the family that day. Another aunt joined us. It's cool how fun the Hong Kong people are. The family chats a lot over the food, laughing and chatting away. The food may be in the center, but is only a side to the experience of people's company. The family always jokes around and even gets the waiters to join in the laughter. It's a truly jolly time.

Afterward, we went to Salon di Beauty (near Hollywood Plaza, I think) to get our hair done. This salon was recommended by BF's mom's sister. BF's mom and I got are hair permed (permanent curls) while BF and BF's brother got their hair trimmer. BF got a new style that I like, in addition to his usual haircut. I really like my new curls. This salon did really well, but I should hope so because the treatment took about 4 hours to complete. They even have really crazy looking machines inside to hot air dry your hair, or heat your curls, and such.

Once my hair was done, the boys and I wandered in the small plaza of the salon. We went into the Circle K (or is it "OK"?) convenient store and we got Vitasoy soymilks and cola candy. The Hong Kong people have such a wide selection of cola-flavored candies. I have to admit, these are pretty good. BF also got some curry fish balls and egg tarts from the little bakery next door. Pretty tasty, but the egg tarts were just decent (as he reports).

Finally, we went off to explore the mall. We wandered up and down, I got some new Reeboks (not much cheaper than in America, but I really liked the color and the feel of the shoes), looked at a couple bakeries.

Egg tart cup!

Asian savory baked goods

We went into a bookstore and I luckily found a cookbook in both Canto and English! It has a load of Canto dishes that I definitely want to learn and try out when I return to the US. The author is food blogger: Christine Ho from Christine's Easy Recipes.  Some highlights include  BBQ pork, egg tarts, shredded pork noodles. I am very excited and happy about this book.

 We got some snacks in the mall as well. There was this one bakery selling good looking egg tarts. One of them was an egg white tart. Highly intrigued, I got one. The BF said this one was really good, and by just looking, I could tell it was. I ate my egg white tart and was in heaven. The crust was buttery and slightly crumbly. It was also thin so that you get a lot of the egg filling. The egg white filling was light, fluffy, not too runny, perfectly sweet. It was the best egg tart I've ever had. I seriously want to go back and get some more.

After wandering down the mall, we stumbled upon the BF's favorite dessert place: Hui Lau Shan. We got the trio sampler.

The first is mango ice cream with fresh mango and some kind of jelly. The second is mango puree with fresh mango and tapioca balls. The third is fresh mango with mango flavored and filled mochi rolled in sweetened coconut flakes. They used sweet mangoes and everything was good. The curry platter in the background was standard packaged stuff and was fine. Tasty but standard, just like the instant House Curry stuff you can get in the supermarket. It comes with fish balls, white radish, and octopus/squid.

Cute cartoon candies at snack shop

BF looking at single-serving jerky in snack shop

They have a music store in the mall. I went inside and was enamored by the gorgeous pianos. It felt so good to brush the keys with my fingertips again and hear the full and beautiful resonating sounds come forth as I depressed the keys. I pulled out a piano book of 50 favorite songs and tried to play some. I want the book so bad. One song I tried was "Eye of the Tiger".

 There were so many amazing things I saw. Every thing and place was new to me and amazing and enticing. Hong Kong is really the City of Asia!

More excitement and pictures of the next days to come!

Hong Kong Day 1

This summer, I am taking my first Asia vacation! My boyfriend (hereafter referred to as BF) and his family invited me to come with them to Hong Kong in June to celebrate his grandma's birthday. As a graduate student with an advisor who puts down strict regulations, I only get 10 vacation days a year. Additionally, it is difficult to take a long time off of work, because research does not take a break. Luckily, though, I saved up all but one of my vacation days to use for this trip this summer, and we have undergraduate assistants over the summer that are capable of doing what I need when I am gone. So, I am able to take this long trip without worrying too much about losing valuable research time.

Monday night, BF and I flew back home to Orange County from Texas. I came home, got fed a delicious Vietnamese noodle soup called Bun Thang (homemade chicken broth, noodles, cha lua (Vietnamese steamed meatloaf), and egg) and got to eat a slice of amazing Asian-style cake from our favorite Van's Bakery. Asian cakes are much lighter, airier, and less sweet than Western-style cakes. It is more of a sponge cake with a lightly sweetened whipped cream frosting. My family always gets the mocha flavor with slivered almonds decorating the side. So delicious. I definitely want this to be my wedding cake, not some cloyingly sweet American sugar-butter bomb of a cake.

Tuesday, my mom, sister, and I went to get measured so that we can get our ao dai sewn. We are getting our fancy Vietnamese traditional dresses made for my uncle's wedding on September 1st. I am so excited. I have not been to a wedding since I was maybe in middle or high school. My uncle's fiancee is such a sweet, nice, and generous young woman. She loves going out to eat with my sister and I. She also knits really well. Last Christmas, she knitted nonstop to make scarves for everyone. She is very talented.

After getting measured, my family went to my Ong Ba Noi's house (grandparents). We brought along both Cody and Hershey, my sister's dog and my dog, respectively. The two dogs would not stop playing the night before. They were so excited to see each other. My family was just happy Cody was not bullying and attacking Hershey like he did when I brought Hershey home the first time during Tet. Now, they wrestle, but they do it for fun and Hershey loves just following Cody around. They are so cute.

We ate good noodle soup (Bun Soong) and eggrolls made by my ba noi. She cooks so well. She also made banh bo nuong. Oh man, I cannot stop singing it's praises. She got the texture perfectly: the raised honeycomb airpockets in the center, the nice brown skin on the outside. The best part, it was moist, not dry like the ones you get at the supermarket. She really perfected making it. I really have to learn from her!

My ong noi likes Hershey. He fed him chicken and pork fu, petted him on the couch, and even - get this!!!!i - playfully run with him between the living room and family room. My grandpa is not one to get up and move around much or smile too often. He smiled, laughed, and played with my dog!!! He loves him ^_^

At 9pm, I went with BF's family to the international airport and we flew the red-eye flight at 1 am. It was a 14 hour, nonstop flight with Cathay Pacific. Wow! Asian airlines are awesome! The airplane was more spacious, and economy class had 3 rows of 3. Each seat has a TV screen on which you can watch movies, TV shows, select music, see the location and progress of the airplane, request service. The tray is better designed than on American planes. Instead of just one large rectangular platform that comes down, it is folded in half so you can have a short tabletop for jut a drink or small item or a full one for eating or your laptop or writing.

Supper, breakfast and snacks were provided. Supper was a selection of either chicken with rice and vegetables or salmon with mashed potatoes and green bean. They were out of the salmon, so I went with the chicken. The sides included a delicious and refreshing shrimp quinoa salad, a surprisingly tasty bread roll with butter, and always delicious Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream!

Throughout the flight, you can ask for tea (Chinese, English, or green tea), coffee, other sodas and fruit juices, snacks (spring onion cracker, macadamia nut shortbread, peanuts, apple), and small meals (cup'a'noodle, lettuce wrap, mini turkey sandwich). BF skipped supper and ate 2-3 cup'a'noodles.

I watched "Mind of  Chef", where in the chef of Momofuku, David Chang, went to Japan and tried out some amazing ramen places and talked about how ramen is made and how he makes it at home and at the restaurant. With BF, I watched "This is 40" (hilarious! good movie about a crazy mid-life crisis, like a sequel to "Knocked Up"). I also peeked over as BF watched "Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters" and "Identity Thief". Both seemed entertaining to me, even though I couldn't hear what was going on, although BF said "Hansel and Gretel" was good but lacked character development.

I really hate long flight though. I kept feeling sick throughout the flight, and it didn't help that I ate all the meals so I kept feeling full, which usually exasperates my nausea. I was so happy to get off, but up until the late afternoon today, my body just felt messed up. I think I was still suffering from jetlag and too much food.

Breakfast was served about an hour and a half before touchdown. We were given a choice of chicken mushroom congee (rice porridge) or scrambled egg. I chose the scrambled egg, which came as a fluffy egg patty, with a sausage link, spinach with a bit of cheese, and herbed potatoes. Sides included strawberry yogurt, bread roll with butter and jam, juice coffee or water, and fresh fruit. All very tasty. I was surprised how good the egg platter was. (I didn't take a picture because I felt embarrassed to).

We finally arrived in Hong Kong and after being greeted by BF's aunt and cousin, we took the train to their home in Tsuen Wan. The train is so clean and nice; nothing at all like the dirty BART in the Bay Area.

Hong Kong is full of high rises. Residences are actually flats, which is basically a large apartment per floor. The train connects the different parts of the island and we drove past tropical looking trees, but when you get into the city, it is primarily roads and buildings; little greenery. Cars drive on the right side of the road, and there are more taxis and buses than individual cars. Lots of people walk around. You can see people's AC machines and clothes hanging right outside their windows.

We went to Jade Garden and had dim sum for breakfast. Wow oh wow. This was real Chinese food. His family ordered several dishes and we just selected whatever we wanted off the lazy susan. At the beginning of the meal, you are supposed to wash your dishes with some of the hot water from the pot on the table. My BF showed me how by pouring a little water into his teacup, swirling it around, and using the same water to clean another small bowl and chopsticks. There were to teas on the table: one was Pu-erh tea (pronounced "bo leh") and the other was Ti Kuan Yin. I really liked the latter and am definitely going to bring some real tea leaves of this kind back with me.

Egg tart with bird nest jelly on top

Something like fried wonton wrapper

Legit baked BBQ pork bun (with pineapple bun topping)

Fried fish and corn cake

Inside BBQ pork bun

Cantonese style soup dumpling (with pork, cordyceps, and shredded conpoy)

Steamed bun with some egg-like filling

 There were also red bean (or red date?) thick pudding cubes, beef in rice rolls, shrimp in rice rolls, BBQ pork bao, corn and fish congee, and carp filled green bell peppers in black bean sauce. Everything was rather tasty, and you can choose to eat what you like and not to eat what you didn't. I did not particularly like the steamed bun with egg filling. The filling was not smooth and had little coagulated balls of yellow egg inside. At the end, the cost basically amounted to about $10 a person.

We went back to BF's aunt's flat and rested for a bit. I got extremely jet-lagged and my body kept going through phases of slight nausea and fatigue. Eating more made the gross groggy feeling go away temporarily but then it would return in a few minutes with a vengeance. I eventually too a nap in the afternoon, after having lunch. BF's grandma made steamed glutinous rice dumplings, filled with fatty pork, dried shrimp, and mushrooms. Tasty home cooking. She also made an herbal broth that helps fight colds, which is what Michael and I have right now. These herbal broths are also good for your general health, so other people can drink it when they are not sick too.

After my nap, I felt a lot better, but I was still uncomfortable because all I did all day was eat and sit or sleep. I made BF walk with me around the local street markets. We walked by gorgeous looking Asian bakeries, affordable shoe stores with a shoe that I am thinking about getting because it's only about $20 instead of like $80 in the US, and a 7-11. I mention this 7-11 because it has so much more awesome stuff than in America! They had Asian ready meals, like fish ball curry, Portuguese baked rice, congee, tofu, soybean milk of all different flavors, Dreyers and Haagen Daz ice cream in interesting flavors (mango and green tea bars!!!!), and more. I am so getting one of these ice creams.

Pineapple pastries!

We returned to the flat and had a special dinner prepared by BF's grandma. It was special in honor of the Dragon Boat Festival which happened yesterday. The spread included grouper, abalone and bok choy in oyster sauce, mushroom and sea cucumber and greens, some cashew vegetable stir fry, roast goose, roast pork, and scallops over cucumber. My favorite was the abalone and bok choy in oyster sauce and the cashews in the stir fry.

The way his family eats (and I'm assuming Hong Kongese people) is by placing everything in the center and a bowl of rice for each person. You use one pair of chopsticks to put the mains into your bowl and the other pair of chopsticks to eat with. The table is lined with a disposable plastic tablecloth so you can your refuse like bones and skin on the table.

That's it for today! I am excited to go shopping at the big malls, street stands, night markets, and more! We also plan to g to see the Big Buddha among other sights! So stay tuned and continue with me on my trip through Hong Kong!