Stayed pretty much close to home for my 5 days off. Didn’t do too much but now that it’s Sunday night, seems as if the days just flew by. Let’s see ….


Wednesday night – drinking in Wanchai, gf got extremely drunk, 3 of us carried her to the car, but only me to carry her from the car to the house.

Thursday – recovery day. Dinner at Sai Kung waterfront, lobsters, prawn, clams.

Friday – shop till you drop. But first, lunch at the best wonton noodle shop in the entire world – hadn’t been there in awhile but they’re still there, the wontons are still amazing, and a bowl of wonton noodle soup is still just $16. (Middle of Stanley Street, hole in the wall joint, no English name.) I got a light box on Stanley Street, planning on using it to photograph my collections of Zippo Lighters and Hard Rock Cafe pins (2 more blogs coming to hold this stuff). But wasn’t till I got home that I realized the lens on my DSLR doesn’t have macro capability, so perhaps during the week ahead will look to get a wide angle/macro zoom. GF spent an hour in H&M while I spent an hour on the street watching the girls go by and checking my watch.


Neither Dymocks nor Page One had Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything, 10th anniversary revised edition” – guess he’s not famous enough here to have his books imported so file away for next Amazon order. Finished off Times Square by buying several steaks at City Super (dry aged U.S. black angus ribeye and striploin).

Saturday – resting my feet. A friend joins us for dinner, I barbecue steak and corn, our helper whips up (literally) a batch of mashed potatoes. The City Super steaks were frigging expensive but the taste was unbelievable – and fortunately I cooked them exactly right, charred on the outside, rare and juicy on the inside. I’d put plenty of kosher salt and pepper on them before grilling – once done I thought they were fine as is but my gf practically covered hers in the chili sauce we’d bought at the wonton noodle shop the day before – she claimed she could still taste how good the steak was but I think she was jiving me. At any rate, age old lesson confirmed, start with great ingredients, don’t fuss with them too much, you’re gonna enjoy.

Sunday – spring cleaning in winter – going through old boxes piled in the hallways, discovering artifacts from my life that I forgot even existed. I’ve got my father’s junior high school, high school and college diplomas – do I really need to save these? Old Playbills from Broadway shows I saw – including Waiting for Godot with Steve Martin and Robin Williams; Speed the Plow with Madonna; Pirates of Penzance with Linda Ronstadt – could this stuff be worth decent coin on eBay? How’s about the program/magazine from the 1973 Star Trek convention in NYC? Old Fillmore program books. Pages torn out of Billboard with my name underlined. Issues of Trouser Press with record reviews I wrote. I need to organize this stuff. Relaxing dinner at Cru, always dependable, still warm enough to sit outside and SK town is quiet at 9 on a Sunday night. Cru has a roast turkey dinner special, and I never order turkey but this time I did – turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potato, baby asparagus, broccoli, carrots, tomato, baby corn, gravy for HK$155, not too bad a deal. Noticed that the new Japanese restaurant in the town square has a sign that says “Shushi Bar” – need to get a pic of that. Planning a trip around Chinese New Year – thinking 10 days in Vietnam, Vietnamese sandwiches, pho, bun cha.

And, well, it’s Monday already. Back to work, short week, another long weekend coming up ….

Hongkie Town
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