Beijing 2010

Instead of a bunch of posts about the Beijing portion of my trip, I made this nifty video instead. I am amazed that I have had my mac for so long and never even opened Imovie. After a short tutorial from my brother, I am hooked! It looks so professional, but in all reality, it is super easy (shhh!)

So enjoy Beijing!

Hong Kong: Market Day!

One of the highlights of our trip was our culinary adventure day. We took a tour through the market with Peonie and her sister, Toowina, as our guides. Not only did we get a taste of a local daily market, but we also picked up ingredients along the way to cook dinner that night. It was like our dream come true...learn to cook Chinese food by the experts!

The meat is so fresh it is not refrigerated...it just sits out in the humidity. We didn't eat any of this...

What's a Chinese market without duck?

Fresh bamboo

Check out Scott's melons!

This is the wet market...where you can buy any and all the seafood you desire.

Eels

And even live frogs! Scott got a lesson from a customer on how to properly prepare them. No thanks! (I'll spare you of the pictures of the cleaver and frog together)

Mmm mmm good!

Scott and his dad were in charge of tasting (and tasting and tasting) the wine while Peonie & Toowina cooked. As I couldn't drink, I was in the right mentality to actually write down the recipes and take some pictures. Can't wait to try out some of these dishes at home (although half the battle will be locating the ingredients here...fresh bamboo, fish paste, bitter melon, Chinese celery).

Toowina sautes fish paste balls.

This wine is good...

Hello snapper!

Here's a rundown of the meal:

Sauteed Prawns: sauteed with a little sugar and soy sauce and Toowina's secret spice blend!

Bamboo and Mushrooms: fresh bamboo shoot, dried mushrooms, Asian celery, and fish paste balls.

Bitter Melon Omlette

Boiled Bok Choy

Steamed Snapper: super healthy! Steamed and topped with celery and green onion, and a little soy sauce.

It looks like a lot of dishes for one meal, but in the Chinese style of eating, all the dishes are placed in the center of the table, and the diners take what they want as they please with their chopsticks. You each have a little bowl of rice also. Its not like our American way of eating Chinese food where you pass around each dish and load it onto your plate, its more take a bite of this, then a bite of this.

Hong Kong: Buddha

Day #3 took us to a giant bronze seated Buddha (I think it is the 2nd largest one!). This Buddha sits on a hilltop on Lantau Island. In order to get there, you can take a long and twisty bus ride, or you can opt for the cable car ride, which takes you over the water and up some hills. Of course we opted for the cable car.

Over the water...
There's the Buddha!

Lantou Island is the home to a monastery, the giant Buddha, and a fishing town. Our first stop on the island was lunch: Japanese style noodles. Yummy! Pretty much just a bowl of delicious broth with your choice of noodles and veggies. I had buckwheat soba noodles, while Scott chose udon.

Scott demonstrates proper noodle slurping technique.

It was HOT and HUMID that day, and this pregnant lady was not looking forward to hiking up quite a steep step of stairs to reach the Buddha. But armed with a Scripps baseball hat, a bottle of water, and Scott's promise of a popsicle upon our return, I made the journey to visit Buddha. It was worth it up top, Buddha was magnificent (and my popsicle was good too!).

Peonie & I are the Buddha!
Armed with my hat and water bottle, ready to embark up the stairs!
Up, up, up

We made it!

After visiting Buddha, we stumbled upon this Kung Fu show put on by the Shaolin monks. I couldn't see a darned thing due to the crowd, so I am grateful Scott took these photos.

This is my favorite Scott photo of the whole trip!

Hong Kong: The Peak, Stanley

Hong Kong consists of an array of islands and land along mainland China. The famous skyline everyone sees is called Hong Kong Island, while directly across the harbor is Kowloon. These 2 areas are full of various neighborhoods. The best place to view the the entire harbor area is The Peak. By taking a tram up the steep mountain directly behind the city, you can reach The Peak.

Here comes the tram!
I love how the city backs to this green hillside.
Can you beat this view?
Peonie, father-in-law Stephen, Scott, and me
Scott and his dad

After taking in the view, we headed around the island to Stanley, a beach town. That's the amazing thing about Hong Kong...there is a sophisicated world class city, but a short drive away there are a few lovely beaches to escape it all (and you need it with the humidity!). Stanley is a cute town with a large market (lots of goods from China), small beach, and cute restaurants. We strolled through the town and stopped for drinks and nachos. Hmmm, check out our nachos...not sure Asia has that Mexican food thing down...

Nachos made with Doritos and cucumbers?

That night, we walked around downtown Hong Kong, had a light dinner of tapas, and I was exhausted!

Welcome to Trendyland!
Taxis! Apparently going in every direction.

Hong Kong: Day 1

Uh-oh, we took way to many pictures for a single post about our awesome trip to Hong Kong and Beijing, so it looks like I have to blog in a few installments. A HUGE thank you to my father-in-law and his girlfriend Peonie for having us out and entertaining us all week long!

The first day we arrived, we were promptly whisked away to a delicious dim sum lunch. What a wonderful way to begin our trip to Asia! Scott and I were schooled in proper chopstick usage while eating yummy pork buns, shrimp in rice noodles, and even trying chicken feet.

Peonie & me

Next, we took the famous "Peonie" tour of Hong Kong, in which Peonie personally showed us all the highlights of Hong Kong, from the harbor view aboard the Star Ferry, to city streets from the tram. We ate sweet waffle treats from a stand on the street (don't tell my doctor...she said no street food!!), had drinks in SoHo, and ended up at the InterContinental Hotel for a few appetizers and re-energizing before the nightly light show and dinner.

Waffles!
Scott & me in the city
Hong Kong Island from the ferry
View from the cocktail lounge at the InterContinental Hotel

Nightly light show? Oh yes...every single night at 8pm, Hong Kong skyscrapers put on a light show set to music. You only can hear the music in a few touristy spots, so that is where we went for the show. The lights on the building flicker, move, change colors, and lasers even shoot off some roofs! Kind of like a Disney show...but set in a world class harbor and city. Seriously, if you haven't guessed by the pictures so far, Hong Kong has an AWESOME skyline.

After the light show, we met up with Peonie's whole family for a Chinese banquet. When I say whole family, I mean like over 20 people! It is very common for families to China to dine out in private banquet rooms, since their apartments are so small. The family spent all afternoon playing mah-jong, and when we arrived, dinner was served! Now, by this point on the evening, Scott and I were exhausted by our flight, and had to really work hard to make it through this meal. But the food was MARVELOUS! Here's a quick run-down of the menu:

Lobster steamed and topped with garlic
Bird's nest soup (good for your skin!). Yes, that really is a swallow's nest in the soup.
Dried scallops with pea shoots
Steamed whole grouper with ginger
Fried chicken, but moist and light, unlike American fried chicken (notice the head?)
Rice cooked in lotus leaf (soooo good!)
Noodles and shrimp dumpling
Steamed buns with lotus paste and egg yolk
Sticky rice and coconut soup (my favorite!!)
Peonie's family (told you it was big!)