The Off Topic Topic

[Tamas]

If you were booking flights and will end up having a stop-over in Hong Kong - is it worth turning it into a one day stop-over? Or am I more likely to be so jet lagged that there's no point?

That's what my sister and her now-husband did some years ago (made it into a couple of days in fact I think). They really enjoyed and made some stunning photos.

[Zanza]

Just ate a product called "Nuts & Berries". It contained almonds from the US, hazelnuts from Italy, cashews from Guinea-Bissau, raisins from Turkey, cranberries from Canada, cherries from Poland, and blueberries from Chile. Packaged in Ulm of Europa Universalis fame. Quite a globalized product.

[Barrister]

If you were booking flights and will end up having a stop-over in Hong Kong - is it worth turning it into a one day stop-over? Or am I more likely to be so jet lagged that there's no point?

That's what my sister and her now-husband did some years ago (made it into a couple of days in fact I think). They really enjoyed and made some stunning photos.

I suspect Hong Kong would be an amazing place to visit.

But the point is more that Sheilbh is presumably trying to get to someplace he wants to visit even more, and whether it would be worthwhile to delay getting to that other place in order to try and get a quick visit in Hong Kong.

[Sheilbh]

Reversed course given Jake and Zanza's comments.

27 hours in Hong Kong

Edit: Incidentally there's been a big second wave of Cantonese food in London with Hong Kong exiles moving here. While the first basically gave us what became the standard British Chinese takeaway (and all those staple classics), this one has seen loads of Hong Kong cafes open in London (like this: https://www.hokolondon.co/) - milk tea, Hong Kong french toast, ham soup macaroni etc. Can't wait to try the real stuff

[Barrister]

Reversed course given Jake and Zanza's comments.

27 hours in Hong Kong

Edit: Incidentally there's been a big second wave of Cantonese food in London with Hong Kong exiles moving here. While the first basically gave us what became the standard British Chinese takeaway (and all those staple classics), this one has seen loads of Hong Kong cafes open in London (like this: https://www.hokolondon.co/) - milk tea, Hong Kong french toast, ham soup macaroni etc. Can't wait to try the real stuff

Cool - have fun!

Like any Canadian I've certainly had "standard Canadian-Chinese takeaway" my whole life.  There's a whole tradition of dishes that have come from being invented in Canada but in Chinese restaurants (most famous is probably something called "ginger beef" - which is delicious).

But my office is literally one block from Edmonton's Chinatown - I can see it from a window on the north side of the building.  And while it's not like I go there weekly, I've had some amazing chinese food that has very little to do with the Canadian-Chinese food I've always had.

So forget the sightseeing - I'd love to visit Hong Kong just to go eat.

(back in December I also had a sex assault case that happened in a Chinese bakery.  It's all very sad - but it also made me king of hungry after I heard all about the inner workings of a the bakery)

[Sheilbh]

Yeah. People look down on it as "inauthentic" but I absolutely love the incredible variety of localised versions of Chinese food Chinese diasporas have made everywhere (and what is more authentic in the world than immigrants adapting their world to a new one?). I'd love to go to a place that had "-Chinese"/"Chinese-" dishes from around the world. I know a couple of Indo-Chinese places in London which again have absolute staples of Chinese restaurants in India that I have literally never heard of

But I think it sounds like it's similar in the UK, the classic "Chinese takeaway" emerged in the 20th century and was for Brits. Obviously very catered to local tastes, but working from a very Cantonese and South China influenced base reflecting that most Chinese migrants in the UK either came from Hong Kong or Fujian.

That shifted, and it sounds similar with Edmonton, with places designed to cater to the tastes of Chinese-in-Britain. My understanding is a big shift was when students from the mainland started coming to the UK in large numbers because we basically didn't have much immiration from mainland China so even the most authentic places here were really authentic Cantonese. So there was a wave of especially regional places (that are now almost a new norm - any big city will have Sichuanese food etc).

Now it's something new again with loads of Hong Kong style cafes - from what I've read it's in part because of young Hong Konger entrepreneurs spotting a gap in the market. But also from what I've read it's homesick food.

And yeah I'll get the tram up the mountain, try and see a temple maybe - but I am all about eating my way through as much of Hong Kong as I can in 24 hours :rotund:

[Jacob]

Where are you going after that?

[HVC]

Have fun and don't get yourself in trouble with the authorities

[Barrister]

Have fun and don't get yourself in trouble with the authorities

Be sure to leave your umbrella at home!

[Josquius]

On Chinese food I found a place locally that does authentic szechuan food. Presumably aimed at Chinese students.

Authentic as in full of bones.

I wish there was somewhere that would do authentic Chinese but with western cuts of meat.

[HVC]

As for authenticity, it helps to be friends with Chinese immigrants, or first gen kids. There's always a few authentic places and they usually know them.

[HVC]

On Chinese food I found a place locally that does authentic szechuan food. Presumably aimed at Chinese students.

Authentic as in full of bones.

I wish there was somewhere that would do authentic Chinese but with western cuts of meat.

The bones add flavour! the good part about growing up on Portuguese food is I'm used to the weird cuts. Feet, ears, snouts and innards of a multitude of animals, had them all . Only trouble I've had eating was balut* and chicken feet.

*the quail kind, not the duck kind. Duck was way to developed to even try.

[Zanza]

When I lived in Singapore, I went out for lunch/dinner with three of my Chinese colleagues regularly. Two of them were Singapore-Chinese and had a good feeling what a European would find eatable. The other guy was from China and some of the stuff he ordered for us was beyond the pale.

[Sheilbh]

Where are you going after that?

Taiwan

Only been to South-East Asia before so very excited. Keen for the food there too.

The bones add flavour! the good part about growing up on Portuguese food is I'm used to the weird cuts. Feet, ears, snouts and innards of a multitude of animals, had them all . Only trouble I've had eating was balut* and chicken feet.

Yeah bones are good. Having an Irish family meant I was exposed to, say, salt cod, offal and boney cuts of meats well before I saw it in, say, a Portuguese or West Indian place

[HVC]

When I lived in Singapore, I went out for lunch/dinner with three of my Chinese colleagues regularly. Two of them were Singapore-Chinese and had a good feeling what a European would find eatable. The other guy was from China and some of the stuff he ordered for us was beyond the pale.

When I went to Vietnam the best food I had was when my friends family ordered stuff they thought would gross me out all in good fun, they would eat it too, and they actually liked it. They were pleasantly surprised I enjoyed it.