The Australia Dairy Company

A quick post today.   For future food posts, I need to take more pictures to capture the local flavor.   Today I was too busy trying to keep the kids in order while stuffing my face :)

The Australia Dairy Company is a cha chaan teng 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha_chaan_teng 

not far from our apartment.   The closest American corollary that I can think of is Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis or Blimpy Burger in Ann Arbor.   Great, cheap food in a rushed, cramped diner.   Limited menu options.  No service to speak of.   A bit intimidating if you are new to the place.    Here's where I would paste in a picture to show the controlled chaos of this Kowloon diner, if I had the foresight to take a picture.

There are only a few dining options at the Australia Dairy Company:  toast,  eggs,  and soup.   The toast is either deep fried French toast or a thick Texas toast.   Default toast topping is a thick slab of butter but you can also do peanut butter or kaya, a coconut jam.   Eggs are fried or scrambled with lots of butter.   The soup is a chicken broth with macaroni and strips of meat.     That's it.   On the upper menu above Esme's head there are three set menu options.  It's either eggs with soup and toast,  eggs with soup and toast and some meat,  or eggs with toast.  

  The accompanying drink is either coffee,  milk tea or yuanyang, which is a combination of the two at ratio of roughly 1:2.   Milk tea (shown below) is another Hong Kong tradition, it is black tea mixed with either evaporated or condensed milk.    For somebody who never liked simple black coffee with breakfast,  milk tea and yuanyang provide some really attractive alternatives.   

As you can probably tell,  the food was very comforting and quite delicious.   The whole spread cost $15.  It feels like a comforting Sunday morning breakfast at the local Greasy spoon,  with a little twist. Great stuff.

Our first visitor & trip to Stanley

The first visitor award goes to Jenn McLeod!  The first week of April Paul's youngest stepsister decided to take advantage of the window of time between medical school and the start of her residency to do some traveling.

The timing of her visit coincided with a public holiday here so I had some time off so we took the kids and headed out to check out Stanley, which is on a southern peninsula of Hong Kong Island away from the hustle and bustle.  We took the bus and the kids enjoyed being on top of the double decker as it wound its way up and around the hilly/rocky/mountain (kinda)/forest area that is in the middle of the island. First stop was Stanley Market where we found a few things to purchase, but didn't do very well negotiating (we're not pushy enough and it's so cheap to begin with!)

After walking through the market you get to the waterfront.  We had a misty day, which was actually pretty in person, but not so good for pretty pics. The guidebook said it had a Mediterranean feel, and I'd mostly agree with that statement.

The kids had a fun time scrambling around on this rocky outcrop while I worried about them twisting ankles or falling in the water, but of course still was willing to leave my two-year-old unattended so I could take a cute photo of her.

We walked along the waterfront for a while, let the kids play on a neat pirate ship playground, checked out a temple that was just so-so, then had a yummy dim sum lunch. 

I took a picture of this chair because Esme said it was a time-out chair since it was sitting in a corner by itself.  I actually think it's a pretty picture with the spot light on it.  PE did earn himself a time out at the restaurant, but I took him outside instead since the crime warranted more of a removal than the nearby chair would provide. He was in a mood on this day and earned a few time outs, so while extremely frustrated I decided I should at least capture one of them for posterity to laugh at later.

Can you spot the pouting boy? I think people thought he'd lost his mother, and not that his mother was purposely ditching him.

Last pic of a pretty tree before we headed home...



A Philippines P.S.

I just had to chime in to post this picture of Paul Eli.  It makes me happy because the shirt he is wearing has come full circle-- Paul and I bought it for our nephew Jade when we were on our honeymoon in the Philippines 7.5 years ago.  The shirt now fits PE just right and made it back to the Philippines on his back.

And here is a group family picture at the airport.  The kids had fun meeting cousins close to their age and bemoaned having to leave Manila to catch our next flight to Cebu. Pictured are: Tito Conrad, Tita Ruby, us, Paul's cousin TJ (son of Conrad and Ruby), his wife Andi, Paul's cousin Len Len, and TJ & Andi's boys Pepi and Fonzi.

Plantation Bay, Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines

We took our first official vacation to my motherland,  the Philippines.   We wanted to take advantage of Chandra's two holidays to go somewhere warm with a beach.   Unfortunately,  the rest of Hong Kong appeared to have the same idea as the first-choice flights to Bali,  Palawan,  Phuket,  and Boracay were out of our price range.     We decided on Plantation Bay,  which was a popular resort with some man made features but very comfortable and still quite beautiful.   

Flight costs were a lot cheaper to Cebu through Manila so we took that route.  One benefit was that we were able to see some of my family at the airport in Manila.   Here's a picture of my cousin Len Len greeting the kids.

Plantation Bay was beautiful,  if slightly artificial,  just as advertised.

 The food at the resort was good, especially the breakfast buffet.   Every day they had a different theme - French,  Italian,  and Filipino.   My favorite was Filipino day where they had a lot of the old standbys (longanisa, garlic rice, pancit,  pandesal) with some really delicious Filipino desserts/sweets.   I have forgotten how good ube and milk candy taste!  

Esme whole heartedly agrees.

Here's another cute photo of Esme.   She is primed to be the next Hollywood starlet (hopefully without the alcohol problems and crotch photos with no underwear).

We took one trip away from the resort, to the shrine where Lapu Lapu,  the island chieftain,  killed Magellan as he was trying to colonize the island.  

Thumbs up is a common theme these days.   Here I am showing my appreciation for resistance to colonial aggression from the West.

Lapu Lapu.

There was also a little market near the shrine.   Here you can buy some souvenirs (we did dried mango and a few shirts) and visit the local seafood restaurants.   The most popular style of cooking is called sutukil,  which is a word combining three styles of cooking the seafood:  grilled,  in soup,  and raw, like a ceviche.   Our hearts were in it to try the sutukil but fears about timing (sleeping kids watched by babysitter) and gastrointestinal fireworks prevented us from partaking.   Hopefully there will be a next time.

Back at the resort.   One extremely fortunate thing about a trip this weekend was that the Filipinos love their basketball.   Why is that fortunate?  Well my Michigan Wolverines were playing in the NCAA tournament and every TV at the resort just happened to be showing the NCAA tournament on a loop.   So I got to see Michigan come from behind to beat Kansas and watch them throttle Florida,  only a few hours after the game had been played!    Here's a picture of the pool side bar,  where I was watching Michigan v. Florida over a mango shake.

The kids enthusiastically support NCAA basketball on all TVs at a small resort in Cebu, Philippines  (as well as ube ice cream).

So long from Cebu!