This first pic is at a "Hong Kong style" diner called Tai Hing where I had my first yeun-yeung, milk coffee and milk tea mixed together. I loved that they put it on ice rather than ice in it. No dilution, more beverage! The lunch was a Taiwanese dish of minced pork with a yummy sauce with the egg on top. So simple, so good.
Here is one of brunch out at the Tasty Congee & Noodle Shop. The kids enjoy noodles of all kinds, and I love this pic of Esme attempting chopsticks. Not pictured was the congee we ordered, which isn't that photogenic anyway. It's China's answer to oatmeal, except made with rice and with savory toppings. It's Tasty.
I often go out for dim sum at work with my team and have many new favorites. A surprising one is these honey black pepper chicken wings. I don't really eat wings back in the States-- too much work, slimy chicken skin, not much meat. But these I can't get enough of. The outside is so crispy, it's like candy.
Next up, new fruit! Or is it a baby porcupine? We call this one "monster fruit" at our house. It's real name is rambutan. Sweet and juicy, though the outside is a bit deceiving.
This pic is of Paul and I with some of my coworkers enjoying an evening out eating hot pot. You have the boiling pot of broth in the middle and a variety of things to cook in it. Meat, fish, prawns, veggies, mushrooms, etc.
The ingredients were very fresh. How fresh? This fresh....
The waitress brought the jumbo prawns over for approval before the kitchen killed them and put them on ice. She set one on the table for me when she saw I wanted to take a picture. Poor little (big) guy, he looks kind of sad....
But he was really delicious!
Now on to a fast food experiment. McDonald's was featuring a black and white theme for a limited time. Paul took the kids for a treat lunch one day and tried the black burger. Bun with squid ink, beef patty, bacon, some special sauce and a layer of truffle mashed potatoes. He gave it good reviews so I had to go check it out one day for lunch (I don't remember the last time I went to a McD's on purpose without kids).
I went with the white burger (chicken patty instead of beef and no squid ink in the bun). It was good! I'd like to have another one made by someone other than McD's with higher quality ingredients. Mashed potatoes on a burger is genius. I also complemented mine with a black bubble tea.
This next picture is from a lunch out with my team to a vegetarian restaurant. We had BBQ pork, fried shrimp with mayo sauce, a chicken dish and sweet and sour pork..... all made out of tofu. But they made them all taste almost exactly like the real thing, texture and all. If I wouldn't have known otherwise, I would have sworn the shrimp were real.
Now on to the most interesting things I have eaten. This first one is roasted pigeon-- check out the little heads with the beaks! We didn't eat the heads, they were just for decoration, I think... The birds were really good, I expected gamey. I had seconds.
These next three pics I got off the internet because when the meal was happening in real life, I didn't take any pictures. Lunch out with my team again and another Target colleague visiting from HQ, but originally from Hong Kong, so they ordered up some homey Chinese favorites of theirs. I think up to this point my team had been nice to me and ordered only "safe" food, so when these dishes started showing up, at first I was worried I wouldn't find anything I was willing to eat. I did find enough to eat, and had at least one bite of the more questionable items (except the tripe). This first one is jellyfish, which is surprisingly firm and crunchy, not jelly-ish, and tastes most like Japanese seaweed salad (which I like). I've had this dish a few times now and do like it (though I wouldn't order a whole pile for myself).
This one is of chicken feet, and my team orders them a lot. The sauce is really good, but the tiny amount of meat and large amount of bones and chewy gristly bits don't cut it for me.
This next dish was a doozy-- coagulated goose blood pudding. I thought it was raw livers when it showed up. I had one bite and while the flavor was decent, bordering on good even, I mentally cannot get past this one.
So after goose's blood, anyone save room for dessert?? There is no shortage of good dessert here. How about some coconut pudding baked in the mini coconut? I used to hate coconut, and still do hate dry flaked coconut, but have come to appreciate it served up other ways and this one was good.
This one is coconut milk with sago (basically pearl tapioca), grass jelly (doesn't taste like grass) and vanilla ice cream.
Mmmm, mango pancake filled with mango and cream.
And the very last pic in this very long post is a favorite of mine, egg waffles from a famous street stall. Now I'm full.
