mei foo memories

I did some substitute tutoring at a tutorial center the past two Saturdays. Besides providing me with some income, the tutoring also afforded me the opportunity to revisit the place where I spent most of my childhood -- Mei Foo Sun Chuen. My family lived in Mei Foo from 1984 to 1993, so it holds quite a lot of memories for me. And although much has changed in the 13 years since we moved, I was pleased to find that many things are just as I remember them...

One thing that struck me immediately is how small the buildings seem. In the 80s, when we moved there, Mei Foo's 20-story apartment buildings were considered quite tall for residential buildings. But now, as you can see from the picture below, they're completely dwarfed by most modern residential complexes.


And probably the biggest change can be seen in the picture below. The nice concrete wall you can see running through the middle of the picture used to separate Mei Foo from the sea! Now, thanks to the wonders of reclamation, the wall has openings that lead into a very large park. I remember coming to this area as a child. We used to watch the planes coming in and starting their descent (into Kai Tak -- also a distant memory now...), and we could look out across the water to Stone Cutter's island. Well, thanks to the reclamation, Stone Cutter's is no longer an island, it's probably just part of this park. Another random memory I have associated witht his wall is coming here for mid-autumn festival. I remember lighting candles and putting one in each cement circle in the wall. It was so pretty -- too bad it's not allowed anymore, because of the wax mess that the candles leave behind.

This next picture probably qualifies as one of the strangest I've ever posted. I was trying to capture the emptiness of this place more than any interesting features. Some of my happiest memories were spent here, because it used to be a playground! Yes, that's right -- a playground underneath a freeway, but a playground none the less! I'm sure that someone finally realized that it was a major health hazard to have young lungs breathing in a smorgasbord of carcinogens and other toxic fumes, so they got rid of the swings and sea-saws (aren't those illegal now anyway?) and fenced the whole area off. Never have I felt so compelled to burst into a Cat Stevens song. "Tell me, where do the children play?" At one of the many new playgrounds, I'm sure.
Here's is a sweet potato and roasted chestnuts vendor. The site of this little make-shift stall hit me with a wave of nostalgia. I remember when this area next to the Mei Foo bus terminus used to be full to maximum capacity with hawkers selling a variety of cooked food. This is where I developed a taste for fish balls and satay, and learned that tofu, when cooked in a certain way, smells terrible. The side walk, now clean because of the lack of vendors, used to be caked with grease and grime -- so much so that I'm sure quite a few people took a fall after underestimating the slickness of the blackened ground.

And finally, here are some stalls in the Mei Foo wet market. There 's quite a variety of stalls and small shops here now, but I remember when most if not all of these stalls sold meat. I'm sure avian flu didn't help these businesses at all, and I think a lot of people feel more comfortable buying meat from grocery stores now, even if they are theoretically sacrificing freshness.
And here are pictures of some places that I remember fondly. This will probably only be interesting to my sister, and maybe my brother (Steve, do you ever visit me here?), but that's reason enough to post them. :)

Here's the podium gate to our building. Other than the new shiny gate, it looks pretty much the same.
A podium landmark -- the "flying horse fountain." I used to go rollerskating around the podium with my sister and her friends (no, that "her" was not meant to be an "our" -- I was quite the tag-along).

Our building! I think our balcony is the fourth one up, but I'll have to check some old photos to be sure. :)

Here's a restaurant that we would get rice boxes at quite often. It's still there, and still successful. I find the name amusing. In Chinese the name means "many, many," but they translated it into English phonetically and called it Door Door.


And that brings my nostalgic ramblings to an end. Thanks for reading!

"sayonara, sushi..."

I just read this article that predicts that world seafood stocks will collapse within the next 50 years... pretty sobering stuff.
I promise to have a happier post soon!

food glorious food

I have some pictures I've been meaning to post (some more recent than others -- thanks for your reminder, Mike!), and they all happen to revolve around food -- what a surprise!!

A flash from the past outside my favorite vegetarian Indian restaurant -- that's Esther, me, and Sal outside of Branto. I think the last time the three of us were together was back in 8th grade! Esther was in HK for most of October doing a medical rotation and staying with her parents who are living here again. I ran into her at church, and somehow wasn't surprised!


Here are Mike and Kai with our paper masala dosa.
A spontaneous dinner with Helen at EXP at Festival Walk last night. We were surprised when we got to bypass the long waiting line and were taken to this nice ice-rink-view table. The only reason we could come up with for our speedy seating was that they mistook us for irrate customers when we asked how long the wait would be.


Our special drinks. I love the juices at EXP!
And this is from today -- lunch with my parents at the Turkish Kitchen, a new restaurant in TST. I recognized one of the cooks from another Turkish restaurant in TST -- Istanbul Express -- and he remembered me too (guess I went there a little too often last year...). He's working at this new restaurant now.


The owner was really nice -- talked to us about Turkey quite a bit and gave us free apple tea and Turkish coffee. I attempted to say "thank you" in Turkish at one point (something forever etched on my brain after last year's trip), but got no response, which means I either said it too quietly, or was utterly unintelligible.

Here's the apple tea.
My dad got Turkish coffee. I passed because I don't like chewing on a mouth-full of grounds at the end of my coffee. To each their own.

hmm...

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 4 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

lantau hike with mom and dad

Yesterday my parents and I took a hike in the south of Lantau. We started at the Shek Pik reservoir, walked to the very remote Fan Lau Fort, and then ended up in Tai O. My parents had gone to the fort about 7 years ago, and I'd been wanting to see it for myself since they'd first told me about it.
The trail took us along a road with a water catchment that flows to the reservoir. My mom noticed this interesting bridge with stairs that seem to lead nowhere.

A view of some of the South Lantau beaches.

My parents! I took this from a lookout point that I climbed to for a better view of the beaches. After taking this, I almost fell down the hill. But no worries -- I would have more opportunities to fall later on in the hike...


You can find this sign on a number of trails in HK. I don't think it's ever had the desired "warning" effect on me... it makes a flash flood look like some really cool water-park ride.

My dad enjoying the view.
There's "Chicken Wing" Peninsula (that's a literal translation of one of the Chinese names for this place). The fort is on the very tip, overlooking the Lantau channel, which is a route to the Pearl River. The fort was built to ward off pirates!


Some beach dogs greeting my parents.

An old building (maybe a temple?) by the beach. There's a faint inscription above the door -- any ideas about what it says?

I liked this tree. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.
We saw some very large spiders. Look, this one is almost as big as my dad!

And finally -- we made it to the fort!!
Some information about Fan Lau fort.

The fort entrance.

A couple views of the inside.


And then we came to another beach.

Crab art.

Tide art.

An abandoned beach-front home.
This old man was the only person we saw in Fan Lau village. He was really nice and sold me some much-needed water.
The nice old man and his canine companions.

Looks like people might still live in these buildings.


The Fan Lau village ancestral hall (?)

The inside of the doorway to the ancestral hall.
Soon after taking that last picture, I decided to explore some abandoned houses. While walking back towards the path, I tripped on a step, got my feet tangled in some long grass and, as my hands were occupied with my camera and water bottle, I successfully executed the perfect 10 of face-plants. And only my mom witnessed it. If I could go back in time, I would definitely have her video the fall so that I could embed it here. But alas, all I have to show from it are badly bruised knees and skinned elbows.

Further up the trail we noticed this sign. I was curious...

Here's the much-anticipated water pond. It was a nice way to cool down (though if you look closely, there's a warning about the water being of the "untreated stream" variety).

A dragon fly that I noticed near the pond. On a side note, the white thing is an electrical cord that ran all the way along the path between Fan Lau and a small village near Tai O. Guess it's supplying some remote dwelling with power.
An overgrown shrine that I noticed hidden behind the trees.


This is part of the trail between Fan Lau and Tai O. It was so overgrown! I had just come out of that tall grass when I took this picture, and was so relieved to be out in the open again! Apart from being scratched by the grass and repeatedly hit in the face by branches and twigs, I'd never walked through such thick, tall foliage before, and started feeling a little bit claustrophobic. And it didn't help that I could imagine a snake or other poisonous/dangerous animal falling on my head at any moment. Panic!
Here's some fungus growing on a tree branch. I'm not sure if this stuff is edible, but it reminded me of the fungus I used to eat in China: mu er (literally "wood ear").

Here's a sign that we came to at the end of the especially overgrown section of the trail. I guess my mom noticed a similar sign at the beginning of the trail, which I missed. Anyway, they weren't joking about it being "treacherous" and "seasonally overgrown." But then if we had followed their advice and not proceeded on the trail, we would have had at least a 4 or 5 hour hike back... not an easy decision.

Ginger flowers growing wild. Maybe the ginger (and flowers) were harvested at one time... but not anymore.

Looking for a toilet? Looks like you'd be set going either way.
We made it to Tai O!

There's now a bridge that connects the two sides of Tai O. I think the last time I visited (over 10 years ago) they still used rope to pull a ferry back and forth.

Stilt homes in Tai O.


This beautiful old building is now an HSBC!

Some dried seafood for sale.


A sign in Tai O welcoming mainland tourists down for the National Day holiday (aka "Golden Week"). We had dinner in Tai O and then a 2-hour-2-bus journey back home. What a day!

The end.

robots

According to the Tozers, there's a new restaurant here in HK called "Robot Kitchen," which is "staffed by a trio of robots." It sounds interesting and I will probably try to go there soon, but then it begs the question: isn't this new dining concept bringing us dangerously close to a world dominated, nay I say, ruled by robots?

Here's a video (to embed or not to embed?) of a duo called Flight of the Conchords singng a song that echoes some of the fears expressed above. It's called "The Humans are Dead" and was apparently written for the "post-apocolyptic robo" market. Thanks again must go to the Tozers for introducing me to FotC.

some feline affection

Yay! I successfully embedded a video!