Sorry Gatsby. You can’t repeat the past.

There is always an element of danger when you return to a childhood home, that the place which held such fond memories will be quite changed when you return. Such was the case for me of Stanley, in Hong Kong.

Our old home, completely unrecognisable. Sigh.

I was expecting some changes after 30-odd years, but the Markets now are full of tourist tat, with none of the scary snake-wine jars I recoiled from as a child. Busloads of tourists spend an hour or so there to buy souvenirs, and look at the water before heading back to who-knows-where to look at the same souvenirs in a different location. There’s a new Piazza, with two McDonalds outlets, and no-where I wanted to eat. If I had been in the mood for fish & chips, or a club sandwich I would have been sorted, but ’twas not for me.

The bus ride there and back though, is quite thrilling. I’d like to see some of these bus drivers on the F1 track, because I reckon they’d give Schumacher a run for his money. They negotiate winding, hilly roads in a double-decker bus at what seems like top speeds. Fantastic. Another one for the Cheap Thrill Rides of Hong Kong.

So after a delay getting on the bus with Juan Fangio at the wheel who really couldn’t be arsed sorting out the problem of four middle-aged English tourists who didn’t have the right change for their fares (and who were whinging the whole time about being ripped off. Dudes, get an Octopus Card!!!), we were speeding off towards Central, and Mak’s Noodles.

Decor is wipe-clean functional, the waiters were grumpy with a barcode of pen marks above the pen pocket of their shirts. I loved it.

This is one of those fantastic, cheap, little joints who pride themselves on doing a few things really well. Noodles, in this case, and gorgeous shrimp wonton. For AUD$3.85, I enjoyed a lovely little bowl of bouncy thin noodles, bite-sized shrimp wontons seasoned with white pepper, and a deeply flavoured, restorative broth. Hearty appetites may not be appeased by this, but at this price you could just order two bowls. After the coach-loads of tourists buying cheap silk scarves, fake jade what-nots, and the horror of two McDonalds in Stanley, my love of Hong Kong was restored.

The simple bowl of noodles which saved the day!

Cheap thrills

If thrill rides are your thing, Hong Kong has two Theme Parks; Disneyland, and Ocean Park. Neither of which I want to see. My rides of choice are slightly tamer, but thrilling nonetheless.

Ride number one is the fabulous, and cheap, Star Ferry.

Just as I remember......

The company was established in 1898, and I’m not sure the original boats are still in service, but they certainly are the same as I remember from the 70′s. The smell was most nostalgic indeed; seawater-infused wood and ropes, with a touch of diesel, and a splash of Hong Kong Harbour. YUM! The trip nowadays between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central is much quicker because so much land has been reclaimed on both sides, but it’s fabulous nonetheless. And cheap. At a cost of about 30 cents (one way) it’s probably the best value for money thing to do in Hong Kong. The old ferries chug back and forth across the Harbour day in, day out, and stepping on to the swaying gangplank, and taking a seat on the gorgeous star-motif seats took me right back to my childhood. Hell, even the steps leading up were gorgeously familiar.

I know. They're stairs. Whatevvvverrrrrrr....To me though, these are gorgeous stairs.

A perfect illustration of the maxim "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Functional, and beautiful.

The other great ride in Hong Kong, is the Tram. These double-decker beauties rattle along pretty much one route, with differing start and finish points, passing each other close enough that you could hand a passenger in the oncoming tram a snack through the windows. If you were so inclined to hand out snacks to random strangers. These days the trams are pretty much moving billboards, being entirely covered in an ad “shell”. They always used to feature advertising, but as individual panels rather than the whole outer. No matter, it costs less than 30 cents a ride, and, as with the Star Ferry, they are not only fabulous for sightseers, but are a vital component of Hong Kong’s excellent public transport network.

Known locally as Ding-Dings, as the drivers ring the bell twice to warn pedestrians to get the hell out of the way. So cute!

So a return ride each on the Star Ferry and the Tram cost me a whopping $1.20 in total. Plus, each ride got me to and from places. Functional, cheap, and fun. I love you Hong Kong!

Bonkers for Honkers

The last time I was in Hong Kong was as a very wee lass, when we were posted here. We spent three years here as Ex-pats, and my vague memories are very happy ones indeed. Especially starting school at the Stanley Fort School, which was British Army to it’s bootstraps; putting a 4 year old girl into a shirt, tie, tunic and blazer. So sensible for the Sub-Tropics. Oh well, stiff upper lip and all, carry on, pip pip.

Oh Mummy, I do love my school, and learning to speak with a giant plum in one's mouth!

This time round it will be a wee bit different, but after only one day, there are things which are strangely familiar. My learned sister was here a year ago, and has a theory that Hong Kong has a particular smell which is very evocative, and makes it seem immediately familiar, and homely. Imagine if you will, that you spent a few years as a youngster growing up in, let’s say, a house with 100 cats. That’s a house which would have a very particular smell, and like it or not, if you revisited that 100 cat house some decades later, I’m sure the smell would bring back many memories. Probably horrid ones having lived with 100 stinky slaves of Satan, but I’m sure you get the picture.

Anyhow, I have arrived after 8 hours of hell in a full Economy Class – no Sky-Sofa on this Asian jaunt, sadly. I think Hong Kong Immigration may have had some training from the good folks in France, as the lady who processed my entry didn’t stop her conversation with her colleague as she briefly glanced at my passport, then at me, stamped away, and I was free to collect my luggage, and breeze through the Nothing To Declare channel I was in!

Once off the excellent and cheap Airportlink Shuttle Bus service to my hotel, including the driver carrying my luggage to the hotel door to hand over to the Concierge, that smell hit me and I was in one of my many homes again. Fantastic! I’ll save my kooky hotel for another post, but suffice to say the service has so far been great, and the bed is ENORMOUS!!

I had grandiose plans for today, but was quite tired and more worryingly, very sneezy and sniffly despite a double dose of anti-histamines. Blechhh. Still, I did manage to eat an excellent dim sum lunch, buy my Octopus Card ( sounds better than a Go-Card, but is the same thing, except one can use it it some shops as well), have quite an extensive walk around my temporary neighbourhood, and augment my very scanty travel wardrobe with a few cheapo, but good t-shirts from Uniqlo.

Dim Sum Bar. Poached vegetable, turnip cake with dried shrimp, shu mai with truffle (in basket), shrimp dumpling (already in my belly).

I love it here already. It’s familiar, yet unknown, and I can’t wait to explore. And eat. Obviously.

Star Ferry Terminal steps. Haven't changed in (insert large number here) years. May have been repainted, but glad to see they've maintained the original design.

Move over Organic, there’s a new kid in town.

I’m all for organic produce, don’t get me wrong, but if I had a choice between organic and sustainable, give me sustainable any day. I would rather a producer concentrate on supplying a product which is sustainable, suitable to be grown in the terroir, and seasonal, rather than forking out a lot of cash to get the wee Organic Certification label. I don’t care if your tomatoes are organic; if it’s winter, I don’t really want them. I’ll roast some parsnips instead.

Also, I don’t care if your cows were hand-fed organic grain to fatten them up before they end up as a steak; I want a steak that has spent its life eating grass. Cows dig grass. They’re built to eat grass. Grain is not a natural thing for cows to eat. They can’t digest it properly. Jeez, this isn’t rocket science. I also don’t care if they’re Wagyu breed cows; if you make them eat grain & cram them into a pen, shank-deep in their own filth, then I don’t want to eat that either. The humane treatment of animals is more important than a quick buck. I have no problems with responsible animal husbandry, I love to eat meat, most of my many shoes & handbags are leather, but the idea of forcing an animal to eat something it can’t digest without the aid of medication, just to make it fatter and ready for slaughter faster is just plain mean. For the record, yes I will eat foie gras, but that’s a whole other battle against the hippies…..

See! This grass-eating cow is as happy as a pig in mud.

*Disclaimer: this blog entry is not based on any scientific research into current animal husbandry or farming techniques. I do realise that the leather goods I buy are probably not made from organic leather, but I figure I eat more meat than I buy shoes, so it’s a start.

*Disclaimer #2. I may indeed have more leather shoes & bags than I realised, but I simply refuse to wear plastic, or Polyurethane, which is probably made from horrid chemicals anyway.

For the common good. Commonwealth. Commonwealth.

So good,  you have to go twice! Commonwealth is now officially one of my favourite restaurants in the world. It’s in the Mission district of San Francisco, which is one of those newly hip inner city areas; teeming with funky shops, cafes & restaurants, happily living alongside old-school Mexican restaurants, taquerias, community centres, second-hand stores, goodwill stores, exciting street art, liquor stores & small grocery stores featuring mounds of cheap fresh vegetables stacked outside. It’s a vibrant, fun, and very multicultural district.

Commonwealth follows a benevolent business model, wherein $10 from every sale of their tasting menu (a ridiculously modest $65) is donated to local charity. The charities vary from month to month, and is, I think, a very generous proportion of the total menu cost to contribute. The calibre of the menu, and the integrity and quality of ingredients used here certainly don’t indicate a not-for-profit, PC charity-case experience, and indeed it is not! Rather it is a very stylish, “Progressive American” restaurant whose cuisine relies on local, seasonal, sustainable, carefully selected and prepared ingredients, a thoughtful and reasonably priced wine list, and respectful and  caring attitude for the city in which it prospers.

Off to a cracking start! A light, tasty amuse bouche to share!

You know you are in for a treat when you sit down, glass of excellent Californian Chardonnay in hand, waiting for the meal, and a bowl of house made potato chips, dusted with seaweed, and served with a bowl of lighter than air malt vinegar mousse hits the table to whet your appetite. Salt & Vinegar chips! Yes! I’d be happy to eat this with every aperitif I ever have.

The a la carte menu is an intoxicatingly appealing selection of “mid” dishes, of which one can choose as many or as few as one would like. I wanted to eat every single one of them, and at between $11 and $16 a plate, if I had the appetite, it wouldn’t have been a ridiculous strain on the wallet.

First dish; radishes three ways with salad, sunflower seeds & freeze-dried goat milk butter

We chose three courses each, (with only one double up I think between the three of us) and after the second course there were murmurs across the table that one visit wasn’t going to be enough.

My only criticism of my first course was there was too much! It was presented on a slate platter, and the freeze-dried goat milk butter was sublime; airy & light on the palate, with a lovely gentle goaty flavour. I adore radishes, especially with butter, so this was right up my alley.

Another of my "Oh wait, photo!" half eaten shots. I like to think it adds a feeling of being there to the shot.....

My next course was grilled squid, ham hock, bacalao croquette, cilantro pesto. Fantastic!

After another bottle of sublime Californian wine ( small vineyard Verdelho), another course, and a shared dessert of Lemon Sponge Cake, Thyme Ice Cream, Candied Honey & Creme Fraiche, all delightfully strewn in artful abandon about the plate, and a freebie from our delightful waiter of Tonka Bean Frozen Yoghurt, Strawberries, Rhubarb & Anise Stresuel, we were done. And ready for more. We asked if there were any tables free for the following night, because, we were nowhere near done with eating that menu! Luckily, we could come again the following night at 9pm. HURRAH!

Ocean Trout Tartare, purlsane, beets, sorrel, frozen horseradish & creme fraiche

The next night was just as good, and the welcome even warmer. It may have been this dish which was part of the tasting menu which we saw land on the table next to us, and which my sister was graciously allowed to have as an a la carte dish the second night, which tempted us for a second sitting, but everything was great. If we had the time, I would have been up for thirds.

Morel mushrooms, snap peas, smoked turnip, amaranth, sheep milk veil. Utterly delicious.

The quality of the produce, and the care and pride with which they were served were extraordinary, and the floor staff were warm, relaxed, friendly and knowledgable. Plus I had a sublime dish featuring fresh morels, which are almost unobtainable in Australia, not to mention breathtakingly expensive.

And then there was the sea urchin dish.

Again. Too greedy to take a photo of the dish in it's "chef-fresh" glory. I think you get the idea though...

A generous serve of rich, luscious sea urchin roe atop soft scrambled eggs, asparagus, and seaweed brioche, with the subtle bite of jalapeno peppers, and brown butter as the finishing touch to a truly delectable plate.

Next time I’m planning to be in San Francisco, I’m booking a table for the tasting menu here before I book my flight. There are a couple of other bookings I’ll be making too, but that’s another story….

San Francisco. Still groovy, man!

I have to confess that the USA wasn’t really high on my list of holiday destinations, but the lure of a trip with my sister and friends, combined with attending the Opening Night Gala & after party of a musical adaptation of the cult book series “Tales of the City”, made it a fait accompli. The added bonus was that the outstanding value of the Aussie dollar against the greenback promised shopping nirvana. Plus, we were headed for San Francisco, which was the epicentre of  the Haight- Ashbury free love, hippy, tie-dyed explosion of the 60′s, and a city tolerant and supportive of Gay Rights. I was anticipating a modern, progressive, arty, city which was more liberal, laid-back, and funkier than the stereotypical image of mainstream, conservative America, which I, maybe unfairly, had established in my mind. I was right. My impression after two weeks is that San Francisco is a hip, forward-thinking city, with an eye for beauty, social awareness, tolerance, and a population of incredibly friendly people.

Despite it's hip, progressive vibe, San Francisco still lures in those looking to "tune in, turn on and drop out". And wear tie-dye.

The really exciting thing for me, though, was to eat Californian Cuisine. The whole idea of fusing different cultures on a plate, eating locally, sustainably & seasonally was arguably born here, and brought to the fore by luminaries of the food world such as Alice Waters and Thomas Keller. And I wasn’t disappointed. We ate like kings, for not very much money, and for this reason alone I would travel back to San Francisco time and time again.

Toasted Walnut bread with Humboldt Fog goat cheese at Tartine Bakery. Fresh apple slices on the side. Simple, and so very very good.

From pizza, toasted sandwiches, ice-cream cones, and salad bar lunches, to multi-course restaurant menus, everything was delicious. The emphasis and pride in locally grown and produced ingredients was evident everywhere, and I rejoiced in tasting fresh morel mushrooms, local cheeses and breads, wines, fruit, vegetables, meats, seafoods and more!

A visit to a small weekday Farmer’s Market revealed sublime cherries & peaches, a myriad of heirloom tomato varieties, and gorgeous little new potatoes, leeks, carrots, radishes, mushrooms &  a whole lot more. Despite having a full kitchen at our disposal, we chose mostly to eat out, as it was so cheap, and so very, very good.

Gorgeous baby carrots. Almost the colours of the rainbow. Very San Francisco.

I will write some individual posts on some of the outstanding meals we enjoyed, and leave you in the meantime with some lovely pictures of glorious San Francisco produce. I salute you San Francisco! Your commitment to the environment is commendable by means of your unsurpassed recycling programme, in which not only paper, glass, & plastic are recycled, but wherein composting bins are provided for every household, hotel, and even food court, which are collected and mass-composted by the city. BRAVO!

The imperfections in these heirloom tomatoes, make them the perfect tomatoes to me.

I wanted to grab these radishes, cut them in half, smear them with creamy cultured butter, season wildly with sea salt and eat until I could physically eat no more.

Good bye to an old friend

I was a relative latecomer to the home computer ownership/internet addiction, but once I was in, I was hooked! My trusty white MacBook accompanied me to Paris twice, Tokyo and San Francisco once each, and last Friday night, I killed it. Not with kindness, which would have been the right thing to do, but with a full glass of wine accidentally knocked over. At least it’s dying breath was wine-soaked, as I hope mine will be.

Aaaahhh, happy times. MacBook, me & my sister in Paris 2009

It was a faithful travel companion, never whining, always happy to do exactly what I wanted to do, and to record the events for posterity. Unfortunately, posterity can only be achieved when one has a back-up friend to store all of those lovely memories in photo form. Sadly, when my travel companion bit the dust in a puddle of Pinot Gris, all of those lovely photos went with it.

Sayonara my friend. Even open -heart surgery & a geek-world defibrillator couldn’t save you.

I’m afraid I am a hard-hearted Hannah, because my first course of action the next day was to hot-foot it to the Apple Store to replace my loyal friend. Cold? Maybe. But I have a new friend now, and soon to come an external hard-drive thingy ( or whatever the iNerd techno-term for it is) to preserve these precious memories forever. Of course, I never had this problem with old-school photo albums, but I am determined to shed my Luddite tendencies, and move with the times, baby! Of course, like a true Luddite, I’m already behind the times; I don’t even have an iPhone! Hard to believe I know, but I’m making great leaps with my new friend the MacBook Pro. Shiny. New. Fast. Lovely.

Can’t wait for our new adventures my new shiny friend!

We’re firm friends already, although Monsieur Pro is a wee bit demanding, already asking where to store the back-up info he already has  ready & waiting in the Time Machine. Don’t you love that? He has a Time Machine for all my stuff, and wants to know where to put it already! After only 4 days together. He’s a keeper. Can’t wait to give him new photos, music & TV shows, and to take him to Paris. Just think of the things he can share & store for me!