Hong Kong, my Hong Kong

I’ve been home a week, and Mexico is merely a dream again. Only the photos and a couple of excellent fridge magnet plus a beautiful pendant I got from a real Mexican girl, remind me that I was ever there. Sigh.

Coming home was a bit of an anti-climax. I had nothing to look forward to anymore and everything I looked at was so familiar. That was such a bore after two weeks in which everything I looked at was new (except Memphis) and everyone I met was new and (especially in truck stops) interesting-looking.

But oh, how I love Hong Kong. It’s home! And I love the Cantonese language now more than ever. In the States, although I felt I fitted right in with the Southern locals despite, I have to say, being better dressed, people always asked me where I was from. I always said, with pride: Hong Kong. “Oh, I love your accent”, many then said.

So I might as well live here where everybody asks me where I’m from and when I say Hong Kong they say “No!”

You know what would make Hong Kong even better though? If Sichuan food was the national food here. Fortunately I can cook it, and I must say I uttered a sigh of relief the second day after I came back and could fire up the old stove and start chopping my favourite vegetable (tuber?) – lotus root! And soy beans! Yam yam yammity yam.

Please come to my restaurant in Pui O this autumn. The weather is lovely, the food great and the beer cold. But if you can’t be arsed to drag yourself all the way to Lantau, buy my book and start cooking for yourself! You’ll thank me for it later.

返咗嚟 (faan jo lei – have come back)
蓮藕 (Lin au – lotus root)
貝澳 (Bui ou – Shell Inlet/”Pui” O)