Cantonese cuisine: more than mere rice

During our orientation in Chicago this summer, we had to complete an exercise that involved checking off our reasons to serve as missionaries overseas so that we could be honest with ourselves about our motivation; the list included extremes from all ends ( 'to convert all the heathens' or 'escape a boring job' ) but also entries about seeking an adventure and a desire to experience other cultures. We discovered most everyone was thrilled about the food propects in the other country- and as they should be! Ryan couldn't wait to try out the Cantonese dishes, and he admitted to all that it was a big draw.

We have been in Hong Kong for a little over a week now, and wanted to share with you some of the exciting and interesting food items we have sampled. Cantonse food is not the 'beef and broccoli' that you had at your local 'Chinese' restaurant the other weekend, and it involves more than just lovely steamed rice.

We had our first tasting at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong- we wanted to be able to read the menu and ask questions of the servers (like, 'how do I eat this?'), and most regular places don't use English. It was a classy joint, to say the least, and Ryan didn't quite know what to do with all the help, triping over themselves to make us satisfied. They were very helpful with the gluten-free issue and the beautiful views over the harbor were a nice bonus as well. Ryan enjoyed seafood fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf (a real treat once he figured out how to manage it- it was a large steamed ball and the chopsticks were so fancy the food kept slipping!), scallops stuffed in chinese aubergine (or eggplant, as Americans call it) with a spicy plumb sauce and steamed broccoli. Katrina savored every drop of her lobster and seafood egg fried rice with herbs (no soy sauce) and steamed sweet potato leaves with garlic. For desert, Ryan feasted on the puffed walnut balls- something of a pastry- and we both tried the complementary desserts they bring with every meal: sesame balls (rice paper around a sweat bean paste and rolled in sesame seeds) and black bean gel-jelly wonders (we are at a loss to describe what they are, except to say that they are delicious and beautiful to look at, and involve beans, coconut milk, chopped nuts, and geletin in some lovely multicolored combination-- Church potluck 'carrots in orange jello' has nothing on these babies!)

The next week, the Bishop and his family took us out for a more authentic experience: Dim Sum (for those of you not familiar, it is kind of like Spanish tapas, with small plates or bowls of food and you just eat a pinch and move on to the next one). Our gastronomic guides (The Bishop and his family) were fabulous and we had a very enjoyable afternoon sampling a great variety of Cantonese dishes: lettuce steamed with crispy fried garlic pieces and soy sauce; shrimp and minced pork with crab roe in a yellow wrapping; fried tofu cubes; prawns wrapped in a rice flour casing and steamed; steamed dough with a pipping hot sweet yolk custard filling; eggs and pigs' feet in a dark purple sweet vinegar sauce; minced beef with cilantro wrapped in rice paper and steamed; chicken feet and chicken in a barbeque type sauce; steamed greens with fried garlic; rice porridge with 'thousand year old' duck eggs and seafood; a soup with celery, pig stomach, tofu sheets, greens, red peppers and ginko in a broth; sweet black rice porridge with coconut milk and cream; an orange desert soup of grapefruit, mango, tapioca and milk; and those greast-tasting jelly-bean cubes with red beans and flowers in their creamy geletin layers... oh, and green tea throughout. It was totaly not kosher but on the whole a very delicious meal (we were truly stuffed), and our concept of edible food parts has been expanded. Pig stomach tasted a lot like cow tongue to me... or langue de boeuf from my old days at French school... but that could just be me! In any case, you only live once (unless you're James Bond) so we savored the opportunity to try new foods and you know, they really were quite tasty. Ryan did like the pastries the best, though....

Noodle bowls and a Typhoon

We flew into Hong Kong during a category 8 typhoon. They didn't mention this during our flight, where they distracted our stomachs and minds with classic styrofoam noodle bowls and only briefly mentioned the presence of extra turbulence, but in fact we flew in with the storm.

After we happily found all seven pieces of checked luggage and made it through customs, we met up with the business manager of the seminary who informed us our transportation options were limited, "because of the typhoon." OK. What typhoon? Apparently only the airport and hospital workers have to stay at their jobs during a category 8 typhoon, so somehow this meant that we had to get all our stuff on the bus. A public bus. I heard something about taxis having the right to refuse us because of the storm... it's dangerous? Panic set in, or maybe just fatigue, but I couldn't figure out how we were going to fit all of our pieces on a regular bus or even how we were going to manage to carry all of them at once? And should we be outside if everyone else has been advised to go home and stay there? Ah, the joys of moving to a new country...!

But we were in good hands: the buses leaving from the airport are special, there are places for luggage, and really having everyone else off the roads made the trip much faster- nothing like a tropical storm to eliminate rush hour congestion. And the storm wasn't too bad, it sounds much more romantic than it was. But it did remind me of the first chapter of James Clavell's Noble House, a great adventure novel set in 1960's Hong Kong, which also, coincidentally, opens with the main character driving to his new job in fabulous typhoon. The classic MG he drove would have made for a sexier entrance, but public transport is earth-friendly (and we have to save our carbon points for a vacation in Thailand or something!)