Calm Before the Storm

There is tropical cyclone heading pretty much right for us. It will get a bit wet and windy tonight. In the meantime the light looks nice!

View from my flat. 

Looking towards HK Island. You can see the Ferry's. One leaving DB and the other returning.
I think they are the last for the day, due to the incoming storm. 

Looking at HK Island on the Right and Kowloon on the left. 

HK Island

Kowloon.

Blame Brazil!

I consider myself a pretty good cook. Master Chef good no, but a decent home cook. I can take a recipe and make it my own and I can do wonders with some garlic, chicken, and a can of tomatoes. There is one thing I have never really tried much of and that is baking. I have done some. I make pretty good chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, crumbles, and once I made a green tomato cake that was a big hit, but I have never really ventured beyond the usual suspects, until today that is. 

You see a couple of weeks ago I was searching online for new cookie recipes. Mr. Grey Cat loves cookies and I thought it was time for some variety. I came across a recipe for Lemon Cookies that I thought would be worth trying, but before I made it, I needed a couple of things. Like a rolling pin. I don't really know how I have managed to live to ahem years and never owned one. So I went looking for a rolling pin. Of course the local department store did not have any in stock and neither did it's larger counterpart in Central. I certainly did not feel like traipsing all over the city looking for a rolling pin and fortunately I got lucky and saw one at City Super on the way home one day. It is a nice one too, made of Brazilian hardwood, which I figured must be good since it cost enough. I then wanted a mat to roll dough on, but I couldn't justify the price City Super was asking for what is nothing more than a sheet of silicone. So the cookies had to wait a bit longer. About a week later I found a good mat at Ikea for a nice Ikea price, so I bought it. I also found a rolling pin. For a lot less money of course. Honestly I never thought to look in Ikea for a rolling pin, but considering that they have absolutely everything else, up to and including the kitchen sink it was rather silly of me. I consoled myself with the fact that I doubt the Ikea one is Brazilian hardwood. Only one last thing remained and that was some cookie cutters. Ikea did have those, but I didn't like them, not that I have anything against Moose shaped cookies, but it is just not me. 

Last night I started on the cookies. I followed the directions and made the dough, I then wrapped it in plastic and put it in the fridge to chill, just like the directions said. I still didn't have cookie cutters but I wasn't too worried about them since I could use an overturned glass. I did think something other than circles would be nice so I decided to wait until today to roll and bake them (the recipe did say the dough could chill for up to 3 days). After getting my hair cut I went into Wing On and saw some flower shaped cookie cutters that were quite nice so I decided to buy them. When I got home I put on my apron and got to work on the cookies! This is the result:

My icing is way too thin and I obviously did not roll the cookie dough to an even thickness since it happily took the path of least resistance and ran as fast as it could for the sides. Either that or it did not want to be associated with the cookies. Despite being thin, the icing actually tastes pretty good but the cookies are not the yummy lemony wonders all the recipe comments made them out to be. I even took the advice many commentators said about adding extra zest and juice. Not only are they not very pretty,  they just don't taste that good. But they are not bad enough to throw out, which might be worse, because it means I have to eat them. Good thing Mr. Grey Cat is home for a few days, and he is not fussy. Personally I think the Brazilian hardwood is to blame...

Sam Pak Wan

There are many reasons people visit Hong Kong, but it's beaches are not one of the. This is too bad because Hong Kong has some beautiful beaches, many of them quiet and isolated. On Lantau island where I live is Cheung Sha Beach, the longest in Hong Kong and quite pretty. Within walking distance for me there are two beaches. There is the main south beach, which although very pretty is too close (read right beside) the Ferry for me to consider swimming in. Then there is the quiet, currently undeveloped Sam Pak Wan beach by the north plaza. 

The tragic thing is Hong Kong's waters are not very clean. There is a large amount of shipping and then there is its location right on the Pearl River Delta in China and all the pollution from there. This was really hit home to me on the weekend. Friday was World Oceans Day and in honour of this DB Green held one of it's beach clean up days. Since I had nothing on my calandar I decided to go to the beach and help out. Now I have done beach clean ups before and it is an issue the world over, but this weekend I found it very depressing. 

 This is a shot of the beach when I arrived. It doesn't look to bad does it? 

Look again....

There was a beach clean up held here not that long ago. It was busy with over 100 volunteers helping out and it looked amazing afterwards, but as you can see it didn't take too long to get ugly again. It is very discouraging. It was also sad to see very few people turn up. However those that did were rewarded with a Sausage BBQ donated by Hemmingway's, one of our local eateries and a sampling of wines courtesy of Barefoot Winery. 

Sadly as I was leaving, I looked out towards Hong Kong island and in the foreground I could see all the stuff we would soon be cleaning up yet again. 

Yumm

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?” - A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

I had a conversation the other day with a friend about how social interactions are different here in Hong Kong. Not the differences between Chinese customs and western ones, but even amongst fellow expats.  Back in Canada I would pick up the phone and have long conversations with friends or hop in the car and  have a cup of tea or a cold drink in a friends kitchen. We would have people over or go to someones for an afternoon BBQ. Sure there were movies, shopping, coffees and lunches, but a large part of my social life involved the home, either mine or someone else's. 

Here it is different.  Here I talk very little on the phone but text a lot and friends and I are usually meeting somewhere for coffee or lunch. I actually thought to myself that I have become a "lady who lunches" and it scared me a bit. I never thought of myself as the type of person you think of when you hear that phrase. Yet here it is normal, pedestrian even. In Hong Kong homes are small and it is not unheard of for a family of four (or more) to be living in 5 or 6 hundred square foot apartments. People barely have room for themselves, let alone a guest,  and as such they go out more. And since social interactions revolve around food they often have lunch (or dinner, or cocktails...etc). Most people don't have cars, and while the transportation system here is phenomenal, if you have a friend who lives in another area Hong Kong it could take an hour or more to get there so meeting half way makes sense. I find groceries to be quite expensive. The wet markets are cheap, but since many things are imported they are pricey. So a moderately priced meal at a  restaurant is not necessarily expensive compared to eating at home and with so many wonderful places to choose from, well, why not have lunch?