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Wednesday 19 December 2012

i am a sloth


Hahaha, I wish I was this cute.

The reason why I said I am a sloth is because I slept for sixteen hours straight -- from 1AM to 5PM. I thought my watch was wrong until I asked my uncle, and he said that it was indeed 5 o'clock PM.

So that was a day wasted. I didn't do much today and I didn't eat or make anything interesting today either. I also didn't blog yesterday so here's a quick update.

My father and I headed to Central and got there at around 11AM for brunch with my sister during her lunch hour. We went to a nice little restaurant called the Flying Pan that serves breakfast all day.

I ordered the Eggs Hussarde with grapefruit juice, as well as a Belgian waffle (which was not worth it; don't get the waffle.)



With a huge splat of butter, too!

After that, my dad decided to ditch me to play badminton with his friends. I think it's sad when you realize that your parents have more of a life than you do.

I took this opportunity to "explore" Central by myself. And by explore, I mean not venturing outside of a 500m radius of the MTR station.

What's cool about Central is that it's built on a hill, basically... so there are a lot of upward slopes.


I also found a nice reminder of where I'm going to go back to after Christmas break.


And you know how sometimes you stumble across an amazing work of art or marketing or painting or whatever? I absolutely loved the design of this restaurant logo/banner. I don't know why. It's so classy and simple and it seems to reflect the simplicity and elegance of the restaurant (even though I didn't eat there.) It just looks so nice!


More pictures of the slopes...


Hong Kong is definitely my favorite place to buy food. Even the supermarkets are better than those in the UK or the US (Tesco, Walmart, Waitrose...) Anyway, these are more like street markets. Which makes them better than supermarkets. They're the original farmers' markets; the West was just jealous.

With very cheap, yummy fruit.

Look at that meat! We use every part of the animal. We're very economical.

Peanuts!

Fresh fish. 
See? They're even swimming in tanks.

I love how crowded and narrow the little alleyways are.

More seafood.

I was on Graham street.

Cherries: 2.2 pounds per pound.
Kumquats : 1/pound
Strawberries: 2/two boxes
Avocado: 80p / fruit

I love these incredibly crowded seated areas for food consumption. Only found in HK, I swear. :)

Hahahahahha no. Only in the UK.



Crowded streets! People!
 I wandered the streets of Central for about an hour before getting bored. I've decided that in order to explore a city, I really have to do it with other people. Preferably with people who will help me save time and make sure I go to the cool places and not waste time walking around in circles, which is essentially what I did. Then, I headed to Festival Walk, a nice mall in Kowloon Tong which I've been to countless times before.

Their Christmas decorations were really nice.

Huuuuuuge Christmas tree.

Adult choir singing Christmas carols 

Really nice decoration thingies.
I had sushi at Itamae Sushi at Festival Walk. It's not particularly cheap, but it's quite good. It gets completely full during the weekend nights (even on weekday nights at around 7PM) and you can't get reservations.

I highly recommend the seared salmon nigiri, grilled pork nigiri, soft shell crab hand roll, ox tongue nigiri, and roasted tuna nigiri. I like sushi with warmed meat/fish on top of not-warm rice, so I don't like sushi with raw fish on it too much.

Seared salmon nigiri

California roll and soft-shell roll in the back.

Ox tongue nigiri

Grilled pork nigiri

Seared salmon nigiri

Ox tongue

soft shell crab hand roll

some nigiri (i don't know what it is) with black truffle

grilled salmon... soooo good.


Wagyu beef nigiri

scallop nigiri
Honestly, don't hold back in ordering -- don't go there if you're concerned about money because it really is quite pricey. Also the foie gras is not worth it (they're four tiny pieces) unless you absolutely must have foie gras with every single meal you eat otherwise you have seizures or something. I would suggest trying one portion of whatever you imagine would tickle your fancy, and if you're not full by the end of the night (don't worry about it you'll be full for sure) you can always order more.

Tomorrow, I'm getting my favorite dish in Hong Kong -- this amazing beef sandwich that brings shame to American sloppy joes :) Possibly because everybody in America makes sloppy joes and there is only one "restaurant" (it's not really a restaurant; it's like a Hong Kong-style diner... which isn't like a diner at all) that serves this sandwich. Stay tuned!

Monday 17 December 2012

This Is Not Steak.

I bet you have that restaurant that you always loved going to as a kid.

That one restaurant that brings back so many memories and seems to never change.

For me, that was a cheap "steakhouse" in Hong Kong. I remember how I used to love going to that place. I loved their bread, and I always got the option of cream of chicken soup as a side for my main meal, which was usually steak or lamb chops. I remember it being very, very good.

t-bone steak with an... unidentified sauce.
But boy was I disappointed when I ate this steak. Well, actually, let's start from the very beginning. The bread was okay. It was slightly warm but should have been hotter, and it didn't have that really subtle crunch on the outer surface. The cream of chicken soup tasted like it came out of a can and wasn't hot enough. I didn't even finish it.

And the steak? It didn't even taste like beef. It was so, so disappointing. I don't even want to talk about it. I make more beef-tasting steak than this place does.

Childhood dream: crushed.

On another note, enjoy some pretty pictures of Sha Tin and Hong Kong on a gloomy day :)




I also ate some egg tarts after lunch. Well, one egg tart.

I don't really like this picture because it is far too focused on the pastry shell rather than the delicious custard filling.

Victoria Harbor

And afterwards we went to Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong where I bought a bunch of stuff from H&M and all was good in the world for a while.
Then I went into the fitting room and I realized that I had become a tub of lard since my time at AC, so that happiness was short-lived.

But it's okay because we headed back to Sha Tin and we went to Park N Shop and we got some BBQ pork spare ribs... and two other things.


Can you guess what this is?

And this?!!
Okay it was pork intestine and pork ears.
Here's a star for effort. 
I'm assuming you didn't get it. If you did get it... you get a cyber pat-on-the-back from me :)

And then we ate some delicious food at home, including steamed pork with some type of salted preserved vegetable, steamed shrimp with garlic, and steamed fish.
We like steamed stuff. It's not (that) fattening.

:)

Sunday 16 December 2012

going healthy II

Okay, I know I should seriously stop spamming you all with random posts but I really need to get all of these recipes off my chest so I don't start crying in agony about how I have too many recipes to post and not enough time and when I do get the time I don't post and it just turns terrible.

I've really been struggling with my weight and my body image since coming to AC. In all honesty, I've never really had my thighs rub together but I didn't have a complete "thigh gap" either. I felt really good in my body and I was honestly quite thin but muscular.

I've essentially turned into a tub of lard since coming to AC -- and I'm ready to change that. All my muscles are covered with a good ol' layer of fat and I'm off to kill it.

I think it all starts with diet -- 70% diet, 30% exercise, right?

Right.

My goal was to go to the gym every day for the rest of this month but I think I'm going to take a step back. I can't fuel my exercises with absolutely terrible, carb-laden food day in and day out like I have for the past three months. I'm going to take this month and use it to reshape the way I see nutrition and everything. I'm going to make sure that I eat right. It takes 21 days to form habits -- that's what I've got.

Obviously I don't expect to make myself absolutely perfect, but I've got to practice moderation and I have to remind myself of what it feels like to eat well and treat my body well. So I guess this will be the beginning.

Here's the description that I wrote for it when I put it on my Tumblr:
I think I’ve just regained my love of salad. I’m Chinese, so I grew up eating rice to “bland out” the stronger flavors of meat and other dishes. Now, I love rice and I’ll never stop eating it because it’s part of who I am and it’s part of my culture and my upbringing. However, salad really does offer a great alternative. The lettuce basically replaces the rice - it helps provide balance to the strong, distinct flavors of the salmon and the chicken breast chunks.
This is a great recipe and the portion is HUGE. And it’s a bit over the amount of calories that are usually in my recipes, but seriously, this there’s so much food in here it’s ridiculous.

Smoked Salmon and Grilled Chicken Breast
3 oz smoked salmon
4 oz grilled chicken breast, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 head romaine lettuce, shredded
5 cherry tomatoes, halved

Toss all the ingredients into a bowl. Serve immediately.

going healthy

because, like I said, I need to lose weight.

This is from a couple of months back when I still did the Insanity! workout. It was pretty good but I stopped after like 45 days (I know... so close, right?) because I started getting bored with it and I wasn't seeing any results to be honest. I wouldn't do the fit tests because I hate being tested for anything to be honest.

But I did get this nifty, low-cal recipe from the recipe book, and I remember it tasting pretty good.


Chicken Stir-Fry with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Yields 1 serving

4 oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chicken broth
1 tsp sesame oil

In a large skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken breast pieces over medium heat until cooked through, about 7-10 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and cook broccoli and mushrooms in the same pan. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 6-8 minutes. Add the chicken back into the pan, with the vegetables, and season with soy sauce, chicken broth, and sesame oil.

hong kong: day 2

I HAVE OFFICIALLY RETURNED TO THE WORLD OF REAL FOOD.

Oh, Chinese food, how I've missed you.

My fat-kill journey is most definitely not going to be easy.

I say fat kill because I don't want it to ever be found/appear/haunt me again.

I woke up at 9AM this morning and went to the gym. I just kind of realized today that I don't really like going to the gym all that much and it's no fun for me at the moment. I tried to run but I got shin splints really really quickly and there was a sharp pain in my butt. Hahahaha. Now I see how that's kind of funny. Because running is a pain in my butt... literally. See what I did there?

Okay. I'm sorry for that.

Anyway, I went to eat lunch at Cafe de Coral afterwards. It sounds a lot fancier than it is. It's basically Cantonese fast food, but it obviously tastes better than anything McDonald's could ever churn out.

Then I went to eat some Cantonese street food.

Eggettes! (鸡蛋仔)

a mango dessert for which there is no english name (糯米慈) 



The outer layer of the mango dessert/snack is made of glutinous rice flour, I believe, and it sprinkled with shredded coconut. There's a nice mango filling inside (with actual fruit haha.)

Then we headed to Causeway Bay. My sister was getting a facial there and I went to Forever21.





We also went to see The Hobbit. Gollum is the scariest thing ever and the movie ended way too quickly. I'm pretty sure there's a Part II. That really irritates me because by the time Part II comes out (i.e. 28347502394857 years later) I'll have forgotten what happened in Part I. I'm really bad at remembering plot lines and stories.

For example, I read Wuthering Heights last year and I remember really, really enjoying it but I can't remember much about what happens to who.



I also thought I would show you this picture I took on the MTR (i.e. subway/metro.)

For dinner, I went to a place called Fairwood which is basically like Cafe de Coral, but worse.
My father and my sister ate hot pot. I ate BBQ pork + chicken with rice.





I also went to the same street food shop thing and ate siu mai.


P.S. I ate three eggette waffles today and two siu mai skewer thingies.
P.P.S. I really need to lose fat. And weight, basically. This sucks and I feel disgusting right now.