Duvel

@Anna N, research well done. Great article, thanks !

It is very convenient indeed. You can even sleep on the ferry ... And no worries for rough sea: for typhoons / black rain there is a comprehensive forecast system. Both phenomena are announced on a scale of increasing severity, and if typhoon warning is expected to change from level 3 to level 8 or heavy rain is going up from amber to black rain, public transport (including ferries, subways, busses) is suspended. This is done with a pre-warning time of about three hours so you can make it home in time.

Hong Kong has one of the broadest wealth distribution in the world. On one side you have the highest squaremeter rental costs anywhere on this planet, at the same time the current minimum wage was just raised to 35 HKD/hour, which is about 4.5 USD. This means HK needs quite a high volume of low cost dining options. And while we come back to quite a mix of basic & very fine food in the next days I’d like to show you what the average local HK family probably eats. There are a couple of local fast food chains that cater to the local taste and provide inexpensive and tasty meals. Amongst places like Fairwood and Café de Corail, the chain MX is especially popular. It belongs to the largest catering group Maxim’s, that runs high-end dining establishments like the Peking Garden (with excellent Peking duck), Dim Sum places like Maxim’s City Hall (where I take you next week) and Maxim’s bakeries, well-known for their birthday cakes. At the low end is the inexpensive MX, where I headed today. You can order electronically & pay via “Octopus” (a pay-as-you-go card that is linked to the public transport system, but functions also as an electronic wallet). Then get your receipt, queue and try to find a place to sit. To elaborate on the “sai chaan” theme I ordered one of HK’s comfort food choices par excellence: Baked pork chop rice (焗豬扒飯). It’s a deep-fried pork shop smothered in a sweet’n’sour gravy with pineapple, peas, onions, then placed over boiled rice and broiled. Cheese is sometimes added. It’s savoury, sweet and filling. Together with a lime soda for 49 HKD, a bit more than 6 USD. I skipped dessert, but this place is a popular choice for all thinks coconut, mango and durian. I think all of their options would have more calories than the pork chop, though. Maybe another day …

Good morning from Discovery Bay ! Again some background first: Discovery Bay is an artificial village. Supposedly it started as a project for a golf course in the eightees, which subsequently went bankrupt. An investor bought the land and developed it into some sort of residential resort. It is extremely popular with “younger” expat families due to an aboundance of Kindergartens and primary schools, playgrounds (literally every 500 m) and no cars. In DB only busses and golf carts are allowed, the latter limited to 500. As DB is located on an outer island (Lantau), prices per sqm are cheaper than in Central, which is offset by larger apartments. Many people here commute to Central, the financial & business district on Hong Kong island and so do I. It takes 30 min by ferry and it is 100% traffic jam free –very convenient in a chronically overcrowded city. As written, DB is the teasers it is “a nice place to live (for a while)” … I live a couple of hundred meters away from the ferry pier; it's a pleasant 7 minute stroll (except during typhoon or black rain). This morning the weather was fantastic, at around 33 oC. Humidiy is quite high. Luckily the ferry has a very efficient a/c … Hong Kong could probably best described as an archipelago distributed around the peninsula of Kowloon. Lieke DB there are many bays featuring little beaches and green Hinterland. The ferry is quite comfy, albeit in rush hour rather full. You are guaranteed to have a seat though. It costs 40 HKD one way ... As you might have already noticed, I do like to have a nice lunch and a nice dinner, so on usual days I skip breakfast. What I always have on the 30 min ferry ride to Central is a bottle of cold strong green tea. Today I was feeling like a having a little snack, so I bought a sweet roll with bacon and egg. Hong Kong people would either have congee wioth fried dough sticks or the popular “western” breakfast options as depicted below. They fall in the category “sai chaan”, a term coined for a happy cross-over cuisine that developed in Hong Kong and could best be described as the original Hong Kong-style Western kitchen. The macaroni noodles (upper left) are especially popular – they are even a breakfast option at the local McDonald’s! Arriving in Central, it's another 8-10 min walk from the pier, mostly through a/c shopping centers. I work in Jardine House, here in the background with the round windows. It has a local nickname, that I won't mention as I work there myself

When we met some 14 years ago, none of us could speak the others language. So we communicated in English. We went together to Japan shortly after and ever since then all our "joint aquistions" (books, magazines, DVDs) have been in English as well, so that became the language of our household. As we were living most of the time in Germany afterwards, my wife has acquired German language skills up to the point where she is very comfortable talking/writing to members of my family and has no issues navigating her way through Germany. I do understand quite some Catalan, but my active vocabulary is still limited. Ever since our son Arnau was born, we adopted the "one parent - one language" policy, and she speaks only Catalan to him and me only German, which in turn also helped us with a lot of new vocabulary simply by listening to the other partner talking. However, we moved to HK when he was about two years old, and his Kindergarten is of course in English, so by now he understands German and Catalan perfectly, but always answers in English ...

The mixer bowl was specifically in the fridge for making the Leberkaese. If you want to emulsify the fat properly, everything has to be chilled, otherwise you risk to break the emulsion (and then you end up with leberkaese-flaovured meatloaf instead).

Yes, the water is pretty standard. Easy to stack, probably. But it is not enough, merely a 150 mL. I always ask for more water and - if possible - bring an extra bottle from the lounge. Next to the rice there were some carrots and green beans (kind of string beans, not soy). There was also a scallop, a shrimp and some sort of Kamaboko fishcake. All in all very healthy Truth to be told especially my spice rack looked very chaotic for the first year. Then I found this cute metal dispensers and bought a labelling machine. Especially the latter is very addictive - for my wife at least - and by now everything get labelled You mean this one ? It's a plastic box full of sugar. The blue item is a spoon (kind of figurine, with feet on the bottom and a head on the top). Quite cute ... They are very good and a popular item from Singapore. It's potato (sometimes also fried fish skin) dusted with freeze-dried salted duck egg yolk. Very savoury and very distinct taste. And veeeeeery addictive It's a cheap Bosch, the basic German model actually. I always wanted a KitchenAid, but then again I am a cheapskate and the Bosch was with all the utensils about half the price of the KA. Go figure ... Its fatty pork (neck / belly), minced. Traditionally a bit of beef is included, but I omit that because it's too expensive here. The texture is more like a cooked sausage, like Bologna or Mortadella. Span is not emulsified, so it's softer and more grainy. Leberkaese is very nice and truly comfort food (for me) ...

I think House food's curry the most popular brand in Japan. They have a myriad of variety as well as their own chain of restaurants exclusively cooking with their product. I like it a bit better than the SB brand ...

Yup. "Apply honey" curry ... Haven't had that one yet, so I bought the mild version (so my son can enjoy it as well).

After some days with great Japanese food I need to have something more “homey” (is that the word ?). Unfortunately, most of German comfort food is not readily available in Hong Kong, so I need to go the extra mile … Today will be “Leberkaese mit Bratkartoffeln” or “Livercheese with home fries”. The former contains neither liver nor cheese but can be best described as a cross-over between a meatloaf and a bologna sausage. Emulsifying the meat & fat … In the form. Baking. Done ! Slicing & frying. Final assembly (with pickle, Bavarian sweet mustard and curry ketchup) ... Hits the spot every time

No, it's not normal. I am very provilidged to be the recipient of a very decent expat package. My apartment is very generous ... On Friday, we will go to a local apparment. You will easily see the difference ! I live on Lantau, in Discovery Bay and commute to Central every day. Tomorrow I'll tell a bit more about my "hometown" and my day-to-day commute ...

And as promised: the spoils of war from my shopping trip last Sunday at Kappabashi in Tokyo, where all the restaurant suppliers are located. Took me 45 min to gather ...

As I am back now to my apartment, let me welcome you all to Hong Kong, where we will spend most of the upcoming week ! Maybe first just a tiny bit of personal background: I am a German guy in my early forties, married to a lovely catalan wife and we have a fantastic, almost 4 year old son. About two years ago I got the offer to run a part of the operations / technology for our company in Asia Pacific, so I moved from Germany to Hong Kong. Beside for professional reasons, part of the decision was the prospect to experience all the different cultures that are now at our finger tips. Both my wife and me have already lived in Japan for 2.5 years some while ago at the end of my academic career, so that very positive experience was a big decision as well to return to Asia. Hong Kong is ideally located to visit both East Asia as well as South East Asia. In my job I need to travel a lot, mainly to Mainland China, Japan, Korea and Malaysia. Privately, we do have a long list as well, that we diligently work on and so have visited Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Cambodia and China in the last 18 months. Experiencing the food in these places has always been a big motivator, if not the biggest … Complying with eG food blog tradition, I’d like to show you my kitchen first: I have a 5 burner gas range, and a decent oven. I do like to make bread and pizza and I can’t complain at all about my set-up. The obligatory fridge shot(s). Don't judge Freezer. Mostly meat, frozen stock, Gyoza and Gin ... Spices ! Baking ingredients ... Shelves in the storage room ... My (limited) booze collection. Cookbooks. I could only take a fraction when we moved, but have successfully replenished the ranks … Tomorrow I show you around the place where I live on Lantau Island (you’ve seen the beach in the teaser pictures already) and we have a deeper look inside a supermarket …

The flight from Tokyo back to Hong Kong was quite pleasant. Unlike the flight to Japan, where we passed a minor typhoon and had a very bumpy experience, this one was smooth sailing. I was hoping for an upgrade, but no. Lunch was decent: Zaru somen (cold noodles with soy/dashi), salmon roll with rice and icecream …

Yes, all of them have A/C. And rightnow, with 30 oCand more outside, it's definitely necessary ...

Yes, normally you would eat the pickles and/or the protein always alternating with the rice. For the Japanese it's actually the rice as the main dish and all the other components are optional (but not less welcome, of course). The Dan Dan Mian has nothing to do with the rest of the ensemble. I am just having a bowl of it basically everytime I use their lounges - kind of tasty tradition ... The egg derives it's shape from being made in a small square pan and rolled up in it a couple of times. As a coincidence I bought a new Tamagoyaki pan on Sunday in Tokyo and will post a picture later with the other spoils of war I got ... And finally: I do like the boxes too - they are very cute and make great presents. But the cookies inside are even better. Maybe I just open one later ... for quality control

Good morning from Tokyo Haneda airport. My day started rather early today, as I had to commute from Chiba city in the east of Tokyo bay to Haneda in the south-west. It rains cats and dogs today and I shared one train (out of three this morning) with a group of slightly disappointed younger girls – all dressed up in colorful Hawaiian shirts and some sort of jeans dress – heading out for Tokyo Disneyland, still hoping for the rain to clear on the 40 min ride. Unfortunately, it still goes on … Commuting at this time of the day guarantees for the “full japanese experience”, as everyone tries to squish into the trains. Filling grade reaches maximum very fast – lucky are those who catch a sitting place in one of the origin stations, as some of the poor guys need to stay in the local trains for far more than one hour. Arriving at Haneda I headed out for buying the ususal “Omiyage” or small gifts you present to your family and coworkers upon arrival from travels. I choose cookies from Kyoto, made from brown rice flour and flavoured with cinnamon, then dipped in chocolate of your choice (green tea / strawberry – I do prefer the former). They will make some people very happy The Cathay lounge in Haneda is one of the finest they have, only surpassed by the newer ones in Hong Kong. Usually I’d go for a Japanese whiskey from their very extensive selection, but given the time in the morning I opted for the Japanese breakfast set and an extra bowl of Dan Dan Mian (the latter of course just for the purpose of this blog). From the right lower corner (counterclockwise): Salted dried Kombu, Wakame, Miso soup, rice with Umeboshi (pickeled plum), Tamagoyaki (egg), some sort of root pickle, picledDaikon (radish), broiled salmon in the middle. And a bowl of Cathay's Dan Dan Mian as an innocent bystander on the very left. I am heading out now for the Gate and will report back from Hong Kong in some hours …

In more traditional places you would have classic desserts such as fruit, bean jellies (yokan) or glutinous rice products (omochi). Despite how nice the food actually looked (and tasted), this was a casual restaurant and western style desserts are most welcome in these places (being maybe more exciting to the average customer) ...

No bones whatsoever, just the fillet. The Japanese conger eel Anago (actually a different species) has plenty of bones, but even for that little critter the chef usually takes the time to remove them. You could call it a labour of love, but then again you would not have seen how they gut and skin them

The amount of detail given to the food presentation, starting by selecting the right dishes to present, followed by the right (complementary or augmenting) color, texture, taste of the different items and the coorect order in which they are served was something that has drawn me to Japanese food from the very beginning.

On a completely different note: I found this Uji Matcha tea capsules at the little supermarket at the Chiba Minato station. As I do own a Nescafe Dolce Gusto, I am very curious how that tea does compare to the real thing. Will report back in due time …

“… and so it begins!” Welcome to “Tales from the Fragrant Harbour”! In the next couple of days I am hoping to take you to a little excursion to Hong Kong to explore the local food and food culture as well as maybe a little bit more about my personal culinary background. I hope I can give you a good impression of what life is like on this side of the globe and am looking very forward to answering questions, engaging in spirited discussions and just can share a bit of my everyday life with you. Before starting with the regular revealing shots of my fridge’s content and some more information on myself, I’d like to start this blog and a slightly different place. For today's night, I ‘d like to report back from Chiba city, close to Tokyo, Japan. It’s my last day of a three day business trip and it’s a special day here in Japan: “Doyou no ushi no hi”. The “midsummer day of the ox”, which is actually one of the earlier (successful) attempts of a clever marketing stunt. As sales of the traditional winter dish “Unagi” (grilled eel with sweet soy sauce) plummeted in summer, a clever merchant took advantage of the folk tale that food items starting with the letter “U” (like ume = sour plum and uri = gourd) dispel the summer heat, so he introduced “Unagi” as a new dish best enjoyed on this day. It was successful, and even in the supermarkets the sell Unagi-Don and related foods. Of course, I could not resist to take advantage and requested tonight dinner featuring eel. Thnaks to our kind production plant colleagues, I had what I was craving … (of course the rest of the food was not half as bad) Todays suggestion: Unagi (grilled eel) and the fitting Sake ! For starters: Seeweed (upper left), raw baby mackerel with ginger (upper right) and sea snails. I did not care for the algae, but the little fishes were very tasty. Sahimi: Sea bream, Tuna and clam ... Tempura: Shrimp, Okra, Cod and Mioga (young pickled ginger sprouts). Shioyaki Ayu: salt-grilled river fish. I like this one a lot. I particularly enjoy the fixed shape mimicking the swimming motion. The best was the tail fin Wagyu: "nuff said ... Gourd. With a kind of jellied Oden stock. Nice ! Unagi with Sansho (mountain pepper) So, so good. Rich and fat and sweet and smoky. I could eat a looooot of that ... Chawan Mushi:steamed egg custard. A bit overcooked. My Japanese hosts very surprised when I told them that I find it to be cooked at to high temperatures (causing the custard to loose it's silkiness), but they agreed. Part of the experience was of course the Sake. I enjoyed it a lot but whether this is the one to augment the taste of the Unagi I could not tell ... More Unagi (hey it's only twice per year) ... Miso soup with clams ... Tiramisu. Outside view of the restaurant. Very casual! On the way home I enjoyed a local IPA. Craft beer is a big thing in Japan at the moment (as probably anywhere else in the world), so at 29 oC in front of the train station I had this. Very fruity … When I came back to the hotel, the turn down service had made my bed and placed a little Origami crane on my pillow. You just have to love this attention to detail.

Yeah, that's how they are. Exotic appearance, but tastewise I'll always go for the humble shrimp. Or lobster

I'll see if I can include Lamma ... Have been there for the Lamma 500 dragon boat race (at least 16th place this year ). They do have good seafood, so maybe that's a good idea ...

I had a hard time resisting those Matcha treats at the local Starbuck's, but I did and was rewarded: Sushi in a small place next to our office in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo. Made in front of you and priced just below 20 USD. I just love that ...