In a follow-up to yesterday’s post on Hong Kong cuisine, I thought that I had erred in mentioning a certain Martin Yan to Jenny Morris’ group, so here goes…
Chef Yan is a well-know Chinese chef who is best known for his knowledge of and skill in the art of not only Chinese cuisine (in general) but also that of Southern Chinese food (he is a Southerner himself).
Martin Yan is well known on the local TV channels for his program called Yan can Cook. My kids are especially fond of him for his saying:
” If Yan can cook, so can you.” and my little rugrats’ favourite: “If Yan cannot… you still can!”
You can find many of his videos on YouTube, but here is the one and only Martin Yan:
Jenny Morris, or the Giggling Gourmet as she is known as back home, is one of South Africa’s most-loved food personalities. An author, magazine writer, radio and TV presenter, celebrity chef, teacher, caterer and culinary tour guide, Jenny has had an ongoing love affair with food since she was a child.
When she dons her hat as culinary tour guide, Jenny leads groups of fellow foodies on tours around the world to discover some of the sights, sounds and tastes that others only see on telly. The busy chef is currently planning one such tour to China and she and her band of merry foodies will make a stop-over right here in Hong Kong.
Jenny Morris will lead a culinary tour to China in early 2011 (Pic: www.jennymorris.co.za)
To give her and her group a glimpse of the culinary scene on this side of the noodle-gordyn, we’ve scoured the web and found this short but informative clip on YouTube. My apartment is but 5 minutes from the Hong Kong Intercontinental where you can find some of the world’s best restaurants… all in one building nogal. The world-renowned hotel is home toSPOON by Alain Ducasse, NOBU InterContinental Hong Kong as well as the Michellin starred Yan Toh Heen.
World-renownedNobu Matsuhisa has a restaurant at the Hong Kong Intercontinental
Clickhereto have Louis Baleros, Chef Concierge at the Intercontinental show you around Hong Kong (YouTube clip) and stay tuned to Howzit-HongKong.com for more on this topic.
The Canny Man‘s posters all read “An oasis in WanChai” but I personally like the one I saw on a video today:
“A football-free zone.”
OK, so South Africa just recently hosted a very successful football World Cup but man… a month of football is probably as much football as I can take! Truth be told, I’ve probably seen enough round-ball “action” to last me till the next World Cup. Which is probably a good thing, what with the RUGBY WORLD CUP in Zealand looming in 2011.
I am currently teaching a bridging course for new Secondary 1 students in Lok Fu and one of my colleagues is none other than the former Hong Kong rugby captain Semi Iafeta. Apologies to Semi, but I didn’t recognise him until I did a bit of “research” online today. However, in my defense Semi, your hair used to be a lot longer! Like most international rugby boys here in Hong Kong, Semi Iafeta is a semi-professional who makes his living teaching in Hong Kong.
Semi Iafeta with ball in hand, playing for Hong Kong
It seems that the big Number 8 is also quite the video producer, having produced the video about The Canny Man I mentioned earlier:
Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival (traditional Chinese: 中秋節), is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people, dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China’s Shang Dynasty.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which this year falls on September 22.
Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos.
When we lived in Taiwan, as South Africans Moon Festival-time was extra special because for the Taiwanese, having an outdoor braai (barbecue) with friends and family was part of the celebration. The braais would often take place in large parks and public courtyards of high-rise buildings and is quite a spectacle with all the fires, smoke and smell of cooking meat. We used to think of Moon Festival as our own National Braai Day celebration! Sadly, Hong Kongers do not celebrate Moon Festival in this way.
Another tradition is the giving of moon cakes to family, friends and colleagues. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.
These days mooncakes come is all kinds of designs, flavours and fillings ranging from marshmallow to even ice-cream.
One of my favourite local stores is G.O.D. or Goods Of Desire, so named because G.O.D. is the phonetic sound of the Cantonese slang “to live better.” Typical of G.O.D, their stores here in Hong Kong are pushing the boundaries of modernising the traditional Chinese moon cake with their very own “Cheeky Moon Cakes.”
G.O.D.’s Cheeky Moon Cakes are available at HK$65 (buy 10, get 1 free) Orders can be placed at any G.O.D. store.
Hongkongers can sometimes get rather “emotional” about small non-issues.
In recent months, there have been several incidents that have captured the local imagination, so much so that somebody even set up a website dedicated to the now infamous “Bus Uncle.”
Just to give you some perspective: HongKongers, especially the older folk, sometimes speak on their mobile phones as if they’re the only ones around. LOUD, and often on public transport. The Bus Uncle did so on a bus and was asked by a youngster to tone it down.
Talking about incidents, you may have seen the viral YouTube clip about the woman who throws this moerse tantrum after missing her flight (6,442,730 views):
Then of course, there’s (yet another woman) going into a fit when told there’s no sharkfin soup available (1,169,777 views):
I think the latest “video star” created on YouTube is the now famous Bus Uncle video clip (1,034,411 views):
(Do read the sub-titles… they’re hilarious!)
However, I just picked up on the following “MTR uncle” trying to mouth off to a gweilo (foreigner) on the MTR train line. It is not clear what led up to this incident, but the clip shows the foreigner briefly fiddling with the uncle’s bag. The altercation escalates when the uncle touches the foreigner’s face.
Watch the uncle narrowly escaping being thoroughly bliksem-ed by clicking here
One of my favourite hang-outs when I’m in the mood for some big-band jazz and a couple of big beers (not necessarily in that order) can be found in one of Tsim Sha Tsui’s food-districts: Ned Kelly’s Last Stand in Ashley Road.
In December 2011 Ned Kelly’s Last Stand will celebrate it’s 40th Anniversary. During this time, the entertainment business being what it is here in Hong Kong and indeed anywhere in the world, Ned Kelly’s Last Stand has become a true Hong Kong institution that is known and fondly remembered by patrons all over the world.
The small stage precariously perched on one side of the venue has hosted numerous bands over the years. These include: Sergio Mendez Band, Jimmy Rogers, Kenny Ball & His Jazzband, Winifred Atwell, Rosemary Clooney, Kay Starr, Matt Monroe, Charlie Barnet, Bob Wilber, The Imelda May Band, Kenny Martyn, The Tom Jones Band and many others.
These days, bandleader Colin Aitchison and the Colin Aitchison & The China Coast Jazzmen is responsible for entertaining the fans and the five or six musicians who do duty every evening do a grand job of entertaining the packed crowds who swarm in every evening around 9pm.
Ned Kelly’s Last Stand is open daily from 11h30 to 2am. and the live Dixieland jazz daily starts from 9:30pm until around 1am.
It serves Australian fare, including juicy pork sausages with mashed potatoes and onion gravy; beef stew; fish and chips; Australian sirloin steak; Irish stew; hamburgers; and cottage pie (baked bowl of minced beef, onions, vegetables, and mashed potatoes).
How they manage to feed and entertain so many hungry and thirsty patrons in such a small venue is beyond me, but who cares? They do a damn fine job!
Happy Hour is from 11:30am to 9pm, with reduced prices.
(Pictures below: Mike Jansen)
Here’s a taste of Ned Kelly’s Dixieland Jazz band, courtesy of alblurt06 on YouTube:
Additional video clips of Ned Kelly’s Last Stand/The China Coast Jazzmen can be found here
With all these arrests for taking up-skirt pictures* in Hong Kong, one has to be very careful when taking pictures of interesting people, especially on the MTR.
With Hong Kong being such an international destination, I always try to travel around the city with at least one camera because there are just so many interesting people (local and tourists) around.
I caught this local Aunty on my camera somewhere between Admiralty and Shek Kip Mei on the (Dark Blue) MTR Island Line . It must have been a sweltering 33 degrees outside, but here she was, all decked out in her Sunday-finest complete with a pair of pink toe-socks:
Tickle me pink! (Pic: Mike Jansen)
* The local papers regularly report of arrests that are made of sexual predators taking pictures up women’s skirts at places like the city’s many escalators and on the often packed MTR train system.
From where I am typing this, if I turn my head slightly to the right, I can see the Hong Kong Coliseum. For those who don’t know what happens over here on the “dark side” (as Hong Kong Islanders apparently refer to Kowloon) the Coliseum is where many of the indoor sports events during the East Asian Games took place. It also hosts most of the local and international pop concerts. The Coliseum is situated directly opposite the Hung Hom MTR station.
Whenever I pass the diamond-shaped building, I can always tell when a famous person is about to have a concert or a big event is about to take place. The groupies hanging about the service entrance or the ritual suckling pig offering before the event is always a dead (pun intended) giveaway.
The Hong Kong Coliseum lit up during the daily Symphony of Light (Pic: Mike Jansen)
Yesterday was no different as the offering ceremony took place just as my bus passed the Coliseum. The groupies were also in place a suitable distance from the celebs.
The ceremony I witnessed happened to be part of the preparations for the Miss Hong Kong 2010 pageant that took place last night. According to the official Miss Hong Kong 2010 website: “The 15 contestants will compete (for) the winning, first and second-runner up titles as well as the Miss Photogenic and Miss International Goodwill awards.”
So without any wasting any more time, Hong Kongers…. here is your Queen also known as Miss International Goodwill 2010:
Miss Hong Kong 2010 Toby Chan
(The air-conditioning must have been on full-blast inside the Coliseum, because last I checked, it is summer outside.)
Here’s the 1st runner-up, Sammi Cheung (22) who will represent HK at the Miss International 2010 pageant:
And just for balance, 2nd runner-up is Lisa Ch’ng (23)
