Dining Experience: Dai Pai Dong

Imagine between 2 warehouses a street block full of tables with trashbag table cloths, toilet roll napkins, and multiple plates of steaming Chinese food, welcome to a dinner of Dai Pai Dong. The place was packed! This is the rough style of street stall food to the 10th power! Sit down, order in Cantonese, eat all you can, enjoy your company, leave full.

- Catherine

Coca-Cola Meeting

Today I met with Kenth Kaerhoeg, Coca Cola Pacific's Group Communications Director. He happens to be from Denmark, which was a small world. We had a brief discussion in his office then headed to lunch at the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC), the original hang-out for reporters during the Vietnam War. Photographs of the war cover the walls and old newspapers, the one declaring the Titanic sunk, line the hallway.

We chatted about the differences in working in Europe vs. Asia as well as Coca Cola's purposes in each region. Where some product succeed, others fail. He shared an interesting story about Minute Maid juice. Selling 100% juice was too expensive to be attractive to the Asia population so they used 15% juice to provide the real juice flavor but lower the cost because they were just buying and using pulp (fruit waste).

Another fascinating discussion was the power of Sprite in Asia over Coke. The reasons are:

1. Asians understand that drinking water no matter how much they boil it still has dirty particles. A Sprite is crystal clear, which yields thoughts of purity and goodness - tastes better than boiled water.

2. Most Asian remedies in liquid form resemble Coke, making Sprite look more desirable because it doesn't remind them of Auntie's concoctions.

3. Nothing tastes better than an ice-cold Coca-Cola. Many things taste better than a nice warm Coca-Cola. Boiling their water to kill bacteria, Asians are accustomed to warm drinks and rarely drink cold ones. Everyone is always hesistant about local ice. So when someone is drinking a soft drink, chances are it might be warm. Sprite wins the taste contest at the warm level because it's not that bad in comparison to hot Coke. Those 3 factors make Sprite the champion for Asia, which was something I definitely did not know before meeting Mr. Kaerhoeg.

Also, Coke has a very strong emphasis on performance of employees. With a report card listing the good, the bad, the ugly, employees are able to predict their bonus and promotion based on keen recommendations. It keeps you working for a personal goal. Coke also finds most of its employees through head hunters snatching the greatest of someone at another line of work. Although their are instances of people working up from the bottom, most of Coke's go-getters were champions of some other field. Mr. Kaerhoeg was into politics and government communications before he worked for Coke.

Very interesting to hear how one can enter a large brand like Coca-Cola from a communications stand-point not necessarily finance. Although he did say that Hong Kong was a banker's city, best experienced from a banker's life. Which was interesting. He also mentioned that it is a male driven city, lacking many women with skills in high positions - looks like an opportunity for me! Wonderful experience, fantastic lunch (cod dumplings, Szechuan beef skewers, and rhubarb cobbler - he did mention the food at the FCC had some amazing Indian food because journalists covering Vietnam also spent time in India so they requested it frequently) Oh! and I received a Coca-Cola pin from the Beijing Olympics with a portion of the metal used for the bird cage that Coca-Cola bought from Beijing. Add that one to my Atlanta 1996 pin and let's call it a collection!

-Catherine

The More the Merrier!

Jessica and I set out on an adventure Thursday to find the Michelin starred Tim Ho Wan dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok. http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/good-living/michelins-cheapest-star/2009/11/30/1259429326061.html?autostart=1

We found the place because it was the only little shop with a million people outside. The restaurant has room for 20 customers. 20. So we took a number (fortunately Jessica speaks Cantonese at home in Raleigh so she was a miracle worker getting our number and translating the menu). #160. And we were on #90 when we arrived. So Jessica and I were chatting and catching up on life, when a lovely woman asked us what to order. Funny thing was I had seen her in the MTR because I liked her skirt. And here is where my magnet magic occurs again. So I start talking to her, her name is Mariko and she is from Chibu, Japan (where I spent my layover from the US!). She travels when her husband goes on work to Hong Kong and Singapore and other places. We are talking and I mention North Carolina and she goes, "Charlotte!" Ended up that her husband works for Bank of America! Just around that time a man comes to the moshpit with a UNC sweatshirt on - I run up to him and ask him if he went to UNC, unfortunately he replied "Izts my sons. No university." Okay so, fail. But then I go back to Mariko and continue talking and offer her to eat lunch with us. In the world of dim sum, the dishes usually come in 3's or 4's - although Jessica and I were prepared to take on that many it made perfect sense to add one more to our party! Mariko was alone so she was ecstatic to sit with us, and filled us in on a secret - It was her Birthday! So the three of us - all foodies - combined out numbers and moved up to Mariko's number 144! Anxiously waiting the powerful hostess to call our number (in Cantonese), we discussed travel stories and food recommendations. Finally, our number was called and we submitted our menu list (a check list style for dim sum) and as each dim sum came out we ooooh-ed and ahhh-ed over the flavors, textures, and tastiness.

3 girls from all over the world just having the time of their lives. Mariko had so much fun with us that she invited us to contact her when we go to Tokyo, where she said she'd love to take us around to the great food spots of Japan. VICTORY!

See other post on the dim sum. Seriously was unbelievable. Even the steamed jelly with petals

And the total price for all three = 178 HKD or under 8 dollars a person. Practically got one of each, except for 2 of the bbq pork buns - we knew they would be two good.
But our foodie adventure didn't stop there! Jessica and I went on to find the number one egg tart cafe in Hong Kong - Honolulu Cafe! Looking oh so Hong Kongese, check me out with some milk tea and egg tart. Don't think I've been so happy in Hong Kong before! Adventure+Foodie+Fresh Air+Befriending Strangers=The Best Day Ever (in Hong Kong).

- Catherine

Dim Sum! Get Some!

BEWARE: This post contains food porn, not appropriate for hungry eyes.

Baked BBQ Pork Buns in the style of Pineapple Buns made famous by Four Seasons dim sum Chef, who left to make his own dim sum sensation with his hole-in-a-wall 3 star Michelin spot.

Glutinous Rice with Pork wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Food-tography Perfection!

My flat's fridge aka The Hurt Locker

Sanitation violations left and right not to mention a girl blowdries her hair daily over the hot plates and this morning clipped her toenails on the counter where I usually dust my flax seed into my oatmeal. This dungeon appliance is also another reason to eat at a Michelin star restaurants.

Begin Salivating: Vermicelli with Pig's Liver

Egg Cake so fluffy and slightly sweet.

Tower of Power: Har Gau - a must for all dim sum

Uh... what I return to... but at least I know the greatest dim sum place ever!!!

- Catherine

Reflecting Back on Boracay

By now you see why I chose the title for today's post. I enjoyed these mirror images from the Philippines.

- Catherine

Action League

As if treking through the jungle with Chris wasn't enough, Brian brought up the idea of a hike today due to the blissfully fresh weather. I was in! So the 2 of us set off for Lion's Head Mountain, but without a map/directions and full of Dora the Explorer tendencies, we just started climbing up the CUHK mountains. Camera War
Great view of CUHK's campus from above.

Okay, so instead of jungle treking we went into a salt water reservoir and climbed up some (1000s of) maintenance stairs in a blocked of area of the mountain. Found some great views and fresh air!

-Catherine

Pretty Lights

Finally, a fog-free night. It was a chilly day, 45 degrees, and my first night back from Malaysia, but I knew I had to see the skyline without fog. So, the lone (she)wolf set out on the MTR to capture the beautiful place that feels more like my city each day.

The Dark Knight building is still impressive even without Christian Bale in his batsuit lurking atop the structure.

My favorite building so far is the I.M. Pei zigzags with the goal post at the top. This is not its original location. It was moved from Murray House to Stanley for a hefty price of 1$ billion HKD. The "X" patterns were originally frowned upon because of the negative vibe X's have in feng shui, but Pei modified the design. The building from certain angles looks like a meat cleaver - not necessarily positive either.

Taking Care of (Local) Business Part 1

Our first stop of the day was to a roof maker. She was a quiet woman just threading away through pandan leaves to make the shingles for thatched rooves. These rooves are cooler than corrugated metal and function perfectly for chicken houses.
Here are our bikes opposite her roof factory with a brightly colored goat house in the background - notice all the shingles lined up on the right and left.
She taught us how to say thank you in Malay: sounds like Trey-Mag-ah-Say
Next up, the sugar cane workers were in the fields with multiple hats (more protection?). There are two types of sugar cane according to David - one for the juice and one for the raw sugar.





- Catherine

Through the Lens Into Their Lives

There!

As you scrolled down the post you saw the dusted head of a small girl from her Hindu ear piercing ceremony in Penang, Malaysia. But it wasn't until she looked up that you realized her eyes were piercing through you.

Taking on the suggestion to take more thematic pictures, I started capturing the presence of children around the world. (cliche!) However, as the unknown quote proclaims:

"Life is like photography; we develop from the negatives." (cliche quota satisfied).

My first experiment was at a Hindu Temple in mainland Penang, Malaysia. Instead of the anticipated Gerber look that oftentimes are on display at Walmart's baby photo booth, I found my lens capturing joy, curiosity, boredom, but also fear, confusion, and honest hardship even at their younger than young age.

Take it for what you will, but I find the purest statements about a culture through the interactions with those that have not studied/tested/established differences and who probably cannot even spell the word hate.

For some of them, a 5'10" Ang Moh (white person) probably raises a few red flags as they have think about culture/self/race/differences for the first time.

This obedient little girl stayed near her auntie, unaware of how valuable her beauty will be.

Mischievious little man. Roaming around, checking his heart rate, desiring to be on the move.

A lonely heart. This boy sits without food and sits without friends.

I first tried to catch the dancing of Behlvia and her brother.

Finally I captured her alone, reflecting on her interaction with me. Imagine you just saw a white girl taller than the average male, I'd have to sit down and think about it too.