Digestive Disruption

^Special pastries in a semi-circular shape with decorative edges are the must-try Chinese New Year treat when paying visits to people's homes.

This is the second day of the Chinese New Year (CNY). In Hong Kong, as in any Chinese communities around the world, the first three days of the CNY are regarded as a celebrative period. Here in Hong Kong, these three days are public holidays. Contrary to what you are probably thinking now, a lot of shops are doing business as usual. The CNY is a great time to visit Hong Kong for all the annual celebrations going on in town, from parade, fireworks to some folk culture activities like making wishes upon the wishing tree.

^Oily CNY treats are best to be taken with Chinese tea.

The CNY is also the best time to disrupt stomach because, except for the vegetarian bowls to be eaten on the first day of the CNY, all the CNY foods are oily. The most representative are the CNY cakes.

There are several kinds of such cakes. The above photo shows the ones made with turnip (the top two) and taro (the rest), respectively.

These are my favourite, made with glutinous rice and water chestnut.

This last dish is of the kind made with glutinous rice and cane sugar. Usually they are fried with scrambled eggs.

Why do the Chinese take these oily CNY cakes? The Chinese language is a good tool to play with words because a large percentage of the characters are homophonic. The CNY cakes are pronounced in Cantonese as Nin Go, or Nian Gao in Mandarin. Nin Go is also the pronunciation of the Chinese words meaning Year(ly) Advances, which carries an auspicious meaning.

Comments

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Final Verdicts: GF2 in Action

(The rest of the GF2 review posts can be found here ) It is widely believed that the GF2 is a paradoxical downward-upgrade version of the GF1. So, after all the discussions of its bells and whistles, how does it perform in reality? First things first. Which or what kind of cameras should we measure the GF2 against for that matter? We believe that potential buyers of the GF2, maybe except for serial fad chasers and the diehard loyalists, are attracted by its smallness in size with a larger sensor to achieve better image quality, especially at ISO 800 or above. However, given the less satisfactory handling with for example just one dial, the GF2 cannot assume the place of a primary camera. Put together, these assumptions suggest that the GF2 is more suited to be used as a backup camera for social and street shots. Let's grill the GF2 on this basis. In the Hand An obvious merit of the GF2 is size. It feels much less bulky in the hand than the GF1 or the NX100, and just lik...

Dressing Up

(Camera: Ricoh GX200) On the street, a group of Chinese tourists are waiting for probably pick-up. With oblivion to the surrounding, this man changes his vest for an unknown reason to the author taking the opportunity to do a snap shot of the scene of an indecent taste. The increasingly common sights, or eyesores considered by some, of people squatting in front of shops or in the thoroughfares, together with more billboards written in simplified Chinese, seem to push this international city towards the Chinese characteristics of the Mainland cities. The other day when the author visited the the aquarium and panda's home in the Ocean Park, there were, among the swamps of tourists, conspicuous signs saying, "Keep Quiet" and "Don't Use Flash". The management of the Park has obviously deployed a much bigger troop of attendants to carry the signs around. On one occasion, one of those attendants was so annoyed that she went up to a tourist and made a big long...

GX GARNERINGS

Search This Blog