Old friends, new places and egg tarts

As I’m slowly settling into HK life, my time in France feels like many lives ago.

I re-read some of my old posts and stumbled across Old friends, new places and a tarte. I wrote it about a year ago about when I met up with my friends Adam and Melissa in the twin towns of Fréjus and St. Raphaël in the Côte d’Azur.

Being in a completely new place, away from the familiar, there are few things better than meeting up with friends. Being able to recount old times and laugh with people you know when you’re away from home is precious. Though I am not alone in living abroad this time, it still doesn’t change the reality that I am enormously far away from home. Even with Bruce, I do get homesick.

When my dearest and oldest friend Tashane told me that she had booked tickets to come to Hong Kong with her boyfriend for a couple of days, it was a surreal moment. She’s been teaching in Korea for a while now and between all my traveling the past couple of years,  I haven’t seen this girl in 3 years.

Working in a French restaurant, we were not closed at all for the Lunar New Year. I was lucky to be able to request one day off at least, though they were here for 2 1/2.

I started working at Robuchon exactly a week after I got to to HK. Working 6 days a week has really slowed down our getting-to-know-Hong-Kong phase.

Tashane and Nick have actually been to Hong Kong before and it quickly became obvious that they knew it better than Bruce and I. At least on the sight seeing side of things.It was a bit weird to be walking around a less bustling HK. Since it was actually New Year’s day when we hung out, a lot of places were closed- including our favourite eateries. Not everything was closed though, and together, we still managed to scout out some pretty great eats.
I had dim sum for the first time in HK. I know. Bruce has had it about 4 times with his family, all of those times I’ve been working.

That same night during our leisurely stroll, we were thrilled to find Temple Street alive and gushing with energy. We find the streets lined with tables, people eating and drinking and having a great time. We quickly squeeze into a table and ordered.

Aromatic clay pot rice with chicken and ginger. Mantis (ie. Pissing shrimp) shrimp fried with garlic and chili and delicious, saucy conch.

Next door to the restaurant was a karaoke bar of some sorts, and as we ate on the street, drunken, off-pitch voices filtered out towards us. Perfect dinnertime music.

Afterward, we find a small, unassuming stall that makes their own tofu.

We also introduced Tashane and Nick another Hong Kong classic: Egg tarts.

The wobbly, bright yellow, egg-custardy tarts that I grew up with, but had no idea was from HK.

We buy a box of 6 from the famous Tai Cheong Bakery, and sit across the street on the steps of a closed Aesop store. The tarts have a crumbly short crust and the custard was still hot.

Between meeting Adam and Melissa in France and seeing Tashane again in Hong Kong, I am constantly reminded of how lucky I am to have such friends, no matter where I am in the world.