|
Day Six: Snake-eating Lesbians and Blackalicious
|
January 26, 2007
|
« Day Six: Thai food? In Hong Kong? | Main | Day Seven: Macau Bound »
When I read that one can get snake soup in Hong Kong, I knew I had to seek some out. I turned to Stephen for advice. He explained that he didn't know where to get good snake soup, since he didn't particularly like it, but said that he would ask around. After some consultation, he gave us the name of a place in Soho.
Soho is a pretty cool neighborhood with curvy streets and steep alleys packed with bars, restaurants, and cafes. Our cab driver didn't know where the restaurant was, so he dropped us out in the middle of the neighborhood, and after blundering our way through conversations with a few locals, we managed to find our way to the right spot.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was full, and we had to wait nearly a half an hour to get in. I amused myself by speculating on why the Chinese-staffed hair salon next door had a magazine rack full of African-American hair magazines. I didn't come up with any good answers.
We were seated at a large, round, group table alongside two other couples. I looked at the a la carte menu, which fortunately had English translations for the dishes. Joe had a look at the set menu, which unfortunately had no English. As luck would have it, the otherwise severe-looking lesbian couple seated to our left were happy to help. Or at least I assume they were happy, as they seemed to avoid smiling.
They interrogated Joe as to our preferences, and made some recommendations. They'd muse about the choices in Chinese to each other. At one point they seemed to disagree about something.
"Did you want a vegetable dish? She thinks that adding another meat dish would mean too much meat."
Joe and I looked at each other and shrugged. "We're guys."
"That's what I said."
The soups were first to arrive. The much anticipated snake soup, pictured, came with a plate of wonton-like fried bits and little strips of dry greenery that, when put into the soup, tasted a bit like lemongrass. Snake soup as made here tastes a little bit like chicken soup, only slightly leaner and maybe a little gamier. I can't imagine anyone not liking it; it's pretty inoffensive. (Care to comment, Stephen?) The lemongrassy substance added a nice touch. I'm glad I ordered it, but I didn't find it anything to write home about.
Joe's coconut soup was more interesting. We both expected a coconut-milk based soup, so what we got was quite unexpected. A clear broth enveloped large chunks of coconut, vegetables, and chicken. The broth delivered a focused coconut flavor quite different from the rich flavor of coconut milk. This will definitely be a candidate for experimentation for me back home.
The other dish of interest was a rice dish cooked in a terra cotta vessel. (Crispy Rice? We can't remember what the dish is called.) The outer edge of the rice is crunchy, and the whole dish is suffused with the flavor of the chicken and the liver sausage that it was cooked with. The liver and blood sausage -- I wish I knew the real name -- was very strongly and distinctively flavored. I can't even begin to describe what it tasted like. This, I can see someone not liking. I thought it was wicked tasty, myself, though if I were cooking with it, I'd only use it in small doses.
We left the restaurant and walked around Soho, through the alleys full of clubs, down the winding streets, past the crazy, sobbing white girl collapsed on the curb, clinging to the pant leg of a disaffected, baseball-cap-and-khaki-wearing yuppie. We walked down some stairs toward a park and found a cool little bar whose name I did not record. As we relaxed and had a couple of gin and tonics, one of which was made with a gin liqueur that was very interesting, a DJ spun some great Northern California hip hop (Blackalicious, Latyrx, Souls of Mischief). This is Hong Kong. Welcome.
January 26, 2007 in Hong Kong | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345589be69e200d835158f1169e2
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Day Six: Snake-eating Lesbians and Blackalicious:
Comments
The street pic looks a little like SF's North Beach, except there'd be more sobbing white girls with stupid yuppy guys. Oh, and the lesbians would have been less friendly...
Posted by: Reca at Feb 2, 2007 8:26:06 PM
