Braised Sea Cucumber and Goose Feet

One of Derrald's high school friends got married last month and Derrald somehow pleaded, bullied, begged,  his way onto the guest list. I was his plus one and we had a great time. Neither one of us has ever attended a wedding here in Hong Kong and it did not disappoint. Held at the beautiful Sheraton in TST the room was all done up in purple,

with fabulous feathers,

delicate flowers,

 and mood-setting candles.

It was impossible to resist the perfect photo op set up for wedding pictures with the bride and groom... so let the good times roll.

One of the highlights of the evening was the twelve course meal which included many Hong Kong delicacies like Shark's Fin Soup and Roasted Suckling Pig...

Braised Marrow stuffed with Conpoy:

Braised Sea Cucumber and Goose Feet:

*goose feet taste pretty much like chicken feet, think chicken skin... I am ashamed to say I can't tell you what the sea cucumber tasted like but it's NOT a vegetable and Derrald assures me it's texture is similar to that of a mushroom.

With so many courses regular glances at the menu were required.

Double boiled Hashma with Lotus Seed and Lily Bulb:

*the white bits floating in this sweet broth are actually frog fat or more specifically "frog fat from around the womb of a female frog" They didn't really have a specific taste to me. Maybe it was the image of eating frog fat or maybe it was the fact that we'd already eaten ten courses of food but none of us managed to finish our bowls

Dessert! Baked Egg Custard Tartlets with Bird's Nest served with Egg Custard Dumplings:

 *these were delicious!!

 Another highlight of the evening, especially for Derrald, was the magician.  The joy that this man and his tricks brought to my husband can only be described by the words "giggling like a little school girl" punctuated with exclamations of "How did he do that?!?" and "That's amazing!!!" There has subsequently been talk of how much it would cost to bring this Mr Magician for a visit to our home.

I failed to get a picture of the bride and groom so here's a picture of a separate bride and groom, from another time, another place... a year and a half later at another wedding.

Wonderfully Rich...

...British Duck Fat.

On a recent trip to London I was looking for fun things to bring back for Derrald when I came across this little gem. Time to confess! How many of you are "dolloping" your roast potatoes in good ol' British Duck Fat?

I ended up getting a jar of hot English mustard.

Rainy Days and Mondays

For three weeks after my return from the US, everyday seemed to be a rainy day or a Monday, or a rainy Monday. Can you tell that I revived my Carpenters playlist last week? Anyways, for three whole weeks it looked a little something like this:

I think this picture was actually taken during the Typhoon 8 we had.

For a few days it's exciting and moody. And then it's depressing. I appreciated the cooler temperatures but hated the idea of wet feet any time I had to walk to the bus stop.

On the plus side, our waterfall overfloweth(ed). It was awesome. As was the mist that clung to the hillside. Gorillas, where are you?

 Three weeks of grey endured and we have finally started my favorite time of year in Hong Kong. Autumn/Fall. We are out of the horrible, humid heat of the summer, moving past the depressing wet, rainy season and are ready to enter the nice, mild, sunshiney, blue sky, wind off the sea, never had a Christmas day without sun, pleasant season.

To help you understand the kind of blissful weather I am talking about, I'll share with you a few pictures of what has now become a very familiar scene three mornings a week for us. The HKUST running track. This is about 7:30am. The lady in the first picture is doing Tai Chi. Today she was wielding a sword.

Looking left: see that little group of white houses on the hill, just above the fence and below the big mountain? I used to live there. I've hiked the mountain behind many times.

Looking center. Palm trees! We love it.

Looking right. Into the sun. The most wonderful breeze comes in over the ocean right where that gap is between the trees.

Welcome back sunshine! You energize us :)

Fragile

We're pretty much all moved into our HK apartment now. I mean sure, there's still some "decorating" to do but the boxes are all gone. We've found a home for almost everything and if we haven't, it's been stored (read: chucked in the maid's room where it's out of sight) until we find the right space. I took a couple quick snaps of the boxes when they first got here and after reviewing the state of our well-traveled items, I was rather elated at the low percentage of casualties we suffered. I think we only lost about 3 plates. Not bad considering it looked like they had played football with our china set all the way over to HK!! For your amusement, I've added some visuals:

Can you see the black container that we couldn't find a lid for? Our solution = a few bin liners, some cardboard and a bunch of duct tape. We = hobos. No wonder these people thought they could throw our stuff around.

I love how all our worldly possessions, everything we owned in the world, fit snugly into one third of our living room area. To be fair, I came to North Carolina with naught but a lap top and a fistful of cash, so I've accumulated (hoarders beware!).

A close up of one of our porcelain filled boxes.

From this angle you can really get the idea of what a miracle it was we didn't just have a boxful of shards.

The first casualty.

The second casualty was ME!! 

At this point I decided to concentrate on what I was doing and got lost in the whole "Christmas morning" feel of opening my wrapped parcels to reveal much beloved and long lost items. My heart still hurts when I think of the one box they failed to deliver. Yes. We did lose a whole box. Now I have several lids to which there are no pots. The saddest part is that the pots were wedding gifts from my sisters-in-law. It's hard for me to even mention it now. It has taken me months (and about 200 pep talks) to get over it, and the mystery items I will never see again. Obviously, the only thing I really cared about were the pots. They were all I could think about when waiting for the shipment to arrive because I love to cook and we love to eat, let's face it, pots are a kitchen essential. Not to mention, I get very sentimentally attached to stuff. I have offered up at least 20 of our other boxes (mostly full of books) that I would gladly hurl off a ship into the ocean if you would just give me that ONE box with my pots. On my last trip back to the States, I swallowed my sadness and went shopping for new pots ( gotta LOVE Home Goods)  but I still have the lids to the old ones. I will have to let them go soon. If only from fear of what becomes of a "hoarder"... 

Cheung Yeung Monkey Business

Cheung Yeung or Double Ninth Festival is a public holiday in Hong Kong. This year it fell on a Wednesday and delighted everyone with a mid-week break. Apparently, it's tradition to climb a mountain or go hiking, as well as drink chrysanthemum tea. Always ready to try out new traditions we happily accepted an invitation to go hiking with Swallow and John, and their band of merry hikers.

Here we all are:

One of my favorite things about hiking in Hong Kong is the wonderment that comes with what contrast we live in. Walking through forest and not seeing a building, but being able to hear the hubbub of traffic. Bumping into wildlife and feeling like you're in the middle of nowhere and then crossing a hill to see high-rises, home to millions of people. Incredible. 

 Our Wednesday hike was up to Lion Rock (can you see how it got it's name?). It started in the city, Wong Tai Sin (right out of the MTR) and we had the perfect day for it. Overcast. Thankfully, temperatures are cooling in HK right now, although we were still sweating buckets and I still get requests for the "sweat cloth". Yuck.

This is exactly what I'm talking about when I am referring to contrasts. 

Closing in on our target. 495 meters.

The next two photos were taken by another one of the hikers, Rencheng. Beautiful.

 

Atop those rocks is where we ate our lunch...and also where we ran into some monkey business... well, it ran into us. Monkey King. Snatched that packet of bread right out of one of the hikers hands. Greedy monkey.

This was not the first or the last time we would be dealing with the apes.

 Another one of Rencheng's beautiful pictures. The fallen blossoms.

A Wedding Tradition

So, with one wedding a year for the last two years (Derrald and I, June 2010; Brendan and Amy, Sept 2011) we've had the best time seeing friends from far flung locations gather together in spectacular locations (Danville, CA; Perham, MN) to celebrate with us.  We've had so much fun that we're seriously ready to make this event a yearly thing and this has created some disturbance among the clans as we all whisper (not always so quietly) "who's next?!" So for those of you thinking about getting married, do it, and for those of you who aren't, check out these pictures, and try telling me you aren't thinking about it now! Haha.

Perham, MN. (pronounced "perm")

How gorgeous is Autumn in a place where the trees change color? We had perfect weather for the whole week and we watched as the leaves went from green to red all in the one week we were there!

Beautiful.

We could have sat here all day just looking at the trees... but we had a wedding to get to...

All the ladies met at the Hammer's house to help Amy get dressed and then finish dolling ourselves up ready for the arrival of Brendan (and the menfolk), before the commencement of the professional "posed" photos. Our personal photographer was my cousin Natasha, who did an amazing job photographing the photograph sessions, as well as the rest of our candid shots.

I adore this photo. Amy rushed to the window when she heard Brendan was arriving and tried to sneak a peak without him knowing.

Brendan and Amy shared a beautiful moment when they had Brendan stand outside facing the lake and then turn around to reveal his blushing bride. Their "first look" was a special moment just for them and allowed us to begin the photo fun. Did I mention I've never seen Derrald in a tux before? It was all I could do not to join Amy at the window to get my very own sneak peak! 

Nothing like a few posed photographs... between a man and his best man.

I guess you never really grow up when it comes to being kissed by your sisters!! Eww. Gross! Haha.

Our family is growing... what a good looking bunch.

Um, colors! How beautiful are they? The Hammers family is also growing.

The ceremony was held lakeside, in the backyard of the Hammer's lake house. It was stunning. As was the bride.

One smiling bride and one father of the bride, in sunglasses.

Before taking our seats I turned to my Mother and my sister and said "do you need tissues? tell me right now if you do because I've only got two and there's no going back once we're out there" I was mostly joking. I certainly didn't think I'd be using them. I didn't even cry at my own wedding. However, for some reason, when the music played and I saw my little brother standing with the love of his life in one of the most picturesque settings ever, I turned into a sniveling, hiccuping, blubbering, mess of woman. Friends, it was embarrassing. I clutched at my two tissues, tried not to mess up my mascara and sternly told myself to "pull it together woman!" Thankfully, we'd been warned about the sun setting across the water and told to bring sunglasses, I pulled mine down and tried to pretend I was... um, sneezing?

Lighting the unity candle.

I don't believe the pastor ever said "you may kiss the bride" but kiss they did!!

Then the newly wed Mr. and Mrs. Jannesen gave us the exit we all wanted.

The bride and groom arrive for dinner...

Now it's time to CELEBRATE!!!

Let the DANCING begin!!

Notice those fantastic pink shoes! Girl after my own heart.

Sing it sweet B.

Strutting it. 

A full dance floor!

Sisters.

They bust a few moves... Ginger and Fred style... 

Even Lester got on the dance floor! Looking good Banhams!

And there was twirling...

The award for best dancer must go to Nellie for this night. She single handedly held down the dance floor, even if she was the only one on it! She had moves I didn't even know existed. Uh-mazing. Look at her go, she was infectious.

We ended the night, tired and happy. 

I think McDonald's got it right when they said "I'm lovin' it".