A Leisurely Saturday

On Saturday, by complete freak chance, Mark, Noah and I all ended up waking up at the same time — 7:30 am. So not to waste this golden opportunity when everyone was awake and in a good mood, we headed out to brunch to get our day started right. Rather than bore you with a detailed account of our leisurely outing, here are some pictures I took instead:

The Brunch Club — our new early morning hangout:

(Noah was in an “I’m not smiling until someone gets me my banana smoothie” kind of mood)

Oddly enough, The Brunch Club is tucked away on Peel Street which looks like this:

Taking a walk to the Peel/Graham Street market:

Me and Noah at the Hong Kong Flower Show at Victoria Park. Yes, I’m fat and pregnant and my shirt is too small. Are you happy now people?

The playground at Victoria Park:

One pooped and totally huggable toddler on the way to lunch:

For the record, our seven hour outing completely destroyed me and Mark. We got home and immediately ended up taking long naps while Noah continued to play for several more hours with Clarita, culminating with a trip to the play area and then a walk around our apartment complex with Mark. I have no idea where he gets his energy from.

Updates On The Boy

The boy, as you would expect from a three-year-old, is a total nutcase right now.  He’s got personality up the wazoo which means we get treated to little gems like this all the time:

Noah: Mommy, want to wear my necklace?
Me: I don’t think it fits on me Noah.
Noah: Oh right. Because your neck is too fat.

But all cutie-pieness aside, here are some of the things that he’s been up to recently…

Growing
The boy is big. Not just big for our shorty gene pool, but big in general. I think his height puts him in the 90th percentile for his age. But here is visual proof of how fast the little guy is growing:

This is the wall from our old apartment where we tracked his height. In case you can’t see it too clearly, the first mark from March 13, 2007 (two months after we moved to Hong Kong) is at 33 1/4″ and the last mark from December 29, 2008 is at 39 1/2″. That’s six inches in two years. I don’t know what’s harder for me to fathom — that he was once that short or that he’s now so tall.

School Stuff — Uh oh!
At Noah’s school, he carries a communication book in his backpack every day. Since many parents don’t get a chance to talk to the teachers personally, the communication book is how we communicate with his teachers and vice versa. If we have anything to tell them we write it in the book and they also will give us weekly reports on what how the kids are doing and what they’re learning. A couple weeks ago, Noah came home with a note in his book from Ms. Eileen explaining that he’d recently been playing a little rough with his friends. As in, he pushes them down or grabs them. To top it all off, the little stinker is apparently very sneaky about it. According to Ms. Eileen, he “seems to know it’s wrong as he often looks around to see if the teachers are watching and if he sees one of us looking at him, he quickly says, ‘Sorry’ to the child.” The stinky little booger. So Mark and I had a little heart-to-heart with Noah and we’ve removed some of the more violent movies from his movie night options (Kung Fu Panda and Shrek). I’m not sure how much he understood of what we said but it’s been two weeks and at least there haven’t been any more notes from his teacher.

More School Stuff
As you probably already know, Mark and I sent in applications a few months ago to some schools that we want to send Noah to for this upcoming fall term. Step One was the application process and now we’re at Step Two — Interviews. Noah had two school interviews last week — one for the Japanese International School and another for the Canadian International School. Basically, they both went the same way: parents and children all gather in one room and then a couple of teachers come out and take the kids to another room for a 45-minute evaluation. The evaluation is basically putting the kids in a room with toys and puzzles and watching how they play, how they interact with one another, reading them books and then asking questions about the stories, having them draw, and asking them simple questions about themselves. A little weird to think that Noah’s scholastic future depends on how well he plays with others.

We got his acceptance letter from the Japanese International School a few days ago. The Japanese School was our safety school — we knew he’d probably get in since the school is not well known compared to some of the other international schools in HK and therefore has a small application pool. Located in the New Territories, it’s also one of the farthest schools away which is probably our biggest obstacle. It’s about 45 minutes and three tunnels away which means even if we buy a car and drive him to school every day, we’re still looking at an additional HK$500 (or US$65)/week in tolls alone. Adding to our concerns is the fact that the acceptance letter was riddled with grammatical errors. Even Mark noticed — and he usually only notices things like that if they’re really bad. Otherwise the campus is great, everything is brand new, the staff is nice and friendly, and they’ve got a small teacher-student ratio. The Canadian International School is our first choice for Noah and we’ll hear back from them sometime in mid-March. The final school we applied to — Hong Kong Academy — isn’t setting up interviews until March so we’ve still got some time before we need to make a final decision.

Potty Training √
I’m happy to report the boy is completely potty trained. I had set up an elaborate reward system where if he pooped in his potty once he would get a toy, two more times he would get another toy, three more times another toy, all the way up to his ultimate reward — a trip to Disneyland. Well, he reached the Disneyland milestone a few weeks ago and has been bugging me daily ever since to take him to Disneyland. We’ve had to put it off for different reasons — school interviews mostly — but I was starting to feel like a big liar so I finally took him last Wednesday when I knew that Mark would be out working late and wouldn’t miss us when he got home.

If you ever need to go to Disneyland, going in the middle of the week after they’ve just raised admission prices is a pretty good time to go. We left after lunch and got there around 2 pm. As a testament to just how not crowded it was, in one hour we managed to ride the Dumbo ride, Merry-Go-Round, take the train, meet Mickey, Pluto and Goofy plus fit in two bathroom breaks. Amazing progress considering that when we’ve gone in the past we’ve had to wait an hour just to see Mickey Mouse.

After a snack and the Disney parade, Noah insisted on riding the Jungle River Cruise. He’d ridden it twice before and both times he was deathly afraid on the ride so I was surprised that he wanted to ride it this time. This is him after we got seated on the boat — happy and optimistic:

And this is the way he spent the majority of the ride — hiding his face in my lap:

Still, he insisted he enjoyed the ride and asked if I was proud of him for being so brave. Naturally I said yes and he promised that he would teach his baby brother how to be brave too. We caught the Lion King show afterward and then hit a few more rides before it was time for dinner followed by souvenir shopping and fireworks. He was completely fascinated by the fireworks this time so I’m glad we stayed. Finally, after six hours at the park it was time to go home.

The good thing is, I had been trying to stress to him all day that the Disneyland trip was a special treat and that we wouldn’t be going there all the time so he shouldn’t bother asking (yeah, I’m mean). The next day, on our way to the grocery store, he told me, “Mommy, yesterday we went to Disneyland. I like Disneyland very very much but I can’t go there ever again.” Ahhhhh…sweet music to my ears.

Etc…
In non-boy related news, after waiting one and a half months we finally have the dining table and benches that we ordered way back in January, so yay! Happiness all around:

Flower Market Redux

I’m not a big fan of plants and flowers.  Of course, they’re pretty to look at and lend your house a certain warmth, but ultimately I just don’t have room for all those vases and I generally find them too high maintenance (who has time to recut flower stems under running water every day?).  To me, flowers are only really useful for inducing jealousy amongst your co-workers that your husband or boyfriend is thoughtful and loves you enough to send you a bouquet at work (implying of course that theirs isn’t), but since I don’t work anymore I haven’t really seen a pressing need to buy any.

Nevertheless, one time of the year that I get really excited for lately is Chinese New Year.  And mostly it’s because they open up the CNY flower market at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay for the week leading up to CNY.  It amazes me that I like the flower market so much.  One, as previously mentioned, I don’t really buy flowers; and two, I hate crowds and this gets to be one of the busiest, most crowded markets around since it’s a once-a-year thing.  But I love the crazy carnival-like atmosphere, being surrounded by the different plants and flowers, the vibrant colors and the aroma of traditional Chinese street food being cooked.

The flower market opened on Tuesday at noon.  Last year we went an hour after they first opened and it was d-e-a-d.  I heard that the market is liveliest in the evenings so we waited until 6 pm and left our apartment for the market.  It was definitely lively — and the later it got, the more packed it became. I didn’t have enough cash with me to buy anything so we were really just there to check it out, enjoy the festive atmosphere and pick up a toy for Noah.  Unfortunately evening isn’t the best time to take pictures — especially if you insist on never using your flash — so all my pictures from that first day are kind of crap.  But here is one of Noah examining the pinwheel I got for him:

Weekend Update

Most everyone I know is having a really kick-ass weekend right now.  A bunch of my friends flew to Richmond, VA from all around the country to have a big girls’ weekend (see Jess’ recap here and Cristina’s version here).  I was supposed to go too since Mark and I had been planning on being in that part of the country for the inauguration but we ended up cancelling the trip because of our upcoming move and now I’m so bitter I can barely stand to read updates on the girls’ weekend.  Except that I do because I’m insanely curious about what went on.  Mark, in the meantime, is still on his business trip although since it’s the weekend and he’s in SF I think he’s mostly just hanging out, relaxing and eating good food.  I’m also insanely jealous of him.  Especially since Sunday he’s got a day of football, BBQ and boardgames planned with my family.

So, not to be outdone, I also planned a fun-filled (read: distracting enough that I don’t think about how much fun everyone else is having without me) weekend with the boy.  It got off to a rocky start on Saturday since I woke up sick.  Clarita took Noah off my hands pretty much all day so I could rest up and get better and by Sunday, I was feeling well enough to take the boy out for the day.

We started off the day by catching a movie at the theater.  Yes, 10 am may seem rather early to be watching a movie for normal people, but when you’ve been awake since 6 am, it’s practically mid-day already and perfect time to catch a movie break.  We watched Madagascar 2 (for the third time), grabbed lunch afterwards, then I took Noah on one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong — ride the Star Ferry:

When we landed on the Kowloon side, I took Noah to one of his favorite things to do in…well, anywhere really — go to Toys R’ Us and buy toys. I think I mentioned that his potty training has taken a bit of a backward step, so I needed to go and buy motivational toys for the boy. We spent an hour browsing and he picked out five toys that he really wanted. I let him have one toy right away and then covered my head and neck while he threw a fit when he realized that he wasn’t getting them all rightthatveryinstant. Ok, that part of the plan was probably not very well thought out on my part, but it was quickly forgotten once we sat down for a snack. Then we took the ferry back to HK side:

Yes, I am that mother who lets her son hang his head off the side of the boat.

Noah insisted on sitting on every one of the chains to test out their swingability:

At the ferry terminal, they were holding the weekly organic farmer’s market. All of the fruits and vegetables sold there are locally grown in Hong Kong using no pesticides. That doesn’t mean I trust the produce enough to eat it though (you never quite know what exactly is in the water) and there were a ton of vegetables that I had never seen or eaten before. For some reason, Noah was intent on groping all of the carrots he saw and when I asked him to stop, he told me, “But I love carrots so much. They’re my favorite!” (This is a complete lie. The boy refuses to eat carrots.) One of the vendors overheard and took pity on him (for having such a mean, cheap mom I’m guessing) and gave him one:

After a little bit of grocery shopping, we went back home where we had dinner and then had a crazy 80′s dance party* before turning in for the night. Post-Noah, my nights have been consumed with lots and lots of crocheting. I don’t have enough supplies to finish these little guys so they’re still incomplete, but this is what I was doing while my friends were out eating, drinking and basically having a ton of fun:

(The Corporate Zombie on the left is missing a tie, a mouth, and blood running down his chin. He also needs a haircut, but I spent so much time making the fringe for his hair I couldn’t stand the thought of cutting it. The Grim Reaper needs a real scythe — as in, one that isn’t made out of a pink Post-it note. And they’re both missing eyes — the pins are just placeholders — but I don’t really know where to go to buy felt to finish them both off. Another example of my short-sighted thinking.)

So yeah, eat your hearts out Richmond girls and family. Who says I don’t know how to have fun by myself.

* Fun fact: Noah really digs Run DMC’s version of Walk This Way. It’s hilarious to watch him immediately start bouncing once he hears the beat. He is also exceedingly fond of Starship’s We Built This City (although he tries to sing to this rather than dance to it) and Europe’s The Final Countdown — I taught him how to just jump straight up and down during this song…yeah, just like in the video.

Apartments and Holidays and Phases, Oh My!

Apartments

When Obama won the election in November, Mark and I resolved to head to Washington DC in January to see the inauguration.  But as the expected number of attendees started to climb part the 2 million mark, we resolved instead to go to the East Coast and visit his brothers in DC and Pennsylvania instead (plus a few of my friends in Virginia).  Well, all that’s gone to hell now.  It turns out that our lease is up and we need to be out of our apartment by January 31st so we’re having to scrap an East Coast trip for the time being.

After a couple of weekends of searching, we finally found an apartment that we liked and put an offer on.  Now looking for an apartment in Hong Kong is vastly different from trying to rent an apartment in the U.S.  For one thing, everything’s negotiable.  Including the price.  After some negotiating, we got 15% knocked off the original rental price.  Mark — never the type satisfied that he’s getting a good deal — also managed to secure an additional US$520 credit from the landlord to go towards putting up curtains and light fixtures.  Yay!

So now we’ve got a new place.  We decided to be lame and we’re moving to an apartment down the block from where we currently live.  What can I say?  I like our area.  Look — you can even see it from our current apartment:

One thing I noticed when Mark and I were still looking at apartments was the type of things you take for granted when you live in the U.S.  We were completely awed when we walked into one place that had a real walk-in closet.  A walk-in closet!  I haven’t seen one of those in over two years!  While our real estate agent tried to point out some of the “finer” aspects of the apartments (a tv in the bathroom, marble flooring and counters, an island kitchen, multiple en-suites in one unit, etc.) Mark and I were drooling over things like double sinks (!!!), a medicine cabinet (wow!) or actual rooms that wouldn’t be mistaken for a closet (double wow!!).  I’m sure she must’ve thought we were uncivilized morons.  We ultimately didn’t end up choosing the apartment with the walk-in closet or the island kitchen, but I’m happy to report that we will have the double sinks that Mark and I have been wanting (getting a fourth bedroom was merely a bonus).  Oh yeah, we’re moving on up.

Holidays

Initially, Mark and I were determined to spend the holidays here in Hong Kong.  We’ve been traveling for Christmas to visit family every year for the last seven years so we thought we could use a break.  However, with the prospect of our January East Coast trip out the window, I think we both started feeling a bit of cabin fever.  On top of that, Mark spent a week in Tokyo on business in early December and came back raving about how Tokyo was cold and beautiful and lit up for the holidays while Hong Kong was…well…Hong Kong — warm and commercial.  So at the last minute we decided that we would spend the week of Christmas in Tokyo.  Mark has some work to do in Tokyo that week anyway (the Japanese get December 23 off — the Emperor’s Birthday — but not Christmas) so it all worked out.  To top it off, my friend Jae and her family just moved to Tokyo so Noah and I will have someone to torture hang out with when Mark’s busy.

Phases, Oh My!

Speaking of Jae and her family…when we told Noah that we would be spending Christmas in Tokyo with Nevan, he freaked out.  But in a totally good way (sort of).  Ever since then, his Nevan-obsession has come back.  Not a day has gone by when he doesn’t talk about Nevan and regale us with stories of the silly things that Nevan did back in Sydney.  Every now and then he also cries when he realizes that we are not going to see Nevan righthisverysecond.  His Nevan phase comes at kind of a bad time for us since it coincides with another phase that Noah’s recently entered — the Why? phase.  Imagine the following conversation (and repeat it almost daily…just for kicks):

Noah: Mommy, what is the Grinch doing?
Me: He’s taking all the presents.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because he doesn’t like Christmas.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because he’s not very nice.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because his heart is too small.
Noah: Why?
Me: Noah, just watch the movie.

And combine it something like…having to explain to a three-year-old why you can’t buy certain things for the friend he’s obsessed with.  It gets ugly sometimes:

Noah: Mommy, I like my black jacket.
Me: Me too.  You know who got it for you?
Noah: Who?
Me: Aunty Jae.
Noah: Why?
Me: It was a gift.
Noah: Oh.  Mommy, we need to buy one for Nevan.
Me: Nevan already has one like it.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae bought one for Nevan a long time ago.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae is Nevan’s mommy and she buys him stuff.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because she loves him and…well she just buys him stuff.
Noah: Oh.  Later we need to buy Nevan a suitcase just like mine.
Me: I’m sure Nevan already has a suitcase.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae probably bought him one.
Noah: Why?
Me: Because she’s his mommy.
Noah: And Uncle Dave is his daddy?
Me: Yes.
Noah: (thinks for a minute, and then) Why?
Me: Because Aunty Jae and Uncle Dave love each other. Just like mommy and daddy.
Noah: Why?
Me: Oh hey look over there! (pointing at the sky) A helicopter!
Noah: Later we need to buy a helicopter for Nevan just like Noah’s.
Me: (just shaking my head and rolling my eyes)

Ugly, I tell ya.  For my sanity’s sake, I’m hoping one of these phases is going to end soon.

School Trip

On Friday, Noah had a school trip to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. They’ve been learning about different types of animals all fall term so the school trip was a way to tie everything together. They needed parent volunteers so I came along as well.

Noah had been a little reluctant to go to school all week. Partly I think it was because he was having so much fun at home playing with Grandma and Grandpa before the school bus came that he didn’t want to stop and go to school. And partly I think it was because he had been coming down with a cold all week long. Friday turned out to be the worst day of his cold but Mark and I had talked up the zoo trip so much that we couldn’t let Noah miss it. He woke up that morning in a good mood and I reminded him that it was the day of the school trip and that we were going to the zoo that day. His downhearted response was, “I’m going to the zoo but Nevan is not there. Nevan is in Australia. He can’t go to the zoo with me.” Oh-kay random boy.

At school I, along with nine other parent volunteers, watched as Ms. Kiri and Ms. Eileen called the register using the Mandarin names they’d assigned each child. Noah, of course, didn’t respond when they called out his Chinese name, Nuò ā, and looked around blankly until Ms. Eileen prodded him to stand up. Oh well — he’ll get it one day. Afterward they paired up the kids with their zoo buddies. I was in charge of Noah and Antoine — Noah’s classmate who had switched from the afternoon class to the morning class around the same time Noah did. They knew each other but I knew they weren’t great friends. But I also knew that Antoine was quiet and wouldn’t make trouble so I wasn’t complaining. Then we all piled onto the bus along with the other morning kindergarten class and went on our way.

It turns out that Friday is the day that every school in Hong Kong decides to go to the zoo. They place was crawling with children. We had the youngest group of kids there so a lot of the time I was just trying to make sure the kids didn’t get trampled by the much bigger kids running around. Plus all of Ms. Eileen’s careful matching up of zoo buddies went completely to pieces once we actually got to the zoo. Friends ran off/dawdled/screamed/joked around with their favorite friends — mothers be damned. With 30+ toddlers there, it was a mess at the zoo. But at least they had fun. Especially considering the HK zoo is pretty weak. Aside from the stinky flamingos we saw a couple of orangutans, a few monkeys and a couple species of lemurs and that was pretty much it. After a snack and more walking around, we made our way up to the playground for about 20 minutes before hopping back onto the bus to go back.

I don’t know if Noah really cared so much that the zoo was a little lame — I think he enjoyed just being able to run around with his friends — but I was feeling gypped for him so once we got home I popped Madagascar in the dvd player. Not the most realistic animal movie, yes, but it had Noah’s favorite type of animal — the animated kind.

Noah sits down for a snack at the zoo:

Class picture — The Diamond Class:

(To the right of Noah is Bradley — one of Noah’s best friend’s at school. Charlie — front row, third from the right — is another good friend and Ruby — front row, first on the right — used to be his best friend who he now avoids like a leper.)

Good friends:

(left to right: Bradley, Christian, Chloe, Noah, Olivia, Jonathan, Emma. Noah kept grabbing Chloe’s hand and putting it on his knee. Weird and just slightly pervy.)

At the playground:

Weekend Sightseeing

On Saturday, Mark hired a car and driver and with six of us in tow — Grandma, Grandpa, Mark, Clarita, Noah and me — we took off for Sai Kung, a former fishing village in the New Territories:

Here are Grandma, Mark and Noah at the pier:

One of the seafood vendors at the floating market:

A woman cleaning octopus on the boat:

After walking along the pier, we headed to one of the numerous seaside restaurants for lunch. Here are Mark and his dad, picking out our lunch:

Grandma and Grandpa testing out their chopstick skills:

Happy after a huge lunch of fish, crabs and shrimp:

After lunch we made the long drive back onto Hong Kong island and went straight to Victoria Peak. While Grandpa, Grandma and Mark went up to the observation tower, Clarita and I stayed behind at the playground with Noah:

Here is Noah’s new (and painful) way of going down slides:

After our busy Saturday, we decided that Sunday should just be a laid back sightseeing day. So I’m not quite sure what in the world we were thinking in taking his parents over to Stanley market that day. The market was swarming with people — locals and tourists alike. The restaurants were also spilling over with customers but we managed to find a seat at one of the Italian restaurants along the seaside for a quick lunch of burgers and pizza. After lunch we were ready to brave the market again. We bribed Noah with a toy to keep him cooperative but a toy will only keep a three-year-old occupied for so long so Mark, Noah and I headed out to the promenade while Grandma and Grandpa finished up their shopping.

Here are Mark and Noah enjoying the view:

And Noah running back to me after playing on the rocks with Mark:

Grandma and Grandpa’s Visit — Week One

Mark’s parents are in Hong Kong. His dad came to visit us last year with Mark’s aunt, but this is his mom’s first time in Hong Kong. After 24 hours of flying(!!), they finally arrived safe and sound (albeit on the tired side) late Tuesday evening. I woke up early on Wednesday to make homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast. From scratch (which were yummy thank you very much). And since Wednesday morning in HK meant it was still election night in the US we spent the rest of the morning glued to CNN watching election returns:

It was noon when CNN called the election for Obama and we finally left for lunch an hour later. Mark and I took them to Beirut, a Lebanese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong, and afterwards we took a stroll through the nearby Graham Street market, one of the last street markets in Hong Kong.

The next day, Thursday, they were still pretty jet-lagged so we took it easy for most of the day. Mark had bought tickets for us to Cirque du Soleil’s Zaiaat the Venetian so later that afternoon we took a ferry to Macau for dinner and a circus. It turned out the Venetian was also hosting the 2008 Miss International beauty pageant so we caught a glimpse of the contestants on our way to the theater:

Naturally, they didn’t allow photographs inside the theater but it was a great show. Like all Cirque shows, visually it was absolutely breathtaking — with vibrant costumes and richly detailed and imaginative backdrops. Mark managed to score seats three rows from the stage so we had a great view of the action. Afterward we walked through the Grand Canal shops at the Venetian before catching a ferry back home.

Disneyland

I’m so behind on my blogging this week.  A lot of it is because I’m just slightly more preoccupied with my photoblog right now so that one sees all of the action.  But we’ve also just had a lot of things going on at home — Noah got into an accident at school last Friday (he fell and bit his lip open.  He’s ok.  We took him to the doctor the next day and he confirmed everything was alright), all three of us have been sick at some point this week, and of course there was the Vice-Presidential debate on Thursday which I’ve been scarily obsessed with.  So this post is long overdue, but better late than never I guess.

I had originally planned on taking Noah to Hong Kong Disneyland on his birthday last week but we got typhooned-out that day so on Tuesday this week — the only day of the week that Noah doesn’t go to some kind of class — I decided to try again.  We lucked out this week because Mark was able to come with us.  Normally when we go, we try to get there as early as possible to avoid the crowds but we were hoping to catch the fireworks show at night so we didn’t leave the house until after 1 pm.  We arrived just in time for the High School Musical parade which Noah loved.  Probably because they were throwing out shiny red things to the crowd.  Here is Noah with his shiny red thing on the way to Tomorrowland:

After lunch, Noah insisted on riding Autopia which was next door to where we ate. We waited about 45 minutes in line just so we could hop in a car and pretend to drive. Wheee!

An Anniversary Food Review

Mark and I celebrated our six year anniversary last night.  Today, Sunday, is actually our anniversary, but since Clarita has the day off (read: we have no babysitting) we went out Saturday night instead.  For dinner we chose to go to Bo Innovation.  Bo Innovation originally started out as a private kitchen in Hong Kong and was so popular that its host/chef, Alvin Leung, set it up as a restaurant.  Private kitchens, or speakeasies, are small, unlicensed, restaurant-like eating establishments.  On the downside, they operate outside of government regulations (like fire, health and hygiene) but on the plus side, they’re intimate, usually serve high quality food (since they rely so heavily on word-of-mouth) and meet a pressing need for aspiring chefs.

Alvin Leung is known around Hong Kong as the “Demon Chef” and has a reputation for using ingredients in unexpected and innovative ways.  I was actually a little nervous about going since I’d heard that Bo was famous for serving things like Chinese sausage ice cream.  Not really my thing, but I was willing to give it a try.

After arriving nearly an hour late due to some heavy duty traffic, we sat down, ordered a bottled of champagne and we each ordered the tasting menu.  The food started coming almost immediately, which was great since we were both hungry after being stuck in a taxi for 45 minutes.  Earlier I made a deal with Mark that I would leave my big camera at home if he promised to take pictures of all of our courses so here’s what our dinner was like.

We were so hungry that we forgot to take a picture of our first starter — a tomato confit with crystal tomato jelly and lam choy sauce.  Rest assured that it was yummy.  Our second dish was a foie gras potsticker:

My friend Jae is nuts and despite never having tried foie gras, has placed it on her list of foods she will never eat (for humanitarian reasons). If she ever comes to Hong Kong though, I will force her to eat the foie gras potsticker and make a convert out of her. This thing was insanely delicious.

Next up was the BO sashimi:

From left to right that’s hamachi with black sesame sauce, sea bream, and amaebi. This was probably our least favorite course — Mark found the black sesame sauce overpowering (although I loved it); the sea bream was good, but just really chewy (I joked to Mark that I wasn’t really chewing but that my teeth were just ricocheting off the fish); and well, neither of us like amaebi. At all. We try to avoid it at all costs whenever we go out for sushi — it’s slimy and chewy and just kind of disgusting. (shudder)

This is me, happy and pre-amaebi:

I didn’t catch the name of this dish:

But BO’s website calls it mui choy kau yuk. According to the waiter, it’s a traditional Hong Kong dish and very popular in Kowloon, but really, that doesn’t tell you much, does it? The white foam on top covered a steamed, gelatinous, chickeny layer. I think I also tasted a hint of liver but it all went together so well I ate the whole thing up.

For my main course, I chose the Wagyu striploin with black truffle cheung fun pasta and truffle sauce which was absolutely delicious — cooked perfectly and the truffle sauce on it was extraordinary:

Mark ordered the 24 hour pork lasagna — a lasagna filled with pork that had been slowly cooked for 24 hours:

We both thought the meat was very similar to pulled pork but if you’re a Texas boy, that’s a good thing. Mark didn’t get a picture of the rice that they served afterwards — a tomatoey friend rice with flying fish roe — but like most everything we’d had to that point, it was also incredible.

I’m happy to report that there was no salmon ice cream or anything of the sort. They started us off with a trio of desserts:

The thing on the left is ice cream. I didn’t hear what kind, so I guess it’s entirely possible that we did end up eating some kind of meat ice cream, but whatever it was it was pretty good. In the middle was a bitter chocolate filled sesame ball (my favorite) and the thing on the right was ginko nut-something. I’m not quite sure what a ginko nut is, but I’m pretty sure it should never be made into a dessert.

Finally there was a steamed apple dumpling:

Overall, the dessert was the most disappointing part of dinner but then again, I don’t really choose restaurants for their desserts (except for El Adobe in San Juan Capistrano, which besides having some pretty good Mexican food, has the best churros I’ve ever had. Mmmmmm…churros…).  Pretty much everything else was excellent though and the manager told us the menu changes every month so that’s enough incentive for me to come back (if I can finagle another dinner out of Mark).