One Night in Mong Kok

This should be a shorter post than normal, but I wanted to get it out there before I forgot all of the details.

On Monday, I went to get my temporary student pass for the MTR at the station at school.  On the way, I met up with some friends and was invited to tag along that night into Mong Kok, the same place I had been the night before.  I was excited to be going again, and once again with a group of local students to help show us around.  I am continually impressed by how much the local students want to interact with the exchange students, and I hope to be able to bring that sentiment back to school.

(Normal street in Mong Kok)

(Typical-sized apartment buildings that are everywhere)

The main event for the night was going to my first “hot pot” meal.  This is a very typical Chinese meal for families and at restaurants, but I had never had it before so was completely excited, but also completely ignorant to what it was.

The setup is pretty cool – you sit at a table with one or two wells that have a heating plate on it, where one or two pots of soup broth are placed.  These can be separated into different compartments if you prefer regular broth, or as I do, Sichuanese (very, very spicy) broth.  Then you have two hours to order as much food as you want (can) for a fixed price of about $120 ($18US).  You can get tons of different items, both typical and more exotic ones.  You then get these plates of raw food, and take what you want and toss it into the hot pot for about a minute, as the soup is boiling now, and then take it out and eat it.

(Paul (China), Rainer (HK), Andrea (Austria) and Annie (US))

(Spicy Sichuan, and regular broth)

I was very proud to eat all of the spicy food because most of the local students wouldn’t even have it because it was so spicy. After conquering the Sichuan spiciness, I think I can take on any kind at this point.

We ordered tons, but ill highlight the ones that I can remember.  We got many plates of the fish and lobster balls that I had discovered the day before and was very happy with them.  Also, thinly sliced beef (so it would cook fast) and tofu, mushrooms, and noodles.  Then there were the more “strange” items that you might not find at home.  The tripe (cow’s stomach) was extremely chewy, an d not very flavorful.  I probably wouldn’t go for it again.  My favorite new snack is fish skin.  As disgusting as this sounds, and it does look frightening, when you drop it in the hot pot for about 5 seconds, it turns into a crunchy treat that I would say rivals any good potato chip.  I probably had two plates of this on my own.  The last, and most ridiculous food that I tried was duck blood.  It is prepared in some kind of gelatin form, and it took me some time to actually try it.  It tastes a little bit salty and like extremely tender meat.  Ultimately, I might have it again, but not too much of it.

(Beef plates and shredded mushrooms)

(Clockwise from top: lobster balls, fish skin, sugar cane juice, tofu, fish balls, dumplings)

(I'm hungry just looking at it)

(Leftover spices from the hot pot)

(Duck blood)

(Two hours, and ten full stomachs later)

After our marathon dinner, we went to a very stereotypical (at least US stereotypes) arcade which had only two things: basketball shooting games and Japanese photo booths. Inside were lots and lots of couples giggling and taking pictures.  I couldn’t help laughing at how “AZN” this seemed.  Nonetheless, we played a little ball and put nearly ten of us into the photo booth.  The cool part is that afterwards you go behind the booth and can “edit” up the photo to include little stars, mustaches, coloring etc for each picture.  These turned out pretty well.

(Mike, making it rain)

(A short view of the about 30 booths in this place)

(The results.  About 10 pictures get printed on a 4x6 photo)

Next stop was more bubble tea, and then a long walk to a really cool dessert place.  On the way to dessert, we saw a gathering of people in the street and decided to stop and watch.  It was a monk street performer who shattered some glass on a towel, and then proceeded to roll and “jump” on it from his back for about a minute.  Pretty crazy, take a look.

(I'm really getting good at the Asian tourist pose)

I could recognize a couple of the characters in the sign, but was explained that it translated roughly into “Land of 100 Sugars”.  This sounded like my kind of place for dessert.  They had lots of ice cream plates, and some jello-like dishes with fruits and lots of sugar, as promised.  I, of course, got the chocolate ice cream with bananas and marshmallows on the side.  Sounds delicious? Take a look – it tasted just as good as it looks.

(Land of 100 Sugars)

(Just beautiful)

After that we took the bus home as the MTR was closed, and ended our 6-hour journey into Mong Kok.  It’s a good thing I didn’t have class until 2:30 the next day.  Hooray for study abroad!