If you’ve been following us around for the last few days you probably get it that we’ve been struggling with the food thing.  A few years ago a vegan friend of ours was doing a lot of travelling to some pretty interesting places.  When we asked him what he ate when he went to China, he said, “I ate meat.”

Hong Kong doesn’t promote itself enough so souvenir shops are hard to come by, but we sought them out twice this week to buy postcards. They showed typical stock photos that could be used to promote most major cities, the big picture views:  skyscrapers by day, skyscrapers by night, zoological gardens, the peak tram, boats, busy street scenes, light shows.  Nothing represented the true heart and soul of the city – the narrow street markets, the alleyways off the narrow streets, and the restaurants that can be found through the little stalls, behind the purses or toys or scarves, where diners sit around little communal tables, off the store, off the alleyway, off the lane, and off the street; no postcards to represent this aspect of Hong Kong life, which is so important to the fabric of any livable city.

We’d hoped we could find that kind of food to eat but we had no luck.  If there were menus at all there was no English translation, and if there was any English at all, it translated to nothing without meat.  If we found a place with both English and non-meat, it was Paisano’s Pizza (or somewhere like it), which was reasonably close to a great open market in Wan Chai, but it was nowhere near the kind of Chinese cuisine we craved.  I suppose that’s because it’s Italian, and not Chinese at all 🙂  Earlier in the week we sought out the “Old China Hand’, an ‘authentic’ British pub that sponsors the ubiquitous tourist map that we all carry around, but the working girls from the establishment next door APPEARED to spill out into the pub with the old white guys from everywhere but Hong Kong.  However, next door was a reasonably authentic Mexican restaurant that served delicious veggie quesadillas, bean burritos and pepper mushroom enchilada, infused with a rich smokey chipotle sauce, a meal we truly enjoyed but something we could have found easily in Toronto.  The realization that we were food chickens (sorry, chickens) became quite evident until we lowered the bar.  We didn’t need to eat authentic Chinese food off of alleyways off of street markets. It’s OK if we eat food at places in China that add a 10% gratuity to the bill.  That doesn’t make it any less authentic, fresh, local and delicious.  It’s OK that it’s a vegan restaurant on Johnston Street in Wan Chai called the Loving Hut.

It was the best meal we had all week.  Lovely chow mein noodles fried with strips of spicy wheat gluten, carrots and peas, red bean soup with carrot and zucchini, bok choy and zhucchini salad, sweet and sour veggies tossed with deep-fried veggie chicken strips, and red-bean infused rice.   Served with a refreshing home made lime soda, with fresh lime, cane sugar and soda water.  And, a cool bendy straw turned at rakish angles.  Each and every one a unique handmade work of art.  Thank you!

Ironically the last resto that we stopped by, since we’re leaving HK tomorrow, was one of the first places we dropped into the night we arrived at our hotel in Wan Chai.  They serve nice frosty Stella Artois and we had fresh onion rings deep fried in tempura with tartar sauce. Mmmm, tasty.

So long, Hong Kong.  Can’t wait til we return. Thanks for opening our eyes – what an awesome city!