Seasonal repasts

A colorful dish for the summer

Hot food available throughout the year in Hong Kong
but best enjoyed during cold weather

In no small part due to Le French May's gem-filled Noir film program, I have been frequenting the Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei quite a bit this past month. And as it so happens, my usual route between the cinema and the public transportation stop (be it the MTR or bus) takes me through the area where the Four Seasons claypot rice eatery is located.

But despite the eatery's name and it being my favorite place in the whole of Hong Kong to partake of claypot rice, I haven't felt seriously tempted even once to stop there on the way to or back from the cinema -- because I've come to think of this substantial dish as one that's best consumed in the winter months rather than after summer has most arrived in the Big Lychee. (And to judge from the relatively low number of customers it has been having lately, this is a feeling that's shared by many other Hong Kong residents.)

Instead, during this hot and humid season, I'm more wont to crave another dish that I also first got to know in Hong Kong: hiyashi chuka, a cold noodle dish that the Japanese think is Chinese -- indeed, its name apparently translates into "chilled Chinese"! -- but is actually a Japanese invention (or, at least, innovation). (Adding to the cross-cultural mix is the fact that I was introduced to this very refreshing concoction at Ajisen Ramen, a ramen noodle chain that was established in Kyushu but whose Fragrant Harbour franchise is China-owned!)

Often when I order this particular noodle dish, it's because the heat has made me not have as big an appetite as would be the case in the cooler months. Yet, it usually only takes mere minutes for me to polish off the portion of hiyashi chuka that I get served! For while it's true that I sometimes actually find myself thinking for a second or two that, with its colorful variety of garnishes (that include green cucumber, yellow egg and pink ham) it's almost too pretty for me to dig into, the fact of the matter is that I have such strong memories of how delicious it is that physical craving easily overwhelms aesthetic considerations and appreciation as far as this dish is concerned!! :b

My favorite hike of the past year (photo-essay)

As promised, here's continuing, without further ado (not least because we're already midway into a different year!), with my photo-documentation of my favorite hike of 2010: that which involved a trek to and then along the Nei Lak Shan Country Trail on a beautiful, bright blue sky day:-

One of the photos taken in Hong Kong that many people
are likely to find hard to believe actually is the case! :)

On the northern slope of Nei Lak Shan,
my regular hiking companion and my shadow
are the only human figures to be seen!

Scenic view that includes a couple of Ngong Ping 360
cable car cabins, Chek Lap Kok airport in the background
and Castle Peak further in the distance

I wonder how many cable car riders
noticed the hikers near this part of their ride?

A part of Hong Kong that few people evidently venture
-- great for those of us who go there!

As we rounded the circuit that is the
Nei Lak Shan Country Trail, we caught sight
once more of the Big Buddha of Ngong Ping

Looking back, it is a rather scary to realize
how scarred by landslides Nei Lak Shan is -- and
how part of the re-opened Nei Lak Shan Country Trail
actually cuts across a landslide area

But when one is hiking at least part of the way
within sight of the Big Buddha, it's hard to not feel
that one has one step in heaven -- not least since this
part of Hong Kong really is so pleasant and beautiful! :)

Hiking one Sunday in summer

View from Siu Ma Shan that includes Central and
the International Finance Centre to the left and
Kowloon and the International Commerce Center to the right

View of the southern section of Hong Kong Island

that includes Tai Tam (bay, a couple of the reservoirs

and the surrounding area) and -- far in the distance
-- a Chinese island south of Hong Kong

Last Sunday, I was unable to go hiking because it poured with rain for most of the weekend. Today, however, my regular hiking companion and I made up for it with a vengeance because even though the very hot weather warning had gone up, we not only went hiking but went on a hike that involved our ascending two peaks -- namely that of 424-meter-high Siu Ma Shan and 436-meter-high Mount Butler.

Some Hong Kong hikers stop hiking in the summer because they are put off by that season's high heat and humidity. My regular hiking companion and I, on the other hand, are among those who go hiking all year round -- because we feel that there are compensations/positives to hiking every season of the year.

More specifically, while the fall, winter and spring are markedly cooler and also frequently less humid than the summer, summertime is often when the Hong Kong skies are bluest and visibility is at its peak in terms of how far one is able to see, including from mountain tops. In addition, summertime is when the flowers are in bloom and all manner of bugs reveal themselves (to go do such as a-courting).

At the same time, I have to admit to worrying that summertime is also when the snakes are prone to be out and about too. And, indeed, one of the first notable sights of today's hike was a big snake out on Mount Parker Road (For those who're looking: sorry, but I was too shocked upon catching sight of the second largest snake I've seen in the wild to take a photo before it slithered into the greenery on the edge of that road! And for those who are wondering: Mount Parker Road is a paved road located inside of Tai Tam Country Park which leads from Quarry Bay up to Mount Parker's observatory.)

But when I look at the photos above and recall the beautiful panoramic views that the camera just can't do justice that I was witnessed to this Sunday, I can't help but be prepared to brave the heat and humidity, and look forward to hiking again next weekend... and the next and next through this hot season (just as I went hiking a lot last summer and the summer before)! Just -- touch wood -- so long as it doesn't pour or, worse, a typhoon decides to visit Hong Kong on the day of a planned hike...! ;b

Informative (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

When out hiking in Hong Kong, I like to have a relevant Hong Kong countryside map on me. For although there are people who seem content to just rely on the many informative signposts and signs erected by the country park authorities, I find that some signposts -- such as the distance posts for such as the four main long trails (i.e., the Hong Kong, Maclehose, Wilson and Lantau Trails) and various official Country Trails -- are more informative when used with a countryside map (which contains markings for them).

More than by the way, for those wondering where the photos above were taking: the top most shot was taken about two thirds into a trek leading from Shek Kong to Ma On Kong; the middle one was taken at the end of Hong Kong Trail Stage 8 (an earlier part of which takes one along the famously scenic Dragon's Back); while the bottom photo is at Sai Kung's Tai Long Wan, where one can rest for a bit before continuing along Stage 1 of the Maclehose Trail.

More re the last photograph: Here's recommending -- like with many other photos I offer up on my Photo Hunt entries (and, actually, my non-Photo Hunt entries too!) -- that you click on it to view an enlarged form of it. For then, you'll not only be able to appreciate the view but also see that one of the informative signs in them say "Warning: Do not cross stream when water covers bridge/stepping stones or the flow is rapid)" while the other contains a graphic illustration featuring what I come to call "the cute little men" of this particular area's big waves and their people tossing strengths! :b

Nei Lak Shan Country Trail hike (photo-essay)

Before I continue with my photo documentation of the Nei Lak Shan Country Trail hike that my regular hiking companion and I went on last summer, let me first set the scene by detailing how the temperature at sea level was around 35 degrees Celsius that day but a very pleasing 10 degrees cooler up on the Ngong Ping Plateau.

Also, as those who have visited in recent years can readily attest, we got off the bus up there in an area full of people -- but just a few minutes into our hike, we had left the madding crowd behind... so much so that over the course of our hike, we only spied a handful of other hikers -- in fact, other their our own voices, the only other human voices we heard for much of that afternoon actually belonged to those on board the cable cars passing overhead at certain points in our route!

Thus it was that our Ngong Ping experience differed markedly from that of most people up there to view the Big Buddha from a closer distance than we sought to do that day. And now, with those images in mind, behold and savor the sights offered up by the following photographs:-

One last view of the Big Buddha before we
went around to the other side of the mountain

Two slithery creatures encountered along the trail
that my regular hiking companion insisted were big worms
but I thought were snakes (but might allow were
Bogadek's burrowing lizard if only they weren't so rare)

Panoramic view that includes Tung Chung (to the right),
the airport (to its left) and Castle Peak in the far distance

Another scenic view -- this one of Tung Chung,
the green surrounding area and also the main road
across from it to southern Lantau

Cute graffiti along the trail

Looking back, we found that the mist
was enveloping a lot of the landscape

In contrast, the view ahead was clear and bright
-- and often jaw-droppingly scenic

Is it just me or do you also see the outlines of a
turbaned woman lying down amidst the greenery too? :b

To be continued -- for yes, I have no small amount of remaining photos of this wonderful hike to put up still! :)

Bug identification help sought!

Tiny insect spotted while hiking last Sunday
in Sai Kung East Country Park

A furry looking bug spotted hanging from
the back side of a bench on the same hike

A little more than a month ago, I put up an interesting looking bugs encountered while hiking blog entry. At the risk of coming across as bug obsessed, here's posting another such entry -- this time with photos of bugs my regular hiking companion and I set eyes upon for the first time ever on our traipses through and in the Hong Kong countryside last Sunday.

We encountered the first bug -- an insect which I first spotted after it leaped like a cricket onto the path we were on -- early on in our hike. A shy thing, it proceeded to play hide and seek with us as it tried to elude our attempts to capture its image with our cameras before apparently going off and summoning a whole bunch of its friends -- because even though it was the first bug of its kind that we had ever seen, in the next hour or so, we ended up catching sight of many other examples of this species (a few of which we also witnessed flying short distances -- or maybe their jumps are so high and long that they it makes them look like they're flying when they're actually not!).

Not long after our first "new" bug species encounter of the day, my regular hiking companion and I came across a furry looking creepy crawly literally hanging from a thread in the middle of the same path and blowing in the wind. Although we devoted some time to trying to take good photos of that particular bug, none turned out to be all that great due to it being on the small side and moving about too much for our cameras' comfort.

As luck would have it, after giving up on that shutter bug attempt, we would come across two more examples of the same species that were easier to photograph: one because it was dead and thus still; and the other (the bug in the second photo above) because it was larger in size than the other two of its species we saw that day and actually stayed so still for a time that we wondered if it too were dead, only for it to move away and hide a minute or so later after it had stayed put long enough for us to take majorly close-up shots of it!

So... can anyone ID either or both of the bugs in the photo? If so, please do so on the comments thread of this entry -- and you'll earn the gratitude of my regular hiking companion and I who are truly curious as to what we saw (as well as puzzled as to how come in all our years of hiking, last Sunday was the first time we encountered -- or at least noticed -- these creepy crawlies!).

More than by the way, for those who didn't know already, if you click on this blog's photos, you'll get to see enlarged versions of the images. So feel free to do so and enjoy?! :b

Triangle (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Tnchick sure does like triangles! That was my reaction after seeing this week's theme -- for I've put up Photo Hunt entries on this theme not once but twice before (on April 11th, 2009 and July 7th, 2010) !! So it was a triple more difficult challenge than usual to come up with a fresh addition to her meme... which triply increases the sense of accomplishment upon actually being able to do so. :)

In keeping with the triple triangle theme, I'm offering up three photos in this week's entry. This time around, I've gone with a blend of nature and culture -- in terms of human activity (specifically leisure boating) amidst a scenic natural backdrop in one case and a mix of buildings and greenery in two others, but all of them featuring distinctly shaped hilly peaks.

The first shot features the aptly-named Sharp Peak in the background along with a small boat with triangular sails. And although the photo in the middle (with the benign side of famously treachorous High Junk Peak viewable in the distance) might seem at first glance like it was taken on the same body of water bordering the northern portion of the Sai Kung Peninsula as the top most snap, it actually shows a boat sailing in Victoria Harbour just like in the third photo (whose skyline is dominated by Kowloon Peak) -- only in a much less busy part of the natural deep harbor that is a major jewel in Hong Kong's crown (and one that's bordered by less built up areas of land)! :b