Seasonal and Anger (This week's Photo Hunt themes)

Finally, fall is here!  And yes, I know the Chinese calendar's Mid-Autumn Festival fell on September 29-30 this year but in sub-tropical Hong Kong, it's only recently turned seasonably cool.  

 

When I lived in England and the USA, I associated the fall primarily with autumn leaves that were beautiful on trees and fun to walk through piles of after they had fallen down to the ground.  In Hong Kong though, my seasonal thoughts tend to turn to food -- specifically, Shanghai (AKA hairy) crab, for autumn is the peak time to imbibe this seasonal delicacy (whose meat isn't much to shout about but whose "roe" (sperm, really) is amazingly delicious)!

 

And when the temperature drops further, I'll have another taste treat to look forward to: namely, Mont d'or cheese -- which, like Shanghai crab, is available only at particular times of the year. Ideally eaten warmed up and eaten straight from its round wooden box, it's lovely as a dip for such as apples and sweet potatoes -- or just plain toasty bread -- and really good to share with a friend (with the accent on "a" as the portion served at Classified -- my "go to" place for this cheese (thanks to a tip from Jason Bon Vivant!) -- is just right for two people to feast on).

So far, no anger -- and people who've read this far might be wondering how I'm going to go about combining Sandi's and Gattina's Photo Hunt themes for this week  Well, the answer is that the anger comes in when I think of how limited are my chances to eat these two delicious foods that I really do find delightful!

More specifically, Shanghai crab is on the expensive side -- and very messy to eat. Believe it or not, as much as I love the taste of its roe/sperm, I just can't bring myself to eat it in restaurant because it embarrasses me so that I make such a terrible mess when attempting to pick these actually quite small crabs apart to get at their edible parts!  Consequently my ideal conditions for eating Shanghai crab include eating it in the home and company of people who I feel comfortable eating messily in front of -- or even better, with individuals who are happy to open up the crab for me, as was the case the last time I had this delicacy!!

 

Then there's the fact of it -- and the Mont d'or cheese -- being available for only a limited time each year.  And in the case of the Mont d'or, so rich is a meal in which it forms the center piece that I feel unable to eat it more than once a month (if that); with the result being that -- grrrrr -- I only got to have it twice last year as it no longer was on the menu when I wanted to eat it for a third time that season! ;(