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There’s a happy little place in Hong Kong. Tucked away in Causeway Bay, just behind the Golden Triangle at 33 Jardine’s Bazaar. Already famous in HK but relatively overlooked by backpackers, this wonderful shop is open 24-hours and is a great place for a cheap fuel-up before a day’s sight-seeing or after a night at the pubs.

The best thing on their menu is the rice roll (or 饭团). Either meat filled or vegetarian, savory or sweet, wrapped in hot sticky rice. Delicious and less than 10 HKD each. Their soymilk is also fantastic and a good way to wash down the rice roll’s sticky goodness .


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It seems that the importance of food in Chinese culture is fairly well known. We may have “California Fusion” back home, but I can’t think of many western countries where food varies so radically by state or region that people say, “oh, I feel like Seattle-style tonight.” I also can’t think of a British or French stone collector who turns a $1.3 million collection into a tribute to traditional dishes. Taiwanese stone collector Hsu Chun-I did just that, taking 21 years to create more than 250 Chinese dishes.

Copyright: China Daily Information Co

Even knowing it’s made of rock…it does look pretty tasty

Got some neat news when I woke up this morning. The “Cheap and Free” City Guide I wrote for Wuhan got added to the BootsnAll City Guide index for Asia.

Excerpt:

Like most of China, the cost of living is lower than what you’d normally find in Europe or the USA. But Wuhan, being a bit tucked a way in Central China is still a step down on the cost scale from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places tourists flock to. The hostel I know, which I believe is the only one in the city, has beds starting at 35 RMB (about 5USD). Breakfast of goooood local noodles and soy milk would be about 3RMB. Most dishes in the average restaurant are 8-12 RMB (I am vegan so I might not know if meat is markedly more expensive, it hasn’t caught my attention). Nicer restaurants, the dishes might be 20-30 RMB. Wuhanese people love good food and it’s very easy to find good food from all over China by walking down the street. Even at the wee hours it’s easy to find some noodle or BBQ places that are still open.

[Full Article]

Okay…after more than a year of not posting, I’m gonna try to get back in the habit of writing again.

There are a couple reasons for this. First, it just kinda seemed sad that I hadn’t even opened my blog for so long that I didn’t notice when it stopped working. Second, I thought some of my travel experiences might be useful to some. Let’s face it, most people from the USA don’t travel internationally. Hell, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of us don’t even have passports. Third, I’m planning on going to law school soon so sharpening up my writing skills now won’t hurt me later.

Now I know one of the things that makes a successful blog successful is focus on a topic. Anyone who knows me will probably say that “focus” isn’t high on my list of achievements. I studied Asian History for my BA, I’m doing graphic design work now, and I’m loitering around Asia while I wait to hear back from law school. A quick glance at how few posts I’ve put in each category should be enough to convince a reader that I’m more about categorizing than focusing. So this blog will, as it has before, lack some focus. I will, however, try to keep some elements consistent. Since I’m “traveling” now, I’ll try to put up regular posts about what I’m doing and where. While I’m in Wuhan, which is a fair amount of the time, I’ll try to at least write about local events, venues, and eateries in the city. Wuhan may not take a big chunk out of a guide book, but the city certainly isn’t lacking in interesting foods. More on that later.

For now, it’s past 2am, the blog’s working again, and I’m going to sleep.