HONG KONG PHOOEY

The signing of a trade agreement, the view from Victoria Peak, the Festival of Moon Pies, and thankfully Peking Duck and blueberry pancakes. Those are only a few but significant memories of a Hong Kong I visited in 1996.

We were there along with 20 or so others including our governor and his wife to conduct some kind of trade mission. As a teacher, I was there to... well, I was just there. We had had a warm up trade mission with the guv the previous year and we had evidently passed with flying colors, so as a result of my wife's being on the State Chamber of Commerce Board and me tagging along, I got to experience the Far East. For my part, I did talk to teachers and students at a school in Beijing and presented them with some high school handbooks and memorabilia. The rest of the time, I just mingled and small talked.

And ate lousy Chinese, Japanese, and Korean food. What's wrong with them? They don't know how to cook good American Chinese, American Japanese, or American Korean food. A one time real lover of Chinese, with a few exceptions (PF Changs being one) I still try to avoid that cuisine.

Hong Kong is a great city though with magnificent views from Victoria Peak. When we were there, it was a national holiday--the Moon Pie Festival. For some reasion, Chinese people love those little chocolate bars with an egg and yoke inside. And, I'm sure they celebrate for some other reason, but I don't recall. They sit in the park and light candles, enjoy each others' company and eat moon pies. A sort of tail gating party preceding nothing. Or nothing to follow. Maybe more like a family reunion without the volleyball game.

So most places were closed, yet we were there, along with the media to sign this agreement between the two countries, so they took us to the finest restaurant in Hong Kong--The Jockey Club. It was featured on The Amazing Race or Celebrity Apprentice. or Phineas and Ferb or some show I sometimes watch. But the Cantonese food was horrible. We were told to move our food around a little if we didn't like it. Also, if we just ate the rice, it would be insulting.

I couldn't even handle the rice because it had been touched by the nasty sauce. So I moved mine all over the place. Where there was this big garbage can. Naw, but I would have.

The morning food was great because I could order blueberry pancakes at our hotel's restaurant. That was enough sustenance for the day, until Donnie, another on our mission who couldn't stand the food, found us a nice restaurant that featured Peking Duck. Oh, it was good. I still have a picture of us standing outside that haven fairly prominently displayed to note the only thing that kept me from being malnourished in the East.

Moaner, griper, complainer that I am, would I have traded the experience for anything? Yes, but it would take a lot. Hong Kong is well worth the trip and the 15 hour non-stop flight. But you may shed a pound or two there if you stay overnight.