Imagine all the people

Hong Kong Island has around 1,289,001 inhabitants (I'm the last '1'). Since it only has 80 square kilometres, population density is over 16,000 people/km^2. If we include Kowloon as well (the most populated are in continental Hong Kong), total surface would add up to 88km^2, and population would total around 3 million. Which means the population density would be over 35,000 people per square kilmetre!

Australia averages 2.6 people/km^2 (as a whole country). New York, as the most densely populated city in the U.S. has over 10 thousand people per square kilometre. It looks like there is no consensus about the most populated city in the world, but the ones fighting for first place are Dhaka, in Bangladesh, Lagos, in Nigeria, Mumbai, in India and Hong Kong, in... here.

According to some geography-oriented websites, 90% of the world's population use only 10% of the land, and 90% of the earth's inhabitants live above the equator. I feel like I abandoned my family to be a minority.

About dried food...

It seems that people here like all sorts of dried food. Not sure if they eat it like that or buy it that way so it's easier to store and cook afterwards. Back home we do eat dried food, but we don't have that much variety.

In Chile we eat dried and salted horse meat. We call it 'charqui'. (And it's awesome.)

Not even seafood escapes the dryness. They even sold abalones! I suspect they import them from Japan (at least that's the impression I have after having started to watch "Heart of Greed")

And also all sorts of sea cucumbers...

...that are also kept in glass containers.

I have no idea what this is. I guess at some point I'll end up eating it, same thing with the rest of the food in the photos. :P

Dragon B... fruit.

I was told Dragonfruit comes from Australia, but it's the first time I've seen it in my life. All the more reason to try it.

The poor fruit remained on the living room's table for four or five days; I wasn't sure if it was ripe enough and I also had no idea how to eat it (which can be crucial when it comes to first impressions on food, as I've recently learned). Finally, Angel's parents gave me a hint: open it up and scoop the inside.

It was like eating a flavourless coconut, only that a bit softer, gooey and full of seeds. Mi stomach complained the rest of the evening. I wonder if I ate it at the right time. I'll probably have to try it again under the supervision of some local to make sure. Yay for second chances!

Double ammendment

Few days ago I was told that duck tongues are not supposed to be eaten with cartilague. Oops. Apparently, they are to be held from the base and bite the meat off the more bony part, leaving the latter on the plate. So basically it was like putting a whole crab's leg in my mouth and chewing it until I was able to gulp it.

No wonder the waitress had that weird look on her face when she took the completely empty dish. My reasons for eating the tongues whole was the following:

(Waiter comes to take the order)

W: What would you like, sir?

B: Give me dish number 201, please.

M: (Frowns, then smiles, leans over and speaks as if he were addressing a baby) that is duck tongues, sir.

B: I know: I want them.

M: (Writes it down on his sheet of paper, shaking his head disapprovingly as if he were saying "ah, stupid gwailos, why do they ask this things if they don't eat them".)

So, when I had the tongues in front of me, I decided not to give him any reason to think like that, thus eating everything on the plate. Oh, well.

Second ammendment: thanks to my dad's prompt e-mail and Favina's comment on the Spanish version of this blog, the red flowers a couple entries ago are called Poinsettia, or Christmas flowers.

A walk through Times Square

This entry is purely experimental. Right below this paragraph you'll see a podcast icon ready to be played. The audio is precisely the sounds of the place I'm writing about, Times Square. The idea (only for those who want) is to play the podcast as you read the post, so as to be "immersed" a bit more while reading. Just trying to see whether the experience of reading  improves or not. 

Times Square. The most crowded place in my current neighbourhood. Full of offices, restaurants and the most diverse stores. It's... always full of people. 

  

The first eight floors are only clothes and electronics; the next five have restaurants, and then on I couldn't continue since I was starving and temptation was too big. I'll try to get to the top some day. (Isn't that what most people want in life?) 

Had never seen escalators going up two floors instead of one. I feel small town-ish.  

For the first time in four or five days, I got to see the sun. It's not that it's always cloudy or I never go out during the day; buildings are just so tall (and numerous, and everywhere) that rarely sun beams come through. I have to change the route I take to my school.  

Local fauna seen from the appartment. Miaurr!

Stick your tongue out; say: "Aaaaah"

I tried lots of food yesterday. Starting with shark fin soup. And yes; I am aware of what becomes of those poor marine creatures after they're deprived of their fin. But I'm in China and as a food lover I couldn't not try once one of this country's most famous dishes.

Fortunately, I didn't like it much. It's not that it was bad or anything, but the flavour didn't come as anything too spectacular. It was quite soft and had some little translucent thread-like meat bits -the fin, I presume. Texture was okay, but not enough to order it again.

I had heard stories about this dish, but I didn't think I would come across it so soon. Duck tongues cooked with soy sauce. As an overall experience, it was tough. I constantly had the feeling I was biting my own tongue (that kind of texture), and the cartilage kept on prickling the inner side of my mouth. 

Uf. It wasn't too terrible, but eating them one by one, feeling cartilague crunch and the cold and jelly-ish consistency of the meat did affect me in some way. I tried some shrimp dumplings later and I still had the sensation I was chewing tongues.  

The aforementioned dumplings. They were awesome. In the upper photo, the ones in the bottom had shrimps and the others chicken soup. I loved the concept of soup inside dim sum.  

And, finally, dessert. The name was very ad hoc to the occasion: it translated as "Chinese birthday buns" =) 

They were filled with bean paste (if I'm not mistaken) and a bit of egg. Soft, spongy and moisty. A good way of finishing an adventurous meal.  

Drink green, think green, live green.

It well may be that for several reasons I'm not buying much alcohol these days (such a nice, healthy boy, me) but I HAD to try the local greens.

And the verdict is: ¡HEINEKEN!