Friday 2/28                Jo, Shopping and LanKwaiFong

 

            We got up late and decided to have Jo (Cantonese term for XiFan) for lunch, something HK is famous for.  Jiefu had recommended a good Jo place for us but when we found it, it looked rather fancy (not surprised) so we went to a lesser-looking place nearby—there was a whole row of them on that street, near Harbor City mall.  We spent a long time trying to tell them I wanted a fried egg with scallions in my Jo, but they were totally confused; first they brought out a raw egg in the shell, placed it on the table and I almost cracked up.  When we said, “No, FRIED egg” they pointed at a fried egg dish on the menu and thought we ordered that.  Was I asking for something off the wall?  Ginger said “That’s a Taiwanese thing” so finally I canceled the egg.  Still for a good 10 minutes after I cancelled it they kept coming back to the table asking, “[Like this?  Is this what you want?]”

           

            The jo really was good, so was the ChaSau (sweet bbq pork, and not dyed bright red like they do in Chinatown). 

 

            After that Gin helped me look for MienNao for my mom and dad, but didn’t find much.  Went back to the store where JieFu bought mine, it was an expensive place with a sketchy salesguy.  Picked out a blouse for Mom and he kept cutting the price as I hesitated, even though I never bargained at all.  Finally he cut it to 80% off so I got it.  The next store we went in, we saw the same exact blouse, for almost $20US cheaper!  Doh.

 

            We met up with Jon, found the famous DanTat place on Wyndham street and they were definitely the best store-bought DanTats I’ve ever had, but I still like Mom’s fresh-baked ones better.  

            Then went to the famous LanKwaiFong (I keep saying “Din Tai Feng”, but that’s a restaurant in Taipei), the street full of expat bars and clubs.  It also had a dinner area where tons of Indians/Malays/Thais clamored and fought over you with menus trying to win you to their restaurant.  It was a million times worse than Taiwanese salesgirls.  I felt like I wanted to spray them all away with Raid.  The ever-courteous Jonathan’s “All right thank you, we’ll keep looking and decide what we want ourselves” didn’t help at all.  Finally we gave in to a Malaysian place who’s strategically positioned right where I think most people give up and plop down from sheer attrition.  Our waiter grinned, “Good choice, right choice.”  A waiter from an opposing restaurant came and grabbed a chair next to us that was a different color, said in a huff, “This belongs to us.” 

 

            While eating we were entertained by two chefs on opposite sides (competing restaurants) making roti.  It was pretty complicated and involved a lot of rolling and tossing, frying then finally scrunching for the fluffiness.  The chef saw me pointing my cam at him and hammed it up, exaggerating his moves.

 

            We made it an early night since we were all leaving the next morning.