It has been a while since my last blog entry and my only excuse is that life happens. We get busy and we find other things to fill our time. For me, it has been vacation time followed by "catch up" time followed by more "catch up" time.
When I arrived at SFS I knew there was a one week holiday that would be quickly approaching in September. The holiday is called Chuseok and it is Korean for "great middle". It is a three day holiday that occured (this year) on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It is held during autumn and is a celebration of the good harvest. Traditionally, Koreans visit their homeland, pay respect to the spirit of their ancestors and partake in traditional Korean food. I was excited to learn about this holiday, but a little bummed when I found out I would not be celebrating Chuseok in Korea. Instead my school decided to send me to a professional development conference in southern China. The conference was taking place over the weekend and then we had the rest of the week free; so my friend and I decided to take advantage of this travel opportunity and head to Hong Kong.
In China they have a very similar holiday called the Harvest moon and in short, it is similar to a Western Thanksgiving, but with MOON CAKES. When I think of Thanksgiving there is the sweet aroma of freshly carved turkey, my mouth is watering from the smell of apple pie and my ears tingle when I hear the mixer battering the potatoes to make the fluffy, heavenly goodness called MOM'S MASHED POTATOES. There are freshly baked rolls, honey-glazed ham, sweet potato casserole and there is even a seven layer salad, which in my mind is just silly to serve at Thanksgiving...who has time to waste on lettuce and peas and other things that are good for you? The one thing that does NOT exist at my Thanksgiving celebration is fruit cake. You know what I am talking about, that gift that weighs about 35 pounds and is only given as a Christmas gift to those "friends" that really are not your friends. It tastes dry and has food items in there that should never go together in any normal kitchen. Well, in China for the Harvest moon festival, my friend I found moon cakes. Don't let the outside appearance fool you....Yes, she looks more attractive than a fruit cake, but just take a gander at the ingredients that go into this puppy.
•Filling:
•1 pound red azuki beans
•water
•3/4 cup lard or oil
•1-3/4 cups sugar
•Water-Shortening Dough:
•2 cups flour
•5 tablespoons lard
•10 tablespoons water
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•Flaky Dough:
•1 cup flour
•5 tablespoons lard
•red food coloring for design
Do you notice that the word LARD is used THREE times in this receipe? And the only other substantial ingredient is BEANS. The picture above is a special moon cake and has an EGG YOLK directly in the center. Yummy!
Even though we were not impressed with the moon cakes, the rest of the trip deemed to be a great adventure. Hong Kong is a massive city and is actually located on an island. We were lucky enough to be flying to Hong Kong at the exact same time as a typhoon. Deperate to not let the rain and torrential downpour damper our moods we set out on the Kowloon side and began to make our contribution to the Hong Kong economy. We were pampered with foot massages, we had some traditional Chinese food and we ate in restaurants that seemed, for all other purposes, to be a wedding reception. We visited the dragon festival, we toured the city and checked out the nightlife and we got massages. One one particular rainy day we decided to get a full body massage. We made up our mind where we wanted to go and walked into a cute little building that was hidden on the third floor along the second wall in the fifth cubicle of the 203rd building on that street. Hong Kong is known for its efficiency and the amount of businesses they can fit is one area is impressive. We walk up the skinny stairs and notice a sign that says, "No sex, please." Well, at least they are polite. :)
We are ready for our pampering and are shown our room and we notice a small area that is no bigger than my kitchen in Korea. We exchange glances with each other wondering how we are both going to fit in there along with the women that will be working on us. We decide to give it a shot - it is an adventure after all. Once inside I ask Rebecca if she is going to leave on her skivies or just strip down - it really is different in all countries so I wanted to know what to do. She said she was going to stay in her bare essentials so I decided to do the same. I was changing into my robe and I noticed a tiny piece of cloth with elastic. I looked at it and said, "Look Rebecca, they gave us something to use so we can hold our hair back." I have the cloth thingy over my head with the elastic behind my ears. She turns around and starts laughing histerically. She holds up her version of tiny cloth-elastic thingy and I notice it looks an awful lot like a thong. The lightbulb finally goes off and I quickly rip the thong-headband off my head and away from my face just in time for the ladies to come in and give us our massage. I think they were giggling and I am pretty sure I saw one of them shake their head, but I can't be sure because I tucked my head down on the table and dreamed away all my cultural faux pas. Oh Hong Kong, good memories!
No comments:
Post a Comment