I have officially perfected the “smile and nod” this week. When people speak to me in [lightning fast] Cantonese, I just flash a bright smile, lightly nod my head, and slowly inch away. This is otherwise known as “looking like an idiot.” Luckily, I have Peter nearby to act as my personal translator/bargainer.
While I can carry a very casual conversation in Mandarin Chinese, I don’t know a lick of Cantonese. It’s a good thing English is everywhere here. Most signs have English translation and many people here speak at least some English.
That being said, Hong Kong is a lot more tourist friendly than I anticipated. I definitely wouldn’t have a problem getting around without Peter by my side. After all, I am the one getting us from Point A to Point B most of the time.
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This requires no translation…
…that’s 1/2 a stick of butter in a bun. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say the tag says “Paula Deen Bun.”
You don’t need a translation for this either.
They’re egg tarts, which you can find in almost all of the bakeries here. I ate egg tarts occasionally while growing up, but I had never tried the egg white + fresh milk kind (only the yellow kind).
Since we were on the way to visit my grandparents, we got some for all four of us to try. The crust was buttery and flaky and the filling was super silky. It was gone far too quickly.
It actually tasted a lot like the creme brulee I tried to make for my mom. Maybe I was onto something!
No translation needed for juice, either. I want guava + starfruit juice, please!
I can’t find a photo of my actual juice in the cup…I guess I was too busy drinkin’ to take one. Oops.
Peter, opted for carrot juice.
Later, we stopped in a hole-in-the-wall noodle soup joint for…
You guess it! Wonton soup.
Have you noticed a trend yet? I think I’m going to turn into a wonton by the time I leave HK.
I switched things up a little by ordering rice noodles.
I also got a side of Chinese broc.
I can’t tell the difference between good and bad wonton soup, but Peter said it was decent. Better than our noodle shop and less than 1/2 the price.
Can you believe all this was just $3 USD?
Peter was smiling and nodding with a belly full of noodles, that’s for sure.
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OMG – I can’t believe that butter in those buns! Crazy!
I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but I heard it’s pretty Westernized. Most places I’ve been to in Asia are pretty Westernized…still, “smile and nod” characterizes most of my experience, too (especially since I live in Taiwan’s boonies!).
And I had no clue that was BUTTER in those sorts of rolls (I always thought it was cheese–wishful thinking!). Then again, there have been so many times I’ve purchased a bakery item thinking it was topped with icing…only to find it was pure, hardly sweetened butter (which isn’t that far removed from icing I guess, ha).
Yep, it’s pretty westernized here so I haven’t experienced as much culture shock.
A half a stick of butter?! Omg, that has Paula Deen written ALL over it!
I’ve never had anything other than fresh squeezed OJ, but that guava/starfruit combo sounds delish!
Haha, those buns look like a Paula Deen thing!
Paula Dean bread! Haha
The Chinese broccoli looks so good!
i feel like i get to travel, without the 36 hour journey, just from reading your posts!
“that’s 1/2 a stick of butter in a bun. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say the tag says “Paula Deen Bun.””—LOL and so true!
Fave juice? anything with vodka in it. kidding
all of that food looks delish…with exception of the butter bun lol!
I went to Hong Kong with my family in 2005 but my family is not adventurous AT ALL and we ate at Indian restaurants the entire time (we’re Indian). I was begging to go to some other places and try the fresh juices and baked goods but my mom was too nervous to go anywhere! I did get some delish bakery items at the HK airport though haha
WHAT?!?! That’s unfortunate! You definitely need to come back and try some other food. I mean, is the Indian food even good here? I haven’t even seen an Indian restaurant yet.
Ha, love the nod and smile thing. Too funny!!
I have never had guava…or starfruit! I should get on that. My favorite juices would definitely be green ones..hit me with kale, romaine, spinach, cucumber, celery, lemon, and apple and I am one happy gal:)
That soup looks delicious. You have me craving some!
There is so much good food in Hong Kong!!
Stick of butter in a bun-hmmm…not sure how I feel about that, lol
What is the deal with that Paula Deen bun!? Are you sure that’s butter and not cheese?? It reminds of that commercial where a family walks in on the dad about to shove a stick of butter in his mouth.
Seriously, though, I really want to go to Hong Kong!
I am an expert at the smile and nod. It works WONDERS! Use it everyday!
Hey, all of that looks delish! If I were you though, I might venture out to different types of food besides noodles and wontons (though they probably are amazing!) Chinese food offers so much variety, so exploration is def. recommended!
Wow, I’ve never seen a white egg tart before! Must be horror for my lactose-intolerant stomach. I’ve made egg tarts before, and they already contain quite a bit of dairy.
At least they have the translations down, not like those poorly-translated signs in the past that were…. inappropriate to say the least.
Mandarin and Cantonese are supposed to be similar. I hardly know any Mandarin. Every now and then, I know a word because it sounds like Cantonese. And a learned a few phrases from my two roommates in college. But at the speed that they talk, it’s really difficult to work your way through those similarities. I heard they are trying to convert the official HK language to Mandarin… hope it doesn’t happen. HK is one of the last large hubs that speaks Cantonese, and I’d hate to see the language die.
I could totally get into that roll with the butter!
Thankfully, I haven’t had too many experiences with language barriers because a lot of people I came across in Europe spoke English!
“Buy 3 get 1 free” is what the last line on the sign for the buns says. What a deal!
By the way, I really enjoy reading your blog!
I LOVE WONTON SOUP! I do the same at Japanese restaurants, I always get the udon to see if it’s a pretty decent Japanese restaurant.
HAHAHA. Those were the pineapple buns I was talking about! They look a little different, though. And the slab of butter is maybe a little larger than usual. They’re called “bolo” which DOES sound similar to Paula!
They look like this: http://114learning.cn:10000/system_dntb/upload/%E8%8F%A0%E8%90%9D%E6%B2%B9.jpg They’re called pineapple buns because they usually have a criss-cross pattern on the top. Even if it’s just once, I implore you to try them out 
Despite the butter! Hehehehe.
I love how fresh all their food is!!
I’ve never had fresh juice (so weird, haha) but I think I’d like anything that didn’t have beets & ginger in it!
Hahaha I’m half intrigued and half grossed out by those buns!
They seem to have so much freshly squeezed juice there! Why is it that I can’t find juice anywhere in MY city?
My ideal juice would have beets, apples, and carrots in it!
It’s awesome that you have access to all that fresh juice! I wish I could find places like that in the US. I’d love to try some fresh mango juice.
The egg tarts look great too. They kind of remind me of flan.
I love how you have wonton soup everywhere you go. When I went to Hawaii, it was all about the Spam Masubi. I needed to survey the whole island to see who had the best… it was a hard task, but someone’s gotta do it!
Butter buns? LOL.
I saw a “Paula Deen Butter Warmer” at Target the other day. I just smiled and laughed
Those tarts look amazing!
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