My previous experience with real Chinese food, many years ago, wasn't that great. But this time, my husband had done the research - actually now that I think of it, the Internet didn't really exist the last time we went to Hong Kong - maybe it existed, but there was certainly no broadband at home and I'm not sure Google existed, let alone TripAdvisor. I remember reading an article in a computer magazine at the time about the coolest websites and Google was one of them, and me and my husband were there 'yeah, we agree, it's so cool!' Now nobody even thinks about Google Search. It's just there. Also, Hong Kong hadn't been handed over back to China yet. God I'm getting old!!
And as for Korean food, I had never touched it, worried it might be too spicy for me. I had plenty opportunity to try it in New York, as any time we went, we stayed in a hotel very close to Little Korea, but it did not appeal to me and I always pushed for other food choices (all you can eat sushi was around the corner too, and that was hard to resist!).
So here we go, a brief overview of the weird and wonderful foods we tried.
Sea Cucumber soup
Sea Cucumber was on my 'try-before-you-die' list. Now I can say I've eaten it. Never need to do it ever again. Not much of a taste. It's an interesting texture. The two things that go against it from my perspective are 1. it doesn't look appetising - I won't say it - you just have to look at the picture below; and 2. it's really hard to grab with chopsticks!
Jellyfish (it's the one at the end)
Jellyfish, on the other hand, was delicious. On the occasion below, it was with a chilli sauce. There is a bite to it, which I didn't expect. This was in Hong Kong, but we had jellyfish again in Japan and it was delicious too.
Baby Tako Yaki
I feel bad for the baby octopus, but you can't go to Ōsaka and not eat tako yaki!
Tako Wasabi
I wonder is that the right picture, or is this Japanese jellyfish? We had both at the same meal in an izakaya. Both were yummy. Tako means octopus. And wasabi is the spicy green Japanese sauce.
Dim sums for breakfast
Sets you up for the day!
Salmon Roe (ikura, イクラ)
I love the pop of salmon roe on my tongue. I could eat it all day (it would be nice on top of baked potato, actually!)
Shaved ice with sweet beans
It was still hot in Japan, so I had to try one of these! So refreshing!
Tofu and other goodies
I love how you can order set meals in Japan, so you might order tofu, but you also get tempura, salad, miso soup, rice, and pickles. We tried many different varieties. On one occasion, I even tried yuba, which was delicious too.
Okonomiyaki
Again, you can't go to Ōsaka without trying okonomiyaki (it sounds like a difficult word, but once you've tasted it, it will roll off your tongue - just try to say each syllable on its own slowly o-ko-no-mi-ya-ki and then faster and faster). It's a kind of omelette, with cabbage, seafood and all sorts of yummy things (I'm trying to alternate between yummy and delicious - I could also go for oishii, the Japanese equivalent! - My food vocabulary isn't very extensive, this is why I'm not a food critic!)
Onto Korea now. Well, we only had two full days there, so I had bibimbap, bibimbap, and bibimbap again (forgot to take a photo of the first one, but it's in one of my sketchbooks). It's a kind of mix of rice, vegetables, sour hot cabbage and sometimes egg. The one at the top was brought in a big earthenware dish and the rice continued to cook against the bottom and sides of the dish, making it crispy and even tastier. As the chilli sauce was served on the side, mine was quite mild. The one below was an octopus bibimbap - it was spicy, probably the spiciest food I've ever eaten (apart from my first time eating Indian in London - it put me off Indian food for years), but the soy bean accompaniment tempered the spiciness. It was a small restaurant near the entrance to the palace near the City Hall in Seoul, we were the only westerners there, there was no English spoken, except for the basic menu, and I can say that after eating there, I felt ready to convert to Korean food!
This one was particularly spectacular (in Hong Kong), but I love sago. I tasted it for the first time on a short Cathay Pacific flight between Taiwan and Hong Kong, a long time ago, even before that trip I mention earlier in this post, and I still remember how happy it made me feel!
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