Hong Kong, the start of my Asia adventure.

I arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, April 30 and found it to be a wonderful city that has proven to be easy to navigate, beautiful and more “western” influenced than I imagined.  There is plenty of money on display, I have seen two Maserati’s just casually parked on the street and stores like Tiffany & Co and Rolex are common.  I wasn’t able to set up the meetings that I hoped to while here but instead I am seeing the sights and learning more about the people of Hong Kong.  

I have hit a few tourist sites including the Peak Tram, up to Victoria Peak, and the Museum of Hong Kong History both wonderful places to experience the city past and present.  Hong Kong was given back to China in 1997 from the United Kingdom and now operates as a Special Administrative Region within China under a “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement.  Hong Kong, along with Macau and Taiwan have capitalist economic and political systems which they maintained as part of the transition.  The history of British rule is evident in the city with the architecture, the street names and the large amount of english that is used.  

Aside from sight seeing I have been doing informal polls of restaurants, grocery stores and food markets to learn about how the residents of Hong Kong shop and what they have available.  Hong Kong is a focus for the Canadian beef industry’s export market.  From what I can tell there are many different ways that the people of Hong Kong can access groceries or food.  Restaurants are plentiful and serve beef from Australia, New Zealand and the United States so far I have come across one restaurant that served Canadian pork.  

All the meat in the grocery stores has been fresh and comes from New Zealand or Australia as they obviously have the geographic advantage to supply the area.  The beef has much more exterior fat left on it then at home and is all labelled quite well.  Along with the basics most product included the country of origin, the brand (if there is one, only one store had branded Angus and Wagyu product from Australia) and the slaughter date.  The portions are small; most packages are half of what we would purchase in Canada and the selection is small.  The meat sections have not been very big and pork is King.

Another way to purchase food that seemed to be very popular was the open air markets.  The one I wandered through today was six or seven blocks long, took up the entire street and was packed with people.  Everything was for sale, I saw stalls selling fruit, vegetables, clothing, spices and meat.  Seafood, pork and chicken was all fresh; seafood and one chicken supplier had it still living and you could purchase pork cut to your specifications at the stall. The smell was overwhelming and the sight of stray cats and so many people around didn’t have my mouth watering for a barbecued pork tenderloin but it wasn’t stopping the locals.  My theory is that with the smaller demand for beef and the inability for the butchers to handle beef sides due to their weight is why there was none available here.  Fresh is the overriding theme that I see in food so far…..with one more full day here I look forward to learning more and seeing more of this place before I am off to Beijing.