tacos & tootsies

i'm happy to report that the united nation of freedomites is getting bigger by the week; thank you kindly, all. big shout outs to the latest fans - Team America & Team OZ over here with me on the eastern hemisphere side. not to make anyone jealous, but these lucky fans also had the opportunity to sit down for dinner with Mr. Freedom himself on Friday night, over a platter of kick-ass tex mex. yes, even Hong Kong can whip together a nachos grande.

keeping with that sentiment, i feel there's perhaps a bit of a misconception of the culinary delights of this new city of mine. many a friend have asked how the 'street food' is and/or how much dog i'm fetching for supper. While the former is certainly an option (called Dai Pai Dongs), and i'm sure if i tried hard enough i could find a place to carve a little off lassie, it is definitely not the go-to for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Hong Kong offers the full spectrum of global cuisine that one would expect to find in any World-class city. yes, i am including the tex mex on this list, but it goes way further than that. French, Italian, Sushi, Nepalese, if a country has a kitchen, its cooks have infiltrated this city. perhaps i am sticking a little close to the western part of my palette still, for which you can shake your heads. Me..., I'm gonna keep rolling the way i am - strictly first-class international fooding.
Come join me, won't you?


From food to feet, and from 1st class to 3rd-World, allow me to take you on a little impromptu escape into the realm of a local foot massage -

a Saturday spent shopping, rendering us both a little beat.
i ask, what better way to unwind than someone rubbing on those feet?
soothing and soaking, i expected to drift away,
like laying on a beach, the ocean flowing, the palm trees sway.
just a word of advice though, don't open your eyes.
the dream world uncovered, an unkind surprise.
for your feet are submerged in a janitor's bucket,
the ocean's a toilet, clearly wish we'd said f*ck it!

ah poetry, so underrated. the experience i rhyme about was sadly fairly bang on. now, far be it from me to be all snooty and compare this local thai massage business to a fab spa at a 5-star hotel. it clearly wasn't that kinda place. a simple abode on the first floor of a very typical local-style building. the sign out front perhaps gave it away - '45-minute foot massage for $80hkd'. that's all of $10 CAD, so fairly cheap. still, i at least figured i'd get something similar to the picture to the side here.

instead, the place was straight out of a David Fincher flick (not the Facebook movie).
Super dark, not really dingy, just poorly illuminated, the place had 4 chairs back to front in a row. it was somewhat busy, so i got relegated back to the cheap seat. yes, i was sat right next to the little stall of a toilet, and who would have imagined that so many people required to utilize it after a 45-minute massage. and yes, some made the very most of it. combine this with one of the ladies, wearing super tight jean shorts and eating her lunch snack in my ear, as i also happened to be right next to the kitchen. again, i'm not intending to make fun of this home/parlour, it's just a commentary on the situation i happened to be ankle-deep in. finally, the actual massage itself was pretty good. a little pain through the tenderness of it all....Raúl really knew what he was doing down there. no joke, when we finished and headed for home, i felt like i was walking on a cloud. perhaps just happy to make it out in one piece.
that's it folks, la bon fin.....