Drink wine

When writing a blog, there is a little bit of hesitation when it comes to how much you reveal about your personal life. After all, a blog is essentially a diary with a theme, one can't help but talking about their life, friends and family along the way. At the moment this is just the beginning, and of my 10 blog members :-), 9 of them are close friends. I woke up this morning to find a new member, someone who I don't know (hi, Dang Minh!!), and that is quite exciting in the fact that I realise that perhaps I may be reaching out to a wider audience then just my lovely friends! But it also makes me think about how I'm going to mention them in this blog without outing them by name. After last weekend (which involved LOTS of alcohol), I had a lightbulb moment of inspiration and thought it would be fun to name my friends after drinks and cocktails. I seriously put a lot of thought into them! Then I thought that's a little naff.... so I'm sticking to the boring initials until I think of a less-naff idea.


What an incredible weekend of excess it has been! It was spent with lots of different friends, in varying settings, doing all sorts of things - it was all spread evenly across the board. Really and truly a great 2 days. It has made me think of a poem that VC (I was going to a.k.a her as 'Veuve Cliquot'...) mentioned to me, from an adaptation of poems by Omar Khayyam, called Persian Love:

Drink wine, it's what remains of the harvest of youth - the season of roses and wine and drunken friends. Be happy for a moment, that moment is your life.

I started off on Friday night by a very late dinner with a group of friends at Phuket (1/F, 51 Elgin Street, Soho). After running around 3 different supermarkets/food stores after work, looking for the ingredients for Saturday dinner, Singha beer has never tasted so good! The restaurant has sliding windows that open up to make the area semi-alfresco - it was a tad on the hot and sweaty side, especially while eating spicy Thai food, but it had a nice ambience. While the food was ok, it doesn't beat The Chili Club or Tuk Tuk Thai for me.


After ending the night in Drop for "one last drink" at 3am, it was time to hit the sack and get 4 hours of sleep before waking up for the most epic junk I've been on this season! This is hands down the best junk company I've ever used, thanks DW for introducing it to me! I've said adieu to Jaspas Junks for the moment, while their service is impeccable and their food consistent, it's just a little too consistent for me. In the three years that I've been going on Jaspas Junks, neither have they changed their menu ONCE, nor do they offer an alternative menu. Don't get me wrong, I love going if invited, I just wouldn't organise one myself.

This company, Hoi Fai Boating (ask me for details if you're interested) only departs from Sai Kung Pier, cutting out choppy travel time and giving you more valuable stationary beach time. Depending on how many people are on the boat, you can use one (35 ppl) or two (45 ppl) speedboats with wake boarding and banana boating. The special thing about this junk is the food, naturally!

Grilled jumbo prawns, grilled scallops with garlic, clams, abalone, beef short ribs, chicken wings, pork ribs (extra yum!), lamb chops...the list goes on. And all BBQed right before our very eyes on the boat! Let's not forget to mention the huge pot of crab congee, with very generous amounts of fresh crab meat and a really fragrant broth (super yum!)

All of this for $450 per person - you can't get much better than that, matey! It also includes beers, but not enough - so we always bring more :-) That's where these organisers (thanks JY and MH!) took it to another level - I believe I counted 12 bottles of belvedere, a couple of bottles of patron, some black label and an extra 4-5 cases of beer. By the end of the day, Prive had nothing on our junk!

After arriving back in Central at 8pm, we had to rush home to start preparing for dinner at 9pm. I'd invited a couple of friends A+S (a.k.a Apple and Strawberry Martini) a week ago, forgetting that we had a junk that day. No worries, always meet a cooking challenge head on! I opened the front door and crashed around the flat like the tazmanian devil - flat cleaned, me showered, meal cooked in one hour!

The menu was a simple one: an appetizer plate of olives, figs, serrano ham and homemade easy-as-pie guacamole dip.

The main was a nice steak, with big bowls of fennel/rocket salad and garlic haricots verts to share. With steak as the main attraction, I bought mine at Pacific Gourmet on Caine Road. Their meat is always tasty and fresh, and at a fraction of the price of Citysuper or GrEAT. When compared with the tasteless, chewy Park 'n Shop steak, it's worth the extra $100 bucks. Strawberry Martini brought over a GORGEOUS almond cake - the perfect cherry on top. We ate it while watching archived Nirvana concerts on MTV, and commenting on Kurt Cobain's holey sweaters and how we've passed the age of the 27 Club. Thankfully, we live on with our talents!

Woe to the heart that beats without passion, that isn't charmed by love, the joy of the heart ... Every day you spend without love? Why it's not worth the sun that shines for you or the moon that consoles you.

If you already feel full from Saturday, save some room for Sunday: we joined my family for the usual Sunday lunch, this time I booked The Poolside BBQ at the Grand Hyatt - my brother is a sucker for buffets.

Unlike other buffets, this one doesn't have thousands of choices - they keep it simple, and they do simplicity really well - I highly recommend it for a nice Sunday brunch with friends by the pool, soaking in the sunshine with glasses of bubbly - it's $358++ for just the buffet, and $488++ with free flow bubbles!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

The selection on the BBQ was tasty as - the pictures say it all!

Fresh langoustine tails, clams and shrimp piled high on mounds of crushed ice!

Tasty accompaniments

Simple and easy dessert selection, along with ice cream and...

Steaming hot bread and butter pudding!

After that we left my family in the sun to rush to wakeboarding in Tung Chung - gotta work off some of that meat!

Dinner was Refrigerator Jambalaya: find whatever you can in the fridge and stick it on a plate. The secret to this is making it look good - presentation is king! Eating that in front of the TV with P was the perfect end to Sunday.

A fun-filled weekend, with great friends, beautiful weather, and simple pleasures...what more could a Hong Kong gal ask for?

Don't waste your time on sorrows, be festive. In the face of injustice, be the example of justice. Since the end of this world is nothingness, imagine you don't exist and be free.