Market Town

Whilst the birding has been a little slow, I didn't really come over here for that alone. I've been far more interested in walking around this incredible city. Whilst I am sure there are loads of cultural activities, I've been more into the markets and the street life - the sights and the smells. Mainly it's the food and ingredients that I've been most aware of (only so many fake T-shirts I can handle), and there are so many things that I assume are edible but that I just don't recognise as food. Fruit and veg I can score some points on, but even these disappear off my known range. But the other stuff, the dried seafood, the mushrooms, the various pots and bottles of stuff, I've just got no idea. If I lived here I could probably get right into it, or a lot of it, but some things would remain forever off my menu. Chickens feet for starters. Anything that has more than four legs. Sea slug. Possibly these are all delicious, but I will never know. Dim Sum I can handle, though over on Cheung Chau I did have to lift the lids off quite a few bamboo pots before I found something I was confident in, and the seller couldn't help me decipher what was what. Though I did correctly ID (and pass on) fried chicken feet. Some people wouldn't eat off the street, worrying about catching something, but I think it's the way forward. Prawn dumplings especially. Mmmmmmm.

Tomorrow I plan on visiting more markets. Still on my HK "bucket list" is the buying of socks, and I am about to run out of shirts. I imagine I can probably find some.