siu yuk – roast pork
The day after my cousin’s wedding – and our final day in Hong Kong – we got together with all the rellies and had a big yum cha lunch at Dragon King in the World Trade Centre, the final in a string of many indulgent meals we’d had. If they read this, I wanted to thank my Aunty Liz and Uncle Jon who fed us so ferociously well over the weekend.
Since it’s a Friday, I’m not going to say much except this, people, this is how you do yum cha porn:
I’m back! So. As some of you who follow me on twitter might know, I snuck off to Hong Kong for a quick weekend trip to MC at my cousin’s wedding. I didn’t talk about it here because my mum reads my blog (hi mum! miss you!) and I wanted to surprise my parents in Hong Kong. They had no idea I was going and it was brilliant, though my dad did almost have a heart attack when we showed up so maybe I should re-think surprises for senior older over-60 citizens from now on.
Yesterday morning was one of the most difficult mornings I’ve ever had to deal with. I mean, I thought that last year’s post-Santorini holiday blues were bad. The endless blue skies and warm weather… but now, add to the endless blue skies and warm weather the most adorable, cuddly, chubby baby ever and you’ll see why I found it so hard to drag myself away and back to the 9-to-5 humdrum of life.
It’s funny how life turns out. South Africa was never on my travel hit list – there are a myriad of other destinations I’d much rather spend my tourist dollars on and the princess in me can lap up hours upon hours of beach side pampering before you can even utter the word boring. I’d never wanted to go to Africa, to go on safari. I was never that interested.
But right at this moment, there is nothing else I’d rather do than spend a few quiet days on an African game reserve, amongst the real kings of this world.
lamb tagine (slow cooked lamb braised in a tomato, coriander, cumin, turmeric and parsley sauce)
I’ve been in Johannesburg a week and this trip has been ridiculously, magnanimously wayyyyyy more enjoyable than the last trip. One, because I’m not working 14 hour days this time and two, I’m not working 14 hour days this time! I’ve had the chance to go out and enjoy a little bit of J’burg 🙂
On Thursday night, a lurvely co-worker of mine took me to Moyo, a restaurant which had been recommended to me by Saffers in London way before I came. I was excited to have something African like springbok, but sadly they were all out that night 🙁 Instead I had a tagine, which by the way, I’ve come to love and then to hate and then to love again.
black prawn ravioli, prawn mousseline & champagne-chervil cream
It’s only two more sleeps until I’m back on the plane, hurtling my way back to London. My two weeks in J’burg feels like it’s flown by, but at the same time, I feel like I’ve been here for eons and I want to go home so that I can get back to some semblance of a normal day to day life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been awesome being here with the team but H.E.C.T.I.C. Understatement. It’s been work work work work work and then back to the hotel for more work work work.
But in between all this work I’ve managed to fit in tiny little parcels of fun… and time to blog, obviously, because how else would I keep sane?