Weekend Recap

Saturday proved to be a lovely ex-pat celebration of Thanksgiving.  We all collected at Brad's house down in Stanley.  Well not in his house since there were 30 of us, but in a large banquet room in his apartment complex.  His parents live in both Pittsburgh and in Hong Kong, but I think now that Brad's out of school, they're mostly here.  Their place is beautiful.  It was a solid two hour commute from good ole San Po Kong, but well worth the travel.  The view alone is worth trek.  Everyone brought exactly what they said they would.   There were 2 turkeys, stuffing, mac and cheese, cornbread, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and I'm sure much much more that I just can't remember now.  My personal favorite was the stuffing with gravy.  Which actually brought to light a very important question.  Why do we only eat stuffing on Thanksgiving??  I'm putting it into my repertoire this winter.  haha if it ever comes!!  It's a solid 75 degrees right now!

Thanksgiving Crew

Post dinner we head up to his parent's rooftop patio for some Irish Cream and dessert.  Stuff went fast!  I think I should start selling this stuff.  It's so easy to make that it really doesn't make any sense not to have it in my fridge at all times.  That is unless I want to get a job and not sit around sipping chocolate wine all day.  Hmmm.

Sunday and Paul and I finally had a lazy totally unproductive morning.  We usually get up and go do something since it's his only full day off.  Instead we slept in, laid on the couch, ate pancakes, and relaxed!!  Mid afternoon we decided to head over to Central to get out for a bit.  We were the first visitors to Nina and Kenny's new apartment in Central.  They just got all of their furniture delivered from the states and it looks awesome!!!  They're still trying to get everything arranged and get a drill that can work its way through the concrete walls (Kenny learned this the hard way while we were there), but it's looking amazing and I think they're super happy to be settled.  It's so nice to have friends who like to entertain!  We sat around chatting, looking through their photo albums, sipping champagne and wine, and nibbling on some cheese.  I love them!  They are just like Paul and I.  They like to do stuff.  They follow through.  AND they love wine and cheese.  My Chetta and Ryan of Hong Kong :) Next weekend we plan on hitting the Stanley for the Food and Music festival.  There's even a presentation from Richard Blaise for those of us who are obsessed with Top Chef.

We finished the night with an amazing dinner at Nha Trang.  It's a Vietnamese place that Paul and I had been wanting to check out for some time.  We noticed it because there is ALWAYS a line out the door.  Nina and Kenny had been twice and vouched for the tastiness, so we endured the line. It was totally worth all 10 minutes of it :)   It was very reasonably priced and super fresh tasting.  I haven't had Vietnamese in a while, but this totally hit the spot.  Stuffed squid, vermecelli with beef, meat skeweres with lettuce wraps, summer rolls, and even a crepe filled with seafood and pork.  It was way too much food after all the cheese we ate, but we did our best.

Can't wait for real Thanksgiving at Nina and Kenny's!!