Fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The weekend!!!! Kind of.  Doesn't quite count as a weekend if you spend your Saturday in the hallway of the Japanese International School hawking foie gras to 10 years olds.  Despite that...

Friday evening Paul met me after a successful day of sales (I have a tasting with a new restaurant client next Thursday in Sai Ying Pun!) at Duecento Otto in Sheung Wan.  We enjoyed a lovely house wine and whilst discussing Bali wedding options, aroused the interest of our imbibing neighbor.  Anthony, from Chicago, informed us that he had recently traveled through Indonesia.  He mentioned several islands off of Bali which would be of particular interest for our honeymoon.  To be researched.  After we shared some India/Nepal/Asia stories, Paul and I head our for dinner.

Saturday- said Japanese school.  For. 5. hours.  5. freaking. hours. In. the. New. Territories.  Awayfromeverything.

Dip your hand in wax making

Come 5 I meet Paul at Fofo for a tasting hosting by Globus.  I had met Peter of Globus Wine Cellars a few weeks prior, and enrolled in their newsletter.  The tasting was amazing!!  Not only did I run into Alex and his girlfriend, Jenny (he reads my blog!), but also met my WSET friend Adrienne, and co-worker Julia for a fantastic beginning to the evening.  We worked our way through quite a few wines in just an hour [full review on www.houseoffinewines.blogspot.hk tomorrow], enjoyed our favorites on the rooftop, and then parted for our individual plans for the night.

Paul and I trolleyed it to Happy Valley, a solid 45 minutes on the tram with some left over Rhone, and then met Katie at new friends Tom and Caroline's apartment.  Woah!  They have a view overlooking the racetrack (horses) and the apartment itself was gorgeous; wood paneling and open space and modern...stunning!

We hoofed it out to Golden Valley to meet up with Kina for a hot pot dinner.  This was both Paul and I's first hot pot in HK, and I'm a bit sad to say we were a bit disappointed.  It was OK.  The dumplings were good. But the Sizechuan numming peppers kinda just killed it.  Again, OK but not mind blowing.

2 flavors to choose

Katie, Tom and Caroline

My own blend of dipping sauce

Kenny sauces

no one ever claimed it wasn't messy

Post dinner walked down to an amazing hotel rooftop bar, but Paul and I being a bit tipsy at this point (11) decided to make our way home.  Pumpkins after midnight.

Sunday!!!  No work, Sunday!!  Slept in, crawled through the Island East Market saying hi to Julia, Sean, Greg, and Ollie and Joanna, and Csilla, and RJ, and other market friends, then walked along the water to the Sai Wan Ho ferry pier.  One ferry goes to Kwun Tong where I work, the other goes somewhere else.  So we hopped on that one hoping to find something cool...

And something cool we found!!!!  Lei Yue Mun is amazing!!!  This is a fishing village I had been hearing about for it's awesome seafood, but could never ever remember the name or location.  Well, here it was, just a short 15 minute ferry away!

giant rock lobsters

We had already eaten, and so decided that this was for sure a place we'd have to bring Chetta and Ryan...and Kina!  Ferried back and bought a weeks worth of supplies for food.  Revisted all of our favorite Island East Market vendors (love Csilla and her Hungarian wines!! and Ollie and Joanna's organic wines! And RJs restaurant advice and pies!) and came home and cooked!!

blackbean burger mania

I made black bean burgers for the week and freezer, Paul made Xiao long bao, then popcorn to round it off.  Nice little Sunday capped off with an organic wine from Sicily a la Paul.  Life is good.