HKUST International Summer Program 2012: [A taste of local food @ Hang Hau]

From right: My room mate, me, Kah Wai and Andy.
(From Kah Wai's camera)

That day we went to the ISP trip, the typhoon warning level 8 are issued and we are advised to stay indoor.
So, my room mate and myself stay in our room but when I woke up, the weather is calm, beautiful and fine.

Look at the beautiful scenery from my room and all these yacht emerges out of nowhere. lol

For the rest of the day, we just stay in our room but at night, Andy invited us to eat out for dinner.

Since the weather is fine, my course mate invited my room mate together to eat out at Hang Hau.

Andy ask me to order but all the menu here is written in traditional Chinese and of course I can't read it.
(-.-'')
haha.

Anybody have any idea how to read this handwriting? XD

Since I can only eat seafood and vegetable, my friend make sure there's no meat in the certain dish that I can eat.
So, only these two dish I can eat:

Fish cooked with corn...

... and vegetable soup.

Fish + rice

This is  Si Chuan style frog dish.
My room mate like spicy food and ended up with this dish.
Of course I don't and cannot eat frog!

Read here from Kah Wai's post about food :http://bakaahwai.blogspot.com/2012/08/life-in-hkust-part-iii.html

 The restaurant that we went is where local people normally eat out.
Because the food that I can eat in these kind of restaurant is limited, I don't mind because sometimes its not the food that matter, its the environment and the experience.

I feel that the experience to be in the foreign country should be explore and this will open up our perception and views toward their culture.
But of course, I take care of what I eat and thank goodness that my friends are very understanding.

This dinner here is pretty special. My room mate is from mainland China and Andy is local Hong Kong people and Kah Wai, Fook Hee and me are Malaysian.
I don't really know Chinese, so Kah Wai help translating for me in English.
Andy speak Cantonese, my room mate speak Mandarin, Fook Hee speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English until his tongue got twisted and got confused with the language and ended up speaking Malay as well. haha!
They talk mostly about language and a bit of politics in China before the situation got tense we Malaysian said "Aiya, nevermind la~". lol!

Here in Hong Kong they are free to voice out their opinion but in mainland China and even Malaysia, we're restricted by law to voice out certain issue.
We Malaysian are used to not talk about sensitive issue and just "never mind" it, so we're like that. haha.

Its a nice experience that even though we're having Chinese heritage, from China, looks like Chinese, but we speak Chinese differently and different from each other.

It is a very interesting point for me because I was raised up in more towards Malay culture and not much of Chinese culture except from my dad's family.
I'm started to get exposed to the Chinese culture from peers was when I'm in Form 6 where almost all of my schoolmate are Chinese.
When I enter UPM, my course mate as well as other university friend invited me to join the Chinese cultural activities and there is where I learn a lot about it.

Going to Hong Kong broadened my mind and perception even more as I met more people and understand more even though I do not really understand Chinese.
(Most of the time I just guessing and it turn out to be wrong.. Bad experience >.<)

Take photo after eating =D

I realized that at this point that I want to be consistent and serious in learning Chinese and Japanese as well.
For instance, Chinese language is a very important language and understanding the language actually narrow down the culture barrier that's really strong, especially in Malaysia.
That's is what I felt and what I can conclude from this.