San Francisco's Food Truck Dining Scene

Fort Point is the building under the Golden Gate Bridge under blue skies

Yesterday morning we arrived in San Francisco and the blue skies were such a welcome sight from so much rain in Hong Kong.

My cousin took us around in the afternoon, first to Fort Point, which is located under the Golden Gate Bridge -- but it was the fort that was built just before the Civil War, and that position considered as the "key" to the whole Pacific coast.

Looking down inside the fort, that was never used in warfare

The thick brick walls were considered impenetrable, but in the end the fort was never used in warfare.

We got to take look around -- free admission as it is considered on national park land -- though there isn't much to see. My cousin and I climbed up three floors to get to the top to see the underbelly of the bridge, and have a better view of both the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean on the other side.

Afterwards we grabbed an early dinner at Off the Grid at For Mason nearby in the Presidio area. Every Friday, several food trucks gather in this spot, and with a DJ, some stands selling beer, wine and cocktails, the place was rocking, and hot, with the sun still blazing at 6pm.

Delicious grilled half lobster from Maine with parsley

As my parents had never been to a food truck festival before I was worried about their reaction, but they were game to try this new way of dining. We managed to grab a very tall table and eventually some high stools and we were in business.

Our first dish was a no brainer -- fresh half lobster from Maine cooked on a mesquite grill. The lobster wasn't too big, but the taste was delicious, juicy, meaty and a smoky taste. We even tried to dig out as much meat from the claws as possible.

Then we got some carbs -- a paella with chick peas, chicken, tomato and shrimp. It was quite filling but also very tasty, evidenced by the rice dish being cooked for a long time so that it soaked up all the flavours of the ingredients. Another dish we tried were tater tots garnished with some sour cream and chives.

A few food trips served Filipino food

We washed it all down with some fruit juices from Hawaiian Sun -- the guava and passionfruit with orange flavours were refreshing! And we did some people watching as many brought kids or their furry ones (ie dogs) with them.

There were many other dining options, particularly Filipino, such as lechon, sisig, and adobo, while a Shandong-style dumpling food truck was extremely popular with its constant long queue. You could also get pizza, satays, and Nepalese momos.

For dessert, there was a frozen custard bar that could be covered in chocolate sauce with nuts, and looked so good, but we were already too full. There was also a stand that sold cookie dough, or macarons, or ice cream in between two maracons. Tempting but we had reached our quota!

A big crowd for a Friday evening chowing down

Off the Grid
Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture
2 Marina Boulevard
San Francisco, CA
94123
offthegridsf.com

A Teacher's Life Lesson for All

Ada Tsang is the first Hong Kong woman to conquer Mount Everest

A Hong Kong school teacher is literally showing her students that they can achieve their dreams, no matter how big they are.

Ada Tsang Yin-hung, 40, has become the first Hong Kong woman to reach the summit at Mount Everest after three attempts.

She along with fellow Hongkonger Elton Ng, a physiotherapist and Zhang Jianguo, an amateur mountaineer from Jiangsu province made it up to the world's highest peak yesterday with the help of two sherpa guides.

The former teacher shows students they too can reach goals

Earlier on her blog Tsang wrote: "For students, every dream seems so far away and words of encouragement are not enough to conquer the frustration of failed attempts. Many would easily give up their dreams... a dream is not defined by the way you think of it, but by the actual efforts you put in.

"I could share my experiences with them only by recollecting events from my past... But what are my own future goals in life? How will I best teach these students how to pursue their goals?"

The secondary teacher quit her job to give her pupils a "life lesson" by scaling the top of the 8,848-metre tall mountain.

On her first attempt in 2014, Tsang was forced to abandon her trek after an avalanche killed 16 Nepali sherpa guides, which resulted in the suspension of all expeditions that season.

Then the following year, she was caught up in a deadly avalanche triggered by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake that killed 17 climbers and left Tsang with a fractured skull and multiple injuries.

The head injury Tsang sustained in 2015 after an earthquake

"She had lost two litres of blood from her injuries in that last attempt," says Catharine Leung, a former pupil. "A lot of people asked her if she wanted to give up, but the thought never once crossed her mind. She said: 'As long as my body can handle it, I will try to do it'."

Many of her former students were ecstatic over the news of Tsang reaching the summit, as her seven years of hard work had finally paid off.

"There were pupils who had dreams of becoming lawyers but they were failing in English," Leung says. "She was telling her students to chase after their dreams, but she didn't want to just talk the talk -- she wanted to walk the talk."

If that's not inspiring enough to prove to Hong Kong students that really, nothing is impossible, I don't know what is.

There is no excuse now for anyone not to at least try to reach their goals. Tsang is a huge inspiration to all of us -- dream big and with determination and hard work, you can do it.

Ideas Worth Spreading

TEDxHongKong held its event tonight at Polytechnic University

I just came back from attending my first TEDxHongKong event that was held at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom.

I'd heard of TED Talks before but wasn't familiar with the locally organized TEDx events. So when there was an opportunity to attend tonight's event I decided to spend a few hours to hear speakers with "Ideas worth spreading".

One particular one was Martin Radford, a former teacher in the UK and Hong Kong, who then in 2010 got involved in a ministry full time, in particular the Inner Cities Ministries. It's a Christian mission that works with the South Asian ethnic minority community in Hong Kong, especially the Nepalese who live in Yau Ma Tei.

ICM's Martin Radford

He started off by saying Hong Kong hides its poverty extremely well, overshadowed by skyscrapers. And he explained that with poverty comes powerlessness -- the inability to change one's situation.

However he believes we as a community can help bring about transformation, which is a step beyond change. Radford made the comparison between a caterpillar and a butterfly. A caterpillar just focuses on eating leaves all day, whereas a butterfly flies over the caterpillar, beyond just eating leaves.

But he adds you can't just dig into your pockets to give money to poverty; it's like just adding wings to a caterpillar and that doesn't necessarily make it a butterfly -- it's still a caterpillar eating leaves.

So the best way to create transformation, Radford says, is to change through relationships. It is important to engage with people to transform them, and this is particularly critical for adolescents.

One of the slides he showed was that of women in a room hunched over sewing machines. Radford said these Nepalese women were taught how to sew and have so far made 500 children's outfits. Not only do they gain new skills, but these clothes have been sent to places like Bangladesh and India to people even more poor than them.

Teaching people how to cook at Taste of Grace

The mission also teaches them how to cook, which is a good way to build relationships with people. How can you share meals without talking, he asks. Some of the people who learned how to cook are also asylum seekers who aren't allowed to work until they have refugee status. But here they can learn skills they can use.

Radford says Nepalese kids have a hard time learning in Hong Kong. At home they speak Nepali, but don't know how to read the language. Then they go to local schools where they learn English and Chinese, but can't really figure out how the languages work. To them they are all disparate symbols that aren't connected. But the mission tries to help them figure it out through storytelling.

Another way to empower the Nepalese is through performing in a park in Yau Ma Tei. And he says empowerment is important because horizons are not easy to see when you are trying to look up. But when you rise up, the sun is the same for you as it is for Li Ka-shing, he says. It's a bold statement, but an optimistic one.

For example the mission took some Nepalese kids on a week-long camp. Some had never experienced having a shower, or changing their socks daily. But he says once they learn and experience more then the return on investment is incalculable.

Tutorial sessions for kids run by volunteers

That's because transformation happens when human beings care for other human beings, which is Radford's takeaway line.

We don't hear much about the Nepalese community in Hong Kong -- or is it because we choose not to? I know many typically work in the restaurant industry but where else? Are they making decent wages? What do they want to do with their lives?

But perhaps more importantly they want to be recognized for who they are and accepted into the community. And until we reach out to them, they will continue to remain in the fringes.