Hong Kong Sets Bizarre Toilet Paper Trend

A relief to know Pope Francis tested negative for the coronavirus

We are relieved to hear Pope Francis does not have the coronavirus, but a cold. Thank God for that but we hope he recovers soon and not kiss babies for a while.

But we are disturbed by how Hong Kong has started this awful trend of panic buying of things like toilet paper, hand sanitizers and cleaning products. It spread to Singapore, Japan, Australia, New York and now Vancouver.

A friend sent me a video yesterday that is 1:43 that shows an endless line of almost all Chinese people waiting to pay for stuff at Walmart in Richmond, BC.

It was just staggering to see how long that line was. It must have taken at least 2 hours to get to the cashier.

What is going on?

Is Kleenex too costly a toilet paper to panic buy in Australia?

This herd mentality only further stokes fear. Relax folks, there's enough toilet paper for everyone... eventually...

After about a month, some of my colleagues drifted into work today. They were surprised to see the office still relatively quiet, as others didn't seem to get the memo that they should report back.

Those who hadn't appeared much or at all actually enjoyed working from home, even if they had kids to look after. Some with young children had to get them disciplined into a new way of schooling at home, and eventually got the hang of logging into class on their laptops at certain times during the day.

Their dining table doubled as the office, so at lunchtime the table had to be cleared, gobbled down their meals and then turned it back into a work space.

Families are spending an inordinate amount of time together

A Wall Street Journal story talked about expat families who were crammed in their 1,100 square-foot apartment during their home quarantine. It was meant to sound like a hardship, but how do you compare that to a local teacher who has to teach lessons online from her bunk bed she shares with her sibling?

The things you are forced to do when a coronavirus hits your city...

Vancouver Eating Part 1

Fantastic prime rib dinner with Yorkshire pudding at Seasons in the Park

Many friends in Hong Kong asked me what I ate in Vancouver and some of it was Chinese cuisine, Japanese and Western.

Apart from having dim sum, we tried a northern Chinese restaurant that serves all kinds of lamb dishes. Called Hao's Lamb Restaurant in Richmond, it's relatively new and my relatives took us here for lunch.

Thinly sliced lamb in between a sesame seed bun

The owners are mainland Chinese and very friendly. The menu is quite extensive with such dishes as mutton tendon with cumin, mutton hotpot, and roasted lamb leg, there are some eyebrow-raising ones like "ovine [sheep] testicles with cumin", and "nourishing ovine testicles stew with ovine genital".

Hmmmm worth a try?

We had thinly sliced lamb that we put in a sesame seed bun with cucumbers that was delicious, boiled lamb dumplings, and a lamb-flavoured broth with hand-pulled noodles in it. We also had a napa cabbage that was chopped into four wedges and covered with tons of finely minced garlic and vermicelli and steamed.

So if you like lamb, this place is a must.

A favourite place we visit is Seasons in the Park that is at Queen Elizabeth Park and overlooks downtown Vancouver. We were lucky to get a window seat and marveled at all the twinkling lights.

Sunburnt Lemon tart at Seasons in the Park

On Sunday evenings the restaurant offers a three-course set roast beef dinner for CAD$42.50. Choose between a salad or a soup, the roast beef and then two desserts to decide from.

The slow roasted prime rib is excellent -- very tender and juicy medium rare, though the best bits are along the edge, along with Yorkshire pudding and vegetables. I barely finished mine, but somehow made room for the restaurant's signature sunburnt lemon pie.

I also tried a place I'd never heard of before, Chewie's Biscuit Co on 4th Avenue and McDonald. It's a small shop that, as its name suggests, makes biscuit sandwiches with interesting combinations. The friendly waitress takes your order and money, and then you sit down and wait for your food to arrive.

She gave a few suggestions as a first timer to the eatery and so I decided try "Stoner", which features fried chicken breast, stone ground mustard, honey and bread and butter pickles.

"Stoner" biscuit sandwich

It's a vertically tall sandwich so I took the top off to eat it with a knife and fork. The fried chicken is good, smothered in sauce and I'm thankful the pickles are there to cut some of the grease. The sandwich looks deceivingly small but it isn't, though maybe my stomach is full from eating a few onion rings.

After finishing the sandwich I try the half biscuit on its own and it's fantastic -- light, fluffy, with a buttermilk taste. It's so good that my dining companion orders take out -- including an unadulterated biscuit.

Hao's Lamb Restaurant
8788 McKim Way
Richmond, BC
(604) 270 6632

Seasons in the Park
Queen Elizabeth Park at West 33rd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
(604) 874 8008

Chewie's Biscuit Co
2282 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
(604) 336 9996

Picture of the Day: Mak's Noodles in Vancouver

One of the bite-sized wontons in my wonton noodle soup in Richmond

Yesterday we picked up our relatives from the airport who are visiting North America for the first time and since they were hungry after their flight from San Francisco, we decided to take them for a bite to eat at Mak's Noodles -- in Richmond, a municipality next to Vancouver.

It's in one of several strip malls in the area, and by the time we arrived, just before 3pm on a Sunday, the place was packed.

While this Mak's Noodles is a branch of the original in Hong Kong, the portion sizes are different. Here they are decent-sized bowls. The wontons are quite similar, small and there is a greater proportion of shrimp to pork. The noodles are good too, but the alkaline taste is not as pronounced and not cooked al dente.

Nevertheless, for a bowl of wonton noodles here it's CAD$5.75 (around HK$34), slightly cheaper than the HK$39 in Hong Kong -- and almost twice the portion of noodles.

The menu in the Richmond branch has many other dishes too, like congee, spring rolls and deep-fried dace balls.

Mak's Noodle House

Alexandra Plaza, 190-8291 Alexandra Road

Richmond

(604) 231 8141

Showtime -- The King and I

The local production of The King and I presented at Gateway Theatre

Yesterday we went to see a local production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I at Gateway Theatre in Richmond.

A family friend joked to my New York-based sibling that this show was amateurish compared to productions on Broadway, but we were undeterred and bought tickets.

As we walked into the theatre it occurred to me that perhaps this musical was chosen because it was being presented in Richmond, where there is a large Asian (Chinese) population, but regardless it's a feel-good show that's good for the holidays.

The original King of Siam Yul Brynner

The last time I saw a live production of The King and I was many years ago when Yul Brynner played the title role at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. I just remember him being such a dynamic and charismatic character. He had played the King of Siam so many times on stage and screen that he was the king.

On a side note in 2006 my family and I took an Asian cruise on Princess and visited Vladivostock, Russia, where the only thing we found interesting was Brynner's childhood home which had turned into an office.

Nevertheless I didn't remember much of the story so this show was a good refresher.

The musical is based on the 1944 novel called Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Langdon, which was derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, an English governess to the King of Siam's children in the 1860s.

In the show Anna is a strong-headed female character which is unusual for that time, but perhaps because she was a widow and teacher, her only wish was to be treated fairly.

Brynner dancing with Deborah Kerr

Meanwhile the King's sexist attitude towards women seems outrageous to westerners, but not surprising to Asians who used to, and in Thailand's case still revere their king.

The King and Anna don't see eye-to-eye on many things and on many levels, while the king's children are eager to learn as much as they can from Anna and they are confronted by trying to understand the difference between scientific knowledge and traditional beliefs.

Overall Barbara Tomasic as Anna was fantastic, a strong singer who easily stood up to King Phra Maha Mongut played by Jovanni Sy, who is also the artistic director of of the show.

We also liked Rosie Simon as Tuptim, the Burmese princess sent as a "gift" to the King of Siam. Her singing was ethereal to say the least paired with her lover Lun Tha played by Justin Daniel Lapena.

Could we just add that Tyler Wong as Crown Prince Chulalongkorn sounded like Charlie Brown?! He wasn't very articulate and tried very hard to look regal...

A few scenes were cut in the already long show -- such as the blooming romance between Tuptim and Lun Tha, the banquet scene of the King hosting diplomats from England, and torturing Tuptim after she is caught trying to flee Siam.

The local production featured a number of Asian kids on stage

Perhaps the longest scene was the Thai version of "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" featuring a narrated dance about black slaves escaping the underground railroad to Canada. Choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the dance sequence here didn't stray far from the original.

A number of children were recruited for the production, many of them Chinese, while a few were Caucasian and just barely looked the park with their dirty blond hair.

Set mostly in the palace, the set was relatively minimalist, but did the job, with a few props to embellish the stage.

In the end the show was very enjoyable and for $49 a ticket, was great value for entertainment on a cold day.

The King and I

December 5-31, 2013

Gateway Theatre

6500 Gilbert Road
Richmond
604 270 6500

gatewaytheatre.com

Picture of the Day: Black Sesame Egg Tarts

An interesting Chinese dessert variation -- black sesame egg tarts

This morning we went to Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant in Richmond for dim sum with some relatives.

The selection featured the usual fare of steamed shrimp dumplings, steamed char siu buns, steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce, pan-fried taro cake, and steamed turnip cake.

We also ordered some different dishes like fish shoulder -- that's what it's called but didn't know fish had shoulders! -- that was deep-fried and then braised, a sanitized version of stinky tofu that was hardly smelly but was deep-fried and slightly crunchy on the outside, soft inside, and a fresh bean curd sheets with bok choy.

But what really caught our attention was one of the desserts the staff were carrying around in trays from table to table -- black sesame egg tarts.

They don't look appealing being black, but the taste is pretty good, the black sesame taste combined with a slight hint of custard complete with a flaky pastry around it.

It wasn't too sweet and had a similar texture to egg custard tarts but lighter.

None of us had ever seen a dessert variation like that before which is why we had to take a picture of it and blog about it!

Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant

8071 Park Road
Richmond
604 278 0873