It began at trendy resto Duo on Thursday night, where we celebrated Celine's birthday and shamelessly took over her present of a wine scent kit to guess the smells ourselves. Each of the 45 vials have a distinct aroma that can be found in wine, and it's actually quite fun to try to find a smell without knowing what it is. Once you know the answer it seems obvious, but before then some of the guesses can be rather amusing. For example, Krusty thought that the vial of "toast" smelled like formaldehyde. Don't know where he's been having breakfast!
The next day we relaxed at home quietly for the first time in ages, and then made our way to the amazing frozen meat shop on Jervois Street to buy cheap but great quality lamb racks for the next day's bbq. We then went off to discuss grilling recipes with Paola and Ignacio over xiao long bao dumplings at Crystal Jade. Krusty, of course, had to go for a crazy order as usual (this time it was crispy eel) but apart from that the meal was great. It's a real tourist trap type of place, right in the middle of the ifc mall, but I still think their traditional Shanghainese dumplings (filled with a soup that explodes in your mouth when you bite down through the dumplings' skin) are the best in town.
On Saturday the food frenzy continued as Ignacio, Paola and John came over to share Moroccan lamb racks, tabbouleh, tzatziki and lemon cake – all home made. We rounded the day off with a documentary called Mondovino, about the wine industry, and slept with full minds and fuller bellies.
Krusty – who claims "not to be a cake person" – asked for a rerun of the lemon drizzle cake on Sunday, so I quickly granted his wish so that we could bring something to Lantau, where our friend Dominique had invited us to spend the day. Her family have had a long history with Hong Kong since 1945, and their house is just behind the Giant Buddha, in an old nunnery in the middle of a tea plantation. It was a fantastically colonial day, and we walked the six dogs through the private forest in our tea dresses with mugs of wine at hand. I can't believe this kind of place still exists, it's amazing. The government is actually trying to take some of the land back, as they are not being used to farm tea anymore and therefore can be taken back for agricultural purposes, but for now it's just extraordinarily peaceful. After the walk we feasted on roast chicken, played croquet on the lawn and jumped in the pool, shouting in our best rah rah voices and feeling all imperial. Very un-pc but oh so satisfying!
Having spent the evening playing charades around the fire, we just couldn't bring ourselves to travel the hour and a half back to Hong Kong Island, so we extended the fantasy until the next morning, when we had to go back to reality to meet Meko and Dave, who came over for lunch with baby Jayden.
Now they are gone, I am looking over the pile of washing up that Krusty has before him (only fair) and feeling smug and satisfied with the way we managed to spend our "staycation". And Krusty managed to limit his work and Blackberry usage to just two mornings out of four. Very smug indeed... Take a look why!
