The beast's baptism

Yesterday morning I got up at a leisurely hour for the first time in weeks. The sun was shining, everything was perfect. I stepped in the shower, thinking about what we should do for the day, but then I stepped out to a whole new reality... There was Krusty, with a huge grin on his face, introducing me to a giant army green gas ring burner that he had had time to buy while I was washing.

I spotted the cool Colombians Paola and Ignacio in the background, and understood that this was for the Paella Ignacio had gracefully offered to cook for us the next day. Just cooking it the normal way wouldn't have been enough for Krusty, though. He wanted more than just normal flames.

And so we set off to find a pan that would fit the burner. Wandering through the back streets of Sheung Wan, past the noodle shops and the bird sellers, P&I introduced us to a fabulous kitchen shop that seemed to have every pot under the sun... except for the one we needed of course... As if that's ever stopped Krusty! As we gave up, he disappeared into the back with the shop keeper, and came back out brandishing a huge tin, saying "It's perfect!"

And it was. Today we made paella for the masses, eating delicious helpings of it ourselves, but the eight of us not even managing to finish the dish.

The beast has had a Spanish baptism, now we have to find some other uses for it. We are thinking of starting a cooking club - each week someone finds a different use for the pan. Krusty has already declared that his week he will cook English fry-up for 10...

Ah the things you can do on a rooftop in Hong Kong...