Andrew's Candy Tour through Asia and My endless search for Dumplings....

So we definitely have started a travel theme through Asia and not surprisingly it's food. We have now been in Hong Kong a little over a week and although we've done some good sight-seeing, I'd say our food consumption is exceptional.

The first few days I had very specific eating requests and those pretty much determined what we did for the day. For example, I wanted wonton soup or a pork bun, etc. I'm not quite sure where I got these ideas or cravings but they came and we searched. The soup was easy, the pork bun was child's play, but the dumpling was a bit more challenging. It took 3 days to find proper dumplings.....I have no idea what I expected (maybe dumpling stands on every corner like new york and hot dog stands)? And as clarification to my parents--I was looking for a pan-fried pot sticker. I mean Costco sells them in bulk for god's sake, I felt they had to be growing from trees. After endless searching we semi-drunkenly stumbled upon a place on the 2nd floor of a busy street in Kownloon called the "Tripod Seafood Restaurant." Yes, we should have been skeptical just from the name but I REALLY wanted dumplings. We get in, we order right away and the waiter decides to break my heart saying they are only served for Dim Sum (aka Lunch). We plead, we beg, I almost cry, but there is no way he's pan frying those little bits of happiness for us. The next day, Darcy and Jay come to town and Jay being the expert in all things chinese helped us find dumplings--and I don't know if it was the extreme searching, the hunger, or the obsessing, but they were delicious and definitely worth the wait. As a side note, if I had done my food research correctly (or at all) I would have known that dumplings are a traditionally Northern Chinese food (read Beijing--When I heard that I was about to jump on a plane up there). So please learn from my mistake, if you want dumplings in Hong Kong find a Beijing style restaurant. There's plenty to be found--that's if you know what you're looking for.

Andrew's obsessing has been a little bit easier. His consists of an urge to peruse every candy stand or corner store we walk past (which makes getting from one place to another in a timely fashion a bit of a challenge). He has absolutely no discretion about the candy he consumes, as long as it's sugary and has packaging he can't read. I feel like it's mainly been flavored gummy things covered with chocolate, which admittedly sounds okay, but sometimes it's wierd fruit or grape and I am actively against any fake flavored grape candy. And every time I roll my eyes when he asks for money to buy candy he says "We don't have this kind of candy at home!" So when Andrew comes back looking like a Sumo wrestler, he'll just have to tell everyone he took the candy home as a souvenir...on his belly.

Other high-lights so far are a 2.5 hour bus ride to the beach to show up in the dark (but it was fun!), Hong Kong Disney (worth an entire post in itself), and a 3 year old with jet lag who likes to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. And we're in the sleeping in the living room....where Donald Duck is on TV....and must be watched at all hours of the day :-) So far we're having a great time and Andrew promises to post pictures today, so definitely watch out for more to come!