Tuesday, April 13, 2010

She Wong Yee - hard place to find

Every day, we must do mandatory food scavenges - usually two. If you do not do the food scavenges, your points for the day do not count. The trip organizer, Bill Chalmers created the rule because some previous competitors who were very competitive did not stop to eat. Not healthy. There is always a choice of about 5 places. But usually, some are out af the way it is very hard to figure out others. When I say hard to figure out, I mean after asking many many people and witnessing much head scratching. Mid-day on the first day, we were in Central Hong Kong. We had just finished riding the world's longest escalator. It is outdoors, although covered with a roof, replaces a street of steps and ascends a steep hill through congested neighborhoods. It was a facinating ride by shops, restaurants, apartments. The restaurant we chose was simply referred to as "She Wong Yee in Causeway Bay". We got to the Causeway Bay area by choosing another scavenge - to ride the British Double Decker tram. Having stopped many people on the street to inquire about the restaurant, we finally found a darling English-speaking girl who knew it and gave us directions. Barely helpful, though. This is consistent with our experience that few people seem to know or use street names in Hong Kong. Compound that by our intended destination being named in Chinese (no transliteration). But fortunately, the street was only two blocks long. Process of elimination led us to focus on the eateries, then zero in on the ones with no English letters. Walking into the first one that met those criteria, I spied an envelope on the cashier's desk, addressed to the restaurant we sought. Bingo.
Although the wall-posted menus were in Chinese, the waiter gave us a list that offered choices something like: beef, pork, rice, vegetables, chicken. We ordered the vegys, which were perfectly steamed Chinese broccoli with a sweet thick soy sauce. Delicious. As we prepared to leave, a young couple who were locals approached us and asked if we were vegatarian, because if we were not, we should try the BBQ pork, as the restaurant is known for it. We sat back down and had the pork. It was fantastic.