Lantau Peak and Dragon’s Back hikes

When Pretty Boy and I were in Hong Kong in November 2015, we did two big hikes: Lantau Peak at sunrise and Dragon’s Back.  Here are some pictures I took while on those adventures.

In the wee, wee morning at the beginning of our journey to Lantau Peak at sunrise, it took us some time to find a taxi at 3 am in Tung Chung, but we finally did.  We took the taxi to the Pak Kung Au bus stop where the trail is supposed to start.  As the taxi sped away, we sure hoped we could find the trail head.  The first bus wasn’t due for another 3 hours if we couldn’t…

Hoping we can find the trail head

We did find the trail and started the hike.  No pictures from the first few hours because it was still dark, but eventually, the sky started to lighten.  We weren’t yet at the summit, so we started powering up the steps, hoping to make it to the peak in time to see the sunrise.

The sky starts to lighten

The lighter it got, the more apparent it became that we were in a cloud

We didn’t make it to the very top in time for sunrise, but luckily strategically, we started on the east side of the peak, so the sunrise was at our backs rather than hidden behind the peak, and we saw when the sun rose over the low dense clouds, though it was still partially obscured by the cloud in which we were.

Hazy sunrise behind us

By the time we made it to the peak, the clouds were intermittent, so we’d be alternately blasted by sun and enveloped in chilly cloud (made extra chilly by how sweaty we were after racing to the top).  The view was also alternately exposed and obscured by clouds, but we hung out for about an hour watching different parts of Hong Kong and the amazing clouds come and go from view.  At one point, we could see all the way to Hong Kong Island.

Other parts of Lantau Island peaking above the clouds

Taking pano pictures of the view

On top of the world, less than 1 km above sea level

The peak is less than 1 km above sea level (934 m), but its still the tallest peak on Lantau Island and the second tallest in all of Hong Kong, so we felt on top of the world.

Sea of clouds

The city of Tung Chung, where we started our day, between a quick break in the clouds

We continued along the trail, down the west side of the peak to Ngong Ping and the Big Buddha.

Steep, cloudy decent

South side of Lantau Island

The Big Buddha and the Wisdom Path in the distance

We’ve visited Ngong Ping village and the Big Buddha (officially Tian Tan Buddha) every time we’ve been in Hong Kong.  Its one of our favorite places in the world because of the beauty, peaceful vibes, and tofu faa, though the energy was majorly disrupted on our previous visit by hordes of tourists visiting the kitschy tourist attractions that have been built up in Ngong Ping.  We discovered the key for us is to go after hiking to the top of Lantau Peak at sunrise!  The hike put us in a pretty exhausted, mellow mood, and we arrived in Ngong Ping before the cable car, Big Buddha, and all the other attractions opened, so there were essentially no other tourists (just a few devout followers and hard core cyclists).

The Big Buddha

That’s were we came down from

Beautiful gardens around the temple in Ngong Ping

We waited around for everything to open at 8 am so we could walk up the stairs, visit the Big Buddha, and have tofu faa. We then took the bus from Ngong Ping back to Tung Chung for a shower and nap.

The positives were discovering a good time (of day) for us to visit the Big Buddha and the amazing views.  The negatives were partial to heavy cloud cover and the amount of trash (and heavy odor of urine) left at the summit.  Results of the hike becoming so popular.  We were at the summit with people who had camped over night there in order to see the sunrise, though they didn’t look happy or warm to us.  I’m definitely glad we did the hike, and I would definitely do it again with an eye on the forecast and some garbage bags for picking up some litter.

I also think approaching the summit from the east was a great idea.  The approach from the west may be faster, but its also steeper, a prospect that terrifies me in the best of conditions.  I couldn’t imagine attempting it in the dark or in a cloud or both.  And if you’re running late (as we often are), the sunrise is still visible from the east.

Later on the same visit to Hong Kong, we went to the Southern District of Hong Kong Island to hike the Dragon’s Back, rated one of the top hikes in all of Asia, and visit Big Wave Bay and Shek O village.  We took all the trains and buses to get us there and back since we were staying in Tung Chung and met Dr. Sam in Wan Chai for dinner afterwards (2 MTR trains and a bus to get there; a bus, the longest trolley ride, and an MTR train to get back), but we love the public transport in Hong Kong!  It was all part of the adventure.

We were in the company of several other hikers on the bus that stopped at the trail head (though we were probably the youngest by half), so we knew we were in the right place.  So different from how we felt starting the Lantau Peak hike.  We hit the trail quickly and left most of the other hikers behind.  The weather wasn’t the best for hiking that day.  The views around us on top of the Dragon’s Back ridge were amazing but hazy, so the pictures aren’t very nice.  And it was crazy windy at the top of the ridge, so we didn’t linger too long.

Dragon’s Back ridge

After the top of the ridge, the trail wrapped around a peak in the Shek O Country Park and dropped us down in Big Wave Bay.

Trail through Shek O Country Park

Big Wave Bay apparently has the best surfing in Hong Kong, though they have a shark net at the bay entrance which breaks the waves up and makes them less nice for surfing.  The weather was still cloudy and dreary, but there were a fair few surfers out (even though winter is not the beach season to most Hong Kong residents), and Pretty Boy couldn’t resist.  He rented a board and played in the waves for a bit before we continued on.  We walked down the road to Shek O village, while the clouds finally clear off and the sun came out.

Shek O headland

Welcome to Shek O

We really enjoyed walking around and seeing Shek O, but I didn’t take any pictures of it.  It always amazing me that it only takes a few relatively short public transport rides to feel like I’m so far removed from the bustle of Hong Kong and the rest of the world.  Its one of my favorite things about Hong Kong.  After our visit and a really good cup of nai chai at the cafe across the street from the bus stop, we started our long trip back to civilization.

We go on adventures

Pretty Boy and I have returned! I presented my research at a conference in Kyoto, Japan back in July, and enough of my expenses were covered that we could afford for Pretty Boy to come along too! We were gone for two weeks and visited Japan and Hong Kong. A quick overview of the trip: the conference went from Sunday to Friday the first week. We stayed in Japan until Wednesday for another four days of sight-seeing. Wednesday was lost in transit to Hong Kong. We had three days in Hong Kong, and flew overnight Saturday back to Australia. We’ve got tons of pictures to share, and I might have to feature a guest post by Pretty Boy himself since he did a lot of exploring on his own while I was in the conference the first week.

When I first started planning my trip to the conference and Pretty Boy’s possible accompaniment, I was very excited when I learned Cathay Pacific was one of the cheaper airlines to fly from Canberra to Osaka for our trip to Japan.  Cathay is our favorite airline, and if we flew Cathay, it would mean a layover in Hong Kong.  We love Hong Kong even if it’s just for a few hours on a layover. Then I learned that Dr. Sam would be in Hong Kong at the same time as we would be passing through on our return to Australia. So I checked and was even more excited to learn that a three hour layover in Hong Kong versus a three day layover in Hong Kong were the same price. So that’s how we ended up visiting Japan and got a few days in Hong Kong.

Getting to Japan, we were scheduled to fly a QantasLink flight to Melbourne where we would connect on a Cathay flight to Hong Kong and connect again on a Cathay flight to Osaka. But our Qantas flight was delayed and we just missed our connection in Melbourne. Bummer! The next two flights later that night that could have gotten us to Osaka were both oversold, so Qantas put us up in the airport hotel and we had to wait until the following morning to get to Osaka. It meant that instead of flying over night Saturday night and arriving early Sunday, we had to fly all day Sunday, arriving late late at night. It was too bad that we lost a full day in Japan, but the Qantas lady in Melbourne that helped us was awesome and took good care of us.  And flying during the day meant we lost the day, but it also meant that we weren’t on a red-eye flight and exhausted on arrival because of it.

The coolest part about being at the Melbourne airport was spotting an Airbus A380 airplane.  Man, those things are huge!

Hanging out in the Melbourne airport

After a early morning flight and really quick connection, we made it. We flew into the Osaka Kansai International Airport and took one of the last buses leaving the airport at around 1 am in the morning and slept the 45 minutes it took to drive from the airport to the Kyoto city center.  The transition from mild winter in Australia to full on summer in Kyoto was something I was not ready for.  Though I knew it was coming, there really wasn’t anything I could do to prepare except pack ALL my summer clothes and remember to keep hydrated.  The heat and humidity were like a slap in the face.  But like a slap that you kind of like because you’ve just been cold for so damned long.  And by you, I mean me.  The time difference between Canberra and Kyoto is only -1 hour, but the difference in latitude is rather more: 35 deg south for Canberra, 35 degrees north for Kyoto.  Having absolutely no practice dealing with crossing the equator, I would take crossing time zones over crossing the equator anytime.  Let me tell you, it was so, so nice not to be jetlagged!

Conference center/futuristic alien space station?

Beautiful campus and gardens surrounding the conference center

My conference went really well.  There were some great keynote speeches and presentations.  There were some not so great keynotes and speeches.  I gave a pretty stellar presentation to a disappointing-sized audience, but that’s what happens when a presentation is scheduled in the afternoon right after a coffee break… no one comes back from the break.  It was disappointing because the audience was small and unengaged, but my advisor, who was in the audience, was happy with the presentation, and the small audience meant I didn’t get asked any really difficult questions (the greatest fear at any conference presenter, though I have practice with difficult audiences and know when to say I don’t know, so it doesn’t bother me as much).

Conference center catering, Japan-style. The vegetarian bento boxes were amazing!

I must say that two most surprising things about the conference were my excitement over hearing/seeing other Americans and the difficulty I had networking.  There were a fair number of Americans at the conference and hearing other people who sounded like me, who spoke in such a familiar way, was actually quite comforting.  I didn’t realize how disconcerting it can be to constantly be surrounded by people who sound and speak in a different way.  I definitely confused more than one American when they saw that my name badge said Australia but once I started speaking, they would all say, “Wait, you’re not Australian, are you?”  No, no I am not.

Another view of the conference center, under construction

As for networking, I have a theory as to why it was particularly hard for me to network at this event.  The event was largely segregated into two groups: those who were comfortable speaking casual English and those who were not.  Of the people I met, those who were comfortable speaking English were people from America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, places where higher education happens in English.  Those who were not were from Japan and China, where higher education happens in the local language.  To many of the people comfortable speaking English, I think I looked like someone who might not be comfortable speaking English.  But to the Chinese and Japanese, I think I definitely looked Western.  People would smile at me and act friendly, but wouldn’t make the jump to starting conversations.  If I finally started talking, people seemed relieved that I was a competent English speaker.  It is unfortunate how much of a disadvantage being a non-native English speaker is in the research community, and I have never felt so grateful or guilty that English is my first language.

There was an awards banquet on Thursday night, that I had a ticket for, included in my conference registration, but we neglected to buy an extra ticket for Pretty Boy.  As luck would have it, a colleague left Kyoto early and gave us his extra ticket, so we both got to go have a really nice dinner at the conference center and I got to introduce Pretty Boy to some of the people I met.  It was an exhausting week.  By the last day, I was so happy for it to be over, but overally it was good: I got to met some big names in my research field and learn about a lot of really interesting research related to my topic that is going on all over the world.

After we returned from Japan, we needed some time to recover from the trip and deal with the strongest homesickness we’ve both experienced since moving here.  I also had a very busy few weeks at school.  Then I celebrated my 30th birthday with a long weekend trip to Cairns in Queensland.  And then another even busier few weeks at school.  Grad school induced dry-spells on the blog are something I am all too familiar with, but stay tuned for the rest of our adventures around Kyoto and in Nara, Hong Kong, and Cairns.

Pao de Coco

After posting about pao de queijo, I wanted to play with the recipe and see what else I could make.  Tapioca went well with cheese in pao de queijo and with black sesame and soy sauce in the Korean mochi bread.  I wasn’t ready to commit to chocolate chips like Dr. Sam suggested, but I did want to turn away from savory and try something sweet so I settled on coconut.  It was actually really easy to modify the Kitchn‘s recipe for pao de queijo for coconut instead of cheese.  I swapped coconut milk for the whole milk, added a teaspoon of sugar in addition to the teaspoon of salt and swapped 1 cup of sweetened flaked coconut for the cheese.  Otherwise I followed the same recipe.  The verdict was unanimous: delicious!  Even Professor Peaches tried and loved them.

The only things I would change next time is not to double up on the sweetness: either 1 tsp of sugar and unsweetened coconut or no added sugar and sweetened coconut, but that being said, the boys of the house didn’t mind the sweetness level at all.

Ingredients

1 cup coconut milk or cream (I haven’t tried but I wouldn’t recommend using a coconut milk beverage product)
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups tapioca flour
2 eggs
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Instructions

Follow instructions from the Kitchn for pao de queijo.  And then I brush the pao with a little bit of water just before baking for added crustiness.  Yum!

Tapioca Bread

Before Fogo de Chao came to Minneapolis and introduced us all to pao de queijo and before gluten free was ‘a thing,’ Dr. Sam and I were eating round tapioca cheese bread balls that I made from a mix that went by the brand name Chebe.  Neither of us took the time to learn about the origin of the bread, we just ate it because it was gluten free and tasty, and we called it by the brand name, Chebe.  It would go something like this:  “What should we have for dinner tonight?” “Want to have Chebe?  We could have Chebe and some soup.”  Yep, like that.

Fast forward several years, after we stopped buying Chebe, after Fogo de Chao and Brazilian steak houses became popular, and after gluten free was everywhere.  Add in Dr. Sam’s new Brazilian friend and pao de queijo were practically knocking on our kitchen door, asking to be eaten.

Instead of buying Chebe bread mix again, Dr. Sam went to United Noodles for tapioca starch, the main ingredient in pao de queijo.  Instead of tapioca starch though, he came home with a Korean box mix for something that looked suspiciously similar to the pao de queijo we were trying to make.

In spite of the lack on English on the box and our inability to read Korean, these buns were super easy to make and turned out very similar to the Chebe pao de queijo we used to make, except with soy sauce and black sesame seeds instead of cheese.  And so easy: just add an egg and some water, mix and then bake.  The final step before backing is an optional spritz of water on the buns to help crisp the outsides.  As a lover of crust, I wanted to follow this step but didn’t have a spray bottle, so I used a basting brush and liberally dabbed water on the little balls, which did the trick.  I highly recommended following this step and applying water to those little guys somehow.

The next time Dr. Sam came home from the store though, it was with tapioca starch and not a box mix, but still with the same request for tapioca bread.  Luckily, we knew what the Brazilian bread buns were actually called so I could search for them by name, ‘pao de queijo,’ and not just ‘tapioca bread ball chebe things.’  I came up with a super well photographed, step-by-step recipe at the Kitchn blog.  Unfortunately, I figured since the Korean and Chebe mixes never needed additional cooking besides just baking, why cook the tapioca starch before baking this time?  Well, because they won’t turn out if you don’t cook the tapioca, as I found out.  The batter stayed so runny I had to add another full cup of plain flour just to get the dough to a consistency I could scoop onto the pan so the texture was all wrong.

The next time I made pao de queijo, I followed the instructions (though left out the cheese) and they turned out just right.  Dr. Sam’s only complaint is that they were a little bland without cheese or black sesame seeds in them.  His suggestion: put chocolate chips in next time.  Chocolate chips!?  That crazy man.  I’m sure it would be delicious and completely unorthodox to both Korean and Brazilian cuisines.  The Kitchn recipe is great and the detailed pictures really help, but I would not recommend attempting it without a stand mixer.  That tapioca gets crazy gooey.  I also brushed the pao before baking with water like I did the Korean mix.  It resulted in a thicker crust which we liked but that I wouldn’t exactly call crispy.  Maybe hard-chewy but not in a bad way.

I wanted to figure out the ingredients that made the Korean version less labor intensive, but a search of the internet has not yielded good results.  After some internet investigating, I found that the Korean bread balls generally go by the English name Korean mochi bread so I suspect there is some sweet rice flour in the mix as well tapioca which makes sense because sweet rice would give a similar texture but cooks a lot quicker than dried cassava.

So what have I learned?  Pao de queijo, Korean mochi bread, tapioca bread, whatever you call it: we like it.  And mix or homemade?  Both have their advantages.  Its nice being able to control the amount of sugar and salt and gluten that go into the bread, so I like that about making the bread from scratch (the Korean mix contained all three).  But the convenience of the mix also has its draws.  It literally takes 10 minutes to get the bread in the oven when using a mix and only requires one dirty bowl.  Now I just need to get to Brazil and so I can try real pao de queijo… and samba dance… and go to the beach… and just be in Brazil.

Cabbage and Turmeric Root Curry

This recipe came about for two different reasons.  First, I stayed home and took a snow day today because sometimes, in Minnesota, we wake up in April and it looks like this outside.  

Second, there was a bunch stuff in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten: a head of napa cabbage, a bag of whole turmeric roots, and a huge batch of cooked whole wheat berries that Dr. Sam made, threw in the fridge, and never looked at again.  I’d never cooked with whole turmeric root before and was initially turned off by their uncanny resemblance to creepy finger Halloween decoration.

But I didn’t want the whole bag to go bad from neglect and turmeric powder makes great curry, so I decided to make a curry.  Curry is definitely the best dish I know for dealing with old vegetable remnants and is so versatile.  I spice it with curry powder, curry paste, or any number of other spice combinations.  I make the sauce from coconut milk, stock, or water (I even used a combination of cow milk and sour cream one time which I though was going to be weird but turned out just fine).  I add whatever vegetables and proteins are on hand.  And I serve over some carbohydrates (usually rice but also, pasta, toast, naan, mashed potatoes).  Yum.

Skipping school seems to be about the only way I have time to cook or blog right now.  Between trying to get the basement remodel to a point where we can move down there AND getting Pretty Boy ready for the impending racing season AND making the decision about where to go to school for my PhD AND still working at school to get my Master’s finished, life is just so crazy and not well-balanced right now.  At least I’m still eating.

Anyway, back to the curry: once the turmeric root is peeled and sliced, it’s much less intimidating and looks like a mix between carrots (the color and shape) and ginger (the texture):

A warning: after the flesh is exposed, this stuff will stain everything it comes into contact with including cutting boards, dish towels, and fingers.  At least its a pretty color (actually, cooking with turmeric made me want to do some experimenting with natural dyes.  The colors are so pretty… right, like I have time for that crafty business).  If you can’t find or don’t want to seek out turmeric root, it can be omitted or substituted with another root or powdered spice of your preference.  I filled out the rest of the flavor base with onions, carrots and ginger.  While I wish I would have had garlic too, this curry definitely turned out well balanced and had enough spice.

The wheat berries are not normally anything I’d make special to put in curry, but they worked quite well in this.  The starchiness helped thicken the sauce, and they added a slight chewy texture and some protein.  I think chopped, roasted cashews would be a great tasting protein in this as well.  The wheat berries can easily be omitted, similar to the turmeric root, if you don’t have them, don’t want to cook them, or don’t want to bother.  If you do omit the berries, you might need something else, like a little flour or cornstarch or potatoes or beans or something to help thicken the sauce.  Or just have runnier sauce (I love curry!  Just can’t go wrong!).

So really, the moral is: use whatever you have, fry it up, and use salt to help wilt leafy veggies.

Cabbage and Turmeric Root Curry:
4+ tbsp cooking oil
2-3 finger sized turmeric root pieces, peeled and sliced
1 tsp – 1 tbsp crushed red pepper, depending on prefered level of heat
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh ginger
1 medium white onion, roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, sliced into thin disks
1/2 head of napa cabbage, roughly chopped
2 tsp salt
1/2 can of coconut milk or cream (I usually have cans between 12-14 oz)
2 tsp sugar
1 cup cooked whole wheat berries
pepper to taste

1. Heat cooking oil in a wok or deep frying pan.  Add turmeric root, red pepper, curry powder, and ginger.  Fry until fragrant.

2. Add onion and carrots.  Fry until onions and carrots have slightly softened.

3. Add cabbage and sprinkle with salt.  Fry until cabbage wilts.

4. Add coconut milk, sugar, wheat berries, and pepper.  Stir until combined.  Once mixture is bubbling, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes then serve over rice.

The rice pictured at the top of this post is a Korean “mixed grain” rice blend.  I usually make my own blend of sticky and regular rices, brown and blacked colored varieties, sometimes with beans.  We got the Korean blend from United Noodles, and it contains brown rice, brown sweet rice, barley, black sweet rice, green peas, and peeled and split, yellow mung beans.  Its pretty good except for the peas.  I’m not a fan of the texture of the peas.  

Happy Snow Day!