A brief list Sham Shui Po in general, and Ap Liu Street in particular is a place that I always enjoy visiting. Here are some of the reasons why (in no particular order):

• Very pedestrian-friendly, which means it's a bit quieter than other similar places, such as Mong Kok;
• The stalls selling lighting are so ridiculously bright that you can't look at them even in daylight!
• If you really need some, you can buy used dental equipment;
• More torches and binoculars and electrical parts and tools in one place than anywhere else;
• The computer mall with its excellent collection of pirated DVDs and games;
• The generally relaxed pace;
• kittens.

  ¶ 4:24 PM (0) comments links to this post

  Mystery Solved On the weekend the South China Morning Post revealed the secret of the missing vegemite (which I can't link to because the SCMP is still living in the Dark Ages).

Apparently, Japanese foodies have discovered that the taste of Vegemite has the flavour profile of something like miso - it has the "fifth taste" - umami, which is kind of the taste of kelp. It's a lot more complicated than that - read the Wikipedia article for a better description. Anyway, these Japanese foodies discovered that Vegemite is available in Hong Kong and Singapore (due to the large Australian expat population) and so when they come to Hong Kong on food tours they raid the supermarkets and buy as much vegemite as they can find!!!!

  ¶ 10:54 AM (0) comments links to this post

  Grim portent of the future? Those of you who read the Age might have come across this story about the Great Hong Kong Vegemite Shortage of 2008. Fear not - I realised this was happening about 6 weeks ago when I saw that in my local supermarket the Vegemite wasn't being restocked. I immediately sprang into action and every time I passed a supermarket would go and in and assess the situation. Eventually I managed to snag the last available jar at the Park'n'Shop International in Sheung Wan (it was hiding behind a stack of Marmite - I had to climb the shelves to get to it), and the last two plastic squeezy tubes at the CitySuper in the IFC Mall. I was going to leave one but then I realised that it could be months before normal Vegemite services resumed. And finally we organised for a visiting colleague to bring a big jar over from Australia (which was a good thing - we've already finished the jar I found and Vegemite doesn't taste quite right out of a plastic squeezy tube).

In other news:

• there is a carrier battlegroup parked outside our window (I'd take a photo but they are hidden in the smog);
• I experienced Dragon Boating for the first time when I joined the Bloomberg Dragon Boat team yesterday afternoon;
• China is going mad because of the Olympics and will no longer let people use multiple entry visas.

  ¶ 8:09 PM (0) comments links to this post