roasted duck

1. Bought a duck. 
2. Stuffed it. 
3. Bathed it in hot sugar water.
4. Let it sit in the fridge for 3 days. 
5. Baked it. 
6. Enjoyed the fragrance of duck.
7. Ate it. 

Conclusion? Tasted pretty good, but it was too greasy. Now I know it's not worth the effort and it's way easier to just buy one and have someone else do all the messy chopping for you. 

Hey baby.

Photogenic autopsy table.

Fragrant stuffing.

Left: sewed up with a skewer. Right: hot sugar bath.

Plucking out extra feathers. 

Of course.

Twinsies.

Roasted.

Chop chop chop.

Quite greasy. 

Faaaat.

i need thee every hour

Oh dear... work has been quite stressful. Despite my best efforts to accomplish tasks and finish projects, things have still been out of my control and that frustrates the overachiever in me. Then I get depressed and feel like I'm in grad school again.

But instead of praying (which is what I really need to do), I let my stress and anxiety take over and I end up being more overwhelmed because I don't pray. Nasty cycle.

I read a fitting and timely article from Desiring God today about desperately needing God all the time. My thoughts: "Yeah, going to have more epic prayers!" While it was an encouraging read for me, I also felt a little guilty thinking about needy prayers.

This past weekend, my church talked about starting up devotional/prayer accountability pairs and we briefly went over the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) prayer method. One thing I remember from the discussion is that we should adore and thank God because prayer is not all about asking God for things. I don't disagree with that at all because 1.) God deserves it, 2.) it keeps our focus God-centered, and 3.) I have personally experienced how praising God in prayer draws me closer to Him.

So, is it selfish (and me-centered) if all I can do sometimes is unload my problems before God? It's not that I don't want to adore and thank God, it's just that sometimes my heart is so heavy that all I can do is cry out, "God I need help." Sometimes I wonder if I'm just using God. Maybe this is some sort of weird Christian guilt, kind of like "quiet time guilt." I'll call it... "thankless prayer time guilt."

While I do think that it is possible to be so disconnected from God that prayers become a mundane list of requests, I do believe that God is pleased when we plead to Him with a childlike trust in His sovereignty and power. This is something that a truly needy soul adores and is thankful for.

Still kind of struggling, but my hope (and prayer) is that I will always turn to God first, whether in sorrow or in joy. God is good not because He can give us things, but because He gives Himself to us, and that is what we need, desperately.

macau

During our stay in Hong Kong, KL and I took a day trip to Macau to gamble our life savings away and YOLO it up in this Asian Vegas. Okay, okay, of course that didn't happen. We went there primarily to eat, though we did gamble a few bucks at the slot machines just for kicks.

Macau = food win (almost).

Even though we left on a random Thursday, we couldn't leave for Macau until noon because all of the ferries were full. When it was finally our turn to board, KL got hit in the leg with some cold fish. Where there are crowds, there are also butts, butts, butts everywhere. Too many people shoving, too much unwanted contact.

Hello, Brooklyn Bridge.

Macau is designed after Vegas, so our first stop was the Venetian. This allowed us to go to the Taipa side of Macau and brought us to the famous Lord Stowe's bakery for Portuguese egg tarts. 

:O..............................

These egg tarts are no joke. The best I've ever had. The crust was perfectly crispy, the custard was perfectly custardy... they were perfect and exceeded all expectations.

Me and KL: "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!?!"

Too bad KL ended up getting egg tart flakes stuck in her throat. I later joined her when I got almond cookie samples flakes stuck in my throat.

Some European charm that reminded me of my time in Europe.

For lunch, we stopped by Seng Cheung for some of their famous crab congee. It was indeed very tasty! Our waiter kind of seemed like he hated life though.  This meal was the epitome of civilized eating: I was spitting shells onto the table, KL was going all in with her hands, I had congee in my hair, etc...

To finish off lunch, we had to get a pork chop bun. I wasn't expecting much, but oh man, this was an AMAZING pork chop bun. So flavorful, so tender... It also came out instantly, but was still piping hot. At this point, we realized we spent 3 hours eating, so it was time to actually see the rest of Macau.

We finally made it to the famous Ruins of St. Paul, which is a cathedral that only has a wall remaining. Pretty cool, and very touristy.

KL to me: "Move! I need a selfie."

KL did some shameless dancing in F21 to Fancy. I tried on some hats. 

Our last meal before heading back to Hong Kong was at Macau's Fisherman's Wharf, which was an area near the ferry terminal. While I wasn't expecting it to be like San Francisco, it was still disappointing because there was nothing in the area except a tacky looking amusement park. Eventually we stumbled upon a Thai restaurant and had a pineapple fried rice that had Chinese sausage, hot dogs, and pork floss in it! How very international.

That night, KL almost kicked down the door to our hostel floor to avoid germs.

hong kong

The goal of this Asia trip was to visit Hong Kong, so KL and I were both super excited when we finally arrived. We were also glad that we came here after Seoul:  better food, more efficient public transportation (no need to walk up and down multiple flights of stairs), and easier means of communication. 

I am also addicted to egg waffles. Someone please buy me a mold...

HK in summary: air conditioning drippage everywhere (yuck), breakfast is the most important meal of the day, "thick" air, drinks drinks drinks, and instant food all the time. Also a lot of people looked at us weirdly because KL would order something in Canto and I would order in Mandarin.  How are we friends? How do we communicate?

Day 1

When I was at the airport checking into my Seoul-HK flight, the lady at the counter asked me if I was pregnant because I was being placed in the exit row. "You okay? Not pregnant?" I said no, and continued with the checking in process. But when the lady gave me my ticket 5 minutes later, she asked me the same question again, in case I was lying the first time. KL and I got to pass through a special "women only" security line. I was amused that the security info screen had a gochujang icon as an example of a forbidden liquid.

Later when we were going through immigration, I heard one of the immigration patrol guys say to the Chinese woman next to me: "Are you pregnant? Step back and let me see."

After a few days of "depending" (if you can even call it that) on my Mandarin to survive in Korea, it was finally KL's moment to shine and use her Canto. So of course everyone she spoke to, including our hostel host, responded to her in Mandarin. We decided that if she ever went to mainland China, she would just say, "我不知道. 我沒有錢." I, on the other hand, learned how to count to 10 in Canto.

KL: "Meagan! I still need you..."

I accidentally took my first photo in Mong Kok with the AF turned off. How artsy. 

Our first activity after enjoying the most delicious pork chop rice and beef fried noodles and perfectly sweetened Hong Kong milk tea (for only 3 additional HKD each!) was to watch the Symphony of Lights. It was completely underwhelming so we spent the rest of the evening walking around the Tsim Sha Tsui area and then found some tangyuan on Hong Kong Island. When it was finally time to go back and sleep, we found out our awkward host didn't tell us we needed a door code. We tried going down to a phone booth to call the main desk, but no one picked up. Eventually we returned to the room where I just banged loudly on the door until a very tired looking old man opened up the door for us. Whew.

Black sesame tangyuan - it oooooozes out. Quite fun :D

Day 2

This day began with a trip to Lantau Island to visit Ngong Ping village and see the giant Buddha. KL had a voucher for the crystal cabin cable car, which had a clear floor so you could envision your potential doom. Along the way, KL's selfie stick mysteriously broke. A very sad day, since we both agreed the selfie stick was better at taking selfies than we were. RIP selfie stick.

When we climbed up a few stairs to see the giant Buddha, we had to wait a while to take photos at a scenic location because there was an emotional crying couple that began making out.

We then went to the fishing village of Tai O, where there was another unfortunate KL vs. Mandarin episode. She attempted to ask a lady a question about egg waffles, but ended up scaring the lady because she thought KL was attacking her. The lady then gave a lengthy response in Mandarin, which was useless to KL.

On the way back from Lantau, everyone in our cable car spoke a different language: Catalon, German, and Tagalog. Very cool :D

Duck skewers and cheese filled fish balls. !!!

Day 3

First stop of the day: went with KL to a temple in the Wong Tai Sin area. The moment we exited the MTR station, KL got chased/followed by a man who tried selling her incense sticks. In the short walk to the temple, I managed to get burned by an incense stick, which made a small hole in my dress sleeve. Before KL left me temporarily to do her temple activities, she informed me that she would make an exceptionally conscious effort to not burn anyone like she did in Seoul. Too bad a man ran into her 5 seconds before she was done. So close, so close...

After the temple, we went to the Nan Lian Garden. Pretty scenic area, but we were craving dim sum by then and didn't want to go to the nearby Chi Lin nunnery anymore. Except we realized we had unknowingly stumbled upon it, thinking it was still part of the park. Hooray!

More juxtaposition. Very important. 

Next: RANDOM SHOPPING! Loved all the spontaneous breaks we took to visit stores and Uniqlos at MTR stations. For those of you who are familiar with iCarly, think of "RANDOM DANCING!"

After a bit of RANDOM SHOPPING, we went to the famous Tim Ho Wan for dim sum in Central. Pork buns: legit. Everything else: meh. KL observed that the two Korean couples sitting to our left and right were on the same travel website, trying to figure out what to order.

In the subway station, KL tried a yogurt sample from M&S. 

Me: "What's that?"

KL: "Mango and... emotional fruit? Oh, passion fruit!" 

We decided to supplement our day of shopping with more shopping at Causeway Bay. KL mysteriously disappeared for 5 minutes because a soap sales lady put soap on her hand when she wasn't paying attention and pulled her into the store. At night, I was really craving an egg waffle and KL really wanted something light. Imagine our joy when we walked around Mong Kok and found an egg waffle place right next to a sushi take out place! Thanks, Mong Kok. You're awesome.

Day 4

We visited Cheung Chau island in search of some seafood and mango mochi. While we were looking for mango mochi, we stopped in the relatively empty road to quickly check our maps but got yelled at by a scary angry old lady who was walking very slowly in our direction with an umbrella. I couldn't understand anything so I had no idea why she was yelling at us until KL translated for me: "Get out of the way! Do you think you own the road?!"

5 minutes later KL and I found the path we were supposed to go on and saw that the scary lady was still walking... and had only moved about 10 feet from where we last saw her.

Mango mochi = DELICIOUS. And I ate fruit. Double win. 

For lunch, we decided to try out a local seafood restaurant. KL was insistent that she would not eat at a place where waiters would come out and insist on having you eat there.  

KL: "I'm not gonna get trapped, I'm not gonna get trapped."  

We ended up eating at the first place that ambushed us with menus. Good job KL.

Mantis shrimp. So weird looking. 

Cheung Chau day continued with some healthy hiking around the island. We went along the beach in search of the mini great wall and KL encountered a "gross scary moving flat thing!!!!" It was a butterfly.

On the way back, there was a huge crowd and mad rush to enter the ferry, but when we got on... we didn't know where everyone went. Such is the case of the mysteriously disappearing Asians (though we're pretty sure they went to the top level). Since KL and I were conversing in English, a teenage couple behind us thought it was safe to start complaining and hating on everything and everyone on the ferry. Concerning me: "Oh my gosh, why is her camera SO big? Why doesn't she just use the camera on her phone?" (You have to read that like "Becky, look at her butt. It is so big."). Haters gonna hate.

Too much anxiety trying to count money for this meal. 

At night, we FINALLY got to go to Victoria Peak, which is something KL wanted to do since day 1. I was amazed at how steep the tram ride was, and also amazed that the tram has been around for over 100 years. On the ride back, I got to stand facing down, which was kind of like a fun (and chill) roller coaster experience.

Day 5

Best dim sum ever at a place called One Dim Sum in Prince Edward. No pictures because we were too busy inhaling it. They also called their chicken feet, "chicken paws."

KL abandoned me after lunch to fly home, so I spent the rest of the day around Kowloon Park, walked down Shanghai Street in a failed search for an affordable egg waffle mold (I know, I have a problem), and enjoyed some tomato soup udon that the boyfriend has been telling me to eat for months. 

On the flight home, I sat next Also to the politest Japanese kid ever :3