Culture Shock!

Like I said before, there's an Indian restaurant in Sham Tseng:

Hopefully some readers will be able to tell me how [in]authentic this stuff is.

The soup tasted vaguely like curry powder.

Some tandoori chicken.  Apparently they actually flew in an oven from India.

Beef brisket curry.  I don't even have to ask, only Malaysians and Chinese eat this.

Chicken curry.  No other description.

Cabbage stir-fried with garlic, really?

Naan from that oven.

A house mix of lime, sugar, and soda water.

 \
Mango and some South Asian yogurt of some kind.

Later, I headed out with friends to the Golden Computer Shopping Arcade in Sham Shui Po.

Then we went to the Chungking Mansions (重慶大廈).  And walked around for a bit.  And I felt like I was back in Toronto.  The brown parts of Toronto.  Remember this place, F-1'ers?

We had an afternoon snack of "cart noodles" (車仔麵), named for the street carts on which they were originally sold.  The dish consists of various toppings of your choosing on a bed of noodles of your choosing in a soup of your choosing.  I got the beef brisket, daikon radish, and chicken wingtips on thick rice noodles (there was only one soup).

We walked around until we got to Temple Street (廟街):

A relatively quiet side street by day, Temple Street is one of Hong Kong's busiests nighttime street markets.

It is divided into two by the namesake temple.  Guess to which god[dess]?

Yep, it's another Tin Hau temple.  This particular one dates from 1800.  It and the park around it are a bit of calm in the middle of the bustling market.

Dinner was at this corner establishment.

Mido Café (美都餐室) is one of the oldest cha chaan tengs in the city.  Founded in 1950, only a few years after the Japanese had surrendered and only one after the founding of the People's Republic on the mainland, this place has been used over the years by photographers and film directors many times over for its distinctive nostalgic feel.

We started with a chicken, fish, and bok choy soup:

and continued with their braised eggplant (魚香茄子) with chicken (雞絲):

 And their signature dishes, baked spareribs on rice (焗排骨飯):

 And baked pork chops on rice (焗豬扒飯):

These dishes are made from deep-fried meats over a bed of eggy fried rice, topped with a "tomato" sauce and baked for a few minutes.  While other restaurants do make tastier, more "real"-tasting versions, this version is, like everything else in the building, nostalgic.  It comes from a time without the riches of today's Hong Kong, and so the dish is simple: there are no tomatoes in the sauce, just a bit of tomato paste, lots of cornstarch, and some MSG.

The obligatory vegetable of the meal:

And their other specialty, red bean and lotus seed ice (紅豆蓮子冰):

I think the cash register is original...