Sai Kung - seafood or should it be seefood?

March 11 – Sunday, no work. John was looking at a tour book & suggested we take a trip to Sai Kung. This is a seaside town in The New Territories (which is the large part of Hong Kong that is beyond Kowloon & closer to Mainland China). Sai Kung is well known for it’s seafood restaurants and fish markets. Neither of us had been out there yet, so even though it was a gloomy day we headed out.

We had to take the MTR fairly far out. Then we could take a bus, but we were having trouble figuring out which one to take & John asked a taxi driver how much to take us & it was only about $12US, so we opted for the taxi. As it turns out Sai Kung is up & over some fairly sizable hills. It was a nice ride, but would have been better on a clear day. It started to rain fairly hard during our ride over. By the time we got there the rain had stopped, someone was watching out for us.

We were dropped by the waterfront and joined lots of other people out for a Sunday adventure in the country. This was a fairly large town & had lots of apartments & shops & restaurants. Many people were lined up along the waterfront looking over the edge. We discovered that they were shopping. The waterfront is a cement walking area that is about 10 feet above the water in the harbor. All along the wall of the waterfront were small boats (7 to 10 feet open skiffs) filled with pans of live fish of every kind. The people on the walkway would tell the guy in the boat which fish they wanted. After some discussion, I’m sure about price, the man took the fish out of the pan & handed it to an old woman sitting in front of a large wooden board. The woman took out at huge butcher knife & chopped off the fishes head & tail. They she proceeded to clean the fish & wrap it in plastic. Some people bought the whole fish. The salesman then put the fish in a plastic bag & placed it in a net that is at the end of a long pole (15 feet maybe). He sends the purchase up to the top & the buyer takes it. The buyer then puts the money in the net & the man brings it down & then puts the change in the net & sends it up to the buyer. It was fascinating to watch this procedure going on all along the waterfront. There must have been about 50 boats lined up along the wall all selling in this manner.

We walked along the waterfront which was lined with seafood restaurants. Each one had tanks of fish for the customers to buy from. You could buy & take home or buy & tell them how to cook it & eat it there. There were more fish than I think I saw at the aquarium. It really was an amazing sight. Some of the fish were huge & I’ve never seen such large lobsters in my life (and I’ve lived in Maine).

We wandered away from the waterfront along the narrow winding streets of the town. There were shops of all types tucked away down dark narrow alleyways. I think the busiest establishments were the hair salons. I guess since Sunday is the only day most people get off, it would make sense that this is when they’d have time to get their hair done. People here take getting their hair done very seriously. Most places give you a nice long head massage when they do the washing. Also, it seems like everyone gets their hair colored here. The old people get it colored black so the gray doesn’t show, now we know why it is so hard to tell the age of an Asian person. And the younger people get their black hair colored or tinted all sorts of colors. Bright red seems to be popular as does purple and orange. These are usually streaks & sometimes just 2 or 3 large streaks in the front. It’s interesting.

We found our way back to the waterfront & got talked into taking a sampan (small boat) ride around the harbor. The woman didn’t speak any English, but she knew how to communicate. She showed us her watch & took her hand around the face one circle – meant a 1 hour ride. She held up fingers to tell us how much. It seemed fair, so we went and anyway it was beginning to rain again. The boat was covered. She set us up with little benches so we could sit in the front for the good view. The boat didn’t go very fast, but it was a nice ride & we got a good view of the outlaying islands and harbor. The engine was sort of loud, so we had her cut the trip short as we were both getting a headache from it. She insisted that I sit in the driver’s seat so that John could get a photo of me driving. She talked to us about where we were going & what we were seeing, but it was in Chinese, so we just smiled & nodded like we understood her. I did get out my map & she pointed to the places we passed. It was fun & she was really sweet (I’m sure it is because she probably way over charged us & she felt guilty, I think you are supposed to bargain with them, but we usually don’t).

Back on the waterfront we decided to have dinner. Most restaurants have someone out front trying to convince you to come in & eat there. We got sucked in to one of the larger places. We went to the tanks to pick out our meal. We had no clue what kinds of fish we were seeing, so we took the easy way out & got some prawns (they were about a foot long) & fresh scallops, still in the shell & spitting. They take the fish out & put it in plastic bags & weigh what you get with this antiquated measuring system with a large hook & some tape on a stick. I guess it is accurate, we didn’t double check them. Then someone comes over & asks how you would like your food cooked. Then you wait. It took about 30 minutes, but it was well worth it. The scallops were served in the shell & were mixed with garlic & thin rice noodles. They were delicious. The prawns were grilled in garlic & white wine & again, delicious. We had rice & some veggie. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were stuffed. It was most delightful.
We headed home on the bus. It took a bit longer, but being on the upper level you get a good view of everything. We had no trouble getting back to the MTR & home. The only negative part of the day was all the garlic. It tasted great on the way down, but not so good for many hours later & all through the night as we still tasted it. I like garlic, but I have my limit as to how long I enjoy tasting it. I guess that is the price you pay for rich eating!