On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 09:58:58 -0500, Reef Fish
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>(snip)
>
>
>>> Don't think you would go to a restaurant whose menu is the aquarium
>>> containing the fishes and crusteans to be picked out to be cooked for
>>> the dinner table.  :-)   That's where we'll be this evening -- a
>>> restaurant picked by my brother and mother for me to take them to
>>> dinner.  I might turn cannibal tonight!  :)

>>Aberdeen, and its Floating Restaurants, wasn't a tourist attraction
>>then, it was a place that you went to for good food.
>
>Aberdeen's Floating Restaurants were the OLD favorites for the
>fish & cook & eat routine, but they had no AQUARIUMS to hold all
>the fishes that are on the menu.
>
>It was an INTERESTING experience ... too tarred to tell now.  :-)

I should have added that the Aberdeen water may be so polluted that
fish swimming there may have toxic pollutants worse than cyanide.
>
>There was even a Scorpion (Stonefihs) on the menu -- I didn't
>realize people eat that critter.
>
>Till next time ...

Here's next time.  Where we went was a section in Kowloon (I went
through one of the tunnels and saw what it was like for the first time,
not counting the tunnel the train went from the Lantau airport to HK
on which I could see nothing of that tunnel) called Lei Yu Moon
(Robert Delfs may give correct spelling or describe it).

The restaurant's menu was literally an AQUARIUM, consisting of more
than a dozen holding tanks, separating the salt water fish from the
fresh water fish, the crabs from the lobsters and shrimps, and mullusks
from clams, etc., etc.

In the GROUPER tank, there were actually two Nassau Groupoers! Apparently
they important their fish from quite a wide region in Asia.  My brother
picked out what looked like a Tiger Grouper (not knowing that I AM
a Nassau Grouper <G>), so I had no reason to protest.  After all that
made me only a semi-cannibal.  Besides, in the Kingdom of Fish, the
only RULE is "eat or be eaten".

There were quite a few other exotic critters I had NEVER seen before,
even in REAL Aquariums all over the world.  One had clams that are
shaped like a long cigar, 6-8" long.  Another one was a clam who
outgrew its shell by a factor of at least 10!!  That is, the "meat"
of that critter was a BIG cylindrical tube that sticks out of a clam,
but if you consider how much that clam shell could possibly hold when
shut, it would not hold 1/10, nay, 1/20, of the volume of those
meaty critters -- no, we didn't order any of them.

I actually enjoyed these Aquariums (each restaurant had its own :-)
more than I did the meal from which the critters came.  :-))

This is how it works:

You (my brother) points to any item in any of the tanks and tell the
"tender"? how many to fish out.  He would put them in a plastic bag and
weighs it.  That's the LAST thing I know of THAT order.  There was no
menu on HOW you want it cooked (unless specially specified I guess) --
the restaurant cooks it the way IT likes it, and you eat what's served
at the table!

In that sense, the aquarium tanks WERE the actual menu.  Between the
order of each dish, there was minor haggling of prices as well as dumping
something back into the holding tanks such as after weighing a couple
of medium-sized crabs and found the cost to be too high.  We passed
up the lobsters which apparently are much more expensive in Hong Kong
than in the USA (or elsewhere for that matter).  The tender picked up
ONE lobster that I would consider "tiny" (on a cruise, I could easily
eat two or three tails of that size without depriving much room in the
stomach for other goodies), and estimated that it would cost about
HK$400 (about $53 USD at the current exchange).  But the abalones
were clearly much less than what they cost in the US or elsewhere.
They were about HK$50 each, and each of us had one, which had very
little taste (unlike the ones that are cooked for HOURS with the
tastes of sauces cooked in, as in "hung shiu" style), and it has a
texture best described as a piece of rubber worthy of a Michelin
tire rated to hold up 130 mph.

So, we had a steamed grouper, steamed abalone, steamed jumbo prawns
(come to think of it, all the seafood dishes were STEAMED or just
boiled), and sliced squids (which I thought looked more like small
cuttlefish because of the brown markings -- whereas I had always seen
the squid UW to be nearly colorless and transparent).  These were
supplemented with some non-fished-out side dishes, including a
plate of "thousand-year-old eggs" served with ginger.  :-)

All in all, it was an INTERESTING but non-tasty dinner.

But how else could one say, "Been thar.  Done dat."?


>>Today, of course, there's always the risk that - in your case - turning
>>"cannibal" <bwg> means dealing with traces of cyanide from the groupers
>>brought in from, say, Indonesian waters!

I mentioned that to my brother, and he said if you have to worry about
things like THAT, then you would starve to death in Hong Kong, because
almost everything you eat (chicken, pork, beef, etc.) had some kind
of associated, possibly-deadly, THING.  :-)  It was assuring to hear
him say that the cynide would not be enough to kill anyone -- it can
only make you sick.  :-))

I am glad to report that I am alive and well after the adventure.


>>Nevertheless, I'd love to visit
>>there again with you one day and compare notes about our respective
>>youths' - it'd be fun - and who knows, I might even persuade you to
>>get at tattoo!  :-)))

Ah yes.  I have had various "stick on" tattoos that last from a few
days to a week, but for the REAL permanent ones, I can't say "Been
thar.  Done dat." YET, and I suspect I never will.  My body is too
muscular, with Viking-god-like physique and proportion, to be
spoiled by ... graffiti!  :-))   And it would be very difficult to
get me DRUNK, before those things are USUALLY imprinted on ones
body -- at least that's what I heard.  :)


>>Have a good time, Mate.  :-)
>>
>>Strike

Same to y'all!  Will have to suffer here for another couple more
days.  :-)

EPN