One of the densest stretches of the photo archive is September 2013, spent largely in Hong Kong. Read in order, the twelve posts form something closer to a travel diary than a list of restaurant reviews. What follows sticks to what the captions and pictures actually record.
The month opens on September 2 at Din Tai Fung. The caption calls it the end of a super long day, and the table shows why the order made sense: soup dumplings, noodle soup, fried rice and a few small sides. Ten days later, on September 12, the same pairing — xiaolongbao and lamian — turns up again at Crystal Jade, this time with a much redder noodle broth. When a traveler orders the same two things at two different places in the same month, that is a craving, not a coincidence.
September 5 was a two-post day. One frame is a baked, cheese-topped seafood pasta set at Euro Go Go, with a side salad and soup — Hong Kong café comfort more than Italian restraint. The other is a night at Champs Bar in Wan Chai: baby-back ribs, chicken wings and a stand-up comedy show, which the caption sums up as an awesome night.
Beer runs through the middle of the month. On September 8 at Hong Kong Brewhouse in Lan Kwai Fong, Roger declared himself a sucker for dark beer and peanuts, and the photo backs that up with a basket of peanuts among the bottles. On September 15 it was a few craft brews at Inn Side Out with a friend, and on September 20 live jazz and beers at Ned Kelly’s in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The sweet stops are just as specific. September 15 also brought a macaron run at Paul Lafayet in Harbour City, with a caption joking that Ladurée had competition. On September 25, at Tai Po Market, the post is a single bowl of tofu pudding — 豆腐花 — described as super fresh.
Late nights got their due too. The Tsui Wah post, dated September 17, covers fried rice with a satay skewer, a fish-ball soup and a sizzling steak with fries: the full cha chaan teng range. And on the evening of September 25 the month hit its highest point, literally, with drinks at Ozone on the 118th floor of the Ritz-Carlton, where the photos are mostly city lights and friends.
The last frame leaves Hong Kong entirely. On September 26, in Phnom Penh, lunch was a table of Khmer dishes at a spot recommended by the group’s driver — curry, fried rice, grilled plates and a fresh coconut. It is a fitting close: the best-documented meals of the month tend to be the ones someone local pointed toward.
None of this is a current guide to Hong Kong. Thirteen years is a long time for any restaurant or bar, and these posts cannot say what is open, what has moved or what the menus look like now. Treat it as a dated record of how one San Diego eater spent a month abroad — and a preview of the Travel Eats section to come.
The frames in this story
