Chowmeet at Hong Zhou (no, not Hangzhou in China)

Cold starters (left-right, top to bottom): blanched pig's kidney; drunken quail; soy (etc.) marinated duck; "chinagreen"; Hangzhou-style 'vegetarian goose'; marinated jellyfish and cucumber; lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice with a honey glaze; tossed black fungus

Pre-Twitter (and sort of pre-Facebook), I stalked foodies on the foodie forum Chowhound, especially on the Hong Kong/China board. Of late, Twitter has stolen more and more of my time, but I was fortunate enough to make some foodie buds back on Chow. Some live in Hong Kong, while others are frequent travellers, and once a year, they'd meet here for some good, er, chow. These meetings were dubbed Chowmeets, and even though I was invited to one last year, I couldn't make it (darned flu), so I have my immune system as well as the gracious organiser to thank for this year's meetup.