Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market - Fresh off the Boat

Salt and pepper squid

This is from a while back - it was a pre-Chinese New Year gathering with friends old and new (mostly new*!) at the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market. It's has had a lot of buzz recently, as the media has suddenly "uncovered" a "hidden", "secret" eatery that is off-limits to the general public.

Xian Jin Seafood, swimmin' down a Taipei lane

Point and cook

I've been to Taipei many times, but always for ridiculously short trips. This is probably the most ridiculous of all - one measly day. This time, it was just a stop enroute back home from Hualien. Being only an hour away by plane, Taiwan does make a very good Hong Konger's weekend jaunt. That said, I always leave feeling I need to stay longer. Now that I've explored a fair bit of the countryside, I think it'd be pretty cool to retire here too... Anyway, that's another story for another day.

Shung Hing (Sheung Hing) - Chiuchow Chow

Not bugs! They're mini-clams

Chiuchow (or Chaozhou, or Teochew) is, geographically speaking, merely a city in eastern Guangdong province. Yet it has its own dialect (Teochew and Cantonese are generally not mutually intelligible) and own distinct cuisine*, specialising in seafood, and with a clear preference for the sour, spiced (but not spicy) and savoury, often all at once. This is awfully unscientific of me, but when I see/hear/taste lu shui (滷水), a braising broth/sauce of soy, star aniseed etc., or a more-than-usual amount of white pepper, I assume it's Teochew, or Teochew-influenced. And when you start a conversation about Chiuchow/Teochew food in Hong Kong, Sheung Hing in Sheung Wan will invariably come up.