Heyo guys, JL here! Just touching base with all of you for a March roundup. Apologies for the radio silence over the past month; interaction was a bit sparse on my end. The reason? I ventured off to China to spend the Lunar New Year with my family. But now, I'm back and will be hanging around in the comment section again. No lie, I really did miss you guys! 

I also need to clear the air on something: as much as I'd love to claim responsibility for the top-notch memes that popped up in my absence, the real MVP behind those gems is my new proofreader, DoomChicken! Judging by his knack for selecting the perfect gifs and image captions, it's clear he's well cultured in the ways of the weeb, much more than me. I want to extend a massive shoutout to him for not only keeping the chapter flow steady while I was away but also for infusing our space with some quality humor. DoomChicken isn't new to the scene; he's actually one of the OG editors of the scene, having worked on Against the Gods back in the day with Alyschu, and someone whose judgment I trust implicitly. So, let's all give him a hearty welcome!

As for my trip? It was filled with lots of eating and quality time with family. So, I can't complain… about the latter that is. Foodwise, I don't think authentic Chinese dishes really suit me. Too much bones, cartilage, and parts of the animal I normally don't eat. I think I lost about 10 lbs over the course of the month I was there. To give you an example of the dishes I was sampling…

Yup. That is real turtle in the front. I didn't eat much of it, but it really didn't taste much of anything except for collagen and the spice it was marinated in. Most of the dishes I had were like this, either drowning in spice, or full of annoying bones I had to pick out. So, you can imagine why I didn't have much of an appetite.

Apart from that, I spent a week in Hong Kong visiting an old classmate studying there. It was a really nice city, filled with a lot of good food and things to do and see. I would definitely recommend it as a tourist destination over the mainland for English speaking foreigners. Every street corner is filled with stalls selling interesting knick-knacks or local specialties. The city's architecture and culture is also a unique blend of Asian and British colonial influence. And if you're a foodie like me, you can spend as cheaply or as expensively as you'd like. You can get a decently sized rice bowl with roast duck and BBQ pork for as cheap as $3, or you can spend upwards of $40 at a fancy sushi place. There's also 7-11s, KFCs, McDonald's and Starbucks everywhere, if you just want to stick to what you know. And for those curious, yeah I do think the KFCs and McDonald's in Asia are better than in the West. It's a noticeable difference! 

$3 Roast Duck & Pork With Rice

$40 Tonkatsu 😨

Literally every street corner in HK.

Biggest surprise was that McDonald's sold fried chicken in Hong Kong!

Sorry, I ended up turning the post into a mini-food blog! All in all, I enjoyed my trip, and I'm glad to be back! 

PS. Thank you to Jaspaaar and Grace again for treating me to lunch. ❤️ I wasn't expecting the surprise meet-up last minute, but I'm glad I got to see you guys again. The souvenirs you got me are lovely, and I'm already using the teacup!