One night in Hong Kong

Stopped in HK to pick up my mom. She will be coming back with me to spend a week in Seattle to see her granddaughter, the baby crumpet

We had a fabulous dinner at Emily Kwong's fusion restaurant in Kwoloon. Multiple course meals included peking duck, fried snapper, stone-cooked rice, vegetarian dumpling, pot stickers, cripsy rice soup and many others. The thing about Chinese food in HK is that they're not that different in selection from what you can get in the US (China is a different story). But somehow the same dish in HK tastes a 100 times better - more fresh, more crisp, more flavorful and more satisfying. I asked my mom if she wanted any Chinese food when in Seattle and she just made a face and went ''ew....''.

Joining us for dinner for various family members including my brother, counsins, aunties including one who invented the mysterious X.O. sauce in the 1970s. It is very fun to read articles on the X.O. sauce speculating its origin when the inventor is sitting right in front of me!

Thought - watching the news in HK as Hu Jin Tao, China's premiere visits Seattle & Washington and standing next to Bush you get a different perspective. You can't help but feel the shif in power. Big A & I laugh whenever we read journalist writing about the ''rise of China'' because clearly that reporter has never been to China. It has risen. It is already a massive capitalisc powerhouse on a degree the world has not seen since the industrial revolution. Just this morning a NPR story talked about how Hu's subsequent trip to Nigeria & Saudi Arabia ''proves'' China is ''becoming'' an important source for oil consumption. Ha ha ha ha ha ha...sorry, had to wipe tears of my eyes. There are cities in China that we have never heard of that has more high rise buildings, banks, theme parks, Wal-Mart & Starbucks then NY or London or Toronto. Who are we kidding....