So, I would think filet-o-fish has got to be the favorite item in Hong Kong, or else it wouldn’t make sense to have it available all day long right?

Yet I really wonder if people why people would loveeee this burger so much?

Being such a fat-phobic city, I believe people probably like it for it seems to be the healthier option on the menu (HK people have a strong belief that fish is the healthier option to red meat so eating it is less “fattening”).

So now I wonder, if McDonald’s in Hong Kong were ever to put up the poster that list out the Nutritional Information of the different menu items, and people actually starts to pay attention to the numbers, would filet-o-fish still be the bestseller?

Looking at the menu seems like such a normal, typical thing that anyone would do, but it’s kind of surprising to see what it can reveal about a particular place and the people of that place once you give it some thought!

And one more cool fact about McDonald’s here — they have a delivery service! My first reaction was “Wow! that’s totally bizarre!”. On second thought, it makes sense actually. Most people in Hong Kong do not drive and rely on public transit so the idea of Drive-Thru would be ridiculously useless here and instead having a delivery service would be much more convenient for HK.

I was quickly proven wrong.

It seems like the younger generation in HK are very privileged. They are well-fed by their parents, often getting whatever they want, whenever they want. Also, instead of going outside to play with friends and engage in physical activities, they now spend hours in front of the TV or the computer.

End result? Young children develop poor eating habits and may lead to weight gain. In the long run, they may become overweight and/or obese, which puts them at increased risk of developing a lot of other lifelong health issues.

The newspaper clipping that I clipped out is a prime example of the impact of modernization & westernization of HK. The key take-away message is that an 8 year old girl is diagnosed with Type II Diabetes because of her habits: eating too much and too lazy to move (to the point in which she asks her mom to go out to buy things for her).

Although this may seen like an extreme case, but it is a strong illustration the impact of the obesity epidemic hitting HK at full force.

From the looks of things, I believe dietitians will gain greater importance in the health care system since Diabetes has become such a major concern and diet control, which is of course a dietitian’s specialty, will be emphasized as a key part of Diabetes care.

This is not an exaggeration when I state that people in HK may dine out more times than they eat at home. Making dinner at home is more of a leisure activity to do on their day off rather than a part of their daily routines.

Although that would be an inaccurate generalization for all of the HK population, it would be fair to say the middle working class population would fit that statement.After careful observation, I am summarized 3 reasons on why people in HK dine out so often that it just feels natural for them to go out and eat rather than cook food at home.

• Eating out is cheap and fast. There are fierce comeptition between restaurants in HK so they all try to attract customers by offering good prices. Price wars has really driven the cost of eating out down to the point in which people may think it is a better deal to eat out than to cook at home. In addition, restaurants serve food at a very fast pace; it is possible to be in and out of a diner within 15-20 minutes (you site down, order, food comes right away, you gobble it down, and pay at the front cashier). Although 15 minutes is not enough to truly savor a meal, to people who are rushing from place to place, the fast-food-restaurant-style quick pace suits them perfectly since they just need to get food into their stomach and fuel them until the next meal.
• Cooking in the summer months is like putting yourself into a hot furnace. Kitchens are typically equipped with gas stoves and when they are turned on at full blast, the room gets really warm. Combined that with the average temperature of over 30C in Hong Kong, along with thick humid air in a small confined space, sweating starts immediately and continue until you finish cooking and tun off the stove. Under these conditions, who would find cooking enjoyable? Cooking literally becomes a battle against the heat and you will constantly think: how long can you last before you surrender and choose to sit comfortably in a air-conditioned restaurant, lazily flipping through the menu to see what you want and have it beautifully served to you without needing to do all the hard work and suffer the heat and sweating.
• Awkward timing. In HK, work typically begins at 9 and ends at 5, although people often work beyond that time and get off at around 7 or 8. They dedicate the majority of their day to work, spending a lot of time in the office or traveling to go to yet another meeting, conference, or networking event etc. Thus, at the end of the day, with such little precious free time left, they just want to treat themselves to a nice meal outside, freeing themselves from the need to worry about buying groceries, cooking food and the cleaning up that follows.

These are just some of the factors that interfere with people’s desire and willingness to eat at home and have contributed to developing the habit of constantly eating out and accepting that as the norm.

I’m fortunate to know a little bit about cooking and enjoy doing so back in Vancouver, or else I think I may have already converted to being one who depends on outside food!

My tricks to combating the obstacles that prevent people from eating more often at home:

• Yes, eating out is indeed cheap and fast, but sometimes the quality can really suffer. Restaurants will alter their ingredients to cut costs and that may mean you end up feeding yourself with lesser-grade food. I believe in treating my body well so I try to be picky about where and what to eat and keeping that thought in mind has really helped me to control how often I eat out (don’t always find restaurants that satisfy my pickiness, thus eat out less), what to order and how much to eat; plus it helps to strengthens the thought that homemade food is good for the body and encourages me to keep cooking.
• I got an induction element to replace my gas stove. That simple change has dramatically reduced the stuffiness and the raise in temperature in the kitchen while I cook is less evident, which makes cooking hot food much more enjoyable. So now instead of making salads as my top choice, I can make more interesting food now that turning on the element is no longer a sweating marathon.
• Plan ahead is the key when I know I have a long day. Justing thinking about when I will get time to eat and possibly preparing snacks to bring with me has made me much less likely to just rush into a restaurant when I get hungry since I know I have food and that I can eat it anytime I need to.

Vancouver and Hong Kong have very different approach to food. So far the attitude toward eating out is the difference that has shocked me the most, but I’m sure I’ll discover more during my stay!

Have you ever experienced the need to eat out more than you eat at home? How did you overcome those barriers? Share your tips with me!

Yes, quinoa is the new hot topic!

Honestly, I never dreamed of seeing the word “quinoa” in Hong Kong. The last time I heard, brown rice just gained acceptance among the general public and barely made it to their dinner table (and most often it is mixed in with white rice to make it taste better). So, I really thought HK people were not ready for anymore whole grain options/alternatives.

So, you can totally imagine how surprised I was to see a full page article featuring a quinoa food product!

Although the product is a dark chocolate bar with quinoa (probably not the smartest way to consume quinoa), but it is definitely a start that symbolize the demand for healthier food choices is gaining momentum and people have more awareness to take care of themselves.

I love the sound of that!

I read an article introducing the Farmer’s Market at Mei Foo, Kowloon a few days back before I flew to Hong Kong. I was so ecstatic when I found out and I made sure I copied down the information and kept it in a safe spot. (yes, I was that excited!)

Mei Foo Farm Fest opens every Sunday, so today I woke up, sped through breakfast and literally charged there! I wanted to be there early to get a good selection of everything.

The market itself was very small, nothing compared to the Steveston’s Farmer’s Market two blocks away from my home in Vancouver. But still, I spent a good hour just browsing through each stall and chit-chatting with the farmers about their produce.

All the stalls had beautiful produce and I had to remind myself to not overbuy because the weather was hot, sunny and humid and it would just be torture to hull a ton of produce and get home via public transportation.

Being the greedy foodie and veggie fanantic that I am, I still bought a lot! 2 guavas, 2+ pints of heirloom tomatoes, 1 long cucumber, 1 gigantic fuzzy melon, 1 eggplant, 2 ears of corn & 1 baby corn, 1 head of Romaine lettuce and 2 sweet potatoes. In total, I think I spent about $200 HKD, which is slightly less than $30 CAD.

After I got home, I couldn’t wait to dig in! I immediately made a veggie plate with the assorted tomatoes and cucumber with steamed corn on the side.

Such a simple lunch, yet so refreshing and tasty! The cucumber was juicy and crispy but the stars of the plate were clearly the tomatoes. They all had different characteristics, some were more meaty and tart, while others were so juicy and sweet. Each bite was a surprise and I loved every bite.

The corn on the side was simply peeled and steamed in the microwave with a wet paper towel wrapped around. Super easy preparation method that yields delicious sweet corn. This was a prime example showing that simple and plain can be tasty and delicious.

As for the rest of the produce, I cleaned them and put them into the fridge. Now I have plenty of veggies to enjoy until the next Farm Fest!

P.S. I’m posting blog posts via a very poor internet connection so I cannot guarantee they will be posted on time, but I will try my best. In addition, the format of the posts may not look as good since I don’t have access to a full computer so I’m doing the best I can with what I’m given. Bear with me, okay?

Heck, the last time I would consider a run of any meaning would be the annual Terry Fox Run way back in primary school. And ever since then, I’ve been avoiding running like it was the plague. Even when I’m in the gym doing cardio, I sped walk on the treadmill on a high incline or used the elliptical machine, never truly ran on the machine designed for running.

So, registering myself and actually completing the Sun Run is a big deal for me. The reason why I wanted to do this was because of 2 main reasons:

1. I felt the need to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself.
2. I got bored from my usual exercise routines and I was getting a little too lazy sitting around so I thought this would be the perfect jolt to get me moving more again.

Honestly before I really went online and registered myself and made it official that I was doing the Sun Run, I had a few doubts about myself, and tried to talk myself out of it by making up lame exercises. Only until I started to tell my friends and family was I able to really commit to training, running 3 times a week, and actually being envisioning myself finishing the Sun Run.

And 13 weeks later, I am proud to say, “I did it!”. From once believing that I could not run and now finishing 10K without going insanely out of breath, I feel amazing. It’s a really awesome feeling to know that I set a goal, took baby steps toward that goal and actually achieving that goal.

Just to have it on record for future Sun Run (yes, I think I’ll like to do it again!), here’s my result: 1h09m15s (6.:56 KM pace), rank 1181 out of the 18-24 female age group, overall ranking: 19065 (nearly 50k participants).

Lesson Learned: Nothing is impossible. There’s always a way to achieve what I want, as long as I stick to the goal, commit to making small steps toward it and I’ll achieve it. Believe in myself.

Photo by Mike Babcock

Portion control is basically monitoring the amount and types of food you eat, with the aim to maintain a healthy weight and support good health.

Though it sounds simple in nature, but exercising portion control in real life can be quite complex and confusing. It may seem like you can never get it “right”.

This is because there are no defined principles that you can follow to the letter. So sometimes it can feel like you’re exploring in the dark alone with no guidance at all.

But the truth is that there is no right or wrong approach to portion control. Everyone will have his /her own interpretation.

Here’s how I see portion control:

It is to share food with others and not hogging everything to myself.

It is to focus on the bite that I have in my mouth right now and not thinking about the next bite.

It is to appreciate food for its quality, not quantity.

It is to recognize that I don’t need to eat every last bit of food on my plate.

It is not eating food straight out of a bag.

It is not about eating as much as I can, but rather eating as much as I need to feel satisfied.

It is not meticulously limiting how much food I can have at one sitting, but rather listening to my body to see if I need more or less food to satisfy my hunger.

Ultimately, to me portion control is eating mindfully.

So now you tell me, what is portion control to you?

Photo by Oberazzi

Do you recall ever declaring that you wanted to eat better, eat healthier but somehow your actions never matched up with your goal?

You may think it was because you lacked willpower or determination or that there were obstacles that prevented you from achieving your goal.

But I would argue that those aren’t the real reasons.

I think the real reason behind why you couldn’t follow through with your commitment is because deep down you are not ready to change. You still cling onto the diet mentality and it continues to exert a negative impact on your relationship with food.

To wholeheartedly embrace healthy eating, it is important to recognize and shake off all the negative thoughts associated with this detrimental diet mentality.

You label foods as “good” or “bad”. When you classify food into two groups, you make food choices with your head, inevitably going to go for the “good” foods and avoiding the “bad” foods at all cost. But this is not sustainable; you become disconnected with your body’s true needs and desires. Thus, it is much more realistic to pay attention to your body and it will tell you what to eat and how much to eat.

You feel guilty when you eat certain foods. This goes hand-in-hand with the last damaging thought. Guilt arises when you eat “bad” foods, and this feeling can become so overwhelming to the point at which you no longer savour your food and the whole eating experience turns sour. But food is only food, it should never have the power to dictate your emotions.

The term “dieting” has a meaning to you. Dieting is the act of restricting food intake and/or food choices. But it is not a way to live. You can only deprive yourself for so long until your body fights back hard. Stop thinking about “dieting”, instead focus on improving your “diet”. Diet is completely different from dieting; it is about making smart choices and eating in moderation.

You read about the latest fad diet and think it may just work this time. Fad diets promise you amazing results as long you follow the plan religiously. But how can one plan guarantee results for everyone out there? Each person is different and there is no possible way that a one-size-fit-all approach will be suitable.

You are conscious of how others view your eating habits. When you constantly think about what others may say about what you eat, you cannot focus on enjoying your food. Especially if you think your food choice is one that others will consider as being “bad”, food guilt will kick in. But the truth is, no one knows your body better than you, so why spend the extra effort to care about what they think? It’s more worthwhile to listen to what your body thinks!

Making the commitment to treat yourself better and eat healthy can be a big step. It is especially difficult if these harmful beliefs still linger around in your head. But once you can identify them, they can no longer dominate your attitude toward food and you can then forever free yourself from the diet mentality and embrace healthy eating!

Here’s a great story that illustrates how a former diehard dieter changed her approach to food and therefore changed her whole life.

Have you ever been haunted by these thoughts?

Are there any other negative beliefs that you would add to the list?

I went a lot of places and had some really good food! I thought I’ll just post the highlights here and make you all jealous!

Dim Sum. Hong Kong literally has a dim sum restaurant at every corner of the streets (I’m serious!), so for most mornings that was my choice of breakfast. I love the idea of the Dim sum carts circulating around me and I get to pick whichever item that I fancy and enjoy the whole meal in a very slow, relaxed manner. Some of my favourite dishes include: Steamed Cane Sugar Sponge Cake, Steamed Spinach Dumpling, Steamed Beef Dumplings (Beef Siu Mai).

Japanese Izakaya & BBQ. Restaurants that serve small-sized portions and tapas are becoming so popular in HK these day. I went to quite a few myself – loved the food and especially loved them when paired with Asahi, a light and refreshing Japanese beer (really cheap in HK…so I drank quite liberally). Few of the highlights included: Minced Chicken (it was really unique because it had some chewy bites of cartilage in it), Roasted Eggplant & Unagi and Charred Hot Peppers (they were spicy!). 

Shanghai Cuisine. Deep fried pork served over steamed rice with veggies. Pair that with the addictive Hot and Sour Soup and I had the perfect meal. So satisfying.

More Shanghai Cuisine @ Din Tai Fung. This is a one-star Michelin restaurant, famous for their pork dumplings. It was indeed to-die-for. A delicate, thin wonton-style wrapper encasing tender and juicy pork. Mmm…so good! Also ordered two amazing appetizers: Spicy Pickled Cucumbers and Drunken Chicken.

Dessert Shops. These are an essential part of HK night life. Each store has their unique selection, some offer very Western desserts like custards, ice creams, mini cakes, but my preferences are for the shops that serve Asian style desserts. Some of the favourite ones are: Plain Silken Tofu Pudding (served in a traditional wooden container), Papaya sweet soup, Silken Tofu Pudding with Durian Paste, Sesame Sweet Soup with Ginger, and Japanese Mochi.

Finger foods. In HK, the streets are filled with mini shops that sell all sorts of finger foods! Plus, they are often very cheap so what usually happens is that I get tempted by the smell / looks of the food, get a little something, continue on my walk to my destination and then a while later, I will get distracted by another shop and purchase another little snack. Good thing these snacks are often not very big, or else I’m sure I’ll be very big by now…

I tried to take pictures as I go, but since I’m walking and eating at the same time, the photo qualities are not top-notch, unfortunately, but they do still capture the essence of these goodies! Normally I don’t take pictures of food with me in it but this one is different – just look at how BIG this piece of fried chicken was! It was literally as big as my face. It was also super good, crispy skin with juicy, tender meat. The generous shake of chili powder made the whole thing addictively delicious.

Some other great snacks I had: Roti Wrap with chicken sausage and melted cheese, Old-Fashion Baked Purple Sweet Potato, Chinese Pancake with Spicy Minced Pork

Hot Pot. On chilly winter nights, this is the type of meal that I craved. A boiling hot pot of aromatic soup with a wide selection of fresh ingredients, and a cold bottle of beer on the side made the whole meal complete.

Hong Kong was truly an amazing food experience. I loved LOVED every moment of it and I’m so glad I took pictures to help me remember all the deliciousness I had tasted.

Hope you enjoyed all these pictures. Are you jealous of me now?!

Have you been to Hong Kong? If so, did you like the food? If not, would you want to go now (after seeing all those mouth-watering photos)?

I had a blast in HK and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, especially about all the the amazing food! I took a LOT of pictures and I will most definitely post some of the highlights. Just need to spend some time sorting through them and pick out the best…more on that in a few days, I promise!

Hong Kong is truly a food lover’s heaven and it is very easy to overdo it on eating. So before I left for HK, I promised myself that I would eat healthily and take care of myself so that I can enjoy all the deliciousness put before me without having to constantly worry that my jeans would no longer fit me after the trip.

And I’m proud to say, I was successful — I treated myself to a wide variety of yummy food without eating to the point where I felt sluggish and gluttonous.

Here are the key tips that helped me to stay fit during this vacation.

1. Share with others. Food just seems way more tasty when I share my food with others. Plus, that often means that they will be willing to share their food with me. I’ll end up eating smaller portion of each item but getting to taste a greater variety.
2. Move around. When I’m on vacation, I like to do things that are not part of my normal routine. This often means that I’ll push aside the computer and other gadgets so I can engage in more fun and active activities. Doing so will inevitably help me boost my metabolism and burn more calories.
3. Aim for balance. I kept a food diary to help me track my food options. When I noted that I had a big meal or had a day full of sugar or fast foods, I’ll try to choose lighter options the next day to counteract the heaviness of the previous day. Basically I just tried to vary my meals, alternate between sweet and savory options and heavier and lighter meals.
4. Treat drinks as treats. In HK, almost all the meals came with complementary drink which is often loaded with sugar and cream. I always ask for the restaurant to switch it to plain water (because I would rather save up those calories on delicious alcoholic beverages during Happy Hour!).

What are your strategies for staying fit and healthy while on vacation?