Halloween Camp-Out at Tin-Ka Yunnan Restaurant

Oh, Halloween.  We have it in Hong Kong too.  First, let me say that, to me, the most fun part about Halloween night in America is giving out candy to all the kids (under age 12 only, I don't give candy to teenagers and pregnant women who say it's "for the baby").  I'm not a huge fan of all the wild parties where women are half-expected to dress up as either a sexy-nurse, sexy-cop, or just sexy-whatever.  On top of that, I've never really been one for costumes (especially on me); in fact they kind of creep me out--always have.  It's not like I can or want to eat all that candy either.  Therefore, Halloween is not, nor ever has been, my favorite holiday.  I haven't dressed up for it in who knows how many years, and I'm rather indifferent to it's existence.  I do, however, love the color orange (sorry, USC!), pumpkins, black cats, and all the other spooky Halloween decorations.  So, yeah, I love all the supernatural stuff and I definitely enjoy a good scare, but I'd rather get that scare from watching an eerie suspense movie than from watching people dressed like Frankenfurter trying to dance drunk to "Sweet Transvestite."  Sadly, Halloween in Hong Kong is a lot more about partying in Lan Kwai Fong than about kids ringing doorbells looking for candy.  So, now that I've confused everyone with my convoluted take on Halloween, you're probably not surprised to hear that I spent it in a very un-Halloween-like way.

How un-Halloween-like, you may ask?  Try going to a birthday party.  Actually, it was a birthday party for 2 friends who, ironically, both had their birthdays a few weeks ago.  We were all so busy with mid-terms that we just put off the celebration, and the night of October 31st happened to be when everyone was available...and, yes, we made it a ladies' night out.  Our destination?  Everyone's favorite restaurant in Shatin:  Tin-Ka Yunnan!  "Y'all wanna go to Tin-Ka?" is starting to sound a lot like "Y'all wanna go to the Rooster?"

Here are some of the folks (from left to right):  Eleanor, Jennie, and Teresita.

Yoana pondering just how spicy the spicy tofu will be:

Birthday girls!  Ellie and Su posing together.  In retrospect we really had a multi-cultural group going on at this restaurant:  Scottish, Swedish, American, Mexican, Chinese, and Cantonese.  Good thing everyone speaks English.

I took lots of pictures when the food came out just because it looked delicious.  It seems that lately a lot of my pictures have been of food.  I didn't realize it until recently, but I guess most of the fun events I've been to lately have occurred over dinner.  Weird.  I'll have to steal more people-pictures as they appear on Facebook.

Anyway, pork and tofu hot pot:

Cold eggplant in sweet soy sauce (my favorite):

(Super) spicy tofu:

Spicy fish:

Tomato and onion fish:

There were 10 of us all together, and I think just about everyone had a good time.  I certainly hope so because we were at the restaurant a grand total of 4 hours!  Hence the inclusion of "Camp-Out" in the title of the post.

Towards the end, though, things got a little more like a legit birthday party.  Ellie and Su produced this cake from Mei Xin Bakery.  Behold!  This is what almost every cake looks like in China and Hong Kong.  Plain yellow cake with cool-whip-esque icing, and piled high with fruit.  It tastes rather mediocre to be honest, but it's the thought that counts.

We sang "Happy Birthday" in English...then Putonghua, Cantonese, Spanish, and French.  By then I think we were getting both tired and a little silly, especially when we found out that Eleanor has an obsessive and unhealthy love of all things cake.  She ate 3 pieces.

At any rate, here's wishing everyone a belated Happy Halloween, and belated Happy Birthdays to Su and Ellie!  Being late is just the Hong Kong way, I suppose.  And with the end of Halloween also comes the beginning of the Christmas season (no Thanksgiving here, though the IBCE Americans are already making plans for a group celebration), and here's a spoiler:  Christmas is my favorite holiday.

In other news, this is probably my last post before my trip to Thailand.  I'm leaving this Friday Nov. 5th and returning Monday Nov. 8th.  I'm spending 2 nights in Pattaya and 1 in Bangkok with Alice, Irysh, and Su.  We WILL be careful, I promise.  Very careful.  Even paranoid, perhaps.  Get ready for a monster-sized post when I get back, though, because I'm sure there will be a lot to say and a lot (for y'all) to see.