where’s the wagyu?

I missed this, but apparently Hong Kong’s wagyu beef shortage is now over; the mad cow disease scare in Japan has passed and luscious beeeeeef is being shipped into the city again. And so out come the weird and wonderful mascots again, all dolled up and ready to roll!

Oh Hong Kong, how you amuse me. I embrace you and all your eccentricities – including, but not limited to, the crazy mascots out on the street like the wagyu-woman above; it sent me into fits of laughter when I spotted it from a hundred yards away while sitting in an upstairs cafe… even more so when it shifted position and revealed its face. So wrong on so many levels…

Totally inconspicuous.

I totally exhausted the zoom function on my compact digital to take this shot, but it’s worth it. I feel like some melancholy, swelling music should be playing in the background – something like Moby’s ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’. The wagyu-woman would feature in the video, standing defeated in the busy streets of Causeway Bay while stoic Hong Kongers, used to such frivolous marketing antics, pay no attention to it (all played in typical emo-MTV fashion with the crowds speeding around it in fast-forward while the morose steak stays still)…

Anyhow, ’twas only my first outing into the ‘city’ today (I say city as I live far far on the most eastern side of the island where nothing much goes on) and I spent it well, easing my stomach into fabulous Hong Kong food by visiting an easy favourite, RBT.

Karin approves of the grub. And, we get our favourite seats again – next to the windows, where we can peer out into the streets below and point out the (many) perpetrators of fashion faux pas that stoll by…

I have to admit the food isn’t fabulous here, but somehow places such as these just become part of a routine, just because it’s so familiar. The bubble teas aren’t bad, and it seems that they’ve introduced a new series of drinks while I was away. Some are good, like the matcha latte with tapioca pearls above ($20HKD), others should just plain stay away from one’s oesophagus – corn smoothie, anyone?! And as usual, we stick to the old favourites – a platter of “Taiwanese” snacks, which included marinated chicken wings, chicken kidneys, beef shank and a tea egg. It’s all a brown mess in the photo above, but it sure was tasty (if not extremely sodium-fied). All is well, though, it tells me that I’m finally home.

RBT
Shops 201-6 (2/F)
Causeway Place
Causeway Bay
2577 2633