{"id":3931,"date":"2010-03-16T02:57:48","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T09:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zariat.com\/home\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2012-10-25T04:16:52","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T11:16:52","slug":"coca-cola-congee-and-century-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zariat.com\/home\/2010\/03\/16\/coca-cola-congee-and-century-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"Coca-Cola, Congee, and Century Eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two fall-back activities on which every tourist can depend, no matter where they go, or for how long they stay: eating and shopping. In Hong Kong, one can experience a diverse and overwhelming abundance of both, at seemingly any hour of the day or night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I had only a few hours on this trip to wander the streets of Kowloon, soaking in the oily aroma of deep-fried mystery foods and the fog-filtered glow of neon. I drank Coca-Cola from a bottle on the street and ate\u00a0watery rice porridge<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0an egg that smelled rotten (but wasn’t)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My shopping was limited (by both time and budget) to browsing the giant billboards and perusing odd vending machines. I almost regret not buying a little Feng Shui trinket (advertised in English), or perhaps a pencil eraser in the shape of a tiny food item (advertised in Japanese), but really – what does anybody do with those things after buying them, anyway?\n\t\t\t