Minimalist Restaurant Display in Shau Kei Wan

I moved to Shau Kei Wan to be closer to my mom–only 40 minutes away–and to see her more often. When I visit her now, I address her as 亞媽 or “Mom.” This seems to help her remember who I am, along with more frequent visits. She introduced me as her daughter to an aide at the nursing home, who nodded and said: Yes, I know. I continue to marvel at the changes in my mom’s diet. She’s been eating side salads, and she ordered pasta with pesto sauce and portobello mushroom last week.

I’ve been eating out a lot. Between the move, work, and visiting my mom, meals is something I can outsource. Shau Kei Wan has many affordable restaurants. The display in the photo above, taken at a local restaurant, is an evocative aesthetic. I can relate to the minimalism, though I don’t drink soda anymore.

There’s a vegan restaurant I’ve been to with my mom in the neighborhood. They come from the tradition of recreating many traditional dishes, replacing meat with tofu in creative and elaborate ways. There’s also a vegan takeout joint in the neighborhood with dim sum and vegan cold cuts.

I’m following the advice of a relative to re-introduce gluten into my diet. A pescatarian, gluten-free, diabetic diet is not easy maintain in Hong Kong. I hope to test negative for celiac antibodies when the time comes to do the tests.