本公子年事尚早，肌膚仍舊吹彈得破，來日方長，故此未來數星期的長篇大「論」，基本上毫無意義，湊熱鬧也。假若各位老前輩仍願抽空一灠，實在是叫本人愧疚於您，讓您們高貴的眼睛看到如此濫放的辭厥，果真罪過。
第一篇粉墨登場的學季論文是《Eat Hong Kong’s Soho》，記敘文（最簡易的呢）也。而內容基本上是亂作一通（七分真，三分假？），各位在文中看到的蘇豪街道更是「百搭」，亂七八糟，誇張失實。可惜本人一吹就是瀟灑的四頁，埋頭三小時打打打打打，之後就笑臉迎人，一切照舊；你說，你還奈得我何？
但怎都好，一切貌似美好的成果，並不是只有我一人孤獨苦心經營，本公子還要衷心感謝香港旅遊發展局，替港弄來個明珠虛銜，金光四溢，叫我那位敬畏的教授看到如此偽善庸俗的論文也不得不笑而不計，全單接收。
Eat Hong Kong’s Soho
It is a warm November’s weekend on Hong Kong Island; the glassy windows of giant skyscrapers are sparkling vigorously with a sunny hue. I stroll down a sloping alley which has some fallen leaves rolling on it, enjoying the tropical, fruity fragrance from Jaspas, an American restaurant located at the turn to Pedder Street, selling the most popular fruit salad in Hong Kong’s Soho during breakfast hours.
Don’t doubt. This is true. For reasons that are unclear, Hong Kong has really got its own Soho too; as do New York and London (actually I think ‘Soho’ is a combination of the words ‘South’ and ‘Hollywood’). Hong Kong’s Soho is a colorful uphill area which mixes old British colonial style buildings, antique Chinese residences and modern glittering skyscrapers in the south of Hollywood Road. Piles of restaurants from all over the world and night clubs scatter widely around this enticing wonderland.
I pass through Jaspas and enter a vintage French coffee shop called Delifrance - don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about that European chain. It is the oldest coffee shop in Soho with a pretty claret awning above the entrance which is amusingly printed with the words ‘No tea provided but coffee’. I always spend my spare Saturday mornings in this lovely café. During winters, I always have a cup of mocha for warming up my body, chaffed by the freezing wind; for summers, a large jar of passion fruit milkshake would be my companion. I prefer sitting on the second floor’s balcony – there is a big ancient banyan growing right in front of Delifrance’s entrance. Although it occupies nearly the whole pedestrian pavement in front of Delifrance, and its aerial roots block some drivers’ sights, it provides the most beautiful natural canopy in Soho. This is what the banyan does best. A ceiling made of green leaves for concrete forest-livers!
Thinking of café’s outdoor seating area, I recall my former classmate, Jean, once said to me, ‘I love London! I just love London so much! London is full of outdoor cafés, and you can enjoy a cup of delectable Latte under the caressive breeze and golden sunlight.’ She has not been outside in Britain in November.
My cup of Mocha is so delicious that I gulp at it greedily, and today’s South China Morning Post is so thin that I am unable to prolong my stay, so I just stay at Delifrance for an hour. I then go to meet Joseph, my friend, who has just come back from Canberra.
Amusingly, it is a regular occurrence that Joseph always has to meet me in Chui Wah Restaurant when he comes back from Canberra. ‘You know, I cried there sometimes because it turned out that I can’t live without Chui Wah’s milk tea!’ Joseph complains to me. Don’t try to laugh, my dear readers - this is a fact! No Hong Kong Islanders can bear the feeling of living without Chui Wah Restaurants. Chui Wah Restaurants are the kings of Cantonese fast food shops on Hong Kong Island and I mean fast food. Their lunch sets can be served within two minutes from an order being placed. They are the favourite for those busy office boys and girls who work in Central and Causeway Bay, the busiest central business districts on Hong Kong Island.
It is a special day for Joseph and me; apparently we will not have such common Chui Wah’s lunch sets for our get-together. After having a cup of rich milk tea, which in my professional opinion, I think, is the most perfect portion of milk tea I have ever drunk, we go to another place for a formal lunch.
In the back of Old Bailey Street, there is another precipitous street which climbs up the hillside. It is Shelly Street. As you look up, your eyes drink in the red and gold, ancient Chinese temple and lantern shops, the muted ochre and turquoise of old architectural combinations of shops and residences, the old and young green banyans and the busy bars and lounges in vivid colour. Last but not least, the longest outdoor silver escalator in the world, the Mid-Levels Escalator, links all these tempting places together along Shelly Street.
We saunter along Shelly Street, selecting the best restaurant for us. Eventually, we are both attracted by an elaborate wooden fascia hanging right above our heads – ‘Amigo!’ It also declares, ‘Fine Spanish Restaurant for mussels.’ I remember I had dinner with my friends at a restaurant called Belgos somewhere near London’s Soho a while ago. It was said that Belgos was famous for its plain mussels, but actually the boiled mussels had a fishy stink. I don’t mean that I despise London’s Soho, but when the food isn’t very good, it should be called ‘So-so’.
I know that a beautiful fascia doesn’t mean that Amigo’s food must be tasty, but we have never had a proper meal in Amigo. Therefore, we decide to have a try.
When we walk through the entrance, I think I am walking into a European outdoor food market – Amigo’s foyer is decorated like a certain Spanish street corner. There are a few Vandyke brown barrows filled with gorgeous dried fruit, nuts, and some unusual foods that I never know the names of. There are also some hams hung up high next to the barrows. Everything is so refreshing and arranged very elegantly. Amigo uses at least 1,000 square feet of space to disguise a Spanish street scene. To many people and business men, that is madness, but it works! Amigo really draws Joseph’s and my attention at least.
It is such an embarrassment when we are deciding what orders should be placed. ‘What is Buti…Butifarra con Mongetes?’ Joseph murmurs. I am stunned; I just have no idea what it is! (Eventually it turns out that Butifarra con Mongetes means sausages with white string beans, because the English version of the menu is just right behind those Spanish pages...) Consequently we let the cooks serve us what they suggest we have, and it turns out well… the food is so delicious! Oily, but still delicious. My favourite is the recommended spicy garlic mussels and I find I can never get enough of those appetizing mussels; Joseph also really enjoys his Butifarra con Mongetes, which the Spanish waitress tells me is a Catalan dish.
It is not a passion, it is an obsession. Walking up and down those countless granite steps along Shing Wong Street to many Hong Kong Islanders, including Joseph and me, is a kind of exciting adventure or discovery. You can always find some interesting, refreshing goods in those old Bauhaus-style groceries and little markets. From cheap Xi Chuan chillis and Indian seasonings to expensive Parma hams and Osaka triangle watermelons. Whatever you can name, you can try in this congested street. It is definitely unusual if someone says a shopaholic or a gourmet doesn’t get carried away in this area.
I pass through Shing Wong Street and turn to Upper Albert Street with Joseph. We enter Fringe Club to spend our lazy evening. Fringe Club is a piece of New York along the hillside. With the pleasant Live Jazz by Goopies, I always feel like I have gone back to 1920s’ Art Deco era when I am sipping a cup of tea. Through the old wooden bow-fronted windows, I see yellow street lamps and neon lights brightening all people’s faces. Some of the people are chowing down bowls of noodles at a street-side café; in a traditional Cantonese restaurant, some of them are enjoying their seafood, so fresh that it was alive ten minutes ago before they popped it into their mouths; some of them are talking loudly and happily with glasses of wines in their hands outside bars. All these happenings squeeze in one dazzling, bustling area, known as the borough of Hong Kong’s Soho, my private, banquet of delights.
如果有朝本人能夠集字成銀，集頁成金，你說是多麼好。各位前輩就姑且讓本公子造個作家夢吧，雖說此夢總是千迴百轉，發過萬次。
