This evening was the airing of Anthony Bourdain's new Hong Kong visit on his show "No Reservations." We'd been waiting for it.
He started out the show by declaring it to be a food paradise and said "if you're smart you'll hit the ground running." Essentially that you could go there and eat non-stop and leave without being anywhere near finished.
On our last trip to HK, we were there for a little over two weeks. We ate five meals a day, with only a few exceptions. Each meal .. very large. We walked everywhere. In the end, we gained no weight.
I only slowed down for one day, during which my body told me that binge eating was not appreciated. I told my body we'd discuss it when we got back to Seattle.
I was glad to see that he hit many places I'd been that were off the beaten path. Due to the constraints of the length of the show, he wasn't able to hit many of my favorites. Next time, perhaps he should give us a call.
Anthony missed the outer islands - Lamma and Cheung Chau most notably. And he missed Bo Toi O (a fishing village not on an outer island), which was pretty much the unexpected highlight of my last trip.
What the episode did capture fairly well is the speed at which Hong Kong comes at you. It is not a destination for the languid. At one point, Tony and his food blogger buddy are looking at some food and the woman is yelling at them in Cantonese "I don't 
want to be on camera, just buy your food! If you're not going to eat it, don't look at it!" Fie Dee! Fie Dee!
That sounds annoying and at times it is. But it is really Hong Kong. Undeniable and blatant.
Whenever I arrive in Hong Kong, I really feel like I'm there. I really feel like I'm at one of my homes. It is palpable. It is tangible.
When I saw it tonight on No Reservations I felt a strange disembodied feeling. No other show I've seen has made me feel Hong Kong like that. It was more than a little unsettling. I feel like I should be able to step outside my door and find myself in Tsim Sha Tsui where I can walk a block and get a late night bowl of mein. Alas, Ocean Shores, Washington, will not satisfy me tonight.
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