with all the actresses under his tutelage over the years, perhaps he should change his name from 晶 to 精…
Cantonese cuisine can be a hit or miss dependent on the type of flavors an individual prefers. I suspect one of the main issues that the food fell short for you was you prefer stronger flavors such as Sichuan, Taiwanese, etc. Cantonese is all about the balance of subtle flavors, with cooking techniques designed to bring the most of out the very fresh ingredients.
In other regions, or cuisines, it can be about the sauce, or the bold seasoning, or about numbing spices. The flavors may be so strong that you can’t even taste the flavor of the meat, for example. In Cantonese, its the opposite of that. And it can be polarizing. Many cannot fathom why the dishes can be so ‘bland’, and many will add a lot of chili sauce, etc. into the dishes automatically when they arrive. To some, Cantonese isn’t very exciting. Thai, Sichuan, Indian, for example, can be preferred. Some liken Cantonese to the Eastern equivalent of the ‘fig on a plate Cal cuisine’.
So you kinda have to discover what food/ destination truly excites you.
HK people move very fast, and sometimes expect others to move just as fast. I will share a few observations.
-
In HK, when you and others line your cart up in a supermarket, everyone is eyeing the workers who are roving around to immediate dash to the register if the worker is opening it up. not related to tourists of course but just a window into the mindset of hkers that every second counts.
-
cab drivers who have 7 phone screens in their cabs concurrently showing every piece of traffic info, next lucrative passenger pickup, food delivery, horse betting and any possible piece of info that allows them to make the most money in the shortest period of time in the most optimized way possible.
-
they order fast, so some HK servers may struggle with tourists.
it can be a bit tricky to know when you can lounge (e.g. in high end places, i am certainly going to lounge and chat with friends until we all want to leave), and when you should finish and go (like in busy mid-range place or a noodle joint). i lived in hk previously and it took me some years to slow down after leaving town. operate at the same speed as the locals in whatever venue you in are will help.
on preordering- just skip them if you don’t want to bother. Yes those can be good stuff, but so are the 99% of other food that doesn’t require preordering. I rarely preorder, just too much work if i am not already familiar with the place.