Stimulation Overload

Last weekend we set out on a mission to buy two things: a baking stone and new running shoes…

Baking is not a popular pastime for Hongkongers so getting baking products and accessories can be a challenge. I had exhausted my options at a nearby shopping center, had looked at a few tiny kitchen stores (one named “I Love Kitchen”…no plural), and was ready to buy online when Dave learned that there is a restaurant supplies district within the Mong Kok area of the city.

I don’t like places that are crowded, dirty, noisy, smell weird, and have shops with fresh meat hanging from wires. And believe me, there are a lot of places in Hong Kong that have many of those attributes - but Mong Kok has them all. In excess.

Still my desire to bake a fresh loaf of bread in my tiny oven helped overcome the dread of going to Mong Kok. Plus, the restaurant supplies district was close to the sporting goods district where I successfully bought running shoes this summer. Since I was also in the market for new shoes, it seemed like a worthwhile outing.

Of course, we couldn’t possibly go anywhere without running into some kind of performance. On this outing, we saw two. The first was a small group playing symbols and drums (very, very loud), poised to do a dragon dance, in the street. The adjacent sidewalk was lined with flower arrangements and fruit. We couldn’t figure out if it was a memorial service or a celebration.

A few blocks away was a dragon dance performance, also with loud drums and symbols, in one of the neighborhood parks:



Finally, we got to the restaurant supply district. Williams-Sonoma it was not. We walked up and down Shanghai Street, visiting a dozen or so stores that looked like this:



The aisles in the stores were so narrow that foot traffic was one-way only. Things were generally stacked from floor to ceiling. I am pretty confident that none of these places use a sophisticated inventory system!


In addion to kitchenware, there were all kinds of food products for sale...

And lots of healing products (only identifiable as such because one said "external analgesic")...


Some "stores" consisted of not much more than an awning with merchandise hanging from a pole...

Although Dave brought a picture and translation of what we wanted, we didn’t have any luck on the baking stone. But we picked out one of these nice wooden molds for making mooncakes next year, so we didn’t leave empty handed.

Next up was the sporting goods district. The sidewalks along Fa Yuen Street were overflowing with people. I felt like an ant in an ant hill.

I quickly located the store I needed and went in…with about 200 other people.

The shoes falling from the ceiling didn’t really faze me this time (the inventory is kept upstairs and gets dropped down when people want to try things on). Unfortunately, I was informed that my feet are too big for women’s shoes and I should wear men’s shoes - the fact that I’d bought a pair in my size (9.5) just six months ago was completely irrelevant. After braving one other store only to be told the same thing, I decided it was time for me (and my over-sized feet) to get out of Mong Kok!

Oh, here’s one of the less disgusting pictures of meat hanging from a wire...

No more Mong Kok for me for a long, long time...and thank goodness for Amazon.com!