..circumnavigate.with.me..

A pivotal moment in my culinary consumption career occurred in the limbo between officially exiting Hong Kong and checking into China.

In a last ditch effort to alleviate myself of un-exchangeable Hong Kong coins, I made my way to a brilliantly lit case full of vibrant looking pastries.  My indecisive nature soon took hold of me and I began hurriedly pacing the case, back and forth until my travel companion grew tired of my dawdling.  Remembering the delectable chocolate sweets sampled in Malaysia, I settled on a treat labeled ‘Chocolate and Peanut’ in imperfect English.  As my change was deposited in my hand, a moment of glory swept over me as I realized that the excess coinage was enough to make a second selection.  I could feel my fellow traveler’s eyes rolling as I scanned the case once again.  Without recalling the sub-par coconut pastry that I sampled in Vietnam (yes, I am far too fond of these baked treats), I hastily gestured toward a title containing a word that looked like ‘coconut’.  I quickly paid the last of my Hong Kong change and scooted towards the entry immigration for mainland China.  As we bopped along through the mass of Chinese and Western tourists, I opened the bags, unable to wait any longer to sample my purchases.  Glorious!  The first selection contained a dense filling of chocolate icing and peanut bits that overflowed onto the corners of my mouth with each bite.  Completely satisfied with my initial taste test I turned to the yellowish, coconut confection that looking less and less appetizing with each passing minute in line.  This became the ultimate lesson, in culinary version, of the gross error of first impression judgments.

The crumby outside and the soft filling created a clash of interesting textures.  The inside of the delightful coconut was the most addictive combination of butter and sugar that I had ever tasted.  The next fifteen minutes of my life, though filled with Chinese immigration paperwork, queues and security checkpoints, bordered on bliss as I slowly devoured the ‘coconut’ pastry. 

If we hadn’t been in such a hurry to Shenzen Airport, I would have back tracked and invested in an entire tray full. Luckily for my wallet, and my cholesterol level, there was no time to fulfill this desire.