experience, reduced like the sauce we put on chicken that time

Things I rarely say outside of Hong Kong:
"Can I pay and you give me change? I only have hundreds."
"I'll meet you in front of 7-11."

Things I rarely say inside Hong Kong:
"Oh, no, plenty of legroom."
"Yeah, I might be hard to spot."

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I like using errands as an excuse to explore places. Yesterday, I went to Aberdeen (adorably called 香港仔 (very roughly, "little Hong Kong" or "Hong Kong's son") in Cantonese) for the first time. My excuse-errand: I want to save about US$30 by checking the Taiwan Lonely Planet guide out from the library rather than buying it. Although other, closer libraries had older editions, the Aberdeen branch had the 2007 version in stock; the hold-placement system didn't appear to distinguish between editions, so I figured I should just go in person.

While I was there, I managed to find a bakery with "Little Mexican Yogurt Buns". I'm at best an amateur when it comes to the diversity of Mexico's cuisine, but I'm pretty sure these particular buns were not invented anywhere near Mexico. And, indeed, I have no idea what part of them, exactly, could be considered Mexican. But they were delicious: little baked buns, fresh from the oven (I was lured by smelling them from across the street), with some kind of creamy yogurt-tasting filling and frosted with a light coating of condensed milk-frosting, like on lai wong bao, the baked custard buns that are common dim sum food.

I was wandering around a bit later when I saw a father walking with his six-year-old-or-so daughter, and she was holding what was unmistakably a Slurpee. Now, HK has more than its fair share of 7-11s, but until yesterday, I had never seen one with the distinctive frozen treat that made 7-11 visits a highlight of my American childhood. Once the initial shock wore off and I could think clearly again, I looked for the nearest location, and verified that it, in fact, had a slurpee machine with both the Coca-Cola and strawberry-kiwi Fanta flavors. I bought a cup, mixed the two flavors together, was briefly disappointed at the lack of special slurpee lids or straws but got over it, and walked out, happily.

It was a good day.