Last Suppers
Not to get too depressing or anything, but if for some reason you had to leave Hong Kong tomorrow and you couldn’t ever, ever come back, then here’s one question to ask yourself—what would be the last thing you would eat? We put this question to some of our favorite Hong Kong personalities, and asked a few of them to fabricate exit circumstances. They gave us a range of answers, from murder and death row to a walk down memory lane. Read on…
Johannes Pong
Columnist, polyglot and bon vivant
I’m about to embark on the ultimate adventure of Death. I don’t see the possibility of a celebratory “BYE! Leaving-Hong Kong-for-good” dinner party—I mean, I’ll be flying back and forth if I had a choice, so let’s be morbid and say I’m dying. That’s more in tune with reality because it’s a guarantee that EVERYONE WILL DIE.
Hmmm…I don’t know where the supper should be. Maybe our old kitchen at the vicarage in Yau Yat Chuen. I grew up baking pizza and cookies with my mother there. It’s very spacious; there’s an oven, and a massive glass table for dining. Or maybe it’s not so huge now, since I was a wee lad back then. I’d be wearing white. I’d play bossa nova and kirtans only for the beginning of the dinner.
I would have like a cornucopia of dishes, Asian-style. And strictly vegetarian. I’d have a tangy, gazpacho-like jaengban makkuksu (Korean chilled noodles on a giant tray) from Go Koong in Tsim Sha Tsui East. Other than that, I’ll probably make everything on my own... maybe a light daal or curry, a Cantonese soup with chayote, fig and almonds (although that description sounds kind of Mediterranean or Latin American!). Mashed potatoes, roasted beets, homemade kimchi, some noodle dish. No alcohol; maybe a nice clean Longjin to start, and a smooth Oolong to finish. No dessert.
I’ll be dining ALONE. I want to contemplate moving on. I’ve done enough socializing in my life. Plus I don’t want to babysit my crying friends and family, who are all going to miss me. So, yeah, just keeping it simple for my last supper. (Now my last PARTY though—prior to my last supper—will probably involve lots of alcohol, all my close friends and party treats).