Jumbo

I’m spending the weekend in Hong Kong, so yesterday I met a friend who lives here for brunch. He suggested someplace that was “fun” but “kinda touristy.”

I arrived at the address in a taxi, but there was no restaurant – only a sign for the restaurant and a dock. An ornate boat motored up and everyone waiting loaded on. As we navigated around the fishing trawlers in the harbor I could see our destination.

If there’s a gravitational center of Chinese kitsch it’s this place: Jumbo Floating Restaurant. It’s like someone took the Forbidden City, added some fountains, put it on pontoons and then pushed it out into the center of Hong Kong harbor. I didn’t see it at night, but something tells me it’s also clad in enough neon and flashing lights to make the Las Vegas Strip seem positively demure.

For a tourist place the food was actually quite delicious. It had typical Hong Kong dim sum brunch fare – dumplings and buns and fritters. (Thankfully no chicken feet.)

Today I’m off to Taipei.