It wasn’t me! Téa bit down on a bagel on Monday morning, and has been complaining about a toothache ever since, and so today, we’re dealing with it. I message the dentist I’ve been seeing, and hope to be able to get her in soon.
It’s Thursday, so the girls do schoolwork this morning. Maylin is working on science, while Téa finishes off her Norwegian and French for the week. Téa has been bitten by a crafting bug, and now focuses so hard on her subjects so she can have more time for arts. She’s started daydreaming about her own space in our new home, where she can craft in peace. Here, she has to tidy up every time we need the table for meals, which is so disruptive!
Of course, having to rinse my mouth with poison (with a warning that it might change the way food tastes in my mouth), I’m feeling extraordinarily sorry for myself these days. I therefore decide we’re going for my ultimate lunch today, Tim Ho Wan. I think this is to make up for when Joe and I visited their newly opened modern location 13 years ago, and I severely burned the entire inside of my mouth, and all they had to help was a cup of hot water. We tried going to Tim Ho Wan on New Year’s day in Sha Tin, but didn’t want what we thought would be a “hundred hour” wait. So today, I lead my flock towards the offending Tim Ho Wan from 2013! I’m giving them a chance to redeem themselves, while taking precautions to not burn myself on the hot food.
While on the subway, I suddenly realize I did not bring my antibiotics and anti-swelling medication out on our adventures today. Ugh. I’m supposed to take them, with food, at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I’ve been so good so far! I pivot, and find a different Tim Ho Wan location that’s closer to the subway, but we’ll have to get off the subway RIGHT NOW. The doors are open, about to close, so I don’t even tell the others. We’ll get off at the next stop and walk an extra couple of minutes from there instead. This location just happens to be more or less in the middle of these two stops, so it’ll all be ok.
We get off at the Prince Edwards stop and walk North to Tim Ho Wan. It’s famous! Just look at all the Michelin awards they’ve been getting! In their original, traditional, old-style location, complete with low plastic tables and stools, they received their first award in 2011. When I was researching for our 2013 visit, I knew they were opening at a flashy new mall, and that’s where we went, just a day or two after their opening. I was essentially the first white girl to burn her mouth on their food, and they had no ice or cold water on the premises. I’m sure that has changed…
When we get to the restaurant, we see a few people scattered outside the entrance, and a machine to punch in number of diners in our party. Our hearts sink. How long will this wait be? We get a number – 109 – and are invited straight in. I think maybe the few people outside were smokers?
It’s still a full restaurant. We’re lead upstairs and into a corner table, where we start browsing the menu. We order our favourites. We’re almost back at our biggest problem of eating dim sum when there was just the two of us back in Vancouver BC (Before Children): once we have ordered our favourite 4-5 dishes, we’re full, and we never get to try new and exciting dishes! Oh well, the 4-5 will be delicious, that much we know is true!
The first thing to arrive, is the sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf. This is the dish, that when Joe and I had it out in Vancouver in our early days in 2011, I asked him to learn how to make it. The next time he was home with his mom in Windsor, he learned, and has been perfecting this skill ever since. It’s a quick and easy weeknight meal at our house (because I don’t have to lift a finger, how much easier could it get??), and the girls love it too.
Rice rolls however, are not as easily replicated. It takes special equipment, whereas sticky rice requires a rice cooker and a wok. Rice rolls are a show to watch, it’s made in a steamer cabinet, with several trays of thin rice batter in each, and then filled (or not) and rolled up when just done enough, and then allowed to seal when rolled. They can come plain, with dry shrimp, fresh shrimp, BBQ pork, beef, and probably a whole lot of other versions that are just as delicious, I just haven’t tried the rest yet. I’m working on it though!
Then, at the end, when both girls said they were full, and Joe and I were probably good, but wanted something new and creative, we ordered just one more dish. Remembering the shrimp stuffed Chinese donut wrapped in rice roll that we had with Joe’s aunt on the day that Maylin got sick and I had to take her home, we order a similar sounding dish here.
The shrimp was still stuffed inside a donut, the donut was still wrapped in rice roll, but the rice roll was flavoured with rosella (the hibiscus, not the parrot)! Alongside it came a small dish of rosella jam. Joe and I preferred the rice roll with a drop of chili oil, but what an experience! Very different, very creative, our curious palates satisfied.
By the time we’re done lunch, the dentist has written back and Téa now has an appointment for 4pm. We hurry home to take my medicine and get back downtown by 4pm, and Joe rushes off to meet his cousin Andy instead. The girls and I make it down to the dentist office in plenty of time, and Téa’s appointment is short and sweet. They take the same wrap around x-ray as they did with me, and it’s amazing to see all the adult teeth just waiting in line to emerge. The dental pain is believed to be the loosening of baby teeth as the adult versions are fighting for space. But the best thing to come out of this visit for me? I said – the mouthwash tastes like poison – and the dentist said I can stop using it! It’s only if there’s an infection, which there isn’t! WOOHOO, no more poison!
I love a dentist office that’s inside a fun mall! It means that any dental discomfort or sadness can be instantly wiped away by visiting our favourite places. We head up two enorma-escalators and end up on the 12th floor. First things first – posing with cute characters:
And then – over to the LEGO store!
The girls get busy in the play area of the store, Téa creating a house of sorts, and Maylin attempting to build a car. I admire the flowers.
Meanwhile, across town, Joe has been shopping for his 4th pair of glasses with Andy. Then they head to a Cha Chaan Teng, where his snack is a scrambled egg sandwich and a red bean and ice cream “beverage”. Then, due to a long comedy of errors, Joe ends up with two additional coffee drinks, and can hardly move, he’s so full.
The girls and I can’t decide on a snack, and decide to head towards home instead. Joe will be arriving at just about the same time as us, and because they haven’t had an afternoon treat, and Téa deserves one after being nervous about the dentist, I buy them McDonald’s for dinner. Joe will pick up a ready made dinner dish at the subway station for him and I, although he’s too full, and it’s really just for me.
When we get back up to our floor, Maylin discovers our building now has a new pet. Just in time, I manage to prevent her from picking it up and bringing it into the apartment. He gets to stay where he’s at.
The girls enjoy their Happy Meals, I have a portion of the pork and egg over rice that Joe bought for us. Joe is still full. We put on the movie Inside Out, it’s such a brilliant story about what goes on in young girls’ heads, and how there’s space for all the emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. I love how the ending brings in the puberty button, and Inside Out 2 introduces Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, Embarassment and Nostalgia. But that’s for another day. Some days, we just need to watch the battle of Joy and Sadness, and make room for both.