Hong Kong: Of birds and blooms

HONG KONG CITY — Journeying through the city’s sumptuous Chinese wedding lauriat, one is tempted to wish that most dishes on the banquet menu could guarantee that marriage would be as exciting and wonderful even 20 to 40 years later. Or that marriage were a gastronomic journey no one will surely pass up at the right time in his or her lifetime.

What with a most pricey and appetizing sharksfin soup to start with, and a host of splendid seafood and meat entrees there is, capped with all those sinfully, calorific desserts, chased with the invigorating oolong or green tea, wow! What a feast!

Amusingly, our guide, Nevin Lim, would always sprinkle us with funny anecdotes on how thrill-to-the-bones marriages could always hit the limbo or the bored-with-your-spouse-zone. With the waning romantic streak, the once sweet terms of endearment such as better-half, detours to bitter-half, and so on.

What to do when one finally smacks right into the zone? Fortysomething Hong Kong men usually find themselves frequenting a spot where Nevin brought us on our second day in the city of life – the Bird Street, which is just next to the Flower Market.

The Bird Street is a maze of clustered stores selling, among others, birdseeds and feeds, cages of various sizes, colors and shapes, feeding trappings and ornaments, and of course a good variety of pet birds that you’d fall in love with.

We had photo opportunity with some of them — the big bright blue and red macaws, the pleasantly white and yellow-crowned cockatoos, the tiny multi-hued love birds, the dazzling yellow canaries, the yellow and light green with black stripes budgerigars, the ebony black mynahs, white and gray pigeons, white doves and many more.

We were floored at how your regular uncle and grandpa would spend most of their sweet time traipsing around the street with birdcage on hand. Everyday is like a gathering of bird lovers — the owners chatting with each other while their pet birds do their own yadda-yadda chirping.

Before entering the maze, you’ll find two to three iron bars by the promenade area where, according to Nevin, bird lovers would hang their birdcages then perch themselves on several benches to engage in, what else, bird talks!

Talk about birds, these adored pets are very much like the pricey mutts and pooches that sleep with their owners and get treated to a dog spa and parlor regularly. And mind you, dog parlors abound in the area. Will they also put up some for these feathered treasures? How vain and up-to-date these pampered pets could get! Makes me green with envy, I couldn’t even get myself a monthly parlor trip.

Anyway, these birds really bond with their owners, and the kind of food they get depends on how happy they can make their owners. Initial feeding starts with the plain birdseeds then gradually upgrades to more yummy treats. If a bird sings quite well or knows how to tickle an owner’s fancy, he gets rewarded with some live insects like crickets and grasshoppers. These goodies come in a handful flimsy net bags and sells around HK$4-5.00 per pouch.

Would you believe that those 40-something guys are fascinated to no end by these bird pets that most owners would buy cages big enough to accommodate those small hand-painted porcelain water jugs, ivorymock feeding bowls and other knick-knacks?

The same bird owners would go to great lengths to keep their pets really happy. They would buy a wide variety of colorful stuff attached to a tall two-to-three-branched-wood that birdies can play with while their owners are busy with something else. Wouldn’t you wish you were a bird? Yup, if only in Hong Kong, some place else you’ll be chased endlessly with a slingshot or air gun, then end up skewered and brushed with some gooey barbecue sauce. Shame!

At one point, I cringed at the thought of my husband buying a bird just because he’s bored with me or us. And that he could relate more to a bird than me and would rather spend most of his laid-back time with the beaked pet than me. I refuse to see how jealous I’d get if my husband would have the time of his life babbling with his feathered friend amid those luxuries instead of dating me. How pathetic!

On the other side, however, Nevin said, not only Hong Kong men find comfort in such a creative past time. The wives are equally drawn to their own kill-time habit with a circle of girlfriends playing – hold your breath – mahjong!

Now you know what’s up if out of the blue, a husband started to fancy a feathered companion or if a wife suddenly got interested in playing mahjong. Just hope that both would end up enjoying both hobbies together than apart.

Next to the Bird Street is the area’s blooming side — the Flower Market. Here, they sell all kinds of buds and blooms and each store is a showroom in itself that showcases all the floral arrangements that customers can think of. There are also several one-stop-shops specializing in all kinds of big and small events, the likes that your wedding planners get in touch with.

You’ll be surprised at the comprehensive services these shops offer. They have catalogues of how a venue of a particular event or special intimate affair should be dressed up. And you need not fret as they, too, have tailored special packages with rates and specifics to suit the customer’s budget. (To be continued)