Celebration of the Body

This Sunday is rather unusual. I did not read anything except a number of menus. The menus were those of a restaurant recommended to me by a friend. It was a restaurant with a fairly long history. It goes by the name of Cova. It is claimed that it was first established in 1817, in Milan. According to a booklet I got, Cova was originally opened at the corner of the Piazza della Scala, the famous Italian opera house, for pastries and cappucino before or after the show. It has already established a presence in Hong Kong in the form of various "Pasticceria-Confetteria Boutiques" in Prince's Building, Pacific Place, Lee Gardens, World Trade Centre, Devon House, Ocean Centre, Festival Walk, New Town Plaza and Centro-Alexandra House. They have now also associated "Caffe-Ristorantes"  next to some of their boutiques (little shops). .

I went to the one in Alexandra House. Though I work in the building just five minutes away, I have never been to this restaurant. When I wanted some good European food, I usually went  to Jimmy's Kitchen or for Itailian food, to Va Beni in Lan Kwai Fong. Perhaps the cakes and patisserie of Cova can be made en masse but I don't think the food at the restaurants can be done similarly. I do not know if the chefs are equally good in all the restaurants carrying that name and I have no idea if it runs as a franchise and if so, how good is its quality control. I suppose that because of its location, the chef in Central should not be too bad. I did not order anything fancy. I just had their special lunch for Sunday. 

The cafe restaurant was rather small, not more than a dozen tables, all arranged close to the plate glass railing at the northern side of the 2nd floor opposite to the Prince's Building.  Because it was not more than 30 feet from the side of the buiilding, one can enjoy the natural sunlight streaming in through the glass wall outside. The decor was simple: white linen instead of the red and white or green and white checkers that you find in some traditional Italian restaurants. To make the straight lines and featureless glass and steel a little more human, they had two waiter counters in dark oak wood with corrugated lines over which were placed some flowers. The monotony of the rows of tables was broken only by a row of lamps next to the glass railing with rectangular metal aluminium stands with fairly geometrically circular lamp shades. To reduce the feeling of mechanical coldness, the lamp shades were in ivory fabric of a rough texture. It was comfortable and quiet. From my seat, I could see two Christmas trees, one big, one small looking aligned in a row as if they had been specially placed there for asymmetry and the frames of the window in the middle divided the surface of the glass into a number of bigger or smaller rectangles from where I was sitting so that it looked like some of those abstract paintings of Paul Klee or those of Mondrian but with colourful images appearing enclosed within or in front of such rectangles when  in fact, it's just an accidental effect. The big one was on the floor below about maybe 15 feet away and the small one was outside the entrance to the Prince's building diagonally opposite! But accidental or not, the alignment of the big and small Christmas trees in a row with its decorations was quite pleasant.I like the way a silver paper band  glittered with the movement of the winter breeze in the sunlight on top of that little Christmas tree outside the tiny entrance of Princes Building. It was really beautiful. 

Suddenly I got the urge to write something. I asked the waiter for some paper and a pen. After consulting the captain, they gave me some tiny menus with a fairly large space but they were far too small, measuring maybe 4 inches by 3.  So I told the waiter I needed something bigger. He went back and actually brought me something rather more suitable for writing. It was the back of a foolscap paper in which they ordered various labels, cards, ribbons, wrapping paper, bags etc used by the restaurant ie. their stationery purchase list. I saw a beautifully prepared Christmas menu, in the form of a booklet with a cloth-like textured thick cover with words printed in thick carved gold on its cover. It was really beautiful. I asked if I could take it because I wanted to write something about the experience. The captain said I could. I then asked if I could take the menu for the special lunch that I ordered to save me writing out all those Italian words whose meanings I could only guess using my knowledge of French and Spanish. But he said that he did not have sufficient so he could not let me have it. I said it was OK. It's not as if I must have it. Really nice people. I asked the pretty waitress how long they had been there. She said they had moved there from Chater House for three years already. I had been to their shop at Prince's Building before but I never knew they had a cafe-restaurant in Alexandra House.

For their Special Lunch, I had a choice of Antipasto All'italiana( Italian pre-meal pastry /Zuppa del Giorno (soup of the day) which is pea soup. The first plate was Aragosta (lobster) with two choices: Spaghetti All'aragosta Pourdno (?)Basilo Fasco (Spaghetti with lobster and rich base ) or Linguini with cherry tomato salsa (sauce)  and basil or alternatively Risotto con Arogosta Champagn Arborir (countryside tree?) risotto (or Italian open fire cooked rice with country style lobster with cherry tomato sauce or Arrossi di Carne, (or roast meat) in spiced butter sauce or Pesce Forces del Sapor Mediterranean ( Halibut with Meditarranean flavor) and for dessert, I had a choice of Torta (cake), Gelato (Icecream) or Caffe/Tea. I had the linguini and halibut. I did not want the soup because pea soup tastes rather flat nor did I want the icecream (too fat) or coffee because I already had one in the morning. The first and second dishes were good but not particularly so. I like the linguini though, because it was cooked not too soft and not too raw. There was a chewiness to the pasta which I had seldom experienced but the sauce was a little bit too light for my taste and the baked cheese was rolled into a lump. The halibut was not the freshest but it was alright. There was at least some springiness to the flesh. Again the taste was very light but I liked the butter sauce . Smelt really good. But I had to put in lots of ground black pepper. And they could certainly have the food a bit warmer. But the service was good. For the starter, I was offered some bread, crackers, cheesticks. I like the basil bread and the cheesesticks best. The cheesticks were really fluffy and crunchy at the same time and you can feel the smell and taste of the cheese. I told the waiter if I could have more. Originally, I had four. He brought me another four. In fact, I liked it so much that when I left, I bought another 200 grams for $65.00. I like the dessert best. I was a Neapolitan cake: a three layer pastry with strawberry and cream and creamy vanilla sauce. Really delicious. The pastry is good, very fluffy. The portion was not big but it was already too big for me. The meal was not cheap. Nor was it expensive. I felt full even when I was swimming later. The bill including tips came to $320 and I got a glass of sweet red sparkling house wine. I had sparkling white wine before like Champagne. But it was the first time that I had a sparkling red wine. It tasted rather sweet. I tipped more because of the service. It was a very pleasant and leisurely lunch.

After the lunch, I did some grocery and then went on a hike as the weather was excellent. I took the MTR to Shaukiwan and then took a minibus to Big Wave Bay and from there I climbed a couple of hundred steps to the top of the Jardine Lookout. It gave a magnficent view of the Bay and the sea beyond. There were some waves. From the outermost to the innermost, I could see a total of 5 wave heads, each higher than the previous with a distance of some 10 to 15 feet between each. No wonder there were more than 20 surfers. I like the colour of the sea with the sunlight which flickered upon the water like liquid gold. I'm so pleased I only made one stop along the way up and just for enjoying the spectauclar view of the beautiful sea, the clear blue sky and the distant islands and not out of need. The bones and muscles still seem serviceable! I really don't know how long they would stay that way!

I had never walked this route from the Big Wave Bay end. I could go to Quarry Bay or Chai Wan but I was lucky. Ahead of me were two ladies with 5 poodles. I asked which one of them which would be the shortest route because I did not want to tire myself too much as I was expecting to swim later in the evening. They told me they were going to Siu Sai Wan. I never took this route before. So they told me to follow them. I did. It was really short. The whole journey took only about 50 minutes. I could go down Chai Wan of course. If I did, they told me it would probably be about 10 minutes or so longer. But I had already taken that route before, but starting from Chai Wan end, near Cape Collinson. So I tried out this new route. It was quite an easy walk. I started at about 4.30 p.m. and by 6 p.m. I was already home by taking the express route 788 bus which the ladies told me about. It runs along the Eastern Corridor. There were not very many people taking the trek route. For the whole journey, I did not see more than 20 people, both ways! It was a very pleasant walk with a magnficent view of the sea. It was not very strenuous. Really worth doing.  Now I know what to do when I want another short hike. 

In the evening, I went swimming again. I left the house at about 8.20 p.m., arrived at the Morrison Hill Pools around 8.35 p.m. and swam until 9.45 p.m. It was even better than last week because there were even fewer people at the pool. You don't have to swim a few strokes and then stop or swerve to avoid bumping into other's head or other parts of their bodies especially those of ladies when it could be very troublesome if the other party is unreasonable. It was a really good swim. This time I did 22 laps, two more than last week. Like the past week, all my nose slime disappeared without a trace and breathing was such a delight again. After the swim and the hot shower, I could walk with a spring in my steps. It feels really good to be doing exercises. Today is a day I devoted all my time to my body: first the meal and then the hike and finally the swim. No reading at all! And it's good, for the body any way. A day of celebration of the body! According to Christian theology, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit!