Smoothies

Smoothies, those icy, refreshing cups of life. I adore smoothies.

In Thailand, I had a smoothie at least every other day. I usually bounced back and forth between watermelon and banana. Their smoothies were absolutely delicious, and they were only fifteen cents each. It's hard to beat that.

When I first moved to Hong Kong, I was disappointed that they weren't quite as readily available as Thailand. After a little searching, I've discovered there are many icy delights here (although I haven't found any quite as cheap).

It may not be authentic Hong Kong, but Starbucks' Frappuccinos are one of my favorite things. Especially the Java chip. It's icy, chocolately, refreshing, and you get these little bits of chocolate shooting up through your straw. It's beautiful. The price isn't beautiful, though, at over four dollars US.

There's also a smoothie-esque stand on our street corner. It's an actual shop, built into the wall and everything, but there's barely room for the two workers in there. Most of their drinks don't appeal to my palate (red bean smoothies, neon-green apple sodas), but I do like their coconut-sago smoothie. It's not quite as refreshing or delicious as Thai smoothies, but it is good. And the two guys are really nice, so I like to support them. Besides that, they're right on my street corner! I can just walk outside and grab a drink.

The other smoothie place that I've fallen for is Saint's Alp Tea-house. Say that aloud. The first several times I visited it, I called it Saint Alp's Tea-house. But no. It's Saint's Alp Tea-house. Apparently there was a saint who opened a tea-house on the top of an alp. I guess. Anyway, they have a foldout menu with a five or six pages of icy drinks. I was practically giddy when I saw it at first. My favorites so far have been the double chocolate sorbie and the blueberry chocolate sorbie. Saint's Alp is between Starbucks and Hung Shing Gai smoothie, so I guess it's a good compromise.

I really need to get a blender. I could start my own smoothie business! Of course, I'd probably be my only, very loyal customer. But that's ok. All the more smoothie for me.