In Loving Memory of My Grandma - Our Final Goodbye

The final journey with my grandmother went smoothly.

It's hard to express this loss. I wish I could hold her one more time; I wish she could sit down and tell me another story; and I wish I could have spent more time with her. Lots of wishes that I need to let go of...

The process of sending her off alongside all the family members was comforting. We all focused on doing whatever we could to ensure her safe journey to the "Happy Land" or "Pureland" (安樂國) and consoled each other with subtle looks and gentle hugs. For those who want to learn more about the process, you can read this article, Crossing the Gate of Death in Chinese Buddhist Culture by Dr. Yutang Lin.

I had visited my grandma two days after her passing on July 9th. She has since been resting at my uncle's. They set up an altar with her picture next to buddhas so that they can offer her prayers, food, and fruits. Her spirit had been invited to the altar so that family and guests could pay their respects there.

My brother and I arrived July 22nd, two days before the funeral service. We spent the first day folding lotus flowers, clothes, shoes and money nuggets, and chanting Buddhist prayers to help my grandma get to the "Happy Land". My mom has been going there every day from dawn till sunset for the past 2 weeks doing the same. The chant to Amitaba was playing in the background 24/7 and at least twice a day (at 7:30am and at 4:30pm), a Buddhist nun would lead the family in reading chants from the scripture. My mom also took extra care of reading the Mantra for Attaining Birth in Happy Land 108 times into my grandmother's favorite rosary bracelet every day. The rosary would be cremated with my grandmother so she can have it with her in her next life. Outside of the prayers, we all then focused on folding lotus flowers most of the time. The lotus flowers were folded from a special paper that had prayers to lead my grandma to the Happy Land. The idea of the lotus flower is that she would step on the flowers on the way to the Happy Land.

The day before the service was the day for the entire family to dedicate to reading Buddhist chants from the scripture to help elevate my grandmother's merits and pray for her entry to Pureland. We started at 9am and went through the evening. At the end of the day, friends and neighbors also then brought baskets of fruit, food and paper money for buddhas and my grandma. We burnt most of the paper money and lotus flowers that night.

The day of the funeral we all dressed up in black robes. My parents picked the black ones since they would be re-used and was more environmentally friendly. The morning started with chants and then we were joined by friends and neighbors to see her off. We all payed our respect to my grandma through bows, kneeling and head bows and more chants with family members first followed by guests. The "close" family (those who were sons, daughters and those who were married into the family) then thanked the guests with bows as each group approached. We then showed a video clip remembering my grandmother's life. My mom had picked the song and the photos for the remembrance video. You can see it below. We got to see my grandma one last time and then she was taken away in her permanent home (which we filled with some more paper lotus flowers). The sendoff was lead by my oldest cousin who held her incense and invited her spirit to follow. My mother followed with an umbrella. We followed her to the funeral home for cremation and sent her body off with a final chant and good bye. We later picked up her ashes and invited her spirit to follow us and settled her in a mausoleum. That was our final send-off.

Gone yet not forgotten,
Although we are apart,
Your spirit lives within me,
Forever in my heart.

My Journey through this process - Photos:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Remembrance Video - To my loving grandma:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Restaurant Review: Indochine 1929

We've been here a few times now and have not been disappointed any of the times.

We started this time with their chicken and spicy cabbage salad as we had previously. This dish is delicious and refreshing, with a great spicy kick at the end. Very flavorful! We complimented it with additional appetizers that included chicken skewers and salt n pepper crispy fried eggplant.

We then ordered the pan fried beef in la lot leaves. This was our least favorite dish because the flavor wasn't very memorable especially compared to the beef tenderloin with tomatoes, one of their signature dishes. The beef tenderloin was tender, juicy and perfectly cooked. The meat was flavorful but not overpowering.

We've also had the braised duck in orange sauce a couple of times. The sauce is delicious and the duck meat is tender and not fatty. Other entrees that are worth mentioning are the sauteed fillet of chicken with basil, cashew nuts and chili, and eggpplants which are little bit lighter in flavor.

For dessert, you can never go wrong with Mango and Sticky black rice.

Bon Appetit!

Restaurant Review: Yun Fu Restaurant

I've been to several great restaurants in Hong Kong and have finally decided to start reviewing them here. Since there isn't one popular restaurant review site here in HK (like Yelp), I'll be blogging my reviews here.

I just had dinner at Yun Fu Restaurant which is on Wyndham St. by Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). I had passed by it many times while heading down to LKF and have also wondered what it was. From the street, you only see an ancient Chinese door with stairs leading down to the basement lined with buddhas on both sides.

When I finally descended down the stairs, it opens up to their bar area. The entire place is dungeon-like darkness with red highlights from red lanterns. On the wall in the bar, there's a large film projection showing old Chinese films. The cocktail list is very unique and I got to try one of their very refreshing concoctions, Ben Zhi Lan, with Chinese rose wine, rum, fresh chili, lime juice, sugar syrup and lime. The drink came blended on a martini class and was just what I needed at the end of the work day after walking (and sweating) up the slopes and steps to this place.

This was a business meeting for me so I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures but will definitely update when I come back again. Once past the bar, we walked through a darkened curved corridor with sliding old Chinese doors on both sides which hide private dining areas. We were escorted to the end of the restaurant to a more open space. We sat by these large hanging lanterns (see pic on the right). The menu is extensive so we decided to just have the waiter choose for us. Every dish selected was delicious.

We started with "clams steeped in Chinese rose wine & chili padi". The blending of flavours were exquisite on the little clam. It was the perfect opening dish with a little bit of a kick to open our appetites. It was then followed by steamed pork cheek fillet wrapped in lotus leaves. This dish was slightly lighter in flavor but which balanced well with the first dish. For main courses, we were offered their famous marinated roasted rack of lamb with assorted herbs and tea leaves, the braised veal shank wrapped in lotus leaves in a dark soy sauce, and wok fried prawns in Szechuan red pepper. The lamb was beautifully executed and presented with the waiter opening the tea leaves and preparing the lamb for us. It came with this sauce that provided a great mixture of flavors over the perfectly roasted tender lamb. The braised veal again was another unveiling of lotus leaves this time to expose the richly braised veal that was falling off the bone. I took advantage that my food partner was not into the bone marrow and had the juicy goodness myself. The main course wrapped up with the spicy prawns dish covered in red peppers. It was definitely spicy but the prawns were light a crispy and very full of flavor. My mouth wasn't so numb from the spice that I couldn't taste the prawn which was a great thing!


To clean our palate, the meal wrapped up with a slightly sweet flowery gelatin dessert.

It was truly a culinary adventure and I'll definitely be back again to take better picture of the place and the food and try more dishes!