Hong Kong: Crystal Jade at the Airport – Lamian and Xiao Long Bao

I always make a stop at Crystal Jade at Hong Kong Airport right after landing. It’s right there after baggage claim, so it is impossible to miss, and after a long flight, there’s nothing better than indulging in a comforting bowl of lamian and a few xiao long bao. It has become a bit of a tradition, no matter what time I arrive or how tired I am, Crystal Jade is my first stop.

The Singapore based restaurant chain has different restaurant concepts in the portfolio, but the La Mian Xiao Long Bao restaurants are what most people mean, when they are talking about Crystal Jade. As the name suggests, the La Mian Xiao Long Bao restaurants focuse on lamian (Chinese noodles) and xiao long bao (soup dumplings). Lamian are Chinese noodles and at Crystal Jade, they are made in-house and cooked to bouncy perfection. If you have a couple of hours in Hong Kong Airport stopping by for a bowl of la mian at Crystal Jade is not a bad idea.

I usually get the Dan-Dan La Mian which are noodles in a rich peanut broth with chili oil. The xiao long bao at Crystal Jade are also really good, and some might say that they’re even better than the ones at Din Tai Fung. I wouldn’t be able to pick one over the other, because both are nice in their own way. The xiao long bao at Crystal Jade are somewhat bigger and more clumsy-looking than the ones at Din Tai Fung, but bigger means more soup inside, which is always a good thing:)

On the Hong Kong plane last time, I was sitting next to a lady from Hong Kong. She was traveling with her family, and she told me, that they were on their way to a skiing resort outside Seoul. They used to go skiing in Sapporo in Japan, but she explained that in recent years it has become very expensive, and you would have to book your stay a very long time in advance. Therefore, they had decided to go skiing in Korea instead. She thought I was Korean, so she wanted to ask me, if I knew about the opening hours during Seollal at Lotte World, which is a big amusement park in Seoul. I couldn’t help her with that one, but instead we started talking about what it’s like to be adopted. It turned out that she had adopted a little boy, and she wanted my advice on when it’s the best time to explain to him, that he wasn’t her biological son.

My parents have always been open with the whole adoption thing. Since we don’t look like each other, keeping it a secret was never really an option. They’ve always done their best to tell my sister and I how much they wanted to have kids, and my grandma used to tell us this bedtime story about how we came to Denmark in a huge airplane, and how happy they were to see us. I think it was a very nice way to handle it.

PS: I didn’t use to be someone who talks to strangers on a plane. In fact, I was the kind of person who would hurry to plug in my earphones, and then pretend she is asleep. Though it has changed the last couple of years, and I’ll even strike up a conversation myself, if the person next to me looks nice and friendly.