Traveling with kids can be a trade off.  It’s not the first time I’ve said this.  Traveling as a family means that you still get to see the world, and you get to make wonderful memories together, but the sacrifice is that you may not always get to do everything you want.

As cool as it would be to do a trek through the desert on a camel’s back and come flying down a dune with a sand board attached to my feet; that won’t be in the cards for our family vacations until our kids are a little older.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that we can’t still try to do things a little differently and get off the beaten path as much as possible.

While we were in Hong Kong we met up with fellow Canadian expats, Lincoln and Jessica.  They run a company called Backcounty Hong Kong, and since they’re Canadian, you already know you’re going to love them, right!?

Their company focuses on taking people outside of the city and enjoying some of the natural beauty that Hong Kong has to offer… if you know where to look.

After we caught up on hockey and how much we miss maple syrup(as all Canadians living abroad do) we headed for the ferry to Cheung Chau Island, a fishing village with no motorized vehicles and a lot of seafood!

Lincoln and Jessica are both Chinese-Canadian, which means that they have a few qualities that make them perfect guides for exploring: they both speak perfect Cantonese and they grew up with this culture.  They were able to relate to what we know as Canadians, and also explain to us how things are traditionally done.  And don’t forget about food.  They know their food, and I like to eat.  It was a match made in heaven.
Our first stop- taking our taste-buds by storm with fish for breakfast! They introduced us to local delicacies like deep fried fish skin, fish balls and cuttlefish balls.  I can’t say I devoured it, but I did give it a shot.  That’s got to count for something right!  We also had yin-yang tea, a mix of half coffee, half tea; which is perfect for someone like me that doesn’t love straight coffee.
After strolling for a bit, we made our way to the local seafood market where our daughters hadn’t quite grasped that this “aquarium” they were checking out was about to become their lunch.  Hand picked!

With our seafood treats all wrapped up, we headed to a tiny restaurant, pulled up some patio chairs on the street and awaited our fresh seafood to magically be turned into lunch!
From the pier to the market, market to the restaurant and then to our plate, all within a couple blocks.  Now that’s fresh!

Our lunch consisted of fresh razor clams and scallops steamed with garlic, served with vermicelli noodles, as well as clams in black bean sauce.  It was absolutely delish!

As we walked off our lunch we continued to explore this tiny island, where we were in awe of how different it was from the bustling Hong Kong, only a 30 minute ferry ride away.  Strolling down the narrow alleys eating pumpkin cake with peanut and sesame filling, we stopped every so often to pop our heads into some of the shops selling homemade noodles, fruit and dried goods.  It was fascinating to get an insiders look into this local Chinese community.

Japanese red bean cake was the next item to take my taste buds a bit out of their comfort zone.  Which is basically a fresh bun stuffed with a black bean mixture of some sort.  As you can see from the picture below I was a bigger fan of the bun than the beans, so my technique was to eat my way around the outside and then pass the leftovers to my husband.  I’m sneaky like that.As we wound down our island visit with a stroll down the beach, Lincoln and Jessica asked if we might have room for one more treat.  Silly question…there’s always room for dessert.  With a few minutes before our ferry arrived, we stopped for mango mochi, a rice cake stuffed with fresh mango…and we washed it down with some mango juice while we were at it. Lincoln and Jessica did a great job tailoring a day for our family that was different than what we’d find on our own, but easy enough for us to do with two very small kids.  It’s probably not the most adventurous of activities they offer through their company, but they were great at helping get our family off the beaten path to see a little piece of Hong Kong that most tourists don’t get to.  We wouldn’t have searched out Cheung Chau Island on our own, but we had such a great time eating our way through this tiny island that we were very grateful that Lincoln and Jessica were there to show us around!

Thank you to Back Country Hong Kong for welcoming us as guests.  All opinions are my own.