Fall of 2014 was a time of revolution in Hong Kong, termed "The Umbrella Revolution." I flew in hoping to further hone my cooking skills and take a look at some new mineral finds.

On the way to the Dim Sum school and decided to stop by the protest! Viva la Umbrella Revolution!!!



















The end of the Umbrella Revolution?

Martha Sherpas Cooking School in Hong Kong. http://marthasherpa.com/

Steamed shrimp dumplings (Seen Har Fun Gor) was the first product out.

Met up with another American in class by the name of Nina.

Local Hong Kong resident Alice brushing up on the basics!

Getting the dough ready for the BBQ pork buns!

Trying to figure out what goes where?

Roll it this way!

Letting the dough rest and rise for the BBQ buns.

The BBQ Pork filling with the Agar for the thickener, which becomes soft when the bun is cooked.

And Voila; you have a BBQ Pork bun or Guk Cha Siu Bao.

Nina rolling the next dough for the Boiled Pork and Chinese chives dumplings.

Boiled Pork and Chinese chives dumplings.

This is how I want your Guotie (Pot Stickers) to look when you are done!

The ready to cook fresh Guotie/ Pot Stickers.

Cooked off and ready to eat, thankfully as I am starving!

Finished and ready to eat Pan Fried Pork buns (Sound Jean Bao) with ginger and spring onions.

Martha inspecting my pleating work on the Steamed Buns (Choy Yuk Bao) and subsequently not happy with my work...Argh!

Oh well, I am okay with it as long as they cook off correctly.

The most difficult of the lessons is the intimidating steamed dumplings with pork and soup filling, Siao Lung Bao.

Decided after all of the cooking to hit up a top Cantonese restaurant called the Lung King Heen.

One of the signature dishes the Steamed Lobster and Scallop dumpling. This one was kind of forgettable for execution of taste. Title sounded better than the taste.

Cutting the Abalone in half for service.

Whole Abalone baked in a puff pastry shell and it was delicious!

Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts.

Crispy Scallops with fresh Pear and Yunnan Ham. This one did not quite make it in my book.

The inside of the tasty little Barbecued Pork Buns with Pine Nuts.

Conny Wong and I enjoying the food for a quick lunch!

Close up of the Crispy Scallops with fresh Pear and Yunnan Ham.

Crispy Shrimp dumplings. This was a well thought out and tasty dumpling.

Always time for some tea to relax before looking around.

Some of the new red wulfenite from the "Stone Crack", Kuruktag Mts, Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. We will have a large lot of this material at the Tucson 2015 show in February.

Selling fresh vegetables.

A nice cluster of the older stibnite a few years back from Wuling.

Selling fresh vegetables.

Some of the tree roots in Guilin that they carve into interesting shapes and stories.

Close up of prior tree root from Guilin.

Stopping for lunch with small fish.

Stopping for lunch with bigger fish.

Smaller pieces or discards from the larger tree root carvers end up with the smaller carvers in Guilin.

A nice cluster of fluorite and quartz from the Yao Gan Xian mine.

Tree root carving in Guilin.

Close up of the prior tree root carving in Guilin.

A larger cluster of the new blue fluorite on quartz from Huanggangliang, Inner Mongolia still dirty.

Another photo of the fluorite cluster from Huanggangliang, Inner Mongolia.

Always a little time for a game of Mahjong when there is no critical business about.

A nice lot of the hairy stibnite's from Xi Kuang Shan, China.

Chinese celery blanched and ready for lunch.

Eating lunch with the Gao family

Some of the new red wulfenite from the "Stone Crack", Kuruktag Mts, Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. We will have a large lot of this material at the Tucson 2015 show in February.

The largest piece of grapefruit that I have ever come across!

Some of the new red wulfenite from the "Stone Crack", Kuruktag Mts, Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. We will have a large lot of this material at the Tucson 2015 show in February.

A photo of the Chinese grapefruit that the segment came from.

Some of the new red wulfenite from the "Stone Crack", Kuruktag Mts, Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. We will have a large lot of this material at the Tucson 2015 show in February.