Foraging - the “act of looking or searching for food or provisions" – is a concept that I’m more and more drawn to. Foraging is how our original ancestors acquired food as hunter gatherers. When practised sustainably it is a way to eat that links the food with the consumer; man with nature. Even in Australia’s harsh environment fishing, shooting roos, diving for scallops and abalone and harvesting wild nuts and herbs is pretty accessible. Yet here in Hong Kong I read blogs about foraging, I think about foraging, yet I do very little of it. Why?
What can I hunt and gather within our SAR? I do a bit of fishing and eat the occasional salt water species, though I’m too concerned about water quality to try freshwater fish. The odd papaya and mulberry finds itself into my possession. I use banana leaves for cooking, buffalo poo for compost and bamboo for gardening stakes and that folks is the extent of my Hong Kong foraging. I've seriously considered munching on the massive snails that reside here, but was scarred off by rat lungworm and have seen people gather medical herbs around my village. I’ve searched the net extensively but can’t find anything in English. Is it a language barrier and a lack of information holding me back or is the Hong Kong environment so corrupted that people have stopped bothering? Surely there must be older residents still foraging amongst villages of the New Territory? If anyone has any information please help.Read foraging adventures here, here and here.
I hadn’t dived in a couple of years so was hopelessly incompetent and retired from the adventure early. Before surfacing I did see a massive school of crabs that had swarmed for breeding and were churning up the ocean floor; an impressive sight. The others however did their job and returned with bags full of the fresh molluscs. 
Eating scallops is easy, but cleaning them is a different matter. Slaving away with a knife opening shells at least had that benefit of being able to munch on them, sashimi style, I worked. We had to head back to Melbourne, but took a bag of the fresh, juicy scallops for lunch. Pan-fried with and garlic and butter, they became the feature of a delicious salad. Fresh scallops gathered in the morning and eaten latter that day; oh Australia I’ll miss you.
It’s my first morning back in Australia and time to begin the circus of catching up with friends; something, that unfortunately for Joey (on her first visit), tends to dominate trips home. First stop is lunch at a mate’s and alongside the super company and delicious wine is this massive Snapper he caught; stuffed with rice, herbs and onion. Freshly caught, well seasoned and packed with juicy flavour it’s a memorable meal that brings buckets of joy, but also just a hint of regret at what would be a much more regular occurrence if I still lived in the Land Down Under.
Who knows where 
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