How does one celebrate after an arduous three-week quarantine in a hotel?
Bryan and I flew back to Hong Kong after spending close to three months outside of Hong Kong. At that point, it had been 1.5 years since we had seen our families in the U.S. Bryan’s sister had pushed back her wedding (originally planned for 2020) back a whole year. We decided to fly to the US to attend the wedding, despite knowing we would need to quarantine upon returning to Hong Kong, who was (and is still!) pursuing a dynamic zero Covid policy.
Three weeks in a hotel room is tough, but we are thankful that we were able to quarantine together. After 3 weeks, it was so freeing to finally be able to walk around Hong Kong, and even venture out to eat at restaurants.
We were ”released” on the morning of December 23rd, just two days before Christmas. On Christmas day, we visited Arbor for the first time and enjoyed their special Christmas meal.
We absolutely loved our meal there. The food was elegant, exquisitely executed, and just very, very good in so many different ways. It’s hard to believe we waited this long to try it. Chef-owner Eric Räty, who hails from Finland, is expressing one of my favorite styles of cuisines: Japanese ingredients, French technique, and a Nordic focus on bringing out the flavors of natural ingredients.
Little did we know that Omicron was lurking around the corner, and in just a few weeks the open life of enjoying dinners at restaurants would stop completely for many, many months. We’re so thankful we had the opportunity to enjoy a few really nice dinners out in Hong Kong before the multi-month period of restrictions that followed.
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