Pics from Mong Kok Markets

Mong Kok is one of the most people-packed hubs of Hong Kong... in fact, it's said to be one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

I mean, who are all these people? Don't they have jobs??

It's located opposite to Hong Kong Island, in the centre of the larger land mass called Kowloon, which joins the New Territories, which hooks up to southern China.

The intensity of Mong Kok is bittersweet to a gal like me, and frankly, I'm a bit bi-polar about it...

One day I think it's the most frustrating, crowded, irritating place on Earth and to be avoided like the plague - and the next, I think it's a phenomenally fantastic place, soaked with life, colour and culture.

See I'm a bit moody that way.

I'll be spending a bit of time in Mong Kok this month when I kick off my Chinese cooking course. Part of the training is to visit a local food market and learn how to select fresh food - a key ingredient in itself to good Chinese cooking.

You can always tell when you're close to a Mong Kok food market: the final remnants of fresh air are suddenly sucked out of the sky, only to be switched with the pungent stench of Fish Oil.

Please let there be no Fish Oil in my cooking class. That stuff stinks.