Hong Kong alumni and friends greeted President and Mrs. Corey at a special dinner held on Sunday evening, November 16. Along with enjoying plenty of personal discussion around the tables, President Corey took the time to share Biola’s vision and challenges with the assembled guests. The alumni were encouraged to share their fondest memory of Biola, as well as a word about a favorite professor.
Dinner at the Peking Garden Restaurant featured a number of Chinese delicacies, including “Beggar’s Chicken.” This special chicken dish was baked in a lotus leaf and mud wrap, then opened by President Corey with a special golden hammer when served (see photos). There are a number of stories associated with the origins of Beggar’s Chicken, one being that a beggar stole a chicken from a yard as he passed by, and as he was preparing to cook it, a posse of the emperor’s guards came by. In the beggar’s panic to hide the chicken, he covered it with mud and threw it into the fire, and the resulting baked chicken was said to be the most flavorful and tender chicken he’d ever eaten.