This is my second full day back in Southern California.

And on my first full day back, while watching the Super Bowl, my younger brother asked me, “So what was the first thing you wanted to do when you got back?”

At that moment … I hadn’t thought about that.

Now, I have. And I’m going to do something about it.

I’ve decided what I missed more than anything was … a Big Salad.

I’m a huge fan of big salads,  and the United States is the capital of big salads. We like to think they’re good for us, but once you get up to a certain size, with all sorts of stuff on it, in it, it’s just 1,500 calories disguised as roughage.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t want one.

Fans of Hong Kong like to say you can get anything you want in Hong Kong. Anything. If you’ve got the money.

But that isn’t quite true.

It’s very hard to get a good baguette. As I noted earlier.

And it’s almost impossible to get a good Big Salad. Or even any kind of Big Salad.

(Though I should note that a big corner storefront, on Queen’s Road, was hidden behind a plywood shell covered in an advertisement about the salad restaurant that will be opening there, sometime in February. Not in time for me, that is.)

A big issue in Hong Kong is that it’s hard to find lettuce. Of any kind. And if you do find it, it’s going to be at one of the groceries that cater to expats, and it will be seriously expensive.

So, four months in Hong Kong? I can’t say I had a single salad. Of any size. Let alone a big one, with ranch dressing and some extras — like croutons, tomatoes, maybe even some ham or turkey, boiled egg …

Yes, I would like to have a Big Salad.

The other craving I came back with is for Mexican food.

We got there and were told by another California that the one major hole in Hong Kong’s cuisine menu was Mexican. “Don’t bother looking, and don’t even try it,” was what he said. Or something rather like that.

We took his advice.

And, yes, I did return to the idea of, “If I’m in China for a limited time, shouldn’t I try every variety of Chinese I can find, because they know their own stuff, rather than take a crack at Hong Kong Mexican, which they know only by reputation? And for which they probably can’t find ingredients?”

So, four months over there, not even a stab at Mexican. Even though across the street from the Wan Chai apartment was something called The Cactus Bar & Grill, which advertised itself as a Tex-Mex place — but was mostly empty.

Yes, Mexican would be nice. A couple of chicken enchiladas and lots of salsa with corn chips. Maybe tomorrow.

First, the Big Salad. Or semi-Big Salad. Probably at the Belmont Brewery, right there at the Belmont Pier. About three miles from where I’m sitting, downtown.

A semi-Big Salad, and maybe the “taster’s menu” of five varieties of beer made at the micro-brewery onsite. Even though I really like only two of them. And watch the sun go down. Which is something you can’t do in Asia, while looking at the water.

Over there, the sun comes up over the water. Which isn’t nearly as fun as watching it go down. An advantage to living on the eastern edge of the big pond.

I will have ranch dressing, on my semi-Big Salad. I’d prefer the bleu cheese, but the Ranch probably saves about 100 calories.

And tomorrow? Enchiladas. And if not tomorrow, no later than Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I am not yet craving pork dumplings.

Give it another week.