Miele Guide: Cast Your Vote for Asia's Best Restaurants!

Last week, an email invite to vote as a member of the special jury for The Miele Guide landed in my inbox, so I thought I'd have a Skype chat with uber-cool foodies Aun Koh & Sulyn Tan -- who are the embodiment of the Little Cream Life -- about their ambitious project to produce the definitive guide to Asia's best restaurants. While waiting for Sulyn's computer to start up ("Vista!" explained AK for the lag), we chatted about his recent meal at el Bulli and reminisced about the days of Commodore and Atari. When Sulyn finally joined us, Aun explained how the whole project started:


Aun: Both Su-Lyn and I have spent almost a decade each working in publishing. Many of those years have been dedicated to (1) food and restaurants; and (2) covering thr growth of Asia's lifestyle markets. The Miele Guide is something that we've wanted to do professionally for a long time. In 2002-2004, Su-Lyn was the editor in charge of Wine & Dine, and also thus ran its restaurant guide.

LCL: it's quite ambitious to do a pan-asian guide. was it hard putting together the shortlist?

Sulyn: The challenge was in first tracking down the best people to help us put it together. We really wanted to work with journalists who are currently keeping tabs on the restaurant scenes in their home cities/countries; people whose primary focus is to check out restaurants.

LCL: how many restaurants did each journalist recommend?

Sulyn: We ended up working with 84 of Asia's top restaurant critics. Each one was invited to nominate the 20 restaurants they felt were the best in their city/country.
In addition, when voters go online, they still have the option of adding in restaurants they feel are missing.

LCL: did you contribute to the shortlist?

Aun: Nope. We only invited full-time restaurant critics, plus a few others who are considered "local authorities". We actually don't fall into these categories. For Singapore, the panelists were Wong Ah Yoke, Geoffrey Eu, Jaime Ee, and Daven Wu, all of whom cover restaurants professionally.

LCL: any chefs?

Aun: Nope. Full-time restaurant critics! We did have a case in which a Contributing Editor (in Japan) suggested a panelist who is both a respected food writer and a respected chef. We said no but have invited this person to vote as part of the Special Jury. It was very important to have only critics creating the shortlist. Our Special Jury, on the other hand, is made up of regional freelancers, other media, foodies, chefs, hoteliers, restaurateurs and others from related industries that have some authority and know the region's restaurant scene.

LCL: y did you choose to follow the zagat model as opposed to the michelin model?

Sulyn: Actually, we're not following the Zagat model. While the public is invited to vote, we won't be consolidating their comments into our reviews. Each restaurant guide book company has its strengths. Zagat is strongest in the United States. Michelin is strongest in Europe. And while Zagat has had a presence in Asia for many years, its ratings and reviews are not considered significant benchmarks by Asian foodies and critics. Michelin’s own foray into Tokyo, while a success from a sales point of view, has garnered a lot of criticism from some of Japan’s most respected food critics and writers, and even Tokyo’s own mayor. Each guide book company also has its own process of evaluations. Zagat, being American, is entirely democratic. Its results are based on a popular survey. Michelin, on the other hand, likes to employ secrecy, depending on a small army of appointed tasters. Each of those systems work well in their own backyards, so to speak, but in Asia, we have decided it is important to look to other systems in order to best determine what our region’s best restaurants are. I think it will be the readers that at the end of the day decide if we have done our jobs properly, i.e. whether we have put together a guide that most accurately reflects what is happening in Asia’s restaurant scene. Most importantly, we want this guide to reflect the tastes of Asians, and not become an imposition of our own taste judgements on the region’s restaurants.

LCL: i think in Asia, there's the added complication where most international cities have a multi-cuisine focus when it comes to the best restaurants and a lot of great restaurants happen to be western imports. so i think it will be interesting to see how many robuchons or nobus make it onto this asian list
and how many local-grown restaurants make it. for example, a gau gee noodle shop or even a tsui wah hongkie fast food joint

Sulyn: you make a very good point. essentially, we want to create a system that allows for more than just the imports to be lauded in Asia. That said, it is a restaurant guide. So, a hawker stand would not be considered a restaurant.

Aun: we are setting specific guidelines as to what is a restaurant. None of the restaurants that we have allowed into the shortlist are "stalls", so to speak. That said, each panelist was allowed to push the definition of "restaurant" a little, if within their local context what they consider a restaurant is a little outside the box. For example, Naughty Nuri's in Bali is a restaurant to any critic in (and probably voter) in Indonesia. But a hawker stall in Newton Circus clearly is not. When the final results come in, we will look carefully to see if non-traditional restaurants were nominated and then make a decision on a case by case basis.

LCL: were the critics asked to recommend restaurants on food quality alone or also dining experience?

Sulyn: critics were asked to propose restaurants they consider to deliver a complete experience of excellence. In some contexts, whether there are table cloths and a stool for your handbag is irrelevant. For others, the ambience is part of the whole experience. We asked them to judge the restaurants as their fellow citizens are likely to judge them.

LCL: do you think that local "Asian" restaurants might suffer a little in the rankings since sometimes those serving good food have a habit of neglecting the "experience"?

Aun: It is up to the panelists, public voters and Jury members to make those decisions.

LCL: thanks guys, as a final question, i'd still like to get one of your fave restaurants...can be outside of asia if you don't want to compromise the objectivity of Miele Guide

Aun: Su-Lyn would like to qualify our answer: Le Cinq for a chi-chi affair and L'Atelier de Robuchon for everyday eating. Both in Paris. :)

Sulyn: I meant I'd be happy to eat at pretty much any L'Atelier in the world. It is impressive that they are pretty consistent wherever they are.

LCL: wow, so no el bulli

Aun: El Bulli is amazing and a really incredible experience, but I don't think I would call it a favourite. A "favourite" is the kind of place you could go to regularly -- and crave regularly. Don't forget, though, our guide is a determination of Asia's best restaurant not the public's favourite restaurants, which are two different things.

LCL: ciao! thanks for the chat! have a great weekend! i am going for sham tseng roast goose tmr night. can't wait to break this fast from good food!!!

Aun: We'll be dining at The White Rabbit 3 times over the next 3 days.

Everyone is eligible to cast their vote for the 10 best restaurants in Asia until 31 July 2008.

Chat with Alexandra Harney

I met Alexandra Harney last December over lunch at da domenico and we immediately hit it off. She's a journalist and now published author of The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage. She's one of those fascinating and entertaining people that can talk about everything under the sun and make you laugh non-stop. She speaks fluent Japanese, worked as an aide to a Japanese politician, taught herself Chinese so that she could talk to migrant Chinese workers and is also an avid snowboarder.

Penguin releases her book next Thursday (27 March). Because I haven't read the book yet, I thought it would be fun to have Alex talk about it herself. So I scheduled a gmail chat session with her. What I had originally anticipated to be a 20-30 minute session, ended up running an hour and a half. She had just gotten back from giving a talk at a Rotary Club luncheon and we chit-chatted a bit before eventually diving into her book:

2:48 PM me: so what gave you the idea to devote 2 years of your life roaming from chinese factory to chinese factory?

2:49 PM Alexandra: well, I grew up outside Washington, DC at a time when everyone was very concerned about Japan as an economic threat

and so I was very surprised, when I moved to Japan in the late 1990s,

me: this is back in the 80s?

2:50 PM Alexandra: to hear Japanese executives telling me they were worried they were going to lose their jobs to china. This was in the early 1990s that I first became aware of the debate about Japan.

2:51 PM So when I moved to Hong Kong with the Financial Times,

one of the first things I did was head up to mainland China.

I visited a clothing factory

and met this young woman, a worker,

2:52 PM who was sending most of what she earned home to her family every month.

All she had left over from the $100 or she earned was enough money for soap or tissues.

I thought she was pretty fascinating

and I looked around, and there were thousands of other women just like her

in that factory alone, and millions of others all around China.

2:53 PM I wanted to tell their story, and connect it to my life and the lives of my friends and family back in the US.

me: that's really interesting...so basically, it was a connection with a woman...and you wanted to understand her life

2:54 PM Alexandra: Precisely.

I wanted, actually, to move into a dormitory in China and work and live like a factory worker.

That wasn't really possible.

Chinese factories are busy places

and I'm not very efficient.

me: haha...i see a trend here...factory girl...sushi chef...

2:55 PM journalism really suits you

Alexandra: Yes - in Japanese, they call it "taiken"

me: what else would you want to be?

Alexandra: which literally translated means "body experience"

me: or rather, experience

Alexandra: well, there's the body character in there

but yes, it means experience

2:56 PM I'm not sure what else I'd like to try out

but when I was living in Japan, I did as many of those "taiken" experiences as possible

I made butter on a farm in Hokkaido

2:57 PM I made paper the old fashioned way

in a little village outside Tokyo

I handed out brochures on the street

2:58 PM me: it seems in this day and age...we are so removed from using our hands to make things

production is outsourced to others

Alexandra: Absolutely

And that's a pretty fascinating trend

2:59 PM Because whoever ends up making things for us benefits, but also pays a price

that's what The China Price is about.

me: but ultimately, we, as consumers, also pay a price too

Alexandra: Yes, completely.

3:00 PM me: so that leaves only one winner

Alexandra: Well, I think people win on both sides of the equation

One economist in the US estimates that China's factories have saved the average American family $500 a year

because their prices are so low.

That's a material savings.

3:01 PM And things like Ipods and mobile phones are more affordable because of outsourcing production to lower-cost areas.

On the other side of the equation, Chinese workers do generally earn money for their work

me: but we pay for it in terms of waste accumulation, damage to the environment etc.

Alexandra: if not perhaps as much as they should under the law.

3:02 PM Yes, definitely. To make things really cheaply, you have to sacrifice certain costs

and unfortunately, those costs have historically often been environmental protection

workers' rights

workers' health.

This is not specific to China - it's happened and happening everywhere.

me: do you think it's worth it?

3:03 PM Alexandra: Great question.

I think it depends on who you are.

me: start with the factory worker

3:04 PM Alexandra: Okay, if you're a Chinese factory worker who has used your earnings and experience to climb the economic ladder

3:05 PM and obtain a better standard of living for yourself and your family

then you're lucky: you are a beneficiary of globalization.

But if you're one of the unlucky factory workers

3:06 PM who has contracted an occupational disease

for example

and you're dying of silicosis

because of the dust you inhaled on the line, and you don't have insurance

because your employer never bothered to buy it for you

globalization wasn't worth it for you.

3:07 PM In truth, if you look at China's manufacturing workforce - 104.5 million people

clearly, many of these workers have paid a certain price

3:08 PM in terms of having had to work very long hours, for less than they should have been paid,

but many of them have, at the same time, helped to raise the standard of living of their family.

The true test is to ask the workers themselves.

A lot of my migrant worker friends

3:09 PM are not so sure working that hard is worth it.

And would prefer easier lives.

But they also want to earn money.

And the factories are where they can earn money.

3:10 PM me: but this is the story of progress

parents toil, so that they can put their kids through school, hopefully give them a better life

Alexandra: Yes, precisely.

3:11 PM me: generations of immigrants to America were looking for the same

Alexandra: Yes.

What I think is different today is the multinationals that are involved in this process.

These migrant workers in China are working directly to supply goods to big, international companies.

3:12 PM Who are looking for the lowest price possible.

me: yes, that's who i meant as the one winner in the equation

but even that is not so simple

Alexandra: Yes - not simple at all.

3:13 PM me: because many American consumers are also shareholders in these multinationals through their 401Ks

Alexandra: right

It's complex

retailers and brands answer to their shareholders and to Wall Street

me: a web

Alexandra: yes

me: the irony is that as China gets wealthier

Alexandra: and investors, of course, want improving returns.

3:14 PM me: more of their wealth is tied into Wall Street and multinationals

Alexandra: As shareholders, you mean, or as employees?

or both?

me: both

Alexandra: Right. Absolutely.

3:15 PM I think so far, a lot of Westerners have been concerned about labor rights and organic foods

environmentally-friendly cars

and most Chinese don't have that luxury.

But when they do, that could really have an impact on the way business is done.

3:16 PM me: so what was your big take-away after writing The China Price?

did it change the way you consume?

Alexandra: Yes.

It changed the way I think about shopping.

3:17 PM Certain prices are so low that the product cannot have been made under ethical conditions.

3:18 PM I know that for a lot of products, it's very difficult to tell precisely where and how it was made.

And that's troubling.

I do think more about buying less.

And I think about what I know about companies' buying practices,

3:19 PM and how open they are about them.

If a company can't tell me how many factories they have,

how do they know what's really happening in those factories?

I think a lot about my friends and contacts at the other end of the supply chain

3:20 PM and wonder how much of the price of what I'm buying went to them.

3:21 PM me: How many people did you talk to for the book?

3:22 PM Alexandra: I couldn't even count.

Hundreds?

Certainly more than a hundred.

3:23 PM me: Did you come across anyone you really disliked?

Alexandra: Ha! No, not really.

People were really generous, with their time, their insights, their advice.

3:24 PM Writing a book reminds you of the generosity of the human spirit.

me: That's very true...not just book writing

Alexandra: Yes.

me: I come across it all the time

Alexandra: Yes.

But as a daily journalist, you sometimes feel like nobody wants to talk to you or help you.

3:25 PM And stepping away from that to write this book helped show me that people are pretty extraordinary.

me: What's your next project? Or what would be your dream project?

3:26 PM Alexandra: Oh, I wish I knew!

I'd love to write another book someday.

me: Were there days you thought you'd never finish?

3:27 PM Alexandra: No - I had a contract, so I knew I'd finish.

But there were plenty of lonely days.

Being a daily journalist is a very social thing.

Writing a book is more solitary.

Which is funny, since I was in China for so much of the time.

Where there are plenty of people.

3:28 PM me: But you were connecting in a different way probably

Alexandra: Connecting to?

me: all the people in China that were around you

Alexandra: Right - that was great.

As you know, I love Shenzhen

3:29 PM love all of the craziness of southern China.

I find it the most fascinating place in the world.

And to have the time to explore it, to talk to people, to hear their stories,

me: i should get you to be my guide some time

Alexandra: was a real privilege.

me: i really don't like southern china

Alexandra: Really?

Why not?

me: yes, really

it's probably for all the reasons you love it

Alexandra: Ha ha!

me: it's madness

Alexandra: Yes - that's what I love.

3:30 PM me: i love japan though

Alexandra: I know you do. I love Japan too.

I just find Shenzhen kind of a hidden gem.

Everyone has a story.

me: since you speak both japanese and chinese

Alexandra: Yes, so there is that

and you know I love to talk.

So I enjoy hearing people's stories

me: it must be interesting, because the languages are so different

3:31 PM not in terms of sound

Alexandra: yes, the languages are totally different -

in terms of personality.

me: but in terms of how communication is carried out

Alexandra: I think we've talked about this before, but yes

me: yes, personality is the word

Alexandra: what do you think is the most different?

me: do you find you are a different person depending on the language you are speaking?

Alexandra: Yes, sort of.

3:32 PM All are versions of me. My Japanese personality is much more polite, more demure.

me: haha

Alexandra: My Chinese personality is much closer to my American personality.

I crack more jokes in Japanese, because I'm more fluent.

But I try to make sure people keep laughing when I speak Chinese, even if it is at me.

3:33 PM Are your Cantonese and English personalities different?

me: i think they are fairly similar, because fluency level is the same, but i think i tend to be more crass in Cantonese

Alexandra: Ha!

me: Cantonese is funny that way

3:34 PM it's a very crass, gritty language

Alexandra: Yes, from what I hear

me: or at least can be

Alexandra: Why do you think it is?

me: well, Putonghua is what was spoken in the courts

so it's more refined

Alexandra: right

me: although, when they were voting which dialect to use

3:35 PM Cantonese apparently only lost by 1 vote

Alexandra: HA!

me: or so i've been told, could be myth

Alexandra: Who was voting?

me: i assume the mandarins

Alexandra: Year?

me: not the people, of course

dunno...these are just stories my dad tells me

Alexandra: Interesting!

I will look that up.

me: tell me if it's true!

3:36 PM Alexandra: Okay, will do.

me: ok...better wrap this up...you must be busy

although i could sit here and chat with you all day

"Beauty is the Promise of Happiness" and the Hexagonal House

It's an extremely rare luxury for me to be able to read a book cover-to-cover, more or less in one go. It's not just the luxury of finding the time to do nothing else but read, but also the luxury of finding the book that doesn't lose my attention span before the first 100 pages. I got to do just that over last week's Labour Day holiday. The book was Alain de Botton's The Architecture of Happiness. It's a really easy read with a whole lot of photographs. AdB's books all deal with one central theme -- what makes us happy and how we often delude ourselves into thinking that happiness might lie in a weeklong yoga retreat with Cyndi Lee in Ubud or zipping down PCH in the latest Ferrari.

Stendhal's "Beauty is the promise of happiness" quote struck a chord. The quote begs the question: what is beauty? AdB's answer is, of course, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That which we find beautiful is what we find to hold most promise for our happiness or fulfillment. So that got me thinking about my obsession with building a hexagonal house and what that means for my quest for happiness.

livingroom
Originally uploaded by kebbiekow.

When I was about 13 years old, living in Arizona, a bike ride away from Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, I was lying on the floor one day trying to sketch out a workable, liveable solution for a hexagon-shaped house (my aunt, who had been trained as an architect and was visiting at the time, took one glance at my drawing and told me that it was a silly design and that nobody would ever design a house like that). Even though I visited AD and his family at Taliesin West often, I hadn't yet heard about or seen images of FLW's Hanna House. But like FLW, I was driven by boredom with all the cookie-cutter rectangular houses I saw around me. There must be a more interesting shape to live in. So for me, happiness = absence of boredom, which I guess visually translates into anything other than a square or rectangle (coincidentally, my office building is probably the only building in town with hexagonal windows). The most recent incarnation of my obsession with the hexagonal house has been Snowflake (snowflakes, of course, are hexagonal and their beauty lie in the fact that each is unique), an idea for a luxury onsen ski ryokan in some snowy wilderness with access to powdery slopes. BL did a wonderful job designing a floor plan based on my very specific brief of wanting an exploding or radiating hexagon. I think Jean Hanna sums up best what I find beautiful in a hexagon. She once remarked about Hanna House: "To live here, is to live imaginatively".

Neat reads

Got an interesting email from JC at Hong Kong Design Center (which also reminded me that Business of Design Week conference is landing in here from 29 November to 1 December. Cool speakers include: Karim Rashid, Jimmy Choo, and Alan Yau among others). He forwarded a request for input from his friend AL in Spain who is working on a book called We Love Magazines for Colophon 2007, in international magazine symposium. For the book, they're compiling a list of "magazines that have sadly passed on but that we really miss -- from The Face to Nova". Oddly, I couldn't think of any. In particular, they need input on non-English magazine (funny, eat just came to mind, so I googled it and indeed it has folded!). Let me know if you can think of any and I'll forward them on to AL.

As I was going through AL's site, I came across another book for which he was both an editor and writer, le cool changed my life: a weird and wonderful guide to barcelona. I flipped through the online sample pages and loved it, so ordered my copy. I'm a bit of a magazine and travel guide junkie, I suppose. le cool also publishes weekly events listings for Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London and Istanbul.

And since I'm on a design tangent today, congratulations to AW's company, Kitchen, for bagging a Hong Kong 4As Interactive & Direct Award! Kitchen and Mindshare's MOOV Online Campaign (client: PCCW-now.com.hk) was the Best Interactive Campaign 2006!

Dream Enterprises, Good Enterprises

Funny how themes of entries these past few days have kind of flowed from one to the next. Following on from yesterday's "follow-you-dreams" theme, I had the pleasure of attending a dinner talk by fellow Bryn Mawr alum Claudia Shaw d'Auriol and Delicious co-author Dominica Yang. Not only do I love a good follow-your-passion story, I am also a sucker for do-good stories (like buying copies of Marisa Acocella Marchetto's Cyber Vixen the other day when I read about it in daily candy; part of the author's proceeds go to providing breast care to underprivileged women at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center and The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.).

So here were two amazing women, both taking time from their work (Claudia works for Chanel and Dominica has her own interior design business) and family obligations, doing what they love and doing it for the good of others. Over lunch one day, they decided they both shared a common dream -- to write a cookbook. They decided they should do it together and that 100% of the proceeds should go to two Hong Kong charities: Children's Thalassaemia Foundation and Priscilla's Home (one of Fu Hong Society's homes for the handicapped). Both charities are close to the heart of Dominica, as she herself is a carrier of Thalassaemia and her family founded Priscilla's Home.


It was particularly fun to hear about their trials and tribulations of self publishing as well as about their passion for cooking. The main message, though, was that of a Nike ad -- just do it. Life's too precious to come up with a million and one excuses not to do the things that you love and care about.

And then, this morning, in my inbox of various e-newsletters, there's CITY's Page One blurb on RED being the new Black. I love RED's manifesto about the power of choice. For me, as a consumer, it's an easy choice. What is there not to love about it -- brilliant products + brilliant marketing to do good by raising money for The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Sounds like a great, do-good business model to me!

What good will you dream up today?

Pleasant Surprises

I love surprises, especially when they come in boxes. Out of the blue, a box arrived from Pantheon (an imprint of Random House). Had the new titles I sent to SW, an editor I had met last year about Little Cream Book, bounced back? I opened the box, and inside sat copies of Joan Didion's non-fiction collection, We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live, and Feather in the Storm by Emily Wu and Larry Engelmann about Wu's childhood during the Cultural Revolution. Apparently, SW did received the new titles I sent her and had reciprocated. I can't wait to start reading them, especially the Joan Didion collection. Didion's writings were much talked about during my Bryn Mawr days, but to be honest, I didn't actually get around to reading much of them (I had actually read more Susan Sontag). Because I'm an avid reader of Vanity Fair and Dominick Dunne's (Didion's brother-in-law) column, I probably know more about her personal life than about her actual writing.

Speaking of other pleasant surprises, I came across a wonderful write-up on Little Cream Book in the current issue of Four Seasons magazine (as in the luxury hotels and resorts). It was actually written by ST, or better known as Chubby Hubby's S. It was actually an article on creative, lifestyle products coming out of China's metropolitan cities (i.e. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing), which also featured Fort Street Studio, Spin Ceramics, Suzhou Cobblers, Chang & Biorck and Mushi Fashion.

A more local surprise was a visit to a fairly new boutique hotel/serviced apartment right around the corner from my office on 133 Leighton Road. I had heard of Lanson Place mentioned by another friend earlier, but was not intrigued enough to go seek it out. Since EO had just checked-in, I decided to pay him a visit before we went to lunch. Turns out, it's very good value for money. He got upgraded to a Grand Luxe room (around 500 sq. ft.), which has a kitchenette (with microwave and burners), separate sitting area and bedroom with airy views overlooking the stadium. Bathroom is OK in size. Typical of a "boutique hotel", there is no bathtub and offers only one wash basin. At HK$1,400++ (rack rate is HK$3,200++) though, it's a pretty good deal in Causeway Bay. It does run up against competition though; as it's right behind JIA. The more intimate ambiance beats Regal Hotel next door or Excelsior on the harbour front. In Central, there's Hotel LKF, which is very convenient for those who enjoy the Lan Kwai Fong/SoHo nightlife when they're in the city.

And last, but not least, there's the season 3 opener of
Desperate Housewives, which is just out on iTunes. Just 10 more days till LOST!

NYC: Upper East Side workout spots, Fig & Olive, Shake Shack, etc.

I've been in NYC for a little over a week now. It's been great. Been staying at MH's place on 65th and 3rd, and been absolutely spoiled. The neighborhood's been so convenient. I've had a smorgasbord of workout experiences -- got a temporary one week membership to Sports Club/LA on 61st & 1st where there's a dizzying array of group sculpt classes and the facilities are great, another one-week trial for US$25 at Some Like It Hot Yoga on 63rd & 3rd, Jivamukti Yoga Studio is just around the corner on Lex and a INShape, a private exercise studio on 68th & 5th that offers rebounder (workout routines done on a mini-trampoline) and pilates. Of course, the park is also right nearby. In addition to working out, I've spent some time working at the public library on 67th & 2nd (also has free wi-fi, but a bit of a small neighborhood library so the hours are a bit short).

Despite all that, the highlight of New York is meeting people over meals. The first dinner I had was at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park on 23rd. Started by the same people as the famed Gramercy Tavern, Shake Shack has become something of a phenomenon. The website has a live feed of the lines queuing for their delicious burgers, hot dogs and shakes. I arrived at 6:45pm and did not sit down with our group's order until 8:25pm. But it was a very pleasant evening, so the waiting was bearable. And the food was sinfully delicious. I had a bird dog (chicken dog) with the works and a coffee milk shake. I was later advised by CH, who lives nearby, that the best time to go is around 4:30pm.


AW had sent me on a mission to check out Whole Foods, but MH & CR both tipped me off to an even better neighborhood find -- Really Cool Foods on 3rd & 63rd. The place is great for people who want to eat in, but don't necessarily want to go through all the hassle of preparing a delicious home-cooked meal. Really Cool Foods prepares all the ingrediants, offering single (and larger) serving packages of meal components such as sauteed sliced mushrooms, sauteed ground turkey with chillis, grilled chicken pieces or strips, steamed asparagus etc. as well as other food items. It's a great mix-n-match food concept. I prepared a delicious salad with a ceaser salad package with the ground turkey and mushrooms, which I reheated in the microwave in 30 seconds and then tossed everything together. I didn't even need any dressing.

So far though, my favourite neigborhood restaurant has been Fig & Olive on Lex & 62nd. It's been great for healthy eating, but that place is always soooo packed. They always do a complimentary olive oil tasting of 3 different olive oils, one each from France, Italy and Spain. Their pastas (penne with mushrooms and truffle oil and crabmeat & ricotta ravioli) are cooked just perfect and I love their Fig & Olive salad.

Through MH, I was invited to a dinner party at HB's beautiful Tribeca flat. She had just gotten this incredible exercise machine called ROM (Range of Motion) that promised the benefits of a 45-minute workout in just 4 minutes! Both MH and I thought it sounded too good to be true, but were still very curious to give it a whirl. The machine is huge. It allows you to workout the upper body while seated; it's a bit like rowing, but instead of just pulling front to back, you pull and push in sort of a circular motion. Hence, increasing the range of motion. On the back end of the machine, you can work your lower body and abs. The lower body workout is a bit like a stairmaster workout where you take incredibly huge steps up. I want my gym to get some. It's sure to be a hit!

ROM and delicious Mexican food aside, the most fascinating part of dinner were the people. Because HB's friend film producer friend MC was in town from LA, there were a few film industry people around. P is working on a film about an American woman who marries a Korean-American and decides to have an affair with another Korean man so that she can conceive a child for her husband's family. The film was in the middle of shooting in NYC. MC herself was working on a film about her mentor, Shin Sang-Ok, the Korean filmmaker who was kidnapped, along with his wife, by the North Koreans to make propoganda films. And then there was BD whose book, Closure, which he co-authored, has just been released. The book is about the 9/11 rescue-and-recovery from the perspective of Lt William Keegan of the Port Authority Police Department. BD had many fascinating stories to recount, which made us all want to go out and buy the book.

Google Calendar, Goytisolo, Gotan Project, Ana Forrest

Got a 4-day weekend here in Hong Kong, but having my own business means that weekends and public holidays don't mean much. I spent the day working on LCB: Golf in Starbucks. Didn't get far, only as far as Q (working backwards). As usual, I got side-tracked by quite a few interesting and fun things:

Google Calendar -- What can I say? Google never ceases to amaze me by coming up with new ways to organize and integrate every aspect of my life. I spent a couple hours setting up my calendar. But the real power of Google Calendar won't be realised until all my family, friends, colleagues, work associates are on it. The power of sharing aside, it was really easy to set up. I got iCal to synch with gCal, and then iCal transfers it all to my iPod video. Check it out!



The Anti-Orientalist -- One of the things I miss most about being in Hong Kong is Sundays with The New York Times Magazine (and the rest of the paper). Instead, I get previews to articles on Wednesday and read this rather interesting article on the Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo. Got me intrigued enough to want to read his memoirs, but also got me thinking about our love of the "authentic" in cultures -- usually the more chaotic, colourful side of developing countries. On the one hand, as tourists, we want to experience that aspect of "local culture", but at the same time, economic development and globalization leads to homogenization of cultures. And it's unfair for those of us visiting from economically privileged countries to expect those in developing countries to cling to traditions for our desire to experience something different or novel, not to mention that it helps maintain our higher spending power in those countries. Take wet markets in Hong Kong for example. Wet markets are a breeding ground for viruses (such as Avian flu) and diseases. Yet, they are also what add colour to the city; the juxtaposition of the sleek, gleaming international financial center that is Central with the wet market that is "local" life (never mind that the younger generation now shops at supermarkets such asCity'Super, Wellcome, Park-N-Shop).
Gotan Project -- Been listening to their new album Lunático (you can download tracks from iTunes).


Great stuff, as usual. It's great music for transporting you to a different time and place -- think late night in a smoky bar in Paris' Bastille or tango hall in Buenos Aires. Speaking of tunes that invoke destinations, BL tipped me onto Panjabi MC (which he heard while watching Inside Man), think it would be great for the pool party in India.
Ana Forrest -- By chance, I got to see an amazing and inspiring demonstration by the yogi Ana Forrest (there are links to videos of a similar performance held recently at a conference in Boston on her website). It had been a while since my last yoga class. BL managed to drag me to an hour long Hot Flow class at Pure Yoga and the demostration was right after class. I had no idea who Forrest was, but wandered in out of curiosity. It was truly inspiring to see the amazing control she had over each part of her body. It made me realize the power of breath in focusing the mind and controlling the body. Breathing seems like such a simple task that we don't really think about it. But it only takes one yoga class to figure out how difficult it is to master and how much power is behind such a simple task. Now, if only I could breathe and chew each bite of my food 20 times...