Beijing 08!

Arrived in Beijing today. Already the q's were already quite short at immigration. But I went into the even shorter q - for people working on the Olympics.

Saw the Lenovo "Powering the Biggest Idea in the World" ad and the image of the IdeaPad U110 staring out at me the minute I got off the plane. It felt like I went straight from the plane into the office. Which was kinda cool. (I wish I had shot the image of the Olympic Torch on the left, unfortunately, it wasn't me)

Even cooler cuz I had seen/ heard my colleagues working on the new campaign at inception.

Saw the Singapore Olympic Sailing team right after going through immigration. Wished them well, wished them good luck. They looked so fresh and excited. Way cool.

Got my bags the minute I got to the baggage carousel. Pleasantly surprised. As efficient as Changi Airport...well almost.

In the cab on the way to the hotel the radio DJs were talking about the Olympics. Big, big buzz. Lotsa energy.

Fish and Water in Aveiro, Portugal

Arrival of luggage meant end of cranky spell. What a difference having my own stuff around me makes. Had no more excuse to go to Zara, which was fine by me.

Coolest moments:

• Ordering food not really knowing what we were going to get. Faves: Octopus, cod, and uh... that one kidney dish in Porto.
• Drinking Port in the Douro Valley.
  
• Free wireless and Weekend FT in Coimbra hotel.
• Simple but really great breakfasts in Coimbra and Porto - esp the fresh fruits.
• Our new friends from Brazil on the same tour us us to the Duoro.
• Catching up with Hedy and having a really simple holiday.
  
• Time away to think.
  
• Finally, FINALLY getting my luggage.

Santa Finally Brought my Luggage!!


I'm now in Coimbra, Portugal, where it's kinda rainy and everything's shut down for Xmas ... well, ALMOST everything. Fortunately this one restaurant was open for lunch and Hedy and I had the best cod ever.

It was simply done...a huge honkin' piece of fish, battered and then surrounded by a light broth, with boiled potatoes all around it. It tastes better than it sounds. Lots.

In Lisbon we went to a little restaurant called Fidalgo in Bairro Alto. I had a dish called Black Pork and Hedy had Rabbit in Red Wine. And some really good fries. Earlier that day we'd gone to a little restaurant in Alfama where no one spoke English, so we basically pointed at drawings on the menu. Hedy went to the kitchen with the owner and she came back saying "I ordered Octopus and some fish. I don't know what fish it was but it had two eyes and a tail and it looked fine to me." (Rough translation from Cantonese. My Cantonese has been steadily regressing since I left New York.)

Tasted fine too. Octopus with boiled potatoes and cabbage; fried fish with fries and salad. And little old ladies at the next table wondering where these two Chinese girls came from.

Went to Xmas mass this morning. In Portuguese. Then walked around this old university town. It's now 8pm - hardly anything's open still, I swear. There's a Spanish girl surfing the web next to me and an Aussie kid just asked for paper at the reception. It's for his art homework.

And Santa had a special delivery. After four days in Portugal, my luggage finally arrived. In the meantime, THANK GOODNESS for Zara and H&M.

Floating on the Mekong
Two days floating on the Mekong...no Blackberry access, no cell signal, no phones whatsoever - just a vast expanse of green hills ("on your right is Thailand, on your left is Laos"), very fast-moving brown water and outcrops of rocks. And every few kilometers a village on stilts on the hills.

It was a really weird feeling to get used to. My friends came to visit me from NY and we decided to go to Luang Prabang in Laos. And not the fast, direct way by plane. Nope - we decided to go to the Thai/ Lao border in Chiang Rai and take a slow boat down - going South, and then East.

http://www.asian-oasis.com/Luang.html

At first I felt really restless. Two days on the boat? What was I thinking when I booked it? (Overnight in one of the Luang Say hotels - but still, no phone signal whatsoever) I was really looking forward to getting back on land - going to Luang Prabang, a National Heritage Site where there'd actually be things to DO. But as I got used to it - sittin' on the chaise longue or a chair on the boat, talking to the other, very cool, very interesting passengers, the wind blowing in our faces, and all that open space around us ... that turned out to be the best part of the trip.

At Luang Prabang we alternated between visiting temples (14th century), and visiting rural villages.. Our itinerary included visiting a waterfall in the countryside - lush green vegetation punctuated by brilliant red flowers, and crystal clear, blue/green water. Hard to reconcile the quiet tranquility of the place with the violence and turmoil of the seventies there, and the extreme poverty there today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1154621.stm

Back in Singapore now... last night. Ian McKellen and Royal Shakespeare Company performed King Lear to a full house at the Esplanade. The scene in which the Earl of Gloucester's eyes are violently gouged out brings a collective gasp from the audience. My first thought - thank goodness we're not living in the 1500s.

But later, I was thinking...who am I kidding - sixteenth century...twentieth century...greed and lust for power are still very much part of our make-up. We haven't gotten any wiser, merely more technologically advanced.

Moving Right Along...



Three days in Raleigh, NC; two days in NY; one in Singapore, and then three in Seoul.

The two days in NY were my first two vacation days of the year. Didn't see as many galleries and museums as I would have liked to. Mostly I went from one part of Manhattan to another meeting my friends.

Saw McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano play at Blue Note last Friday. (WOW. Yeah, Blue Note is ridiculously expensive but they bring in some really cool stuff.) And on Saturday Terry, Bim, Mark and I went to MOMA for the Richard Serra exhibit. These are HUGE metal sculptures that you look at from the inside, outside, from around. Serra's work was some of the first that I saw when I'd first moved to NY in 2001. At that time it was an exhibition in Chelsea and we could actually touch them. His sculptures are so richly textured you just want to. But at the MOMA, the guards will come and lecture you because it really can damage the metal.

After that we had lunch at The Modern. Great service, great decor, great food - just the right portions. Had this great cocktail with rose petals called Coming Up Roses (it sounded so sissy I was thinking...how strong could it actually be!) But took three sips and had to give it to one of the guys. The room was turning clockwise. Bim's foie gras was excellent, Terry's duck was great, my oysters/ caviar was great. The pannacotta was kinda icky and runny. But man- everything else! Even the loos. Really good way to cap off a morning of art.

Also made it to the ICP. http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.1196903/k.692/Current_Exhibitions.htm

Saw a Stephen Shore exhibit called Biographical Landscape. Landscapes are not usually my "thing". But Shore's bare, stark images of American towns and cities, shot b/t '69 and '79, felt like frozen slivers of an era. It was almost impossible not to pause at the large format images - mostly absent of people - and think about the invisible lives behind them: an empty highway, a despondent looking car next to a kerb. Totally worth a visit.

This is Not a Food Blog, But...

My cousin Peng sent me an email saying he's just landed in Chicago and he's there for a cancer conference. So, being the sucker for foodie hype that I am, I googled a Ken Hom column that I saw in the FT a couple of days ago in whichHom mentioned a Singapore chef who's all the rage in Chicago right now. So, at some point, Peng'll be having dinner at Shanghai Terrace at the Peninsula Hotel.

I've been having some incredible food lately.

A week ago my friends and I stumbled into Yanqing's Shanghainese kitchen cuz the tables at Sun Japanese Restaurant next door were all filled. (No reservations on a Friday night? What was I SMOKING!) The service wasn't so hot. I think one of their gas burners was down so the food took forever. We were there for almost TWO HOURS. But the food was really, REALLY good. The xiaolong bao was soupy and delicate, and not oily. The steamed/ fried buns were fluffy, and the black pepper beef - which I used to think was a guai lo dish was really tender.

Then I spent most of last week in Beijing, where we had some really good food in Made In China at the Hyatt. it's kinda modern Chinese cuisine, with these semi-open kitchens. Kinda looked like Mezza9 at the Singapore Hyatt, but the food was 20 times better, at the same prices. Our favourite was the Beijing Duck.

My other favourite BJ Duck place in Beijing is Da Dong. My friend Yvonne took me there and we could only get into the 5 30pm slot. ("As long as you're out by 6 30pm"). I confess I haven't been to Chuan Ju De - which even the cab drivers were telling me about, but Da Dong had the best pancakes I've ever had...and a really crispy, yummy duck skin.

And finally, for dinner last Wednesday, we went to the Courtyard restaurant right next to Forbidden City. If you get a table next to the window, you can actually look into the moat surrounding the Forbideen City. My Filipino reporter told our waiter, in Mandarin, that he looked like Yao Ning. Our waiter responded in English that other diners have told him the same thing.

I also bumped into my friend Christina there. We worked together 10 years ago in Singapore, then she moved to HK and then to NY. Last time I saw her, in NY, we went to Gramercy Tavern. Christina now lives in NY but goes to BJ a lot.

So, I'm back home and I decided to cook my own lunch Saturday. There were chicken legs in the fridge, so I marinated them with five spice powder, salt and pepper. Then I fried an onion and some garlic, and fennel in an oven proof pan. Fried the chicken, skin on, on moderately high heat. After the skin browned, I added some sun dried tomatoes and baby asparaus. Put the entire thing into the oven at almost max heat for twenty minutes. It was actually quite yummy.

And now I've gotta go to the dishes. But first, there's some lychee martini ice cream from Daily Scoop calling my name.

Busy in Beijing

Been to Beijing twice since my last post. (Yes, I know it's been a while)

It's only on this most recent trip that I've been able to see more than just conference rooms and airports. And I'm getting close to changing my mind that Shanghai is the way cooler of the two.

Shanghai's overt. In your face. Shanghai is Jessica Rabbit in a cheongsam at a smoke-filled bar. Beijing's the quieter, more intellectual older sister that you've got to spend time to get to know. (I still prefer Shanghainese food. Also, Shanghainese guys dress better.)

So...I'm with a bunch of reporters from Asean and we've just had dinner around Hou Hai. So I get into the cab with them and tell the cabbie, in Mandarin, that I want to go to the Hyatt. I'm pretty sure I said jun yue jiu dian. But he's like going on and on about directions and stuff and says the address on the Hyatt card is too small for him to read, so I ring up the Hyatt on my cell and pass him the receptionist.

The cabbie's hangs up after speaking to her for a while and he's like "You mean JUN YUE. You said JIN YUAN. And now you're taking me out of my way and I'll never get a fare at the Hyatt at this time of evening." And on and on. I'm pretty sure I said jun yue...but anyway...we're talking and talking (and I'm trying to prove that I'm not really a banana and that I do speak half decent Chinese...) And he says to me I've got a Southern Chinese accent. Uh...OK...and when I tell him I'm Cantonese...that clinches it. Definitely a flawed Mandarin accent. Er...Ok. Whatever. So anyway, by the time we get to the hotel I feel so bad I gave him 30 kuai instead of 15.

The next day one of the reporters and I, after work, go on a hutong tour. OK so it's really touristy but it was the COOLEST non-work part of the trip. One of the hutong owners was of Manchurian descent. And he's turned his hutong into a B&B. Pretty cool. Think I'll stay there the next time I'm there with a free weekend. Later we went to a larger one and were told how traditionally, the oldest son got the choice East-facing bedroom, the younger son got the West facing one (harsh afternoon sun - what else). And the girls? Well...uh...they had the smaller back rooms with the flat roofs. They were only girls, after all.

One of the reporters summed the hutong visit this way, "I'd rather see the hutongs than the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City will still be around the next time I visit Beijing. But I'm not so sure about the hutongs."