Congee and Madonna

After spending some sleep-deprived nights, I finally reached Hong Kong. With "Char Leong" and peanut sauce in mind, I walked and hunted for a congee shop offering these delicacies. Finally, I found a shop squeezed between the old shop houses of the city and fulfilled one of my rare craving for food. Bon apetite!

My recommendation to a must-see concert, Madonna's Confession Tour! And please, it's certainly not for kiddies and close-minded individuals...

Gold City

I am now sitting in Union Square overlooking the art sale that is going on. Artists here are displaying their proud work of art, ranging from sculptures, thought-provoking photographs to acrylic paintings. I love the cooling atmosphere and surrounding of people who are artistically-inclined.

My greatest encounter here was my yesterday’s trip to the Fisherman’s Wharf. I rode the world famous Mason & Powell cable car, which would take you to the most scenic views of the city. From Union Square to Chinatown and Lombard Street, I saw the upwards and downwards of the hilly city.

In Fisherman’s Wharf, I bought myself a bread bowl of clam chowder, a must-eat in San Fran! As it's crab season now, the seafood is at its freshest. The view in front of me was Alcatraz and the pier with boats operating the island tour. As the hot steam slowly gave way to the cold spring air, I finished my last scoop of chowder and left the bread bowl for the sea gulls instead. I placed it on top of the garbage bin hopefully it would attract the birds. You can’t punish me for doing that, can you?

While in the wharf also, I took the liberty to visit the Museum of the City of San Francisco. In there, you are like going back in time. You'll find arcade games dated back in the early 20th century, maybe some as old as in the late 1800s. It's fun seeing the sort of entertainment at those times.

Whenever I’m in the States, I will religiously go on a pilgrimage to Urban Outfitters, A&F, Gap, Old Navy, Macys, Bloomingdales, Virgin Records and bookstores. I am not particularly into shopping but I do enjoy looking at what these American retailers have to offer. I’m always so amazed with the rate of change in trend here and I must say, vintage does have an appeal. My visit to Urban Outfitters was quite a shocking one. It feels like an adult playground to me, with so many interesting offerings for the urbanites. Clothing, home fittings, and books with the most contemporary titles from fashion to pop culture. Another favourite store of mine here is Cody’s Book. With their in-house reviewers and writers, this place looks like a heaven for the titles I’m always on a look-out for. I did some free reading briefly on Franz Kafka (a deceased Czech novelist who had drawn a cult-like following) and Fascism.

About the people here, well, they are the Chinese (former Hong Kong-ers, mostly), Filipinos, of course Indians. They make-up the population here, bringing with them attitudes that pleases the locals. Their joyfulness, loud-speaking almost blend in too well with the long-timed whites. People here are much more laid-back or should I say, most people I met are tourist anyway.

The cable car drivers too, often act as the ambassadors to the various tourist spots along the cable car line. They are a bunch of funny and witty people who never fail in entertaining the tourists on board their carriage, even while checking or selling the tickets.

My other encounter is breakfast at Tad’s Steak, an old-fashioned restaurant with the friendliest staff so far, I’ve ever encountered in my American experience.

Often prided as a friendly gay city, I find the air here liberating and to a certain extent, very well mixed with the diverse culture brought in by the migrants. Truly a classic American city of gold!

My Very Happy Birthday...

I always regard my birthday as just another ordinary day which I prefer to keep it low-profile or celebrate it with only my loved ones. Nonetheless, I've been lucky enough to have a cake each year and big presents from my partner.

This year is especially thoughtful of my partner in surprising me. A two-night stay at my home city, a hotel overlooking the KLCC twin towers which I consider it as my second home. The night was full of surprises, firstly with a dinner at my favourite chinese restaurant in Brickfields. Then, a drive to the hotel which, Room 1233 has already been filled with my belongings and essentials. It reminded me of the comfort of my own home. The amount of small details looked upon were just simply amazing.

I quickly settled in and moments afterthat, I was told that my very close girlfriends are on their way. We met at the hotel lounge for drinks and some catching ups. I was truly amazed by their appearances and dressing which indeed, very chic!

We adjourned to the room for pressies time and I must say, this year, I have the best presents so far! A M&C Champagne from Bro, Audrey Hepburn's biography, a travel bluelist, picture frame, a musical jewelry box and of course, a laptop from my partner. I was also blessed with the most thoughtful gift of skin lotions to nurse my dry skin, phone calls from Maldives and a long-timed college pal and text messages from buddies in Singapore.

Halfway through my impatience of unwrapping the pressies, a trolley was pushed in, with a square chocolate cake sat proudly with a candle lit. The predictable tune of happy birthday was sung, I made a wish, blew the candle and cut the cake. At this very moment, a sense of blissful-ness and joy melted in my heart with the warmth of love shown by these very people of my humble life.

My partner also gave me the most romantic Valentine's Day and birthday cards with messages I will always treasure. I am indeed very appreciative and my sincere gratitude to all of you who remember this very happy day...Cheers!

London Fashion Week

I couldn't believe it! What a perfect timing to visit London. News on BBC was filled with updates and live telecast of the London Fashion Week held at the Natural History Museum, near Cromwell Road. The glamourous-ness of the place was heighten with sights of fashion models, and all the people who are distinguishingly known to be working in this industry. I mean, you can tell by the way they carry themselves and the way they dress. It's something outsider of the industry will find amazement or sometimes, amusement. Nonetheless, London Fashion Week is one of the great highlights of the fashion calendar and worth mentioning.

As debates of skinny models and some teenagers experiencing the back-stage chaosness of the event, we can conclude that, it's such an hedonistic affair to just want to look good for the event. BBC aired some research findings that, models are depressed human beings and have low self-esteem. I wonder, why the fashion industry has such a magnifying effect on most of us today, to consider that models are the people we look up to for physique and designers for their creations and labels. Well, my own conclusion is, read Fashion Babylon by Imogen Edward-Jones for a slice and dice of this "sacred" industry and accept the fact that fashion is not for all but to the very colourful people who are essential to make up for diversity of people on earth. A brilliant species indeed for creating such an appeal, which is certainly not for the mainstreamers!

Nagoya

This place does not capture much of my memory, simply because, all Japanese cities look alike to me. Nagoya ranks after the financial mightiness of Tokyo and second city of Osaka. It simply has very limited appeal to me, but nonetheless, I managed to find out that this city is also known as the Toyota City. What a brilliant discovery when Toyota sales in US topped and now the no. 1 car after old General Motors.

My greatest encounter there would be my walk towards the Old Nagoya. Walking in the winter air from a modern cosmopolitan to an old town was surprisingly not much of a big contrast. Nagoya has a big ferris-wheel sandwiched between two tall buildings, which I plan to ride the next time I'm there.

After a tired day of walking, I relaxed at the Sky Lounge of the hotel. What a great sight to see, the lights of another cosmopolitan!

Seafood Served, Italian Style.

My impression of NZ has always been neutral. My journey always takes a long time and the time difference is so great especially summer, that without fail, I’ll end up having jet-lag. My sleeping pattern will go haywire and not to mention, feeling lethargic and un-spirited.

However, this utterly uninspired trip took a 360 degrees turn when I arrived to a fancy little restaurant in Auckland. Each of my steps there was as memorable as the taste of the authentic Italian dinner served in the most cosy, cottage-like restaurant. It is run by a family of five. The mom plays the hostess, the dad cooks, helped by the two good-looking sons as sou chefs. And on the floor, we have the daughter who acts as the waitress. Quite an easy job to have, judging from the size of this place, which only fits a good under ten number of tables. The selection of seafood is so wide and we ended up, having a full course meal for NZ$40 per head upon the suggestion of our mom hostess who simply appear to be the most customer-sensitive human being I’ve ever met! She commands the sort of easy, let-me-serve-you-as-I- know-what-is-the-best-for-you aura. She took charge. We can always rest our laurels when we are privileged enough to meet such a woman.

Our first course as appetizers comprised of fresh green salad with tomatoes and onions and raw oysters made to perfection with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. The taste and texture of the oysters were so heavenly and not at all, smelt fishy. We sipped our wine and slowly moved to the garlic bread, toasted to perfection and alternating it with the salad.

The next highlight was the seafood risotto in tomato cream sauce. The seafood of calamari, mussels, scallops and prawns were the freshest of taste and each bite of the risotto almost send me to a carb-reducing diet as I couldn’t stop myself having more. As main, she also served us grilled beef and chicken steaks with linguine. Also, we had more mussels, cooked simply with garlic, vinegar, herbs and traditional spices, which were truly Italian.

After a few hours of over-dinner chatting, wining and food-praising, we adjourned to dessert. We had the predictable tiramisu, which the family had to order from a friend to send it us. The tiramisu was served with vanilla ice-cream and topped with Bailey’s Irish cream. Oh my goodness, I almost fainted with the richness of taste and the orgasmic combination of mascarpone cheese, coffee and Baileys!

The finale was a shot of grappa on the house. As the mom hostess insisted, a true traditional Italian meal has to end with grappa taken neat. She served the males a full shot glass and the ladies, half. The reason is, we generally have a smaller mouth to take it in one shot. The shot of grappa really send us to the high and the sensation is undescribably magnificent. I had a bad experience once, having grappa that burnt my throat, but this is surprisingly smooth.

As the last patrons to leave, the mom hostess was kind enough to book us a cab. Our night of an excellent meal, great 4 bottles of red and white and good company, we bid our goodbyes while still in daze, thinking of the oysters.