Wine Country Journal - Winery III

Saturday is the last day for our wine tasting trip, and it is another Napa Valley winery day. We are meeting up with my cousin Richard today, but unfortunately, we didn't make it to the schedule that I have planned, since we got on a hot air balloon ride in the morning that took up way too much time (see my video blog), and we ended up having to cancel a bunch of the wineries that we were suppose to go to. So by the time we got to the Napa Valley, it was around 1:30pm already, and we did not yet have lunch. Our first winery was Rudd Vineyards, a sit down tasting composed of 4 wines. We were served the Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc, the Bacigalupi Chardonnay and two Bordeaux blend red wines. The Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc was quite wonderful, crisp with lots of fruit, not as acidic as the New Zealand version, but comparatively more elegant and soft and cost only $20. The Bacigalupi Chardonnay was made from grapes in the same vineyard that won Chateau Montelena the 1976 blind Paris Tasting for their 1976 Chardonnay. That 1976 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay beat out all other top French white wines to win the competition, and is one of the wines that help put California winemaking on the map. Tasting this Chardonnay is quite an amazing experience I have to say. This Chardonnay is the hands down best Chardonnay I have ever tasted in my life. I had some pretty good Chardonnays on this trip, but nothing compare to what I am drinking now. It is the most expensive one too, at $60, but the pleasure that I derive from this wine is otherworldly, so naturally, I bought some. Words cannot do this Chardonnay justice, so you really ought to locate a bottle and try it out yourself. The reds at Rudd are pretty good, but again, having too much of the good things the last couple of days made me not want to buy any more red wines nor did the Rudd red stood out too much from the other wineries. In addition to the wonderful wines, Rudd Vineyard is a beautiful place to visit. First, you would drive up to a gate, and once you enter, you are surrounded by vines as you drive down a narrow road to reach an unobtrusive building in the middle of all the vines. The building is country cottage, with a beautifully appointed sit down tasting room. It was a nice day and it would have been very wonderful to walk around the grounds and to the vineyards but unfortunately we had to leave for our next appointment, but otherwise it would have been really quite a treat. Oh yeah, by the way, we saw Warren Moon there, he was hosting a birthday party in their private cellar/cave.

Next stop is Cakebread Cellars. This winery has a more commercial feel to it. I was told that they do not sell their wines to distributors, but only to restaurants or through the winery. So I had some high expectations but it turns out to be disappointing. I guess their distribution method is part of their marketing angle, but their wine are only average, nothing compared to some of the other wineries that we have visited on this trip. In addition, their wines are not cheap either. We tasted Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Many are good and decent wines that would make nice drinking, but not at the price that they sell them for, typically from around $45 - $60 a bottle. There are many more wines you can buy that greatly outweighs the offering here at cheaper or equal price. For example, the Rudd Chardonnay that we just had for $60 compare to the Chardonnay Reserve that they sell here for $52. One is otherworldly (the Rudd) while one is bland and too much oak (Cakebread). In addition, another problem with the tasting here is that they held the tasting in a spot that is just way too cold for the enjoyment of wine. By the third or fourth wine, I could no longer smell anything that is coming from the wine, a big part of the whole tasting wine process. Two of their wines are not too bad though, the Sauvignon Blanc and another is their Zinfandel, both on the cheaper side of the lineups that was offered to us.

Next we decide to visit Beringer, but before we go, we stopped by KFC for some fried chicken. You know, I think chicken is often the best food/snack to go with wine tasting. For example, for one of the wine tasting I hosted in New York, the most popular item was the chicken nuggets, just absolutely delicious with wine. This time it was no exception, the fried chicken we picked up from KFC was absolutely delightful, chicken has never tasted so good. We woofed down everything in a matter of minutes, it was quite a sight to be behold. Crumbs were flying all over the car, bones were chewed clean, just a finger licking good meal. Speaking of food, I kind of wish
In&Out burger have a location here, and I think they would do very well too. What better food are there than some absolutely declicious In&Out buger and their fries animal style?

Beringer is a huge operation with every category of wine available, from wine-in-a-box to upscale serious wines. The ground of Beringer is quite beautiful and cover a lot of space, with nicely decorated gardens and charming structures. There are two tasting rooms in Beringer, one serves up the lower and more common end of their offerings, while another serves up higher priced offerings with more serious wines. We decide to hit the tasting room that serves the higher priced wines. They had 4 options to taste from, but they are not cheap, with the top options been around $25 for 3 flight of Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to say, I think Beringer makes good Cabernet Sauvignon, not great, not spectacular, but just in general across the board good. My first encounter with a California Cabernet Sauvignon is a Beringer Knights Valley Cab 2000, and it was velvety smooth and bursting with chewy fruit. The several Cabernet Sauvignon I had here all drank very well, but unfortunately, they are all pretty expensive at $90 and one at $125, not sure if that is worth the price as many of the other Cabernet Sauvignon I had on this trip are equal if not much better than the Beringer offerings, some at a lower or equal price (I don’t really count Hillside Select here, that wine is just expensive). Nonetheless, Beringer was a wonderful end to our trip in Napa, ending the trip with some good Cabernet Sauvignon, carefully decorated wineries and some good company, not much could be better.

Wine Country Journal - Winery II

I realized that I have not finished writing about my trip to California wineries, so I am going to continue on with my adventures here.

Friday, which we are now talking about over a month ago, on November 17, we were so tired from drinking so much Cabernet Sauvignon the day before, we thought we really need a change. We hit two other wineries that I planned on going on Wednesday afternoon before we ran out of time, both located in Nothern Sonoma. The first one is Hartford Court while the second one is Martinelli.

Hartford Court is a hard place to find, which tend to be the case for most of Northern Sonoma wineriesm, and they tend not to cluster around together on one road like it is in Napa. Nonetheless, we were glad to be able to have found it as they have some pretty good Pinot Noir and some good Chardonnay to taste, wines they were known for. I was more impressed with their Pinot Noir than their Chardonnay as I have to say, we had some pretty good Chardonnay the last two days, such as the Chardonnay from Pine Ridge, or especially, the Red Shoulder Chardonnay from Shafer, which was rated as the number 20th wine out of the top 100 wine for 2006 by Wine Spectator. The suprise from this winery visit, however, comes from their Zinfanel. The one that impressed me the most is their Sonoma Valley Zin, cost around $25, but taste like a wine that can cost 3 times as much. I immediately bought 3 bottles of that delicious Zin, to share with my sister, and also to have some for myself of course. Unfortunately, the winery is really only for people who are more serious about wine and want to try some good wine that they might not be able to locate elsewhere, as the winery is quite hard to find, and did not offer much of anything else beside tasting.

Martinelli is easier to locate and it is hard to miss a big red barn in the middle of a road. Not only do they sell wines there, but they also sell lots of other groceries and goodies as well, so it kind of remind me as a big red barn grocery store that also allow you to taste wine. Interesting what happened here, we were carded. This is the first time on this trip that we were asked for our ID, but I guess that is a good thing, as we still look young enough for people to be asking for our IDs. They offer several different type of wine to taste here, ranging from Pinot Noir to Gewürztraminer to Sauvignon Blanc and of course, what Martinelli is famous for, Zinfandel. The most famous Zinfandel here is called Jackass Hill, which has a waiting list that is something like 9 years. Also, it is not like you get a whole bunch of Jackass Hill at the end of that 9 year waiting list, but it is more like you get 1 BOTTLE. Pretty rare stuff. Obviously we did not get a chance to taste that Jackass Zin, but the other Zins available for tasting were pretty good. The Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel is the one that stood out from the rest of the offerings, and of course, we bought some. It was a good thing too, as the next day while having dinner with Richard and Co., we saw the same wine that is sold at restaurant for more than double the price that we bought it for.

After some Carl’s Jr for lunch and some much needed R&R at a spa, we walked around the town of Healdsburg, as we have not yet had the chance to explore the actual town that we are staying in. We walked around the main central part of town, then around this park where there are lots of shops around. We decide to hit another tasting room in town, this time, Rosenblum Cellars, famous for its Zinfandels. The tasting room offer a wide range of varietals, but most of them that we tried are fairly dissapointing. However, we did encounter a Syrah that was pretty unique with a minty touch on the palate. Zinfandels, on the other hand, are pretty good here, but we didn’t really feel like any of them stood out from the other Zins that we tried today in Martinelli and Hartford Court. I guess what we remember the most from this tasting room, is their lineup of dessert wines. Their Zinfandel Port was fun to drink, and another dessrt wine called Desiree was infused with chocolate essence, very unique. I was told Desiree is their best seller, and people from all over the country come here to buy this wine. We, of course, bought a couple of bottles of the dessert wine, and for $18 a half bottle, I would have to say is the cheapest purchases that we have made so far on this trip.

I should leave Saturday, our last tasting day, for another day.

Sonoma Hot Air Balloon Ride

How about a video blog before I continue with the rest of the wineries that we visited in my trip to Sonoma? I think that would be cool. Many people are doing this already, and I was told that it can be done easily just by uploading the video to Youtube or Google Video. This video is collection of some of the footage that we shot when Charlene and I went on a hot air balloon ride when we were in Sonoma. The experience was pretty cool, except for that fact that there was hardly any wind that day, so we didn’t really move anywhere while we are in the air. Also, the whole experience took longer than originally thought, since it took us almost an hour before we can land on the ground. Apparently for hot air balloon you cannot control which direction you are going really, but only up and down, since it all depend on the wind. The wind didn’t work in our favor apparently, so we were up there trying to find a place to land for over an hour. So after the first hour, the experience became a little dull and I was just hoping that we can land and get it over with. Anyway, it was fun while it was up there though, looking at everything from up above, or flying over the vineyards, that was fun and quite a sight as well. Well, that is enough writing, see below:

Wine Country Journal - Winery I

Let’s continue on with more talk of my trip, which I have found memories of. I guess today I will talk about some of the wineries that I visited to do tasting during my trip to the wine country.

As we arrived to San Francisco in the morning on Wednesday, and we would pass by many wineries before we reach our hotel, we thought we might as well hit some wineries first before checking in to our hotel, Honor Mansion, which is a topic worth another blog all by itself. Anyway, my plan was to hit 4 wineries on Wednesday afternoon, but realizing that we might not have the time to do that, with all the driving and looking for direction and everything. We did manage to hit two on Wednesday afternoon though and they are: Arrowood and J. Rochioli.

Arrowood is pretty easy to find, and is located at this big white mansion looking thing. The tasting room was spacious and clean, and there were not much people there, probably because this is no the high season and it is on a Wednesday afternoon. We chatted with the people there and they poured us everything that they have, more than what they had from the standard tasting menu, and the wine ranges from Chardonnay to Gewürztraminer to Cabernet Sauvignon to Rosé to dessert wine made out of Rieslings. The offering was quite good, and I was particularly impressed by the Chardonnay (which I generally do not like the California version of it), the Cabernet Sauvignon, the Syrah and its rather amazing Rosé (the Arrowood 2005 La Rose Sonoma County – you really should seek it out – and would have been a perfect wine to go with the duck sandwich and the cheese and pate platter that we had in a nice picnic setting on a breezy summer day). We were so impressed by the quality of their wine that we ended up buying almost a whole case of random mix of the different wines (with 3 of the Rosé). This is really a place worth visiting. Other wines that I had and were impressed are: 2002 Syrah Saralee's Vineyard; 2004 Chardonnay Alary Vineyards; and 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale.

J. Rochioli is a place in Northern Sonoma famous for its Pinot Noir and also for its Chardonnay. They make limited productions of their wine, and unfortunately, when we visited, we did not get a chance to taste some of its top offerings, but instead only had 3 wines to taste from, a Rosé made with Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. Those 3 wines are just ok, nothing really to write home about, even though the Chardonnay was a little distinct enough for me to buy a bottle. However, I know those 3 wines are nothing compared to their top offerings, and it was really a shame that I was not able to try some of their top offerings. The place was a little harder to find, but I thought the winery is well constructed, a very quaint and low key type of place, with hardly any décor in the tasting room. However, they have a beautiful view of vineyards and a very nice picnic area that would be awesome to come and hang out.

Thursday was the heavily scheduled wine tasting day, and it was planned that way. We had reservations at two of the wineries, and planned on hitting several more that does not require reservations. Our first reservation is at Shafer Vineyards at 10am in Napa Valley (Stag’s Leap District), which is about an hour away from where we were staying in Healdsburg. So we were late for like an half an hour, but good thing we did not miss much of the tasting. This is a sit down tasting with 6 awesome wines: 2004 Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay; 2004 Napa Valley Merlot; 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon; 2003 Relentless (Syrah based wine); 2002 Hillside Select Napa Valley Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon; and a Port made of the same Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that made the Hillside Select. I was extremely happy with all of the wines. The Chardonnay was amazing, one of the absolute best Chardonnay that I have ever tasted. The Merlot and the Cabernet Sauvignon are all good and decent offerings. The Relentless Syrah was also amazing, one of the top wines that I have ever tasted. The Hillside Select just blew my mind, I have hardly ever tasted wine this good. Word cannot describe the feeling that you get from drinking this wine. In addition, this is a very expensive wine, cost $190, which we get quite a bit of it when you pay the $25 tasting fee that covers all six wines. We could not be happier after drinking this Hillside Select. As an additional treat, we had the Port that was made out of the same grape that goes into the Hillside Select, and that was also a wonderful wine, and only available at the winery. We bought 5 bottles from there, awesome awesome place.

Our next stop was Pine Ridge, which has a picnic area that I thought we can stop and eat some food there. However, it rained that day, and even though it had stopped for a little while now, it was still not nice enough to be eating outside, with the weather been gloomy and all. We decide to taste more wine instead. The offering at Pine Ridge is also strong, and the person who is pouring us our wine is really funny and enthusiastic too, which help the matter. The wines from Pine Ridge are not that expensive, with interesting Rosé that has a guava note and taste, tasty reds that will work really well as dinner companions (a blend and also a Cabernet Franc), good Cabernet Sauvignon (not as good as Hillside Select, but cost 1/3 the price, but not 1/3 the wine) and a pretty awesome Chardonnay (comparable to the Shafer Chardonnay, better than the Arrowood Chardonnay). Not so sure why we are getting all these good Chardonnay on this wine trip. Usually I much prefer the Burgundy Chardonnay instead of the California one, but this trip has really changed my perception of California Chardonnay, good producer can really produce good wines. We bought a whole case of wine from here too, man, too much wine. Another very happy visit.

Next stop is Del Dotto, with the barrel cave visit that I was very excited in going to. The site is located at kind of a weird place, as they it is just this random structure on the side of the road. I don’t really see any vineyards around it, but that could be because the either buy their grapes from others or their own vineyards are further away. The one thing that struck me about this tasting room when I first enter is the classical opera music that keeps on playing at the back, and it is the same music the whole entire time. That was probably the most annoying thing throughout the entire Del Dotto experience. That music is fine, but it was played way too loud and gave me quite a headache. After some impressive wineries, I thought it would be hard for Del Dotto to top it. The wine that was first poured for us was a Cabernet Sauvignon, which is fine, but nothing really special after the wine we have tasted in the morning. However, once we enter into the cave where all the barrels are at, everything changed. The same annoying music can still be heard, but at least what we are tasting and experiencing was far more interesting. We first learned about all the different barrels (not only French or American oak, but the different type of oak barrels from the different oak barrel producers) and the different way of toasting the barrels, including toasting the head of the barrel, toasted head. I just think that term is funny. Anyway, we then tasted various wines from barrels that have not yet been bottled. Some of the wine are to be bottled soon, while some of the wines are to be combined with other barrels, such as a wine made from a certain vineyard oaked in a particular oak barrels, combing with other wines made from other vineyards and oaked in another different type of barrels. We got to taste the different components that eventually make up the final products that Del Dotto sells. By the way, Del Dotto wines are not distributed nationally, but only sold through their winery and their wine club. We tasted a really amazing Pinot Noir that are only going to be one part of a puzzle to a Pinot Noir that the winery is making, and we also tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon oaked in Colbert French oak barrels which is so amazing. We are able to have wines we tasted bottled especially for us, as some of the wines are going to be blended and not going to be bottled individually, or we can blend our own and have them bottle those, creating wine that are really one of the kind for us. That is really something quite fun and amazing. In addition, when we are tasting wine, we are able to throw away the wine from our glass against the cave walls or in between the barrels, which is another part of the fun. I recommend this tour to anyway, even though it is slightly expensive at $40 a person, however, you would really have fun. Also, the tour guide individually the tour for you, and each group would taste different wines from different barrels, depending on what you tell them you like and etc. Oh yeah, two other things to note on our Del Dotto visit. One, our tour guide’s dad is the CEO of Cigna, you know, the big healthcare company. Two, the couple who were on the tour with us carried with them the Black American Express Centurion Card . . . . . this is only the second time I have actually seen this card live, with another time in a bakery on Upper East Side (Madame M is the name of the bakery / tea shop). Also, the couple recently bought a vineyard and are going to be making grape too . . . very exciting. Finally, the couple knows many people who happened to be next door neighbors of our tour guide while he was growing up, geesh, what a small world. Finally one last thing, when we were talking to the couple, they mentioned they and a bunch of friends went to eat at Per Se one night, after deciding earlier that day to eat there, so they just hoped on a plane and went . . . . . Anyway want to take a guess whether they took commercial airliners or private jet?

Well, this is getting to be a long blog. The last winery we visited for Thursday was Cardinale, which is located on sort of a hill and have a really nice tasting room with a gorgeous view of a vineyards on the slope. They only produce one wine, Cardinale, which is a Bordeaux type blend dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. I don’t remember much of the wine that I tasted, after way too much Cabernet Sauvignon from Del Dotto earlier, I mean, geesh, we must have been poured from all the different barrels the equivalent of a bottle of wine.

The rest of the wineries to come another day . . .

Vacation in Wine Country

As stated in my previous blog, I was recently on vacation. I went to the US for vacation, and visited New York, Washington DC and also San Francisco / Napa Valley / Sonoma County. The trip to Napa Valley / Sonoma County, or wine country, was really quite fun and exciting. I got to taste many excellent wines from California, purchased a lot of wine, some that are not available for purchase outside of the winery, and also ate a lot of good food and just overall really enjoyed my experience. My five days at the wine country was really relaxing, and it made me realized an extreme advantage of living and working in San Francisco / Palo Alto area, that during the weekend, I can just go up to wine country and stay there for 2 days, a very nice getaway.

We arrived in San Francisco Airport on Wednesday, around 10am. After getting our rental car, the first thing that I wanted to do is to go and get some In&Out burger. In&Out burger is this fast food chain in California that serves awesome burger, fries and milkshake. I think this is another benefit of living in California, that you can get In&Out burger, yummy. So we drove all the way to this town of Petaluma, where they have the only In&Out in Sonoma County. Since we woke up really early in order to catch the 7am flight, we didn’t really ate much for breakfast, and by the time we get to In&Out, it was around 12pm PT, which is really 3pm NY time, and as you can imaging, we are extremely hungry. I woofed down my double double burger with grilled onions, and a burger has not tasted this good for such a long time. After the much needed nourishment, we set off to this bakery called Della Fattoria Café & Bakery also in Petaluma (141 Petaluma Boulevard North, Petaluma, CA 94952) to pick up some provisions for the picnic that we are planning tomorrow before we head off to some wineries. We ordered a duck sandwich and also a cheese and pate platter from Della Fattoria Café & Bakery, and boy, did those tasted good. I found out about this place on Zagat, and it was one of the top rated restaurant in Sonoma County. When I got there, I didn’t see much that I thought was good, with limited baked goods and only a limited selection of sandwiches and other food items. However, the next day, we discovered how good their food really are. The duck sandwich was amazing. It was covered in raisin wheat bread, and the duck was covered in this wonderful plum like sauce, and the duck was chewy. Probably one of the best sandwiches I ever had. The cheese platter and the pate are wonderful as well. It was really a shame though that we did not get to enjoy the food in a true picnic style as it was raining on Thursday, and the weather didn’t really get better, so we had to eat the food in our car. The wonderfulness of the food outweighs however the crummy weather and the fact that we can’t really do a picnic. It was just enough that we are able to enjoy food of such quality, and it doesn’t really matter where we had it or under what conditions we had it.

I welcome you to check out Petaluma if you are ever in the area. I’ll talk more about some of the wineries that I visited in my next blog.

Want to Switch Job

It is never a good thing at the end of your vacation that you hate the fact that you are going back to work. I think, if I truly enjoy my job, then I would not hate, I mean not just dislike, but really hate about the fact that I am returning to my job after my vacation. I would not be miserable on the entire plane ride back to Hong Kong that my vacation is over. Yes, it is more enjoyable to be traveling and having a good time than working, but if I enjoy my job, I would think that I wouldn’t mind as much as I do now about the fact that I am returning to work. I think that feeling I had really says something about whether I am actually in a right field. Essentially, what do I truly enjoy about my job? One thing and one thing only, money. They pay me quite well and the only reason that it is hard to leave this job is because of the amount of money that they pay me. However, do I enjoy what I do? Absolutely not. Should I change jobs? I think that would probably be a prudent thing to do. However, if I do, then I would probably have to take quite a bit of a pay cut t do so, and that would not be cool.

So what should one do? I am not sure. I think I need to figure out a plan soon, since the longer that I stay at my current position the harder it would be for me to get out of it.

Thanksgiving Fried Turkey

I had fried turkey for the first time today and it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. Actually, fried turkey look different than I imagined in the first place. Apparently, fried turkey is just taking a whole turkey and putting it into a fryer and fry it, that's it. The reason that people don't do it usually is because it is hard to fry a whole turkey safely at home, since oil usually spill out from the fryer and cause the whole thing to go on fire really quickly and leading to massive damages to people's home every year. Nonetheless, when people tell me about fry turkey, I thought they put the turkey in batter, sort of like how you fry a chicken. Also, I did not think they would fry the whole turkey, but instead, I thought they make it into like a turkey roll or something like that, and fry that instead. Oh well, nonetheless, I would have to say that I was a little disappointed when I found out about what fry turkey really is. Nonetheless, I think fry turkey taste a little better than roasted turkey. The reason are probably two: (1) the skin are crispy because it is fried, and make the turkey skin taste even better than it usually do, and (2) the turkey are more moist, thus allowing you to enjoy more of the turkey instead of the usual drier turkey that just does not become too apertizing after a couple of bites.

I think the fried turkey could be better though. For example, if you can get some stuffing in there and fry the turkey, I think that would really add another twist to the stuffings, especially the Chinese stuffing that I ususally make, with rice and sticky rice and Chinese sausage. Just thinking about it made me drool . . . . . . . . . . . . Which, on another note, I ate too much this past two weeks, I gained like 10 lbs . . . .

Real Lawyer

So I got admitted to the New York State Bar today, which means I am a "real" lawyer . . . . congratulations to me. What does this mean? This means my employer can charge me out at a higher rate and they can make more money . . . . well, it has more meaning than that, but for the time being, that is what it is . . . and oh yeah, that means I can get my bonus in January . . . . . happy days!!

Shunde in Guangong

Shunde – does anyone know where that place is? Well, I don’t, and I don’t know what is there in Shunde anyway, but all I know is that Shunde is in Guangdong province in China, and I got here from Hong Kong by taking a boat that sort of make me a little dizzy along a way that I have to take a nap. The boat was funny though, as it has 3 classes as far as I can tell. One class is regular, and people sit in the lower deck of the boat. The next one is first class, where people sit at the upper deck. I am not sure if there is a difference, except that they might bring you food if you order them in the upper deck, while in lower, you might have to go and fetch the food yourself. There is this VIP deck, which people can sit in a private room or something, but I am not really sure. Anyway, on the drive from the ferry terminal in Shunde to the hotel that we are staying at, it was not that exciting. There are a bunch of farms and very rural looking houses and stuff. There are just a lot of emptiness, so really rather boring. However, I am stuck here for 2 days, so I am glad that I bought some DVDs to watch so I will not be bored. Also, the internet isn’t working all that well either, so I cannot really do work online. However, I think I need to find some way to do some work, since there are so much to be done over the next couple of days before I go on vacation.

NBA Live 2007 - Very Tall Team

I bought the NBA Live 2007 game as I cannot play the NBA 2k7 game. I have thought for the past number of years that NBA Live 2007 are the lesser game than the 2k series games. The 2k series of games are more realistic to actual basketball while the NBA Live 2007 games are more arcades like, with some of the players having a huge head that is way too big for their body. Anyway, I always like to tinker with the rosters when I play these games, and make certain of my favorite teams especially strong, or grouping players that I like on the same team, such as Steve Nash and Yao Ming. Of course, there is always the mandatory process of creating my own player that bears my own name and has a rating of “absolutely perfect”. I essentially created 2 very strong teams, one is the Phoenix Suns, led by Steve Nash (after I tweaked his ratings a little bit), supplemented by Shawn Marion, better version of Amare Stoudamire while majority of the team stayed intact. Another strong team beside the one that I control is the Miami Heats, for no particular reason then the fact that EASports made them very strong (even though they just got trashed by the Bulls last night, a 40+ point blowout).

However, the team that I control is the New York Knicks. It is not that I like the Knicks, but that I used to live in New York, and I like the city of New York, and there are really no particular teams that I like otherwise (since I usually like the players and not the team – as if I used to like Dallas when Nash was there, and when Nash went to Phoenix, I start to like Phoenix instead and not Dallas anymore.) Anyway, I created a rather wonderful team I thought. I signed myself as a free agent, trade the whole NY Knicks to the Houston Rockets so I have Yoa Ming. Traded McGrady to another team. Traded for Darko Millic, Adam Morrison, Macej Lampe, Andrea Bargaini. Oh yeah, and I made myself 7 feet tall. Therefore, my starting lineup has an average of 7 ft. Shane Battier is like the shortest person in the starting line up. I think this is fun to have a team like that, and bother other teams with their heights. The first game I played with this lineup, I was able to held and bother the appointment for quite some time before they start to fight back, but it was too little too late. However, in the second match, I am not as good as the first match and was unable to disturb people with our team’s heights. However, with me been the point guard and l being really tall and good at everything, I was able to push back the opponent and still win. Cannot wait to play some more with this team.

Preview to Napa Trip - Duckhorn 2003 Napa Valley Merlot

I think my blog will get more exciting in a couple of days as I go on my vacation in New York, then San Francisco/Napa/Sonoma, then Washington DC in the span of two weeks. I will be going to some wine tasting, some fancy dinners, spending time with family, little Bonbu and bunch of good friends. However, before then, I allowed myself to preview wines that I might be drinking when I am in Napa, like the Duckhorn Vineyard 2003 Napa Valley Merlot, which we plan on visiting.

I think a good thing about many American wines is the intense fruit flavors that emanates from the glass. On average, I would say that New World wines tend to be exhibit more fruit than Old World wines, and especially American wines. This Duckhorn 2003 Merlot was no exception, as the wine tasted young and exhibits lots of dark fruit characteristics. Note of sweet plum and blackberry, with intense fruit concentration on the palate. Not a complex wine, fairly easy to drink and felt like silk on the tongue. You will notice oak in there that provided the wine with another dimension, but I thought the oak was not as nicely integrated as it could be into the wine to enhance the wine’s complexity, but instead, it is more of a little bit of a standoffish taste within the glass. However, the wine is still very good to drink, and the standoffish oak is not that apparent and it did provide another flavor to the wine. The intense fruit persisted from the beginning to the end, even though the finish was a little lacking. Generally a good wine, but it does not particularly stand out. I would give it a B, while Wine Spectator gave it a 89.

Planning Vacation

I like planning vacations. I am not sure why, but I tend to get excited about going on vacations, but then I guess so does most people. I usually like to maximize my time when I am on vacation, going to as many places as I can, and filling out my day as much as possible. However, that usually left me quite tired during and after the vacation, and as working hours become longer and longer, and job related pressure becomes higher, it is harder and harder to go on vacation that are too jam packed. I realize that, and I try to plan my vacation to be a little more relaxed, but it is often hard for me to do so, and I will obsess over how I should fill out the empty slots during the time that I am on vacation. For god sake, I have a spreadsheet that is arranged in 30 minutes blocks for the vacation that I am going on in 2 weeks in order to schedule my activities, that is crazy.

I have been reading up on information as to my planned vacation, the cities that I will be going to (just San Francisco actually - or more accurately, Napa and Sonoma County), and the things to do there. This is my spare time reading for the moment, and other leisurely reading can wait until after or during the vacation, when I am not so busy planning my vacation. I think though, I obsess too much over the details, since I want everything to be perfect. The last vacation I planned was ok, read through a lot of material, know where to go, but I didn't take into account many factors that will make the vacation better. Some of these factors include travel time in cars, traffic jams, jetlag, foreign country's daily behavior (such as having a slow paced lunch for 2 hours that really push back plans), and the distance between each sight. I am trying to be more careful this time around, and try to leave more gaps in between each activities, and more open-ended options, so at least the pace should be leisurely and when executing my vacation plan, it will go much smoother. I guess we will see if it works out.

I really do love planning vacations, probably the most exciting thing going on in my life right now (that could be kind of sad though . . . .)

XBox 360 SUCKS

I recently purchased a XBox 360 in Hong Kong, since I figured I will be in Hong Kong or the Asia region for a while, it should be ok if I purchase an Asian version of the console. Also, another one of my concern is that power voltage thing, that it uses the 220V current here while in the US, it uses the 110V current. In order to save myself the hassle of using a electric power converter, I decide to just buy the Asia version. I am not a person that plays many video games, or at least many types of video games. I only usually play 4 games, the NBA 2k games, the NBA Live games and the Final Fantasy games, and Dynasty Warriors, and perhaps another game here or there. However, what I did not realize is that NBA 2k games are not produced in Asia, but only in the US. I have no idea why that is. In addition, since Microsoft encode its XBox 360 with the different DVD region code, a disc that is region 1 (which is the US), would not work in a region 3 XBox 360. However, I know that there are a few disc that works, so I thought I would try my luck and buy the NBA 2k7 in Amazon.com and have it send to New York and forward to Hong Kong. However, as I kind of expected, the game would not play on the XBox 360, as it gives the error message that the region is not correct. Why does Microsoft has to go and region code the XBox, I mean how annoying is that? Most of the XBox's game are made by US companies, and a lot of them don't make it over here in Asia, I mean, and they expect the XBox to do well? Trying to break into the gaming world, they should allow as many games to be played on their system as possible. I mean, if people cannot play the game legally, then wouldn't people think of illegal ways to be able to play the game, such as cracking the XBox 360? For movies, I can understand why, as many of the feature presentations are not in theaters all around the world at the same time, and therefore you got to plan accordingly, and prevent one regions disc from being played at another region. But does this make any sense for games? I mean, when is the best time to play the NBA or other sports games? It should be right before the season starts, in the preseasons. So when companies are forced to push out different regions of the games, it does not make any sense. If Microsoft would not region code its XBox, then not only are people able to enjoy gaming on the XBox much better, but it would serve as a much better entertainment system. Doesn't Microsoft realize that people are rather mobile now, and they don't want all that hassel of one system not work in another part of the world.

I heard the PS3 is going to be region free, so perhaps I will stay a Playstation fan after all, and screw the XBox, as most of the games that I like are only in the PS3 format or are in both format, so might as well just deal with PS3.

Mid-Autumn Festival

One thing about moving back to Asia is getting reacquainted with the Asian holidays again, or I should specify, the Chinese one For example, this past weekend was mid-autumn festival, which is during the time of the month on Chinese calendar that the moon is suppose to be round. Mid-Autumn festival is the celebration of the moon, and everyone eats mooncakes. It is a holiday in Taiwan, but it is not a holiday in Hong Kong, instead, in Hong Kong, it is only a holiday the day after the Mid-Autumn festival, which I guess makes some sense as the Mid-Autumn festival is sort of a night time thing, and people stay up late and need their rest the next day. What was disappointing though, was the fact that in Hong Kong, Saturday is technically still a work day for the government and many businesses, and thus, when the Mid-Autumn festival (or any other holidays for that matter) falls on a Saturday, they don’t make up the holiday. Therefore, for people like us who already have Saturday off, it is sort of meaningless, except for the fact that my mom wanted me to go back to Taiwan to keep her company, and that our extended family was having dinner that weekend.

There is one thing that I really do like about the Chinese holidays, which are that most of them have a long history behind it, a story that often dates back hundreds of years, if not over a thousand years ago (I think the Mid-Autumn festival is over 3,000 over something like that). The traditions and the spirits of the many holidays live on, but in many ways, it has all been commercialized to a certain extent, and the original meaning distorted. I wonder if at school, they still teach kids about the meaning of these holidays, like who I was taught when I was in elementary school. The story that every Chinese know as to Mid-Autumn festival is the story of this girl who lives on the moon, and there is a little rabbit too. There are several versions of the story as to how she get on the moon, but it usually involves her taking a little pill that made her fly to the moon. At the same time, since the Mid-Autumn festival happens on a lunar calendar instead of the normal calendar that we uses, it often also signals the day that farmers celebrate the end of their summer harvest. Family often get together to watch the full moon, eat barbeques, mooncakes and pomeloes, with lanterns and lights abound. I find solace this year that I was able to spend the Mid-Autumn festival with my mom, as for many years, we have not spend time during the major Chinese holidays, such as Chinese new year, instead, we spend time usually during Christmas and the regular New Year, which, in Asia, are really not that important of a holiday. Christmas is more about gifts and presents than the gathering of families I guess I would say that Thanksgiving reminds me of Mid-Autumn festival, and that Christmas reminds me of the Chinese New Years. Perhaps because I spent my early days in Taiwan and later part of my life in North America, all four of the holidays seem important to me. Time with families and loved ones, at the end of the day, for me, are still the most important. What is a person if he/she has no family, no one to care for him/her and no one that he/she can care for, that he/she can be worried about? Enough rambling, time to go to bed, still a work day tomorrow

Panda Are So Cute - But Deadly?

I saw this really cool article the other day.

In Beijing, China, a drunken Chinese tourist bit a panda at the Beijing Zoo after the animal attacked him when he jumped into the enclosure and tried to hug it, state media said Wednesday. The man had drunk four pitchers of beer at a restaurant before "stumbling to the zoo" nearby and stopping off at the pen holding a sleeping 6-year-old male panda, Gu Gu. He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand" and jumped over a waist-high railing down into the enclosure and when he got closer and was undiscovered, he reached out to hug it. Startled, Gu Gu bit the man in the right leg. The man, a 35-year-old migrant laborer from central Henan province, got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued and the man was quoted as saying "I bit the fellow in the back, its skin was quite thick." Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who soon got the panda under control by spraying it with water. THe man was hospitalized. Newspaper photographs showed the man lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages and several seams of stitches running down his leg.

The Beijing Youth Daily quoted the man, a father of two who was visiting Beijing for the first time, as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people." "No one ever said they would bite people," the man said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much."

Business Dinner

I have been working quite a bit lately, haven't really had the time to update and write my blog. I really should get my priority straight and focus more on my blog, instead of work, man, what was I thinking? Anyway, working a lot in Asia, doing what I do, isn't so bad, since that involves traveling as well, which can be fun in a way. One of the recent trips that I had was going to Nanjing for business. However, it was a shame that we were on a tight schedule, and there were not that many flights going from Hong Kong to Nanjing and vice versa on a daily basis (2 I think), and it would be a pain to get back to Hong Kong if flights are missed. Therefore, didn't really have the time to tour around Nanjing. However, I thought the city was kind of hot, more so than Hong Kong, and I am not sure how people really stand it. If I live in that city, I would either spend all my time indoors and never go out and sleep inside all day long, or be skinny as I will be outside and sweat a lot.

During my trip, however, I had the chance to have dinner with our clients. It was a fun experience as I have not really had client dinner before with Chinese clients, which is really all part of doing business, not only in Asia, but all over the world too. I thought interaction with the clients are the most fun part in our jobs, since the skills that you learn, what to say, what not to say, the proper etiquette of client dinners and meetings, which are different from the normal dinner etiquette. There are the skills of negotiation, the skills of flattery, that all comes as a learning experience when meeting with clients. One of the interesting things from my recent experience was drinking at dinner. We ordered some Chinese red wine, which, surprisingly, unlike a recent Chinese white wine I had, was not so bad. They serve the red wine in a rather small goblet, which surprised me as red wines are usually drunk in glasses with large bowls. The small goblets are about the same size as what would be served in dessert wines. Also, the waitress poured very little wine into the glass, which rather quite confuses me. However, the mystery was soon revealed, as the purpose of drinking this red wine, was not to actually drink and enjoy the wine like what you would do in western societies, but, just to drink and gang be (doing cheers with other people), so the small amount in the small glass was easy for people to do so, and you are suppose to finish what is in the glass in one shot, which makes lots of sense. Furthermore, when you drank up, you are supposed to face the opening of your empty glass towards the other person, to show that you have finished the content in your glass. In addition, as many people would be talking during dinner, a way to respond to other people's attempt to gang be with you, is not to stop talking, but instead, you should bang the bottom your glass on the table (well, not the table, but the round rotating thing in the middle that turns so people can get their food) as acknowledgement and thanks. This is much like the dim sum habit, where you are talking, but when other people pour you tea, you should tab your finger on the table as a way of saying thanks, rather interesting. These are important little things to learn, as how not to offend people, if I want to continue to develop my career here. I think this is one of the reasons that is making my job rather ok and that I don't dislike it as much as I did back in New York.

Crocodile Hunter

I am not sure why it made me pause a little when I heard the news that Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, died from a stingray sting yesterday. I saw the guy on tv several times, thought he was really enthusiastic, and that is about it. I am not a big fan, nor am I really care about what he does or his cause or his shows, but for some reason, I was a little taken back that he died. I think perhaps the way he died has something to do with it. He is an animal lover (I think), and he has spent his lifetime learning about animals, be around animals, teaching people about animals, and has faced some quite deadly and dangerous animals at that. Sort of ironic that he died from an animal, that, although dangerous (apparently that is the case, or he wouldn't have died right?) but is not considered to be a deadly one. It's just rather ironic that he is not killed by one of the more deadly animals like a poisonous snake or a crocodile, but instead, by a stingray. Perhaps it is because when he faces the dangerous and deadly animals, he is more cautious, and when faced with this particular stingray, he was not expecting the stingray to attack, as from what I know, they do not attack for no reason but only do it in self-defense. Well, at least he died doing something that he loved, small solace, but something nonetheless.

On a lighter note, I work too much lately, and have no time to write my blog, that is not good. I hope to update on a more frequent basis soon.

2 Good Bottles of Wine in Hong Kong

Lately, work has been a little crazy. Been working until quite late on many days, but then, I guess the upside to that is, time seems to fly by rather quickly since I am just too tied up at work. However, good things about the projects that I am on right now is that I can take lots of the work home and do it there, instead of been tied down in the office. Opening a bottle of wine around midnight and doing some work, while listening to some music, isn't a bad way for time to go by, and before you know it, it would be 4am in the morning, good times.

One of the wine I tried lately is Château Gassier Côtes de Provence 2001, a bottle of wine that I picked up in Hong Kong for roughly US$15.35, which is really quite cheap given how most wines cost like at least US$20, even some of the ones that will sell for like $10 in the US. The wine is a blend of of Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. There is a slight note of currant, but very faint. I noticed a dinstinct smell of the countryside with this wine (some sort of rustiness). Slight faint cherry sweetness on the note as well which gets stronger as the wine sits in the glass for a little longer. Silky smooth on your tongue, with sweetness of currant taking center place. A pleasant wine, easy to drink with lots of fruit flavors, but need to be decanted for a little bit, perhaps half an hour. B category wine.

Another wine that I tried lately as well, is the Château Le Reyssac Bergerac Sec 2003, a white Bordeaux wine. This wine is composed of 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 70% Semillon and 10% Muscadelle. Also another good value wine for the price, especially in Hong Kong, costing only approximately US$12.77. Note is peach intermixed with lemon and a little bit of grapefruit. Taste of honey, lemon, quince and stone fruit. Dry wine but felt sweet because of the fruity, albeit faint, note and the loaded of fruit on the palate. Another easy to drink wine. I think this wine deserves a B+, or maybe only a B, but it was a Friday night and I was happy that I got to get home before 10pm, haha, which might have skewed my judgement a little bit.

First Wine Review in Hong Kong - Roshambo 2000 Syrah

After moving to Hong Kong for about a month and a half, I finally opened a bottle of wine at home. It is not like I have not drank wine in Hong Kong yet, but far from it, since many times when my lovely employer took out its employees to many of lunches or dinners, there are always wine there. However, I just have not opened a bottle of wine at home yet, especially from one of my collection that I brought with me in New York.

I moved my wine here by regular transit, which isn't exactly the best conditions for wines to spend in for 6 weeks. However, it would have been hard for me to get my firm to pay for air-conditioned, temperature controlled shipment just for my wine, I thought, oh well, what the hell, lets take the risk. Fortunately, I thought the wine tasted much better this time around than the first time I drank this wine earlier this year in February. The wine was 2000 Roshambo Syrah Dry Creek Valley.

I opened this bottle on a slow Friday night, after getting home from work and eating dinner at home around 10pm, with a business trip looming the next day. I thought the wine had good aromatic note of roast coffee and plum (which I didn't notice at first, but became pretty apparant after the bottle is opened for a while). Even later, the note of violets started to appear as well. Flavor of smoke dominates the wine and the fruit was overpowered. A hint of spice but I thought it was little bitter, similar to the first time I had this wine. I don't think there are enough substance or fruit to compensate the bitterness. Finish is decent, and there is a lingering eucalyptus taste, a little minty, a little mediciny, but pretty interesting. I thought this wine was B- when I drank it this past February, but I am now bumping this up to a B just because of the eucalyptus tasting finish (which I did not notice the first time). However, the bitterness killed the score a little, but good thing the bitterness didn't carry to the finish.

Hey, I just realized that my fridge is really small. My unfinished bottle of wine wouldn't be able to stand up in my fridge in one of the side holders in the fridge that people put milk and juice in. It would have fit, but with the addition of the winestopper, it doesn't fit. This is horrible . . . . I think I need a better place, but at least I am saving money . . . Which might end up going to the high wine prices here, so I might no come out that ahead . . .

Oh yeah, if anyone is coming to Hong Kong, can I trouble you to bring me two bottles of wine? =)

My Apartment is TOO Small

My stuff arrived from New York to HK this past weekend, and I pretty much spent the whole weekend cleaning up my place and putting everything in its proper place. However, it is quite difficult as my current apartment now is about less than 1/2 the size of my old apartment, and even though I didn't bring over everything, I am not sure whether I can fit it all into my new apartment in HK. Apparently though, I can, after a weekend of cleaning. However, I think because of the amount of stuff that I had, things look a little cramped in the apartment right now. Perhaps if I took out all the grabage and when there are not stuff littering on the floor anymore, then it will look decent. However, I still have a couch and also a dining table to come in, and that just might cramp things up even more. Also, many of the things I have to put it into the one bedroom that I have designated as storage room, since I cannot take them out of boxes and I have no other room or cabinet space to put all those stuff. I really should have gotten a bigger place . . . .

Wine in Hong Kong

Wine in Hong Kong is expensive stuff. I did not realize that before I moved here, but after arriving here, I think I might have to put a stop on my habit of drinking good wines. The wine prices are especially hard to swallow after having just took a trip to Spain, where good wines are all over the place and comes with a very decent price (compare to the US , for Spanish wines).

For example, a bottle of Duckhorn 2003 Merlot sales for about $45 in the US, but here, I saw it selling for roughly $90, about twice the price as compare to the US. Also, bottle of nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc will sell for about $40 here in Hong Kong, while in the US it will go for about $15-$24, depending on the winery. This makes drinking wine at restaurant rather expensive as well, but I guess the % of markup in price is not as steep in Hong Kong as compared to the US. In the US, the markup can often go about 200% as compare to retail price, while in Hong Kong, I felt it is only about 50% markup, or otherwise drinking wine in restaurant would be way too expensive. I guess I now appreciate the US wine market and prices much more than before, and sort of miss it too. I guess next time I am back in the US, I need to remember to buy some bottles back, and ask everyone that visits me to buy some bottles.

First Time Excitement

Something exciting happened today. Something that I have never done before happened today. I am talking about going to Taiwan. No, not just merely visiting Taiwan, which I have done many times, and as recently as 2 or 3 weekends (I forgot) ago. Instead, it is about the immigration form that I fill out everytime that I came back to Taiwan. I always check the box that says I am visiting Taiwan for pleasure or visiting family, but today, for the first time, I am checking that box that says "BUSINESS". Wow, don't I feel important, traveling to Taiwan for business.

Haha, I know, very stupid more things, but hey, I find excitements in the tiniest things. For example, today is also the first time that I left Hong Kong by using the "Hong Kong resident" line, which moves a lot faster than the visitors line (like 50 times faster, since there was no line). Also, today was the first time that I went into the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge at the Hong Kong airport, and also, the first time that I flew Business Class for a flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan, which takes like 1 hour (not exactly seeing too much of an advantage of flying business class in this situation, except that they feed you better). So many first today. Oh yeah, also, I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Taipei for the first time. I visited this hotel many times, not to stay, but to eat here, but today, I am actually staying here, which I have to stay, is just ok . . . . . The room is not as nice as some of the other hotels that I have stayed at. Oh well, given the so many "first" today, I guess you cannot win them all.

苦瓜

Just a little story that someone send to me, and I thought it might be fun to post something in Chinese.

有一群弟子要出去朝聖，師父拿出一個苦瓜，對弟子們說： “隨身帶著這個苦瓜，記得把它浸泡在每一條你們經過的聖河，並且把它帶進你們所朝拜的聖殿，放在聖桌上供養，並朝拜它。 弟子朝聖走過許多聖河聖殿，並依照師父的教言去做，回來以後，他們把苦瓜交給師父，師父叫他們把苦瓜煮熟，當作晚餐。 晚餐的時候，師父吃了一口，然後語重心長地說：奇怪呀！泡過這麼多聖水，進過這麼多聖殿，這苦瓜竟然沒有變甜。” 弟子聽了，好幾位立刻開悟了，這真是一個動人的教化，苦瓜的本質是苦的，不會因聖水聖殿而改變，人生是苦的，愛情是苦的，由情愛產生的生命本質也是苦的，這一點即使是修行者也不可能改變，何況是凡夫俗子。

我們嘗過感情與生命的大苦的人，並不能告訴別人失戀是該歡喜的事，因為它就是那麼苦，這一個層次是永不會變的。 可是不吃苦瓜的人，永遠不會知道苦瓜是苦的，一般人只要有苦的準備，煮熟了這苦瓜，吃它的時候第一口苦，第二三口就不會那麼苦了。 對待我們的生命與情愛也是這樣的，時時準備受苦，不是期待苦瓜變甜，而是真正認識那苦的滋味，才是有智慧的態度。 不是期待苦瓜變甜，而是去真實的體會和了解，苦瓜本來就苦瓜，是連根苦的，這是一個苦瓜的實相、真相，變甜只是我們虛幻的期待而已，唯有真正面對事物的真相，我們才能從中了解，所有的事情唯有就當下去面對它、解決它，不期待未來才能真正地解決和處理， 完滿的人生並不是一輩子沒有吃過苦、沒有失過戀， 而是經歷過、體驗過、面對過那苦的滋味、真愛的感覺。

New Apartment

For me, one of the most difficult things about relocating to another city or another country, is finding a place to live. I think a “home” is important in many aspects, and especially if you work in a job that is stressful and demanding, you want a place where you can retreat into from the craziness that is around you, an oasis of some sort. There are several things that I care about when looking for a place to live. One, I want a place with a view, especially in big cities with lots of skyscrapers, since I find tranquility by looking into the city lights or the vast emptiness beyond all the buildings. Second, I want to be in a central location, a place that will allow me to go to work quickly, but also a place that offers convenience in terms of daily living. I find one of the most stressful thing about working is the time it takes to get to work. When I used to live around Columbia University and had to work at midtown, it will often take me about 40 minutes to get to work. That is too long. By the time that I get to work, I am often exhausted and tired already, especially during the summer when the weather is hot and humid and the trains are crowded and smelly. By contrast, in the last year, I lived about 15 minutes walk to work. I was able to go to work on my own schedule, no need to worry about waiting for the train, and I know exactly how long it will take me to get there. Another thing that is important to me in terms of housing is the apartment itself should have modern fixtures and are new. Many of the apartments in Hong Kong are old, sort of remind me of our house in Taiwan. It is fine and many of the things are in fixtures are in good working order, but I wouldn’t be comfortable in them as I would think the fixture are old and thus are dirty (even though that is often not the case). Lastly, an all important criteria for me is that the place needs to be very bright from natural sunlight.

Unfortunately, I was not able to meet the four criteria that I had laid out. I found a place that is newly renovated (the fridge is not even broken in yet) and in a good location (20 minutes walk to work, 5 minutes cab, and close to lots of restaurants and supermarkets). However, the place is located on a low floor, therefore, there are no views. I look into other buildings, even though there are no buildings that are immediately next to me, and there are actually quite big gaps to the next building, but still, it does not offer sea view, nor does it offer view of the mountain and the city nightlife. It does, however, from certain angles, offer a view of the IFC Tower, the tallest building in Hong Kong. At night, the IFC Tower looks much better with the bright lights, and is kind of pleasant. The apartment is sunny enough, offer lots of light during the day, even though it is on a low floor. The bathroom is very modern, but one big drawback is that it has no soaking tub, but only a very modernly renovated shower with a directly overhead showerhead (forgot what those are called). I don’t take bath all the often, but it is always a nice option to have, especially if you want to relax. I think I only took bath twice in my apartment in New York in the last year, but hey, at least when I wanted to, I can. I guess that is not a big lost, but again, it is just not perfect.

Oh well, at least I found a place now to settle down, but then, that just means another challenge has arise. I now need to furnish my apartment. Not only that, even after I furnished my apartment, I will need to wait until my shipment of stuff from New York gets here near the end of July, and then I have to unpack and organize everything, which will probably take 2 FULL days or so. Moving sucks. I will post some picture of my new apartment once I get a chance to furnish it.

Thermometer

I came across the attached ad while taking the metro/subway/mtr in Hong Kong. It is a set of ads about a pharmaceutical company and the improvments they have made in human lives. However, this one in particular, the context is just a little strange for my taste. If you cannot read clearly what is said on the ad, or cannot read Chinese, below is a literal translation starting from the text on the left to the right:

"Before, little kids are discomfortable when testing their temperature through their rectum. Now, with ear thermometer, testing temperature is easy and safe."

Ok, the text itself is fine, but accompanied by the picture, I mean, what does the picture suggest? Why couldn't they have a picture of ear thermometer, but instead, must use this one? What are they thinking?

Football Fever

So the world has football (or soccer, if you are in the US) fever nowadays, because of the World Cup. I saw a bit of the game while I was in Europe, and some of the bars can be a little rowdy. Now that I have moved to HK, it is much of the same. On game nights, people fill up all the bars just to watch the game (and to have a drink too as well of course). I saw the US v. Ecuador game in this place called California in Lan Kwai Fong and it was kind of fun. I am not a fan of football by any means, as I like high scoring games like basketball, but probably because of the environment in California, and the fact that I have really watched quite a bit of football lately, it was actually kind of fun. Some of the things that I saw people do in HK for the game are pretty funny. On my first day working, I went to a bowling event on the firm, with the bowling alley located in a mall. Inside the mall, huge screen set up, with certain sections blocked off for lazy boy lounge chairs, another section has foot massages, and the rest of the section was filled with folding chairs. People just congregate at the mall and watched the game. I think you have to pay to get a sit, with of course, the more comfortable seat been more expensive. Obviously, you don't have to sit down as you can just kind of hang around and watch the game. I thought this is pretty interesting, a sight that I have seen before and would never happen in the US for a soccer match. Another funny thing that I saw can be demonstrated by the picture attached. There were several people dressed up as David Beckham, and there is also a guy dressed in drag as Victoria Beckham (in the picture on the very left). Haha, I think they were popular that night, as many people were snapping pictures of them, myself included. The Beckham's got a little rowdy at the end, and I think one of them was quite drunk and had to be dragged home by his two Beckham buddies. They certainly made the night more interesting.

Madrid Airport

I have to say, I am not a big fan of the Madrid Airport. I went to Europe on my one week vacation, flying into Madrid from New York, and then fly home to New York from Nice, France, but transferring in Madrid. Many things went wrong (or not smoothly) at the Madrid airport, leaving quite a bad impression in my mind. First, the airport is HUGE. Really, is there a need for such a big airport? Is there that many people that fly into and out of Madrid everyday? It took us about 30 minutes to walk from our gate when we landed to custom. 30 minutes. What is up with that? That is so much time wasted by walking, talking the escalator and the train. Also, you figure that given the 30 minutes walk we had, and the time it took to go through custom, our luggage would be ready to be picked up once we are at baggage claim. But noooooooooo, let's make people wait for an hour for their bags. I mean, seriously, did they not hire enough people for this? It was not like there were tons of other flights coming in around that time. I just don't understand it.

On our return flight, the flight was delayed, but we had a 4 hour layover. Taken into account of the delay, the layover is cut to about 3 hours. We figure that would be a lot of time, but I was so wrong. First, it took us longer than 30 minutes to go from one terminal to the gates that we are suppose to depart from. Then, we had to wait for quite a long time to go through customs because of the large group of American high school teens that were traveling on the same flight as well going through customs, but the custom officials were especially confused with us since we did not have our tickets from Madrid to New York with us, as we were told by the Iberia representative that we are suppose to pick up our tickets from the terminal that we are departing from, which we can only reach by going through custom. Finally, after reaching the terminals where we can pick up tickets, it took the Iberia agents about another 30 minutes to get 6 tickets ready, I mean, seriously, why is checking in taking such a long time? I have never experienced such a long check in wait at a ticket counter, which is ridiculous. So when it is all said and done, we have about 1 hour left before departure, which didn’t leave us with much time to explore the many shops at the Madrid airport. Also, what is worse is that the flight is full and none of our seats are together, ridiculous. It is just an extremely bad experience overall, probably one of the top 3 bad airport/airline experiences I have ever had.

Prado Museum - Diego and Picasso

While I was in the Prado Museum in Madrid, I saw a really cute / interesting painting combination. The first picture is the painting by Diego Velazquez titled Las Meninas, a fairly famous painting. During that time, the Prado has a temporary Picasso exhibit, and directly on the opposite side of Las Meninas, hung Picasso's interpretation of the Las Meninas, as shown by the second picture. I couldn't get a close enough shot of the Picasso's version, since we were not allowed to take picture in the Picasso's section, but are ok to take pictures in the regular exhibits, not so sure why. Anyway, you probably cannot see very clearly the Picasso's version, but let me just tell you, it is quite funny. Some of the figures, like the dog and the servant on the very right hand side of the picture, were drawn as sort of stick figures by Picasso. It is just amusing how they hung the two paintings on the opposite side of each other. I actaully did not notice it at first, but once I discovered it, really was quite a highlight of my entire Prado visit. By the way, the Prado is kind of small . . . . . . .

Madrid

Some picture from Madrid during my Europe trip, and during the time that my camera used to work. I thought Madrid is a nice city, kind of remind me of Washington, DC though. It is the capital, it is nice, but it is also a little boring at times. All the pictures here are taken in the first day, where we went to the Plaza Mayor, and what used to be the Royal Palace, and a picture of the throne room in the Royal Palace.

Sony Camera

My Sony Camera broke while I am on my vacation in Europe. I don't understand why Sony cameras, altough looks good and are in general pretty good, often breaks down in the most inappropriate time. The first time it broke was during my sister's law school graduation ceremony, and that caused me to be unable to take many pictures during that important moment in her life. Then, the camera broke again while I am in my trip in Europe with some friends, a trip that I had been planning for 3 months, a trip that invovles us driving through Europe, but then, the camera broke . . . . . Why Sony, why?? Can you not be more reliable?

A Step Closer to Relocation

Well, the movers came two days ago and now my apartment is pretty empty, so sad. Ther are no closet full of clothes or shoes or linens. No bookshelves full of books and decoration. No stereo system, no X-Box, missing a bunch of kitchenwares and just many many other stuff. But at least I got my furnitures, so that is kind of nice. I guess the only thing that is really left are my sister's stuff. Oh well, this is just one step closer to my move to Hong Kong . . .

Jean Georges is amazing . . .

Went to Jean Georges the other day as I am trying to get around to as many of my favorite restaurants before I leave for Hong Kong. Jean Georges happen to be one of my most favorite restaurants in New York. However, please note that Jean Georges has two dining rooms, one is the main dining room, and only serves dinner, while the other one is the Nougatine room (I think that is how it is spelled), which serves both lunch and dinner. Let me tell you, the food between the two rooms is drastically different. The food at the Nougatine room are more bistro like, while the main dining room serves a 4 course absolutely delicious meal. Many people ate at the Nougatine room for lunch, and thought, hey, Jean Georges is not that good, it is not as good as say Le Bernadine or other restaurants that serves lunches. What they don't realize, is that the Nougatine room does not even scratch the surface of Jean Georges talent, the man is amazing.

I ate at Jean Georges several times, and each time, I was quite impressed. The meal was $95 for 4 courses prix fixe, which is plenty of food and I was extremely stuffed at the end of the night. Also, as far as top restaurants go, that is actually pretty reasonable (I kid you not, I can give you examples in my other blogs). I started off with the foie gras strawberry brulee, with strawberry sauce on the side, then followed by artic char with roasted porcini, jalapeno and garlic. Next, I had the special chicken that is not usually on the main menu. Charlene started off with sea scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-rain emulsion, followed by sautéed foie gras with green apple puree and dashi-yuzu froth. She ended up having the duck breast topped with cracked jordan almonds and honey wine jus. Let me tell you, we couldn't get enough of the food.

The foie gras strawberry brulee is a work of genius. I actually didn't think that combination would work. The strawberry is sweet while foie gras terraine are usually slightly sweet with a touch of saltiness to it. The strawberry is in the terraine, and the fruit enhanced the sweet nature of the foie gras without being overpowering. The texture of the foie gras is smooth and melts in your mouth, while you get a little bit of the small strawberry chunks from time to time. Charlene's scallops is good, but I had this dish many times, so it was not exactly special to me, but for some reason, I just like the combination of scallops with cauliflower. The artic char is perfectly done, and the roasted veggies compliment the fish perfectly, and the jalapeño actually enhances the taste of the fish. The sautéed foie gras is another masterpiece. Who knew you can take something Asian, the daikon-yuzu froth, and make it go so well with the foie gras that is done just right, not overly cooked as to retain the softness of the foie gras.

The entree was amazing also. The duck is one of my favorite dishes of all time. Charlene had it before too, and she loved it. The almond crust on top of the duck breast tasted so good. The almond crust is crunchy and sweet, while the duck is tender and juicy, and the combination is just wonderful. The chicken, on the other hand, was interesting. I like the taste of it, but again, the chicken actually reminded me of a dish that is popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and you can get it fairly cheaply in Asia. The chicken itself is tender and moist, unlike a lot of the chicken that you usually get in restaurant that are often dry. However, again, the taste is good, but it reminds me too much of this Chinese dish (sorry, don't know the English translation of the dish), that I can't really justify paying that much money for. Perhaps Jean Georges had this dish while he was expanding his empires in Asia, haha, and thought people would like it here in the US.

Desserts at Jean Georges is an experiment. You don't just get one dessert, but you order dessert based on groups (Citrus, Strawberry, Chocolate or Rhubarb), and you get 4 tiny portions in each group. Not everything works though, I have to say, but in general, some of the combinations are pretty interesting and you will get tastes that I usually get get to try, for example strawberry in this spicy chocolate foam.

Again, the whole meal is $95 a person, which, compares to many of the fancy restaurant is a far better bargain, like for example, Morimoto. The food at Jean Georges are wonderful, and for the same price, why not enjoy yourself a wonderful meal, instead of going to places like Morimoto, that serves interesting combination of that just doesn't work. In Jean Georges, you see interesting combinations too, more subtle, but it works quite well.

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Aureole

Aureole is probably the highest rated restaurant on my summer lunch list to date. I liked the restaurant, but always thought that the food here was a little rich. However, now I think back, perhaps it is not that the food is rich, but just that, every time I was here, I always tend to order some of the richest stuff on the menu. I don't know why that is the case, perhaps just because what looks good on the menu to me are always the rich stuff. There are quite a bit of us this time around for lunch, about 7 people. Also, I think this restaurant is one of the restaurants that I have been to this summer season that has the most summer associates lunches been held there, which includes the 7 of us, and couple of tables of summers and associates from other firms. I ordered the foie gras as my appetizer, yes, very rich indeed. It was accompanied by endive marmalade, and a shot of passion fruit sauce (which they call it on the menu as "a shot of passion"), which was poured out of a cut hollowed passion fruit, a very nice touch that adds to the presentation of the plate. The foie gras was quite good. The slightly acidic nature of the passion fruit worked well with the sweetness and softness of the foie gras. The foie gras was also quite a large one too, so I was satisfied, although felt my cholesteral has gone up by quite a bit afterwards. To continue with the duck theme, I had the duck for entree. Yes, another very fatty dish, but what can I do, I love duck. The duck was good, but for some reason, I thought the duck at Asiate was slightly better, not as fattening to some extent. There are a lot of creativity to some of the dishes, for example, a Hawaiian Tuna Tartare with shiso injection. When they say injection, they actually have a tiny little bulb with shiso juice inside, and if you stick the tube into the middle of the tartare, and push the little bulb, then the shiso gets injected to the middle of the tartare. Very interesting concept and kind of fun. People at my table couldn't really taste the shiso though, but they all thought that the tartare was good.

I didn't get any dessert, since I was just too full. However, I did eat some of my officemate's sorbet and gelato, which I think there are 8 of, all presented on this nice sorbet container. Some of the flavors are quite interesting and in general, pretty good.

No celebrities today, how disappointing . . . . . .

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Asiate

Went to Asiate the other day and had lunch. The restaurant is located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, with a pretty good view of central park if you can get a seat near the table. I liked this restaurant, went before. The cooking is French with Japanese influences, which I think, are always subtle in the dish, and is not really the typical fusion cuisine that you see all over the place. I think, the highlight of the meal was not really the food that day, but instead, was seeing Hugh Jackman. Don't know who he is? Well, many people at our table didn't recognize that name as well, but when you mention Wolverine, hey, everyone seems to know. He is a pretty good looking guy, tall, and always has this facial hair thing going. He was seated in a table next to us, but unfortunately, there were a column in between our tables, so we weren't close enough for me to snag some pictures of him. We didn't approach him either, since I guess none of us wanted to look lame at a high scale restaurant and have other people looking at us all weird. So, since there was no picture of him taken, I guess I have to settle a picture of the appetizer that I had.

I ordered the prawn as an appetizer, which is wrapped in rice paper that they will cut open in front of you. It is accompanied by XO sauce, which apparently is made out of seafood (shellfish mostly). I have a bottle (or 2) XO sauce in my kitchen. Probably not the same thing, but I like the taste of it and just drizzle a lot of it in some of the dishes I make myself. I thought the prawn was well made and very flavorful, and the XO sauce goes great with it. For entree, I ordered the duck. I guess the combination is kind of rich, just for lunch, and true enough, I was kind of sleepy afterwards. The duck was delicious too, soft and tender enough. The lunch menu also includes the Bento Box selection, which includes certain small portions that is created by the chef, and feature many food that looks like Japanese food, such as mochi, but with meat in it instead of ice cream, the small portion of the prawn that I had, and I think about 4-5 other dishes, all presented in a Bento Box. You also can get wine pairings with it. You can choose a glass of sake and either a red or white wine. My friend had a glass of sparkling sake, which I didn't actually knew existed. He seems to enjoy his food and wine, and said it was one of the best meals he had. The price for the Bento Box is decent too, about $55 including wine, which on many law firm's summer lunch budget, is within range or close to it that you probably can get away with it.

Oh yeah, one more thing, I guess in order to snag a table near the window, you probably need a large party, so go with a party of 5 or 6 or something like that.

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Café Gray

My first experience with Café Gray was not great. I thought the room looked like the old Taiwan airport, the cafeteria area, and the kitchen took up the prime spot of the space, the seats by the windows overlooking central park. I guess you can say that by placing the open kitchen there, you have a view of chefs busy working highlighted by the backdrop of Central Park, and that in a way, is picturesque in itself. There is also seating near the bars too, which I would much rather prefer if I am only eating with another person, since that space is more private and intimate, and although in the same color scheme as the main room, felt more classic. My favorite part of the restaurant in terms of decor was the walkway leading up to the bar, kind of like a rich person's foyer, with books and mirrors and dark chocolate cabinetry.

The food on my first visit, was a little on the salty side. I had the short ribs of beef the first time around, which I heard was pretty good (from Citysearch reviews or some sort, and also recommended by the waitress). However, the beef, albeit tender, was salty which tends to rob away the beef’s natural flavor. This time around, I ordered the brown sugared pork loin because New York Magazine has said that Café Gray does the best pig in town. Although the dish referenced to in that article was different than the pork loin I ordered, I figured, why not give it a shot and it might be good. I managed to drag 3 other people on the table to order the same dish as I did, hopefully they didn’t’ regret it. I thought the dish was good, and much more enjoyable than the first time I dined here. Maybe eating on the firm and not paying for the meal has something to do with it as well. Whatever the reason, the pork loin was moist and tender, but I was surprised how what seems like a dainty portion of pork loin was also quite fulfilling and rich. Kind of sleepy afterwards finishing the whole pork loin. The appetizer of beef tartare was just average, in my opinion. Too much of the beef was marinated or drizzled in a spicy sauce that again robs away the beauty of the taste of the raw beef.

I was a big fan of Gray Kunz when he cooked at Lespinasse at the St. Regis in New York. I remember that day fondly, as it was the second expensive restaurant I have ever been to in New York. It was on February 13 of 1998, the day before Valentine’s Day. I remembered that I don’t care much for the English looking dining room, but the meal was fantastic and I was introduced to many combinations of ingredients that essentially blew my mind. I always remember my experience that day, but I am not sure whether I have painted a picture of what Gray Kunz’s cuisines should be, since I was only beginning to leave the McDonald’s and Wendy’s and fried chicken food that I was used to and had only started to learn what cooking was all about and why people uses the term culinary arts. I remember the first expensive / up-scale restaurant I went to in New York, Les Celebrites in the Essex House, headed up by Christian Delouvrier, who now is the executive chef at Alain Ducasse in New York, the same exact space as Les Celebrites. That day, I discovered that even vegetables can taste great, and I literally cleaned every plate that was put in front of me. I never knew food can taste this good. I thought the chef there must be a genius, but then at the same time, McDonald’s and Chinese take out never tasted the same to me ever again, so I was screwed on that front. However, now I visit Alain Ducasee (last time was around April of 2005), and the food doesn’t taste that great anymore, even though Christian Delouvrier is the one heading up the kitchen. I mean, it was good, but it was no where near my expectation and the price point. The food was not memorable; it did not distinguish itself from the many other top restaurants in New York (well, the one memorable aspect about my experience there that time was meeting Alain Ducasse, who was there that night and came by and asked us how the food was, and I really wanted to tell him that it was really just okay, but I thought that might be rude since in the table next to us, this young man was telling Alain Ducasse that he was a genius).

I think now, after having eaten at many of the top restaurants in this city, there are very few restaurants that I would remember. There are many good restaurants, but most of the time, their dishes doesn’t have that magic that, 5 years from now, I will still be able to tell people what I ate, and describe the exact sensations that I felt when I ate that dish. The pork loin we had today was good, but it was not memorable. Oh, I guess what is memorable about this meal though, was seeing Anderson Cooper in the table next to us. Pretty good looking guy, looks young, but with white hair. I wonder if that hair color is real? He seems too young to have white hair. He was eating with this woman who was also an anchor for CNN, don’t know her name though, but apparently is engaged/married to Rush Limbaugh. Oh, we were there on Tuesday, May 30, 2006.

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Alto

Big group this time, 10 people in total, even though some people left early, and some just showed up for 20 minutes, chowed down fast, while typing frantically on their blackberry, checking voicemail on their cell phone, and jet. Muggy day, with chance of thunderstorm. Risky to be outside, felt a little sticky from the humidity. This was May 26, a Friday. A good chance to get some alcohol during lunch, but no one did. The restaurant was Alto.

Alto serves Northern Italian cuisine, or at least I was told, with French influences, as was described in New York magazine. Very cool and sleek room, that felt intimate but at the same time formal and grand. The food was surprising, actually tasted pretty good. To be honest, I did not have much confidence choosing this restaurant, since although I have heard good things about Alto in the papers and in magazines, one of my friends who went thought the restaurant was just okay, and this is coming from a man who I have high regards in terms of taste. However, the waiter recommended this ravioli with snail and truffle, which was actually one of the best ravioli I have ever tasted. I think it is the combination of snails and truffle, as both have a certain earthiness to them, that made the dish to my liking. Truffle, as you might all know, has a very distinct aroma that reminds me of mushroom or the wild forest. Truffle has a certain primal taste and smell that in my opinion cannot be found in other type of food and just hits the senses (beside taking a hit on your wallet). But then, now I am a little confused. I don't know if I like this dish because it is actually delicious or that because it is the presence of the truffles and truffles along.

The appetizer and the dessert I had was not bad, but did not impress me to the extent of the ravioli. The roasted rabbits had like two tiny pieces of rabbit meat intermixed with tons of other stuff like beans. I thought that dish had a lack of focus, and the main attraction, the braised rabbit, was toned down and overpowered by the other ingredients.

One thing to note, there were a lot of foam used in many of the dishes. I don't know if foams are still popular. I don’t really see anyone using foams in dishes anymore. Not like I have anything against foams or anything, but there must be at least 3-4 dishes that people ordered today that were filled with foams.

Well, at the end of the day, I think people like the place ok, hopefully that is correct, or perhaps they just tell me it is ok but actually hated the food. But at least, from what they told me, people seems to generally like the pasta dishes.

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Dona

Another day, another lunch. This time, I decided to try out a new restaurant that had only opened for a couple of weeks, called Dona. The restaurateur behind this creation was an ex-attorney, what an appropriate place for summer lunches. The chef is Michael Psilakis, and the cuisine is a blend of Greek and Italian. The date was May 24.

First, lets start with the décor, which was completely WHITE. It is pleasant and seems to put people at ease, but at the same time, it is just WHITE. I am not sure if everyone will like it, but hey, it was kind of cool and as long as it does not give me the hospital feel (which many WHITE themed restaurant tend to make me feel), I am fine with it. I think a review on New York magazine calls the décor Mediterranean white, which I guess I can agree with that, at least from what I know about the Mediterranean watching TV, haven’t never actually been there.

On to the food, which is always more important than the décor, although, the wrong lighting and the wrong décor can and will change a person’s perception about a meal. For me, since it was lunch, the weather was nice outside, and the restaurant has a wide open window at the front that allows the sun to shine through, I thought I was sort of kind of eating in a Mediterranean restaurant. However, before I went, I had just read the review on New York magazine, I keep on thinking there is Greek influence in the cuisine, and I am going to the Mediterranean Coast in 2 weeks, probably all had something to do with the way I felt.

I ordered the Crudo as appetizers, which comes with two dishes, (i) sea urchin, burrata caviar with fava bean puree and (ii) Kumamoto oyster, pink grapefruit, salty ginger, pink shallot vinaigrette. The two dishes alternate, with 3 small bowl of each. The appetizers were light, perfect for a summer day and a glass of rosé or light white wine (which too bad, I did not have), or some cava or prosseco. However, I can’t help but noticing that the main ingredients themselves, i.e. sea urchin or Kumamoto oysters, are kind of robbed of their natural flavors. The sea urchin, which has a natural sweetness, are somewhat dulled by the saltiness of the caviar. The oysters are slightly better but also a little salty. The entrée, roasted Shetland cod with little neck clams and I think chorizo, is amazing and delicious. The cod was flavorful with a slight crunchy crust, the clams add another dimension to the dish while the chorizo enhances the taste sensations, but at the same time, the dish was not rich and heavy, but just right. In order to stay with the same theme for some food that goes well in the summer, I decided to get some gelato and sorbet: lavender peach sorbet, blood orange, a bittersweet chocolate gelato that I cannot remember the name of. The peach sorbet was wonderfully sweet and made me felt like I was eating one of those sweet and juicy Japanese peaches served at the right temperature with lots of juice flowing in my mouth with each bite. The bittersweet chocolate gelato has the right combination of sweetness and the bitterness of a dark chocolate, something a lot of chocolate gelato or ice cream cannot easily achieve. The blood orange sorbet, however, was a little disappointing, a little too acidic.

Overall, I am very happy eating here. A glass of wine or two would have been perfect or if I can transfer this meal to when I am on vacation in two weeks, eating at a fancy restaurant near the beach and enjoying the cool breeze of the Mediterranean sea, sipping on a nicely chilled rosé, and just enjoying life. Perhaps this meal can be a prelude to what I will get to enjoy on vacation.

Coming next – more restaurants, more food, and some celebrity sightings.

Summer Associates Lunch Series - Vong

Part of the summer associate experience at a big New York law firm is to go on these summer lunches with associates who have too much time or who just love to eat, and experience the culinary scene in New York, which I have to second, is one of the best in New York. Lots of world famous chefs set up restaurants in New York, and since the law firms are paying for them, summer is definitely a time to take advantage of the free lunches ($$ amount vary by law firms) and try out some new (or old) restaurants.

The summer class at our firm started about 4 weeks ago and I had a chance to tag along (or organize) some summer lunches since then. So I am going to report on each one that I went to, until I move to Hong Kong at least. First restaurant in the summer associate lunch season is (drum roll please) . . . . Vong, which I actually went on May 18.

Vong is one of Jean Georges Vongerichten's original restaurants in New York and I think also is one of the first fusion restaurants in New York. It is heavily influenced by Jean-Georges’ time in Thailand (sort of a Thai-French fusion cuisine). Last time I was there was several years ago, and I thought the place was average, serves up good food but nothing spectacular. The restaurant offers some interesting combinations and the food are in general good, but it lost the sort of cool appeal after so many fusion places opened up and Jean-Georges started to branch out like crazy his restaurant empire (you know he is worth like $500 million?) However, I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. There were 9 of us, a large party, which I think caused the service to be a little slow (actually, really really slow). Many people got the appetizer sampler, which includes everything on the appetizer menu, and is supposed to be shared between 2 people. I went a little more modest and tried just the crab spring roll. It was delicious. This was a dish I remembered to be on the menu couple years back, and it was good then, and it is still very good now. The crab meat was finely packed in the crispy spring roll and tasted soft and flavorful, which is counter balanced by the crispiness of the spring roll. When the menu says crab spring roll, it really meant crab, since it is stuffed with crab and not with a bunch of other spring roll fillers. Tamarind sauce accompanies the spring roll, and the combination worked wonderfully.

Skate was my choice of entree, and it was good, but not spectacular like the crab spring roll. The skate was accompanied with sugarcane vinegar and caramelized fennels. I would provide more color as to the skate wings, but quietly frankly, it was 2 weeks ago and I forgot, haha. I do remember though, however, that it was flavorful, but not overpowering as to rid of the skate its characters. The most memorable part of the meal, I must say, comes from the dessert, passion fruit soufflé. It was soft and creamy with a hint of sourness that balances out the sugariness of the dessert. The soufflé was the perfect way to end a lunch, and like the other dishes that I had, all the flavors were exotic in a way but subtle and seamlessly integrated into the dish. Too often, a fusion restaurant will serve up dishes that hit you over the head with the strong flavors of the various Asian spices or sauces, but could not integrate the spices harmoniously with the ingredients. Perhaps that is why I appreciated Vong that much more this time around, after being bombarded with the many so called fusion cuisine in the last couple of years that are often more showy than focusing on the substance. The restaurant does look a little old though, and the décor has definitely showed a little wear and tear compared to many of the grand new restaurants in the city. However, the food is what sets Vong apart from the others and perhaps the reason that the restaurant continues to do so well (it was packed during lunch time when we were there).