Slowhand wears boat-shoes

I suppose it's better than Armani suits. Awesome, awesome show with an unbelievably good pianist. Thankfully there were limited "unplugged" songs and plenty of electrified blues. He seemed to finish part way through his show as the end was extremely abrupt. A five minute ovation resulted in a return to the stage and a mere single encore song before departure and the house lights.

Eating Paris

What can be said about Paris that has not been said before? It is such a magnificent city especially for walking. Flat geography, human scale & medium rise construction, a mixed use urban planning strategy, depth and layering of built history, fine grain streets and direct, broad boulevards (what a great way to get to those peasants in their fertile, still, tepid air!)..... and chacuterie to be found everywhere. Not a tonne of street food, but I think that the Parisian street food just happens to be found indoors.

Essentially we just ate and walked our way around Paris. Each day we would have a few pin-points on the map to provide direction. The pin-points ranged from A L'Etoile d'Or for salted caramels (a morning rush had bought out the Henri le Roux natural salted caramels however we grabbed some Bernachon chocolate) to vintage boutiques where they were not sold out of vintage Dior bags, thank-you-very-much Santa!

Luckily we were doing between 4-6 hours on foot as each meal was from 3-8 courses with bread, petit fours, amuses, wine, treats, coffee, mignardises...... The mashed potato from Benoit was essentially mashed butter with a little potato. Incredible, but thrown in as a side dish to a three course meal where the mixed tart dessert was three normal sized tarts on one plate -we somehow didn't manage to eat dinner that night.

The above made-to-order mille-feuille masterpiece from Jacques Genin was sublime. We queued at Pierre Hermes for macarons however despite them being good, the wait time is better spent at Genin. They are supposedly known for their eclairs however it was full of chocolate custard, whereas we are cream filled people.

Big Eats

• Jules Verne - incredible view (Merry Christmas window seat - well organised me!) but the food a bit hit and miss. The sommelier suggested a wine at half the stipulated price which was very much appreciated.



• Robert et Louise - OK steak cooked well on an open fire in an atmospheric bistro however it tasted too much like the hot plate. Good escargot and chacuterie.



• Le Gaigne - environment a little sterile however the food was simple, cooked well and the service generous.



• Benoit - absolutely huge servings. Huge, juicy escargots, "don't turn your back on that with me sitting opposite you" souffle, magnifique cassoulet, incroyable boudin noir. Worthy of another visit. Perhaps too much and perhaps too rich. Perhaps not? Perhaps just man-up next time?



• Les Diables au Thym - superb tete de veau with gribiche though there was cumin in two out of three courses which was a little odd.



• Hidden Kitchen - a private kitchen run by a young American chef. The food was good though not sure why he is such an apparent darling of the American food world. Perhaps it's because he cooked an excellent 10 course meal for sixteen people in a genuine domestic kitchen? Great Paris apartment.



• Spring - though odd to hear a thick Aussie accent coming out of the open kitchen this was great, simple, clean food. My only complaint was having to listen to the guy at the next table read out the entire (I promise - ENTIRE) Louvre section of the Lonely Planet to his bored date in a monotone. He was then rude to the garcon and wondered out loud why the French hate Americans. Sorry buddy - just you.



• Paul Bert - delicious steak though very average frites (as we encountered wherever we ordered them). Sweet-as-my-wife St Jacques scallops and a Grand Marnier souffle to top Benoit.



• Le Nemrod - order the croque monsieur on Polaine bread. Amanda took the Pepsi challenge with the two versions. A second croque was not what the garcon was expecting when he asked "can I get you anything else?" If he had known Amanda he could have expected a heap of croque. Good steak tartare but that is one big plate of raw meat.

We cancelled Guy Savoy and Les Ambassadeurs as we couldn't handle any more.

I am assured that I have been to St Chappelle in the past though I don't recall going - Wow.

Two sisters - both striking, one more crinkly than the other? Only in the crazy mind of an artist!

We couldn't skip it while in Paris.

Little Eats

• Pierre Hermes - maybe queue for 5 minutes, not longer.


• Jacques Genin - superb pastries.


• Au Levain du Marais - the best croissants we had from a disappointing bunch. Very very yummy but I would probably choose Victoires.


• Paul - chain boulangerie pretty good as a fall back as opposed to a random walk-in.


• Au Petit Fer Cheval -we only had a drink here but the food looked good, the service was fantastique and the setting lovely.


• Huitrerie Regis - excellent excellent oysters with sancerre.


• A l'Etoile d'Or - charismatic shop owner (picture 50 year old French lady dressed as a Japanese school girl). Tasty tasty salted caramels.


• Jounnault - dauntingly expansive fromagerie (and now, a nicely stocked Singapore fridge). I am not knowledgeable enough to compare this to other shops.


• Le Rendez-Vous des Amis - not as good as my moules but a great chacuterie plate. Note to self - picon biere is not a French brewer but the addition of a nasty bitter orange liqueur to a glass of beer.

Hmm - queuing up for the Tower while we were over-charged ridiculous amounts of money for pretty good food. Suckers!

And we couldn't skip the Tower either.

His eyes don't follow you.

The view from our apartment.

Penang street food

My belly is still full from our weekend trip to Penang however not so full that I didn't dribble over the photos of the roti canai (in Singapore called roti prata) we ate.

Michelin's definition of 3 stars is a meal worthy of a special journey. On that basis Roti Canai Transfer Rd (Transfer Rd near the Caltex, in front of the blue shops, mornings only) serves a three star meal.

We ate the lamb and the beef, both meats cooked until you could almost drink them through a straw. The lamb curry was a thicker, tomato infused curry, the beef a thinner reduction. The roti was crisp, with a great char & flakiness - a delight. All served with some great banter from the roti-men.

The char kway teow from Heng Huat (Lorong Selmat) came highly recommended from various research sources and when the patrons were prepared to weight 1 hr, we thought there must be something special to it. There was not.

There wasn't anything wrong with the char kway teow and it was good, just not 1 hr-wait-good. We ate one chili and one non-chili, the non-chili allowing the delicious wok hei to come through a little more. Not worth a special journey.

The Nyonya restaurant Hot Wok (124 Jalan Burma) was a complete disappointment. They had a good otah which was airy and fresh however other than that, this was probably the greatest waste of calories on a trip where any calorie calculation would have caused a meltdown.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear on Penang Rd served some fine nasi kandar. Very friendly service and a location near some night spots meant that trade was pretty good. I could see this being a fantastic mid or post drinking meal.

If you were passing by, you would stop for a quickie.

While not on the level for the roti, the twice cooked pork from Teik Sen (Lebuh Carnavon, evenings) was phenomenal. Amanda doesn't like bacon (I know, I know - but I love her! What can I do?) but she liked this. I loved it. The below photo doesn't look like much however this is pig fit for a king.

While eating, you can gaze over the likely source of pig carcasses hanging in the tropical, open air butcher across the road. Yum!

We ate popiah, yam cake, mapo dofu, satay, krupuk and wanton mee. We drank beer and tea, wine and coffee (pretty good stuff from Straits Collection on Stewart Lane), water and barley juice. 36 hours of food coma inducing excess.

Let's do it again.

Waku Ghin

Tetsuya's Singapore restaurant opened recently and we were lucky enough to visit on the weekend. The cuisine is Japanese as opposed to the Japanese influenced served at Testuya's and is cooked/prepared at Teppanyaki stations, something I enjoy as I love seeing what's going on. The cost is incredibly high and its hard to even consider if "its worth it." I will say it is one of the greatest dining experiences I have had in a long long time.

Warm soup of pumpkin with white truffle.

Martinated botan ebi with sea urchin & Oscietre caviar.

Tachiuo wrapped in Pancetta with braised witlof & aonori.

Abalone with fregola & tomato.

Braised lobster with tarragon.

Warm salad of Cape Grim grass fed beef.

Australian blackmore Wagyu with wasabi.

Consomme with rice & snapper.

Gyokuro.

Granita of Kyoho grapes.

Ghin cheesecake.

The new fact for the evening was that the harder you grate fresh wasabi, the hotter it gets. We took the Pepsi challenge and sure enough less pressure results in a milder wasabi.


I have never really seen why abalone is such a highly regarded ingredient and I still don't, however the abalone dish served at Waku Ghin was phenomenal and by far my favourite dish of the evening.

The food was incredibly restrained. Exceptional ingredients prepared very delicately, the chef's skill being leaving the ingredients alone rather than doing too much. I would absolutely go back tomorrow, if someone else paid or next year if I am paying.

Deepavali long weekend in HK

Amanda and I have a tough life. We flew to HK again last weekend to celebrate the Deepavali long weekend with Bin. It was an eating holiday for all and a shopping holiday for the girls. I had my plans for the days however constant rain stopped me from walking the streets.

On Friday night we were booked in to Liberty Private Works, a private kitchen we had loved on a visit earlier in the year. Upon arrival we were told that there was a private function and that they had tried to get in contact with us, our booking wasn't confirmed, a dog ate their homework, sometimes bad things happen to good people.........I suspect that they had a better offer which I can understand for a 10 seat restaurant however that lack of professionalism and behaviour will come back to haunt them. I had such a great meal there last time that I am not sure how long my black-list will host them.

Try getting a booking at 8:30pm on a Friday night in Hong Kong. Our fall back plan of some noodles and meats was always going to be great however we were focused on something else. We eventually got a 10:15pm booking at The Drawing Room, a 1 star Italian restaurant attached to our hotel (JIA). The food was fantastic and everything I love about great Italian food - simple & unfussy, great ingredients, unpretentious. And generously covered in freshly shaved white truffles.

Amanda has taken an immediate shine to the white truffle after just our first try. Heaven forbid she should take to the slightly less ridiculously priced black truffle.

So we went to Bo Innovation for dinner on Saturday night. The Chef Alvin Leung is some sort of bad-boy rock star of the HK food scene although I think that this is mainly self-styled. I was very excited to eat here as Bo is one of the few restaurants delivering modern Chinese food (not to be confused with fusion). I have been very disappointed with most of the "acclaimed" fine dining locations I have eaten at in Asia many of which have been French (should I be surprised?).

I am very glad I dined here and I generally enjoyed the meal however I won't be back.

A google search will find you far better and in-depth food reviews than I can provide however my general thoughts are that this is meal is a condescending theme-park offering. As each course is served, the waiter brought out the traditional Chinese ingredient(s) that is referenced in the course being eaten and explained the background of the dish. I am fine to have some irony served with my dinner however not if it needs to be explained (condescendingly). There were almost no Hong Kong natives eating and this restaurant will continue to be a tourist only destination if it continues down this path.

Some dishes were molecular, some not. The interpretation of Beggar's Chicken was made from frog with an almost flavourless lotus root powder. It was tender and delicious however there was no link whatsoever to Beggar's Chicken. The foie gras course didn't make any discernible reference to a Chinese dish.

As a friend aptly described, it was try hard.

Singfest 2010

On Thursday night Amanda and I went to Singfest. When reading "Singfest" please hold your arm straight up, clench your fist, then extend your pointer and little fingers, all whilst nodding your head.

The line up was some nobody I have never heard off, then Ian Brown from the Stone Roses, The Vines, 30 Seconds to Mars and The Smashing Pumpkins. I am not a massive Stone Roses fan so not really up to speed with Ian Brown. The music was OK although doesn't seem to be great for a live gig. The Vines were awesome. I had not seem them live but Youtube led me to believe they were going to be messy and all over the shop. They were fantastic though perhaps there was not as much "performing" as I expected. Smashing guitars in Singapore is as illegal as chewing gum.

30 Seconds to Mars was a tragic loss of 45 minutes of my life, listening to some tosser lead a band through average music that nobody will remember in 2 years. So by the time The Smashing Pumpkins came on at about 12:45am, Grandpa were pretty tired. I would like to say tired from the hard-core mosh pit, but it was more the "gee that's loud and my legs are saw from standing up for 2 hours" kind of tired. You know - sad old git tired.

Macau & Hong Kong

Amanda and I are just back from classy Macau and as always, amazing Hong Kong. I had never been to Macau before and was interested in the intense development that has taken place and is continuing to take place.

We decided to embrace the tackiness of Macau and stayed at the Venetian. As you can see below, the Venetian is all restraint and elegance. Even better, the frescoes are in great condition, far superior to the crappy ones you see in Italy. The "Grand Canal" runs through the middle of the Venetian flanked by Italian masterpieces such as Gucci, Armani, Versace and the flagship of Italian cuisine, Starbucks.

We had lunch at Robouchon and were incredibly disappointed. After previous experiences at 3 Star restaurants my previous suspicions have been confirmed and I am content to never place much value in the substance of the Michelin guide's higher certified restaurants. I have no interest in eating over-worked food in pretentious surroundings served by well dressed glassies.

However, I did eat one of the greatest cheeses I have ever tasted. It was a camembert from Champagne however unfortunately I got the name of the other camembert that was served and so am none the wiser. Stay tuned, I have sent emails to ask for the name and to see if I can marry their pastry chef.

Then began the great Portuguese egg tart hunt. After getting lost in the casino for 20 minutes and then stumbling upon the canal which was worth another 30 minute wander I ended up in another hotel. The concierge called ahead to confirm that the bakery was open only for the first taxi driver to not know the location. 10 minutes later the second taxi driver talked it through with the concierge and we finally had agreement. 15 minutes later I end up at a different egg tart bakery, my second preference - Lord Stow's. After my initial disappointment at not finding Margaret's Cafe e Nata I got stuck in to Lord Stow's. They are pretty damn good although a little too eggy. But with pastry like that, I can forgive many many sins.

Dinner at Fernando's was a great rustic bookend to the day and although my belly looked like I had a cheese-baby, we still managed to eat several plates of great food highlighted by an incredible plate of clams.

In Hong Kong we ate dinner at a fantastic private kitchen. Liberty Private Works served a seven course meal (accompanied by our beautiful BYO Lakes Folly) each course of which was beautiful. After the butter-fest of Robouchon the dishes were delicate, simple and fresh and I can highly recommend it to everyone.

Amanda is normally my salami mule as HK has some great delicatessens, however this time I smuggled my own cured meats. An incredible salami is calling to me from the fridge as we speak and the voices in my head won't stop.

A Bit Like Magic

The Queen cover band was pretty damn fun though about 408 closets away from being anywhere near as good as Freddie.

36 Rajasthani musicians

The Manganiyar were fantastic. Part of the Singapore arts festival, this was a peep show of incredible Indian musicians, the opening and closing of curtains and the rhythmic, synchronised switching on and off of dressing room light globes. All orchestrated by the greatest display of castanet playing this side of Leonardo Balanda's Concertina for Castanets and Orchestra Three Anecdotes (1977).