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Day 7 – Expat gathering

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:03:54 +0000

After a lazy day yesterday it was time to smash the gym again today and burn off the few beers last night. The gyms in Beijing are quite expensive so make sure that you pick a hotel with a good gym and weigh up the pricing – a visit to one of the better hotel gyms will set you back $50 AUD for a visit. In saying that, they are well equipped, the spa facilities are great and they supply endless bottled water which is a nice little touch. $50 AUD though can get you a lot in this city!

For lunch it was back to Obentos – reliably good food and great service. What I really liked about this visit was that we arrived and all the FOH staff apart from Andy (owner) were sitting down in their English class. Hospitality in mainland China is a tough business. Although it appears that the labour is cheap, its not all that accessible nor is it reliable. On top of this, the staff that you employ must be housed, insured and fed – all at a cost to the employer. It’s tough and it really does make you realise the level and professionlism we have created here for hospitality and more so how many staff in our industry are taking it for granted. Thought for the day.

We had no plans this afternoon and Andy had mentioned he was going south to the Hospitality Markets to purchase some stuff for Obentos – so we joined him.

Expecting something similar to the wet markets, I was really surprised to see a block sized warehouse – think Bunnings, but bigger and think Chefs Hat inside – Amazing!!!

I am like a kid in these kind of places and I was a little upset I was in China as I was limited with what I could take home. It was so ridiculously cheap…

There wasn’t a lot of food to write about today so I made a quick stop at the Hotel G restaurant – Scarlett, to rally up some material. Scarlett is in interesting place, it’s busy with hotel guests and people from surrounding businesses and it seems to do ok. My main issues was that they apparently specialise in cold cut meats and cheese, both of which sit out on the bench for your viewing pleasure. Not so much pleasure though as this food is long past what I would consider appealing. I opt for a wine instead and am drawn to the wines by the glass blackboard above the bar which has plenty of names I haven’t seen before. I chose the Helen Riesling, apparently from Northern China (I wasn’t exactly aware they did wine)!! When I saw the bottle and that it was 2006, I was concerned, even more so when I saw the colour. It was a fresh bottle and it was far from riesling – whatever it was, it was gone. I later find out that the Chinese aren’t exactly good and bottling the right wine nor putting the right vintage on the bottle – apparently its more of a lucky tip. Oh dear.

Thank god it was time for dinner and tonight was an expat gathering at Karaiya Spice House in Sanlitun (restaurant central). Owner Alan Wong, responsible also for the popular restaurant Hatsune in the same complex has been very successful in the Beijing restaurant scene – and its clear to see why. The cuisine here is Hunanese and the theme for the dishes is HOT!

I LOVE a large round table, especially one with a lazy susan, its just so easy, so friendly and so sociable and that to me is the reason why we should go out for dinner – to be fun and catch up with friends!

Whilst most of us were busy talking – someone thankfully ordered for us and food just starting arriving. Awesome. The foot was so brilliantly presented, it was colourful, smelt incredible and our eyes were burning from the chilli on the dishes.. in a good way.

We had beautifully soft, flavoursome and flaky turbot which was butterflied on the plate, mounded with fresh herbs and finely cut carrots and capsicum – very similar to Yun Er in the village.

We had some perfectly tender and seasoned eye fillet which came up rare on the hot plate and melted in the mouth. The most impressive dish though came out in a small sliver wok on flaming stones – what appeared to be coarsely chopped chicken with thick cuts of greens and whole chillies. The meat was a little more opaque than chicken and also a little more stringy off the bone, however it was so incredibly juicy and tasty I assumed it was all cooking style.

When a few others on the table made the same comments, it was confessed that the dish was their signature bull frog dish.

Wow. Honestly, I probably never would have ordered it, especially in China, however I am very glad I had it.

Dinner is done and we all kick on to Migos, a roof top bar close by that looks over the city, it’s spectacular. The entire space is open air and the fit out is similar to what you would expect by the pool in Bali – deep wooden seating, over-sized comfy lounge chairs and little huts for the VIP’s in the opposite corner to where the DJ was working the crowd. Very cool.

A few beers and a few G&T’s and I think I just fell in love with this city!

Score / 10

Drunk – 6

Gourmet – 6

Day 6 – The day after The Great Wall

Thu, 31 May 2012 06:43:59 +0000

One thing we really didn’t think about was how sore we would be after walking the Great Wall. Ouch! Every single bone, muscle and tendon was inflamed and hating on me.

Needless to say that whatever we had planned in the morning was scrapped and swapped for an extra few hours in bed.

Thank god for the Nespresso machine we had ordered for the room – it meant we had to go nowhere for some caffeine to get us out of the hotel room and onto the streets.

Funnily enough, we thought the best way to get around today would be walking and try and get these legs moving!!

Breakfast was on the go and the hunger set in when we started checking out some expat supermarkets under the China World Hotel. We opted for a few things to simply try – a green tea and black bean cake which was woeful (it was officially the last green tea flavoured thing I will ever eat), a small Irish custard (random but tasty) and I had a carb craving so what better than some baked bread goodness with eggs, bacon and herbs.. I was weak but it made me feel better!

A healthy lunch will clearly cancel out the bad carbs consumed earlier so we head to Colbri – a cute little cafe in the fancy part of town – Sanlitun. Colbri sits in the north part of the village and is surrounding by the glamour stores so you can’t miss it. It’s simply decked out with large windows, white walls, white tables and white chairs and it has the menu written on the blackboard behind the glass counter which is filled with colourful pastry items. Hello friends.

We ordered very boringly and had a smoked salmon salad and chilli beef salad – both were tasty but I just get depressed when I have a big bowl of lettuce in front of me. Healthy should be sexy and fun! To drink, the pineapple yoghurt shake was super cold and super tasty. They also had a red bean yoghurt shake which I’m sure would have been interesting however I wasn’t prepared for interesting.

As my legs were still in pain, I used this as a perfect excuse to order something sweet and I knew exactly what that was going to be. Enter the oversized macaron, filled with strawberries and cream. Would it be rude to have another??

With this sweet surprise we order coffee and the search for good coffee in this town is over – they do the best coffee I have had in China so if you crave the coffee bean like some of us often do – make sure you visit.

This place does it all well and they were deservedly buzzing.

It was then time for foot massage take 2 – this time was at Bodhi, just over the road from our hotel. Bodhi has long been the one of the better massage houses in town.. and all of them are above board! An hour here costs $27 AUD and it is well worth it. They even offer complimentary beverages and dodgy food. If you are running short of money don’t spend it on street food, spend it here.

On the way back to the hotel I get a small bottle of gin from the store, because I can and a little lay down is required before dinner.

We went local for dinner tonight as we were simply too tired. We had no recommendations so we opted for the closest, busiest place packed full of locals – the number one general rule of thumb when you don’t know where to eat! Thus, tonights dinner is at Bellagio. This place is apparently a local staple and has been for years and the best part is its open from 10am-5am.. I can see a late night disco snack here already. whoop whoop.

Again with the glossy magazine menu with the added elements of 7-11 style lighting, fake croc skin black chairs and identical staff dressed in black pants, white shirts and blue or red cummerbunds. By identical I mean exact and I later found out that the to get a job here you must be female and have your hair cut exactly the same as the other staff. Short. But they are some of the most efficient staff I have ever seen and they have that team sorted. All they are missing is the smile, but if I worked till 5am every morning I would probably lose the smile over time too.

Nevertheless, the food is decent, it comes out quick, its fresh and the flavours are good. We have the stir fried enoki mushrooms, diced snake beans with chilli pork mince, Indian greens with sweet slithers of … and a semi sweet Beijing pork dish that comes out like a taco where you make it yourself. Very mexicasian!!

To finish off a perfectly hilarious meal we order tapioca and red bean pudding – why they insist on putting beans in everything I have no idea – it must be an acquired taste that I haven’t acquired yet. A taste I have acquired though was the mango dessert which was mango pudding, mango soup, fresh mango slices and both mango and coconut ice cream. It resembled something fresh out of Sizzlers when sizzlers was good and it was magic.

Score / 10

Drunk – 4

Gourmet – 4 (the desserts alone would have scored 6).

Day 5 – The Great Wall of China & renowned Capital M

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:59:15 +0000

We decided late last night that today we would squeeze in one of the 7 wonders of the world and walk The Great Wall.

For some reason we first decided to try the gym at the Westin hotel as it was recommended and we were told the pool was ridiculous! The gym we would regret later, the pool we would appreciate.

China doesn’t seem to have a population of fitness freaks so the gyms are always fairly quiet, but after trying out a few different venues whilst here I’m starting to think people just don’t go them because they fail to understand what climate control is – too hot people! It’s not bikram.

A friend has organised a driver for us which is great and he doesn’t take us to the tourist section of the wall which is Badaling (the closest section from Beijing). He takes us to Mutianyu which is around a 90min drive from the city. The drive is easy for a number of reasons; 1 – It gets us out of the city and 2 – it takes you through the beautiful countryside of China and shows you first-hand how magnificent this country really is.

In China, the belief is that everyone holds up their part of the sky and out here you can honestly see it.

Once at the wall, we push through the locals selling cheap shirts, hats a cold beer and make our way up what feels like 20,000 stairs to reach the wall. There is also an option of the cable car up however it is the best leg workout known to man so just suck it up.

As the forest is quite dense you can’t see the wall until you reach it and when you do, you need a moment to take it in.

This thing is amazing! Each way you can see the wall curve through the mountains and the end is no where in sight from this section.

We walk from tower 14 to 23 – technically 21 if anyone in an official suit asks as beyond that is not allowed. The lovely lady who sold us water on tower 21 told us we could (I think?!? or maybe she was waving at us telling us we couldn’t??).. either way that was good enough for us.

Walking this wall is nothing short of a mental and physical challenge and proves that there is no work out for the body like getting out in the open world and sweating.

Our legs were shaking on the way down and we arrive at a car 4 hours later is shear pain. Not surprisingly we both passed out on the drive back into town.

We have a quick stop back at the Westin and enjoy a well deserved swim, spa and seriously long rain shower! Heaven. Bring on dinner and more importantly the wine.

Dinner is booked at Capital M – the extension of the M-restaurant group responsible also for M on the Bund in Shanghai. Capital M looked over Tian’anmen square – very historical for all the wrong reasons. The power and glamour behind these restaurants is Melbourne born Michelle Garnaut who is a hospitality icon and over the past 20 years has opened 3 restaurants and a bar across China.

Heading up the kitchen in this Beijing wonder is Australian Phoebe Cleland who does an amazing job bringing the cuisines of the world to the plate in easy and stylish fashion.

After a little struggle to find the place due to the surrounding construction, traffic and difficult taxi driver we enter the restaurant, get a perfect table on the rooftop overlooking …… square and we have the first glass of overpriced Tattinger in our tired hands in minutes. Here’s cheers to The Great Wall!

It’s here in Asia, that I find offence to getting bread at the start of the meal – I know it’s a western thing, the French do it because you need something to get their amazing butter into your mouth, the Aussies consider it an entree of its own and the Americans just do it to get an extra course of carbs in…. But reality is you don’t need it. Hold out for the real food and be kind to your body. Anyway rant over.

We order the ‘Elizabethan Salat’ and ‘Lamb dumplings’ to start us off and a half bottle of 2010 Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner to help the food down. The Elizabethan Salad is a fresh and colourful combination of garden herbs, mint being dominant, rocket, almonds and peeled juicy orange slices. Small flowers are scattered across the dish which adds character and some real garden flavours which is lucky otherwise the whole combination would have been a bit boring. It’s an easy and light starter and I more blame us for playing is so safe.

The lamb dumplings on the other hand were a little more interesting, a combination of Asian and Middle Eastern flavours.

It was probably another safe-ish dish however coming from a modern French restaurant in Melbourne, everything else was variations of things I had eaten too many times – granted not in Beijing though. The dumplings has a perfect bite to them, firm ‘pastry’, succulent, well seasoned mince inside with just enough oil to cut through the reasonable hot harissa yoghurt pooled on the plate.

The choice of mains was quite difficult as they all looked so good. We opted for the ‘Duck discovery’ (when in China) and the ‘Famous’ suckling pig – anything famous should never be avoided in the hope that its either really damn good or its really bad so you can tell the world.. I would never – for the record, have your opinion, share it by all means but don’t have a crack and DON’T put anything on Urban Spoon. It gives you zero street cred. mmm Have I been nasty about any dishes here – if so apologies.

The duck on the plate consisted of perfectly aromatic smoked breast and a fat-less, intense sausage of duck leg accompanied by seared foie gras and pea leaves. Overall, pretty tasty and harmless and a nice centred dish. The sausage could have done with a little more moisture but it’s hard to say what she was going for here.

I had that little famous pig and I hope he lived a happy life as he made mine.

It was incredible! Suckling pig has been done to death all around the world, it’s hard to get right and so easy to get wrong. It needs to be perfectly seasoned, perfectly roasted so that pig flavour isn’t overpowering and if the skin isn’t crispy, don’t bother. It was served so simple, 3 equal portions of pig, skin side up, sitting over roasted peaches, pears and red peppers and all drizzled with a rich pig sauce. I couldn’t fault it.

Speaking of pears, the night then went a little pear-shaped. We had 2 guys join us who knew we were in town (old colleagues) and they were fine, it was the fact that we didn’t get to order dessert as to why I sat pouting at the waiter. We figured it was rude to eat in front of them. They were kind, purchased a bottle of William Fevre Petit Chablis to share with us and offered us their driver to get us home. We would have stayed for the pav, however the Audi was just such a nice change from our crazy cab alternatives.

Score / 10

Drunk – 6

Gourmet – 7

Day 4 – Beijing – The Markets and The Village

Tue, 22 May 2012 05:25:56 +0000

Up early, a quick gym session, a full bypass of the hotel breakfast and we are once again on the streets of Beijing. First stop is the wet markets of San Yuan Li to check out the quality of fresh produce.

A long corridor of local vendors awaits us at the door of the markets – its an array of colourful fruit and veg with the simmering stench of freshly carved carcass and recently killed fish. I wouldn’t say 100% amazing first impression, but it definitely reminds me of Asia. Truly Asia.

As we walk through, I’m surprised at the layout and the quality, it’s broken down into regions and all the fruit has been individually wrapped, its amazing organised.

Here you will find any animal and all of its parts laid nicely like a jigsaw puzzle, cleverly carved and portioned for an easy shopping experience. I didn’t buy anything as we don’t have a kitchen, however even minus the refrigeration I don’t think there would be any problems with this food.

The rest of the day we have an easy schedule, one of the girls at dinner last night has booked us in to her Chinese Masseuse who practices quite traditionally and apparently fixes all problems with the body – bring it on! She works at Vogue so I take her word for it of course.

After a little struggle to find the apartment we rock up at tranquil simple setting with the local radio station playing, the bubbling sound of the multiple gold fish aquariums and the faint smell of cigarettes. Which movie am I in? Where is Jackie?

We are ushered into separate rooms and let the massage begin!

I’m up first for the foot massage and reflexology… its painfully good and between him splitting by calf muscles and kneading the bottom of my foot with his knuckles I manage to keep the whimpering to a minimum.

An hour past and its my turn to don on the paper shorts and t-shirt and let the master do his work. My back is clearly a wonderland of knots and tension and the pain caused is similar to what I assume child birth to be.

To little surprise he finds comfort in tormenting my liver and kidneys and from this he follows the ‘line’ of my renal system down to my feet for some more serious pain games.

As a consequence the sweat starts streaming and disaster strikes.

He is a very informative man and extremely believable, so I take it quite seriously when he relates my proposed renal problems to a failing reproduction system, fast ageing and painful limbs as I grow older. He showed great concern and recommended secret chinese medicine herbs which could assist me so it will be my challenge for the next week here to find them!!

I really need a drink after the bad news!

We head into town for a tour of yet another ex-pat supermarket and shopping centre which is similar to the food court of David Jones. I stock up on delicious little Chinese snacks which look more like candy – they kept opening them for me to try so I kept feeling obliged to buy them! Depending on how you look at this I was taken advantage of.

We found a great little French bakery which put ‘Bread Top’ back home to shame and here we found a lovely little Royal Pudding and named this the dessert of the day! It was only around 100ml and came in the coolest little milk bottle. Delicious.

It was time to visit Obentos – a clean cut little Bento Box eatery recently opened in the CBD by Andrew Stevenson (a friend of a friend). It’s a cool setting, enticing menu and excellent quality food. There is something really great about a well thought out and put together Bento. We order the more pricey options (50-70RMB so really quite cheap) Teriyaki chicken and seared tuna – tataki style. Portion size is good, not too much protein which is nice and plenty of veg in perfect little square china dishes. The sweat potato salad which is more a mash is good, nice textures and soft flavours with plenty of herbs! The coleslaw is also a nice surprise with the inclusion of Fuji apple and citrus dressing for some extra crunch and freshness.

For dessert, a green tea panna cotta isn’t amazing but I’m not sure if it was because of the panna cotta itself or if its because I think that Green tea is exactly that and should only be a tea. I don’t think I have had anything flavoured with Green tea that I have ever enjoyed.

All tea aside though, this place is a little touch of genius in a big city and the rest of the world needs to get on board.

Funnily enough its time for dinner and I have committed to having a beer (or 2) as all the stress of today and walking in the pollution has made me very thirsty.

Dinner tonight is in the HuTong or the Village and it is at ‘Yun-er town’ in the Dongcheng District.

China is busy, there are a lot of people and it resembles organised chaos with a touch of love and respect. The Dongcheng District though is buzzing, the street markets, shops and restaurants are alive and it truly is a cultural experience you could get lost in. I did.

We managed to get a table on the roof, overlooking the hustle and bustle of the sandy street below and within minutes we had 2 large bottles of Tsing-tao on the table and 2 shot glass sized glasses to drink from – fun.

The menu was long and the pictures glossy, a local friend dining with us chose for us and the banquet began.

Dinner included haloumi-like fried cheese from the Yunnan district which was nice and crispy on the outside and just soft within. Cheese isn’t huge in China, or Asia in general, Tibet tends to get it a little right but thats only according to the western palate. This cheese was void of any seriously cheesy taste and lacked the expected salt but it was very much a pleasant surprise.

We enjoyed beautiful steamed whole Turbot, left on the bone and swimming in stock and simply butterflied out for ease of serving. Diced peppers, spring onion and lashings of fresh herbs made this a seriously fragrant and yummy dish.

Other dishes included dried pulled beef with plenty of chilli, minced pork with diced green capsicum, morel mushrooms and sweet sauce, wet garden herbs and a crazy little sauté of jasmine flowers and egg. The flowers were young and hadn’t opened, clearly keeping all the flavour inside – the only thing missing in this dish was some crunch, however I will be looking into these flowers when back in oz.

Overall, a great meal and for a tenth of the price of last night – a stand out!

To get home we walked through the street markets, with a great mix of local designers and cheap souvenirs, a few of which were necessary purchases.

Rating / 10

Drunk – 3

Gourmet – 6

Day 3 – An introduction to Beijing food and lifestyle

Sun, 20 May 2012 01:31:09 +0000

It’s a slow start to the day as it’s really the first day where we know we don’t have to get on another plane. The dark rooms of Hotel G have provided a great environment for a good night’s sleep. Thank God. Breakfast is included so we thought we would try it. Simply, a bit disastrous and a little too western for our liking – there is nothing worse than eating bad versions of what we already do wrong!

Holiday Hint – Stick to the fruit.

It was time to get the body back on track so we booked a day session at the Park Hyatt Gym and day spa – hello friend. As overpriced as it was (300RMB per person – approx. $50 AUS), it was well worth it. A good long sweat session was the perfect remedy. Follow this with a swim and a shower and game on. The spa here looked great too, however there was way too much nakedness. Think Turkish bath but in Asia and insert a few Apple products resting on their downstairs regions.

It’s 4pm and the food journey today has been non existent so we head to San Li Tun (shopping district) to explore the world of fast, fresh food. Refresh and Element Fresh are here – they’re ok, great concepts, poor execution and way too many flavoured muffins.

We had a brief stop in Herbal Cafe for a serve of cold Sesame Seed Soup which looked like a bowl of squid ink with a weird shiny shampoo like texture. It was void of all flavour.

I was drawn into the Mango Crepe roll which looked exactly like it did in the booklet and tasted just right. Soft citrus crepes surrounding bright white sugarless pseudo-cream and a perfect brick of fresh mango. Get inside me! It was delicious!

A spot of shopping and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Unfortunately we ran short of time for Modo wine bar – we will be back.

Dinner is with friends at Duck de Chine. This restaurant is a highly awarded restaurant specialising in all things duck! Its housed in beautiful Ming and Qing Dynasty themed retreat and the man responsible is Paul Hsu. The restaurant is spacious, perfectly lit and I feel as though I have walked into a royal house. High backed teak chairs, large round tables and perfectly laid out table settings.

We are late so there is already some starters on the table – Wood ears (morel mushroom family) with coriander and red onion is a great little crunchy local dish which is tasty. Warm duck spring rolls, pickled bamboo and what appears to be cooked broad beans with flavoursome duxelle – all perfect.

I ordered a bottle of 2009 Josmeyer Fleur de Lys, a wine I’m not familiar with which is a blend of Riesling, Gewurtz, Grigio and 2 others. Its floral and enticing on the nose and has a pleasant subtle sweetness on the palate which allows all the food to speak without interfering.

It’s time for the Duck! The waitress sounds the gong (another duck is dead) and the chef appears at the table to prepare the duck for us. The pancakes are placed on the table along with precision cut vegetables and the best Peking duck pancakes I have ever had were consumed with great joy.

It is only fair to finish the night after an experience like that and go to bed dreaming.

Day 2 – 10 waking hours in Hong Kong

Sat, 19 May 2012 13:20:18 +0000

Let’s be honest, its all well and good that we hotels look stylish and the staff are nice, however the top 3 critical factors in no particular order is the buffet breakfast (and is it free!?), the pillows and the mini bar.

To begin with the mini bar at the Icon is complimentary – Tick!!! However little to no surprise that soft drink, warm beer and a lone Carmens muesli bar is all that sits in this fridge. Either way its free. Oh the day when we can choose what delicious and nutritious treats we can have waiting for us when we arrive at hotels…

The pillows – tick.

The buffet breakfast – TICK!

It wouldn’t matter which country you are from, east or west, you would be more than happy to sit for hours and consume.

Our options ranged from the standard omelette, Swiss yoghurt, sweetened bread, delicious fruit, dumplings (when in Asia) and the list goes on. Two items worth the mention – Muesli free Bircher muesli (..insert confused face..) and Pigs blood congee complete with century egg and roasted peanuts. WTF!

The only draw back of the breakfast which I soon learn is an Asian trend is the BAD coffee. Saeco have done well in streamlining the coffee making experience here and does the barista a favour by not needing them… it’s very difficult to ask the coffee machine to make it less bitter!

Next is a necessary visit to the gym before taking to the streets in search of shops, food and hopefully a cold beer.

Hong Kong is known for it shopping and it served us well. The plaza at the IFC is a one stop shopping experience, especially if you were lucky enough to extend the credit card limit before departing Australia. A must visit is Lane Crawford and Harvey Nichols in the Landmark building.

The IFC is also hitting the ex-pat target markets well with an abundance of ‘good produce’ stores and packaged food from around the world. The quality looks great and the price not too bad considering. The only thing that is concerning is how nutritious the food is and how long has it been in storage.

Handy hint – don’t be so obvious taking photos when you’re not buying – they get angry!

We stop at one to get a Slimming Smoothie – The Nutty Professor which includes banana, low-fat peanut butter and soy milk. One sip and in the bin. We settle for PRET-A-MANGER for appealingly healthy peking duck wraps, hummus sandwiches, yoghurt covered steroid induced cranberries and bad coffee.

Why did we stop in Hong Kong again??

To the airport please driver.

A warning to those who are bad travellers that the next section of my blog may be harmful.

We arrive at the airport a good 3 hrs early in a confused state of what time our flight actually was, however no worries here as the duty free shopping is pretty good. A quick stint among the crowds and we settle into some cafe for a Gin & Tonic (double) and a cheese plate.

The weather is rolling through Hong Kong as it always does and the list of delayed DragonAir flights into Beijing is vast. We head to gate lounge 42 which is 4.2 kms from the Gin & Tonic and to our surprise our flight is boarding. Brilliant. We get settled, there is a water bottle in the seat pocket already — the best thing about the Asian airlines is their service. Attentive, thoughtful and fast.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen – your captain from the flight deck – I’m afraid it isn’t good news”. Shit.

An hour delay on the tarmac, followed by another 3 due to bad weather in Beijing – again my sleeper hasn’t worked (I need to find a new brand) so I am sweaty, tired, hungry and a little concerned. They gave us the option to disembark and catch an alternate flight the next day but I am not going through this again.

They served the meal whilst on the ground and it hits the spot for airline food. An eatable creamy pasta with a small chicken breast, 2 broccoli florettes and a lone cherry tomato. There was the absence of booze served but that was to come upon take off apparently.

We’re up in the air and the bumpy trip through to Beijing was exactly that. Yet another holding pattern at 24,000 ft and I am keen to get the hell off this plane.

Arrival to our Hotel was 4.5 hrs later than scheduled. Its now 3.30am and it did cross my mind to head to the disco ‘Cargo’ across the road, but the executive decision was to go to bed.

Rating / 10

Drunk – 0

Gourmet – 2

Friday May 18th, Melbourne – Hong Kong QF29

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:58:55 +0000

The Asian food adventure begins today! I say hello to Hong Kong for 1 night at the highly recommended Icon Hotel in Kowloon before landing in Beijing with the dream to dominate the dumpling.

The 2pm flight out of Melbourne started with a glass of Seppelt Drumborg Riesling in the lounge and I couldn’t refuse the colourful mimosa-like barcardi sunrise cocktail offered before the boarding call! Nice touch. Food was fine – healthy-ish looking cold cuts and colourful salads that were always going to be better than anything found in the terminal.

Once we have taken off, the small plastic bottles of wine (Xanadu, Plunkett Fowles and Red Claw this leg) are the saviour from the carb-dense food served up in the lego designer place mats. Not to sound negative – we are 36,000 feet in the air and I can only imagine what we would have to pay chefs to work up there.

As always though, the Qantas service was great! Thankfully, as the the sleeper never kicked in! Damn.

Arrive in Hong Kong at 10.30pm local time on a slightly extended flight due to bad weather and the games begin. Well – only briefly as we arrive at the hotel and take a quick walk in the rain to find some chow, only to find oversized (and I mean oversized) pizza and simmering street food. Hmmm – Rule of thumb in Australia is only eat after midnight when your hammered – I wasn’t there yet.

We opt for in room dining – epic fail!

Shower and bed – start fresh tomorrow. Bring it HK.

Day 1 score / 10 -

Drunk – 4

Gourmet – 2