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Stuffed like a pig
A friend is in town from Seoul, and we arranged to meet up with her for dinner tonight. Naturally, Cantonese food was in order, and rather than going back to one of our usual suspects, I suggested...
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Occupy Amber: No roo on the menu
A couple of months ago during the whole World's 50 Best Restaurants shindig down in Kangaroo Land, the Aussie PR machine went into overdrive and arranged a bunch of outings for some of the attendees....
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Hitting the beetroot jackpot
A while ago, Hello Kitty asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner. She was clearly hoping that I wouldn't insist on having her treat me to dinner at Spaghetti House (as I did last year) or...
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Birthday in Taipei day 1: gathering the clan, again
I'm back in Taipei for a few days to spend my birthday with the Parental Units. As luck would have it, I've got uncles and cousins in town from the States again. So once again a gathering of the clan...
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Birthday in Taipei day 2: No egg no life
In spite of her moniker, Hello Kitty's favorite Sanrio character is, in fact, NOT Hello Kitty (ハロー・キティ) but Gudetama (ぐでたま). I have, for better or for worse, been infected with her affinity to the...
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Birthday in Taipei day 2: cutting the (cheese)cake
Rolf Meng and I go back quite a few years. For a number of years starting in the year 2000, our family celebrated our birthdays and anniversaries at Paris 1930 (巴黎廳) in The Landis Taipei (亞都麗緻)...
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Birthday in Taipei day 3: Brugge in Taipei
This weekend was about spending time with family, so I really didn't plan ahead for any high-end dining. I was therefore surprised to see from Gert de Mangeleer's Instagram posts that he was doing a...
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Droning Boy: Yehliu Geopark
I've been wanting to take my drone to Yehliu Geopark (野柳地質公園) for a few months now, but haven't had much success. I first tried in early March, when I dragged my ass (and Hello Kitty's, too) out of...
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Petrus without Petrus
So it's my turn to host an MNSC dinner, and once again the decision rested on which restaurant with a professional sommelier would accommodate my request to bring a large selection of my own wines....
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Deep-fried Seventh
Our friend from Seoul is back in town, so The Great One and I arranged for another dinner at a Cantonese restaurant at her request - this time at Seventh Son (家全七福). One can never go wrong coming...
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A brand new Tasting
A few weeks ago I received a very kind invitation from the PR team at the City of Dreams, inviting me to lunch at The Tasting Room at the Crown Towers. There has been a change of chefs recently, and...
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Master and protégé Tasting
A friend was coming to town from France and wanted to meet up for a meal. We were looking for more unique experiences for her when I suggested that we try booking my favorite private kitchen. She...
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Quintessentially Hong Kong part 3: noisy and chaotic
During dinner last night, the Foodalist asked us where she should go for dim sum while in Hong Kong. While the usual suspects such as Lung King Heen (龍景軒), Fook Lam Moon (福臨門), Spring Moon (嘉麟樓) and...
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The king in the hood on Bastille Day
The King made another visit to Hong Kong, and the old gang was once again rounded up to catch up with him. With BM being put on a special diet and unable to join us, the task of picking a restaurant...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 1: horse meat in two capitals
When I embarked on my trip to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia back in 2008, I was able to spend only 4 days in Kazakhstan. As a result there were a couple of destinations that I had to pass...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 2: Kyzylorda to Baikonur
My morning was not spent walking around the city as planned, but in my hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn Astana. I had some work to do, and despite being surprisingly hungry after a whole day of...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 3: Baikonur city tour
Got up early today to see the sight of camels wandering around our hotel. That was unexpected. Still no internet connection, and I'm getting little bits of messages coming in. Very frustrating to be...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 4: live Soyuz rocket launch
Today's the day! Scratching an itch and ticking an item off the non-existent bucket list by watching a live rocket launch at Baikonur! It's gonna be an exciting day! But first, some breakfast back...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 5: Aral Sea
On my last trip to Kazakhstan back in 2008, there were two places I did not get to visit due to time constraints... and they later became itches that needed scratching. One was Baikonur Cosmodrome,...
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Back to Kazakhstan day 6: the long drive back to Kyzylorda
After a long day at the North Aral Sea yesterday (the roundtrip took 8 hours), it was time to head back to "civilization" in Kyzylorda. Thankfully I wasn't taking another train ride today, but had...
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