I’m meant to live in the edgy side of Melbourne in St Kilda. Drunks, drug addicts street walkers. That’s saying nothing of the so-called actors and artists who hang around in the cafés all day. But everything seems very quiet and dull since returning from Vietnam. Apologies for lack of blog entries but finding a recent version of Internet Explorer was hit and miss. Now I’m home I can tell the full story.
Author: Ed
Eating on fried fish street
Stay in the old quarter in Hanoi. Learn to love the congestion, the buzz and honking of motor scooters. Ah, and the smells. Two stroke, food and incense. This is the place where the action is. Life is lived and transacted on the street or at least without leaving the motorcycle saddle. It is a place where street names have a meaning. Hang Gad is chicken, Hang Hahn is onion. Hang Ruoi is clam worms. And the stretch between Hang […]
Office space: rent or buy
From IN THE BLACK April06 The big debate on property is whether to rent or buy. When property values and rents are falling the market favours the renters. But when the market is in an upswing – as it is now – owning a property can shield against rent rises, an attractive option for small business owners. One option is the strata office. The fact is that 71 per cent of strata office buyers are the occupiers themselves, while the […]
Next in line
From IN THE BLACK April 06 When it comes to succession planning, many business owners overlook the obvious: selling to their own employees. It’s the dilemma facing all ageing business owners. What to do with the company upon retirement? Many will choose a trade sale of the business. But few are thinking about a sale to their employees. The average age of a family business owner is 57. Over the next five years, more than 40 per cent of business […]
WHB: Street pinapple Hanoi
What is a picture worth? About 50,000 dong- nearly US$5. Or at least this one did and involved me buying four peeled pinapples. They were elaboratley carved in spirals and were fresh and delicious. All in the name of Wekend Herb Blogging over at Kalyn’s Kitchen. Thes women are shrewd. This money and overnight train journey to the north west in Sa Pa, near the Chinese border, I bought another of these elaboratly carved fruit for 5,000 Dong and they’d […]
My first Pho: Hanoi
Well, not strictly my first but my first in Vietnam and for breakfast. It’s hot and humid and we’re about to be killed by several hundred motocycles bearing down on us at a crossroads. Somehow we make it over and land at the Little Hanoi 1 (25 Pho Ta Hien 926 0168) restaurant, recomended by Lonely Planet. And this is why we are to dump Lonely Planet because it was stuffed full of people – all Wasps – who had […]
Three hours in Singapore
Always do your research. I spent three hours exploring every dark corner of the airport. Head for Terminal One with your swimmers. There’s an open air swimming pool and bar, the perfect antidote to eight hours in a plane. Sadly I ddn’t have my swimmers so also discoverd the cactus garden (the outdoor smoking area) and cinema.
Should I buy wine at the airport (at double the price)?
Hmmmm…should I even contemplate buying wine in Singapore airport. A couple of Batard Montrachets at about S$230…plenty of Petrus…the usual posh but sadly overpriced stuff. Take the excellent grapefruity Shaw & Smith M3 2004 Chardonnay which in Australia costs about A$38 (about S$48). In the airport it costs S$69. What the hell is happening? I was under the misconception that stuff was meant to be cheaper in duty free. And by the way, why such a clichéd selection of wines […]
Gordon Ramsay’s recipe wrong?
Anybody who has dismantled a car or a motorbike will have had this feeling. You reassemble it and end up with a box of extraneous nuts and bolts. Sometimes a similar thing happens with recipes. You assemble all the ingredients listed and methodically go through the recipe only to have several left over. Or something just doesn’t seem right. I won’t list them all here but this one of Gordon Ramsay’s comes to mind although funnily enough the problem is […]