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 […]
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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 […]
FX clients turn
Foreign-exchange providers are giving the big banks a run for their money in the quest to help smaller businesses manage their offshore currency risks. CFO 1 April 2006
Apple Fragipane out of sync with the world
One short weekend and everything has change. yes, the sun still shines but the cold – relative cold at sub 20C – sets in. It’s time for blackpudding, bacon, egg and fried bread for breakfast. And it’s time for comfort food. Things like apple fraginpane tart, served with sour creme and a sticky or a glass of Pedro Ximinez. The beuaty of this recipe is that if you can make – or heaven forbid have access to premade shortcrust pastry […]
Wine’s doomed. We’re doomed
While most of Europe and the Hunter Valley doomed by global warming in the next few decades (this could be a good thing. For the most part the Hunter’s quite ugly and there are only a handful of wines worth drinking there. ), other parts of this red and dusty land may just about outlive me. Decanter reports: Southern Hemisphere temperatures in vineyards in New Zealand, southern Australia, parts of Chile and South Africa will rise more slowly due to […]
Broad shouldered, macho and the smell of saddle. All the bull
Cosme Palacio y Hermanos 2002 is a perfectly good rioja. Its traditional label is inviting. A tall bottle, it’s everything you’d expect from a rioja. And the taste has all that leather/tack room nostalgia. But wait. There’s more! At least with the Bodegas Palacio reserva especial 1995. Also a rioja, first is the bottle. It’s not as tall and elegant as the Cosme Palacio. But it has this attraction. It is very dark, almost opaque. It is solid, very solid, […]
The confronting choice: Knives or chopsticks?
What do you prefer to eat with? Sometimes I just want to rip in their with my hands. Take a shrimp/prawn. Am I really going to piss around peeling it with a knife and fork? Aren’t I going to rip that rustic sour dough and dip it in the olive oil? Tiny lamp chops make me lose control. Cut out the middleman and shove it straight in your gob. I mentioned a few entries ago about the ludicrous guest nights […]