Mom's HK Michelin tour day 5: exotic Kowloon

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We got out of the apartment a little earlier this morning, as I had scheduled some cultural activity for the Parental Units. M+ is currently showing a special exhibition entitled Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, which is a wonderful retrospective of the artist's work. It only started last Saturday so we were pretty lucky. I've only been exposed to a limited number of her work, so I really enjoyed being able to view such a wide range of pieces spanning so many decades.

I don't remember the title of this work, but it spoke to me. Mom also enjoyed getting to know Kusama-san's work, as she previously had only heard of the artist's name.

For lunch I wanted to take mom somewhere that would be exotic for her, and since we are on the Kowloon side, Sangeetha Vegetarian Restaurant came to mind. I was pretty sure mom has never had dosas or, more interestingly, Indian Chinese food.

Paneer 65 - these deep-fried bite-sized cubes of cheese were pretty fun to nibble on.

No urge to cross the road

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It's another day of protests in Hong Kong, despite the downpour we've had at different times throughout the day.  Since large parts of Hong Kong Island was now closed to road traffic, any excursion outside the apartment today would need careful planning of the route to be taken.  We needed to get to Tai Kwun, so I got us a taxi and instructed the driver to take a somewhat loopy trip.  My plan largely worked and we saw very little traffic or obstruction - except for getting stuck at one spot.

Hello Kitty and I finally got around to visiting the Murakami vs Murakami exhibit, just a couple of weeks before the end of its 3-month period.  After the exhibit closed at 7 p.m., we moved to Old Bailey (奧卑利) for dinner.  I have only been here once before for an interview lunch, so I didn't remember too much about the food.  But in all of 10 months of working across from Tai Kwun, I have never once saw the need to come here for a meal...

House made pickled turnip (醬蘿蔔) - complimentary, and actually pretty good.

Macau quickie: the filling Moon

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With just three hours between our long lunch and dinner, I needed to walk around a little to kill time.  Thankfully there is an art exhibit entitled "Garden of Earthy Delights" at the Wynn Resorts, so we crossed the road and headed to Wynn Palace Cotai.

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There had been plenty of posts by "influencers/KOLs" on Instagram of the pieces here, and most of them have been focused on just one piece - Refik Anadol's "Melting Memories".  Of course, lots of people - yours truly included - were here trying to capture the mesmerizing transformations in pictures and on video.  There were only plenty of IG hoes who inserted themselves into the pictures pretending to be cultured.

While Refik Andol's pieces were undoubtedly interesting, for me the more striking work was actually Edoardo Tresoldi's "Sacral".

I joined Hello Kitty on her shopping tour to kill more time, but we got tired of walking in circles around the corridors with our luggage... so we arrived at Sichuan Moon (川江月) about 20 minutes before the appointed time and parked our bags at the table.

Japan 2018 day 7: sticker shock

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I had no lunch plans today.  Or so I thought.  Hello Kitty was off visiting her old friend, and My Birdbrain Cousin was off doing her own thang... so I was left to my own devices.  I was planning on strolling over to grab my favorite ramen later, and still lying around in the hotel bed, when The Dining Austrian ping me.

It was 11:10 a.m. or so.  Would I be able to join him for lunch at 12:00 p.m.?  I thought about it... and as I hadn't actually cleaned up, I figured I may be about 10 minutes late to lunch.  As it turns out, due to unforeseen circumstances, my friend was going to be about 40 minutes late himself.  This, of course, would be a cardinal sin at Japanese restaurants...  and today we would be reinforcing the stereotypes of rude gaijins who show up late.  Thankfully we have a third person, who would be on time...  As I would find out later, the restaurant's website specifically reminds foreign guests that they should be on time.

I showed up at Kimoto (紀茂登) between 15 to 20 minutes late, apologized to Kimoto-san for my tardiness, and sat in front of the 8-seat counter with 9 place settings for this meal.  I was trying to be respectful and kept my Sony A9 in my bag at my feet, and made sure to keep my phone on my lap so as not to scratch the beautiful (and incredibly expensive) Japanese cypress counter.  Well, as I found out later by reading the restaurant's website, they specifically ask people not to bring their SLRs...  Strike two.  So it appears that I am that annoying gaijin, after all...  But hey, at least my A9 was silent and didn't make any noise disturbing other customers.

As I had arrived late, Kimoto-san has already started service.  The welcome drink of cold-brewed Oolong tea (水だし烏龍茶) had already been put aside for me, and we were now on the first course.

Female snow crab with rice (せいこ蟹飯) - YASS!  I've been having this seasonal delicacy at just about every single Japanese meal on this trip, so I wasn't surprised to see せいこ蟹 on the menu.  I was, however, rather surprised to see it served with rice at the start of the meal.  In any case, this was absolutely delicious, because how could it not be?!

Japan 2018 day 6: Borderless and timeless

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After stuffing ourselves at lunch, we decided to be lazy and went to Odaiba (お台場) by taxi instead of taking the train as originally planned.  Our destination was the MORI Building Digital Art Museum, so that we could visit the teamLab Borderless art installation that is earning rave reviews from everyone I know who has visited.

We entered the space in groups, and it was just about pitch black when the bunch of us rushed in.  We knew there were different rooms showing different themes, and we kinda just rushed into one of them like headless chickens without even checking to see which theme it was...

Once we were in Borderless World, we were absolutely stunned.  I had seen pictures on social media, but being immersed in the sights and sounds personally was a completely different experience.  Everywhere I looked, people were awestruck at the beauty surrounding us, and everyone had their phones or cameras out to try to record their experiences.

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Europe 2018 day 2: tourist traps in Brussels

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Woke up in the morning to views of the hydrangeas in the garden right outside our windows at La Chambre d'à Côté.  Not something I'm used to, but how could I not love it?!

At the appointed time Anne-Catherine brought us the breakfast spread, and what a spread it was!

Drinking art

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I knew there would be numerous venues around town offering special creations as Art Basel Hong Kong rolled into town this week, and I wanted to see what else was available besides Uwe's creations.  As I browsed through Hong Kong Tatler's article on the subject, the first item that popped up was this cocktail at the Artesian - the bar at the Langham Hong Kong.  The picture showed what looked like one of Salvador Dali's clocks draped over a cocktail glass, and this immediate caught my attention.  After making some enquiries, I made a reservation and showed up with Hello Kitty.

We were informed beforehand that each cocktail takes some time to make, so we would need to be patient... and this was the reason why reservations are necessary.  The bar area was half-empty when we showed up, and it appeared that no one else was there to enjoy these special cocktails.  Perfect for us, then... since we didn't have to wait our turn.

There were three different cocktails on offer - each inspired by world-famous piece of art.  Of course we decided to get all three and share...

When bar manager "Rush" Limbu started on the first cocktail, we immediately realized why they take so long to make.  The base of the cocktail is made first, with a layer of egg white foam on top that acts as the "canvas". Then Rush puts different food colorings on a plate - his "palette" - and proceeds to draw on the foam with a toothpick.

Museum day

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The parental units and I decided to go get some culture today.  Cai Guo-Qiang (蔡國強) is having another retrospective show in Taiwan - named Hanging Out in the Museum (泡美術館) - at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (臺北市立美術館). There's been a lot of talk about this exhibition for a while, so I was pretty excited to see it.

I must admit that I didn't know a lot about the artist, because I don't follow contemporary Chinese artists.  I knew about his solo exhibition at the Guggenheim New York last year, where the artist hung 9 cars in the museum's atrium with blinking lights protruding from them - as if the cars were exploding.  The piece - Inopportune: Stage One (不合時宜：舞台一) - uses those light tubes that one sees all over China, where they are arranged in a exploding pattern to simulate fireworks.  It now hangs in the atrium here in Taipei.

The other work I knew about was Head On (撞墻), which was commissioned by my former employer for their collection.  The collection of 99 artificial wolves running head on into an invisible wall is quite impressive.

The artist's playful side is evident as soon as you enter the museum.  Once the visitors have finished admiring Inopportune: Stage One (不合時宜：舞台一), they are directed to an outdoor patio for Cultural Melting Bath: Project for the 20th Century (文化大混浴：為二十世紀作的計劃).  You see a wooden hut with a couple of benches and a few lockers inside, and 2 shower stalls next to the hut.  Sitting amongst a collection of rocks is a big jacuzzi that seats 5.  Apparently you can apply for one of the two daily sessions of hot-tubbing, where you hang out (a play on the Chinese slang 泡) with complete strangers for an hour.  I wonder how many people have actually participated?

The artist is well-known for his work involving gunpowder.  Whether it's lighting up gunpowder-drawn patterns to create images on substrates, or creating explosive trails for visual effect, he uses up tons of the stuff.  There are a number of films showing both the creative process behind some of the work, as well as showcasing the visual displays themselves.  Of course, there were also footages of his most famous works in terms of fireworks display - as Director of Visual and Special Effects for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (where the footage of the giant footprints were faked) as well as the 60th anniversary celebration for the PRC national day this year.

As I looked at both the films as well as the finished works themselves, a question kept hanging around: what was it that spurred the artist to experiment with gunpowder - essentially a destructive instrument - in his creative process?  Perhaps it's because he grew up with neighbors who were in the fireworks business.  Maybe, like many little boys, he just liked blowing stuff up.  While I enjoyed the visual effects from his fireworks and some of the controlled explosions, I can't say that I'm a fan of his gunpowder-on-paper work.

We actually spent a long time at the museum, as we ended up watching all the film footage.   3pm rolled around, and it was time for us to grab some lunch!  Mom suggested that we head for the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院), since the Grand Formosa Regent group had opened up a new dining pavilion there after the museum's last renovation.

Silks Palace (故宮晶華) has 4 levels of dining in a modern glass structure.  I wasn't interested in Cantonese dim sum, so we naturally went to the Taiwanese Food Court (府城晶華) in the basement.  We sat on low, traditional wooden benches and ordered up a storm...

My Miaokow rice cake cooked in barrel (廟口米糕) came in a cone rolled from bamboo leaf.  Kinda cute presentation.  While the stick rice tasted fine, I realized that I would keep getting disappointed every time I order this dish.  My preference is actually for the oily stick rice (油飯)...

The bowl of traditional ground pork rice (古早味肉燥飯) was really, really good.  Plenty of little cubes of fatty pork belly, and mostly skin and fat...  Couldn't ask for better!

Of course I had to order more fatty pork!  I thought the marinated pork with bamboo shoots (古早味筍干封肉) was pretty darn good.  The skin had taken in lots of the soy marinade, and everything was pretty soft.  But the marinated pig trotter (古早味滷豬腳) was even better!  Unlike many Taiwanese versions of this dish - where it was slightly undercooked and chewy - here the skin had been braised until it became very soft.  I greedily piled both types of pork fat into my bowl.  Oh and there was lots of marinated bamboo - the typical stinky Taiwanese kind...

The An Pin's fried oysters (安平蚵仔酥) was not bad, without the usual thick coat of powder.  The plate of blanched iceburg lettuce (燙青菜) had the usual ground pork sauce on top.  And dad's milkfish stomach porridge (安平港虱目魚肚粥) looked pretty good, but I didn't try it out.

It was too much food...I shouldn't have ordered the oysters as an afterthought.  But I guess since it was gonna be my only proper meal of the day (we finished lunch at 4pm), I could live with stuffing myself...