My thoughts on India

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It's been more than 2 weeks since I came back from my India trip. I must say that my first trip to India left a deep impression on me. These are my observations:

• India is a beautiful country with lots of rich history and culture, which leaves a string of wonderful monuments and other places to visit. The Taj Mahal aside, all the monuments around Agra and Delhi were just amazing bits of history that I never had exposure to before.  Photos from my trip can be seen here.

• Everything you ever heard about India is true. All the horror stories about how dirty it is, the crowd/traffic, the beggars/vendors/kids who hound after you...we saw it all. Everywhere we went, we were hounded by people who knocked on the windows of the car, trying to ask for money or sell us something. Mothers would hold their kids and ask us for money. We felt for these people...but I ignored them and did not offer anything, because I knew that the moment we responded, there would be 30 people coming our way and we would never see the end of it.

• India really is as dirty and filthy as all your friends have told you. A main reason for this is the fact that bulls and cows roam the streets, and you end up with dung just everywhere. People don't seem to bother to clean them up. Personal hygiene also plays a contributing factor, as adults as well as children find it perfectly acceptable to relieve themselves on the streets.

• I have never been so paranoid about food/drink and cleanliness when traveling anywhere else in the world, not even China and other places in SE Asia. Most of the days we brushed our teeth with mineral water, never ate anything outside the 5-star hotels we stayed in (except for 2 meals: 1 meal at McDonalds in Agra, and the other on Jet Airways), and carried wet wipes and waterless alcoholic cleaning gel everywhere. In spite of all this, I still got sick! I had food poisoning the day I ate the airplane food from Varanasi to Delhi on Jet Airways, but fortunately the effects were gone by the next evening.

• India is expensive for foreign tourists, because going expensive is the only way to insulate yourself from the "real India" with all the filth and beggars. Case in point: Why are so many people willing to pay USD 600/night for the Oberoi Amarvilas? Does the view of Taj Mahal from your room justify the USD 500/night difference from the next best option? Well, for people who can afford it, it is the only game in town for now. The next best option, the Mughal Sheraton, cost around USD 100/night but has a reputation for being a bit old and run down, with the musty smell that puts people off. So the choice is simple.

But despite all the negative comments I may have had, I would want to go back to India and visit the Rajastani cities of Jaipur, Jodphur and Udaipur. I found that, much like myself for the last 10 years, India is not on the radar screen for many people I have spoken to recently. Like me, they stayed away due to all the horror stories they have heard. But I would encourage people to go to this beautiful country. There is a way to do India in a more "sterilized" fashion with 5-star hotels and traveling by clean hotel cars. You can do this with your first trip to India, like we did, to dip your toes in the water. I think people would enjoy it.

Le Palais des Grands Crus 2007

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Last Friday I had the fortune of attending the Deutsche Bank wine tasting for the third year. From the wine list it seems that we are getting "cheaper" compared to previous years, as there were fewer "stellar" wines around this year. Or maybe it is because wine prices have soared in the last year, and for the same amount of cash spent, we cannot afford the same wines we tasted last year. In any event, there is never any plonk or average wines at these tastings so I should not complain...

As usual the Grand Hyatt Ballroom is set up with tables with specific themes, with either sommeliers or representatives from the wineries pouring the wines. Based on past experience, the plan is to prioritize and hit the best wines before it is gone.

My first stop was at the Red Burgundies table since there usually are several offerings from DRC. I tried a couple of 2003 grand and premier cru wines from Prieure-Roch, but was less than impressed. The Romanee-Saint-Vivant 2001 from DRC was much better (duh...), and the 2000 DRC Echezeaux was drinking very, very well - shows the power and concentration from a DRC grand cru. After seeing one person after another asking for the La Tache (most probably have no idea what it is, but have been told that it is an expensive wine so they must drink it...), I finally worked up to it...but was very disappointed. The '88 La Tache (served from methusalem no less) was definitely over the hill...a bit of stewed prunes and higher acidity than I expected. Certainly the biggest disappointment of the evening.

Next stop was the Jaboulet table. The '98 Jaboulet La Chapelle was not bad but not outstanding. The '83 Jaboulet La Chapelle was drinking quite well, although it never was a stellar wine. The highlight of course was the '90 Jaboulet La Chapelle served from magnum. Wow! This was my wine of the evening...everything I expected. There is enough concentration and fruit to last for a long time, and no question why Parker and others gave it 100 pts. Wonderful stuff!

I stopped by the Angelus table to greet Coralie de Bouard, Hubert's daughter. She had hosted their table at last year's tasting and I thanked her for participating again. I tried the '98, 2003 and '83 in that order. '98 Angelus was drinking alright but did not perform up to its potential. The 2003 Angelus was drinking better than I expected, and the '83 Angelus was beautiful. Missed out on the '70 because I waited too long.

Finally to the whites. The 2004 William Fevre Chablis Les Clos from jeroboam was a good starting point. The pair of 2004 Domane Leflaives - the Meursault Sous le Dos d'Ane and the Puligny-Montrachet Clavoillon - showed powerful nose of petrol and minerals, a bit too much for my taste, especially the Meursault. The 2000 Bouchard Meursault Charmes was more elegant. The 2002 Bouchard Corton Charlemagne from jeroboam was very, very nice.

And I spent a long time hanging around the sweet wine table. I started with the '24 Huet Vouvray le Haut Lieu - this was really wonderful. The pair of '78 and '79 Rieussec was great, as was the '85 Suduiraut. These are wines I would drink any day after a nice dinner. Of course, everyone goes for the Yquem, this one the '99 from Imperial. You will never have a bad Yquem, but this one was a little too young. Tonight, the winner was definitely the '24 Huet, and I managed to get the last pour out of the bottle.

It was a very good evening, and I finally went home some 4 hours after I started.

Updated list on UNESCO World Heritage

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Back from India and have now added 5 sites to my original post.

The best Italian restaurant in Hong Kong

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That was a pretty provocative title, but yes, after Monday's dinner we all agreed that Toscana is certainly the best restaurant in town if one was looking for refined Italian. The occasion was our monthly MNSC gathering and I was the host for the evening. I had asked that Chef Bombana create something to match the wines I was bringing, and regardless of whether that goal was attained, the menu was simply fantastic.

We started with lobster on leeks, avocados, new potatoes and black truffle. This was pretty good and the black truffle complemented the lobster, but many of us left the new potatoes in anticipation of a heavy meal.

Next was Jerusalem artichoke cream, black truffle and organic egg yolk cooked in extra virgin olive oil. This was simply divine...the half-cooked yolk sat on top of the green artichoke cream that was so delicious...and enhanced again by shavings of black truffle. Some of us would have liked a second serving of this...

The tagliolini with green asparagus and black truffle was equally yummy, cooked to perfection and the finely chopped black truffle was just so full of flavor. Would have wanted a second serving of this, too...

The Barbarie duck on mushroom risotto and pumpkin cream was really nice. The small cubes of duck, with its gamey and slightly fatty flavors, worked well with the mushroom and the sweet pumpkin. It was the only course without black truffles.

We had wagyu beef tenderloin, ragout of radicchio and foie gras with black truffle as our main course. This was done very well, but by this time most of us were pretty stuffed.

Dessert was a delicious classic Italian style parfait in pistachio sauce. The parfait had ground pine nuts (or was it pistachio?) and was very interesting. I think most of us didn't finish it...

Now onto the wines I served for the evening. The theme was 92 horizontal, old world vs new world.

1995 Tattinger Comte de Champagne - bought this from the restaurant so that they would waive the corkage. Pretty delicious but we only had half the bottle before moving onto the reds.

1992 Philip Togni - this was drinking very nicely without too much aeration, with a big nose of fruit. Interesting the wine died fairly quickly in the glass, but each fresh pour from decanter brought out the incredible nose.


1992 Leoville Barton - I was expected this to be a dud with no fruit whatsoever. I was pleasantly surprised although I can't say this was the best wine of the evening. At one point we were talking about "sugar water" in the nose

1992 Mouton Rothschild - this was almost the biggest surprise of the evening, that a wine from a famously weak vintage would be drinking as well as it did. Lots of coffee and classic pencil lead in the nose.


1992 Colgin Herb Lamb Vineyard - I always expected this to be the wine of the evening, and it did not disappoint. A huge nose, lots of sweet fruit, a blockbuster of a wine.

1992 Penfolds Grange - how could this wine be anything other than a Grange? It's got the classic knockout punch nose that you get from just about every bottle of Grange...tons of sweet red fruit, almost cotton candy...


1992 Guigal La Mouline - I think this was the biggest surprise for the night. No one expected the '92 La Mouline to drink this beautifully and everyone put high scores on it. For the price this is a very good La Mouline!

Why I never went to Amber

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Finally had a chance to go to Amber last night, thanks to global boss being in town and taking the whole team to dinner. We had something like 14 people and the bill was about HKD 2k/head including wine. Not quite worth it in my opinion... but very happy that someone else paid for my experience.

The tasting menu started with teasers, which consist of three little bits that no one could figure out. The first bit had half a raspberry on top of a thin slice of veggie used as a wrapper, with a plastic squeeze tube inserted into the center. You had to gently squeeze the plastic to injet the raspberry purée into the center, but no one came to explain and most people squeezed too hard and squirted raspberry juice all over the place... The second piece was pretty forgettable (since I have trouble remembering only the day after), and the third bit was like soft potato purée/egg custard/whatever topped with black truffle sauce. I thought it was foie gras mousse at first but the color/taste didn't match. Overall I'd say this was a flop.

Then we moved on to the foie gras, which was two long strips of foie gras terrine sandwiching a center strip of smoked eel. I guess the combination was interesting but the salty, smoky eel didn't work well with the smooth foie. Not really impressed.

The line caught sea bass followed, which was poached, topped with caviar and served on a bed of foam and white/green asparagus spears. Not bad but really nothing to write home about.

I chose lamb for my main course (other choices were wagyu and chicken - which a colleague of mine didn't recognize coz the meat was wrapped in tubes and then cut into cross sections). The lamb chops supposedly went to a two-step process with roasting as a finish. The raw ingredientt was actually pretty good, but when I asked for medium rare I didn't expect that much of the center section to be raw...

The pre-dessert was OK and then came the passion fruit soufflé. We all had individual portions served in a square container. There were a few seeds sprinkled on top to enhanced the visuals. This was served with a small scoop each of apricot (?) and coconut ice cream on the side. Good marks for the dessert.

Surprisingly (or perhaps he wanted to keep the cost down) my French boss ordered Californian wines - a Sauvignon Blanc from Stag's Leap and a Pinot from Au Bon Climat. The Pinot was just a bit too ripe and it's one of the few times that the sweetness of a Cali Pinot actually got to me.

At the end of the evening, it's fair to say that I have no need to return to Amber. There are too many better places in Hong Kong. One last comment - this hits one of my pet peeves...the menu is too long-winded. I can't stand menus with two or three line descriptions of the dishes, listing out every single ingredient that had a distinctive flavor, sometimes obscuring the main ingredient! Sometimes I'd prefer to taste the food and discover all the different flavors! This is why I never went back to Saint Pierre in Singapore, and similarly will not go back to Amber.