A many splendoured thing

On the way to a meeting in the real world, Porco bumped into Mr Wang and swapped notes about many things – of cabbages and kings and blog like things. Now Porco is always nervous about people he does not know reading his blog and is a little careful about what he says into the ether but he agrees with Mr Wang that the World Bank/IMF week and a bit has eaten up so many column inches and so many bytes on cyberspace – so much that he thinks a little nugget (via Mr Brown) like this might have been missed.

Anyway, off to Korea tomorrow – land of hot food, crap phones and very, very tall elevator ladies.

A week in Hong Kong

Is a little long but always nice, especially during the IMF World Bank madness in Singapore. Proving it’s who you know and not what you know – Porcorosso had organised a little drink at his favourite bar and restaurant to celebrate Towkay Tan’s birthday. Arriving at the venue only to find it had been closed for a private party. Standing outside and desperately blackberrying to arrange an alternative, a fund manager colleague waved all of us in – drinks, canapes and a five course dinner. Plus we ended up having the place to ourselves. The best things in life are free.

The highlight of the week was the impromptu after dinner event – a wine tasting at Petrus at which poor Porco had five minutes with the sommelier before presenting 11 wines to his colleagues. There were some fantastic and unusal things – 2003 Condrieu, 2001 Corton and a 2003 Felton Road plus some old favourites like a 1999 Chassagne Montrachet, 2003 Kaesler Old Vines and a 1988 D’Issan in a magnum.

The night in between was the strangest – again with the fund managers, Porco trotted off to a private party in an exhibition hall where there was food, drink and Duran Duran. It was not just a case of rolling back the years, it was like being transported to a different and surreal planet. Now Simon Le Bon always had a pitchy squeaky voice somewhere between David Beckham and Tinky Winky but as the portly forty-something (more pork idol than pop idol, oink oink) starting prancing around the stage, there was no doubt. It was Tinky Winky and I was watching a live performance of the Teletubbies.    

Plants are not enough

Old Porco was having a chortle reading this article in the Financial Times today – so much for the pretty potted plants. Didn’t stop a rebuke for disallowing protests. Porco almost ran into another water truck along the Expressway this morning – might as well dig up the plants now. Forget the watering – make the roads safer.

Portrait of the artist as a young Pig

So Porcorosso spent last weekend waddling around art exhibitions holding glasses of warm champagne at the Singapore Biennale. Now old Porco doesn’t know much about art but he knows a fun thing when he sees one. Like Brian Gothong Tan’s Imelda Marcos spoof, complete with used shopping bags for puffy sleeves. Very pinoy. Or Takashi Kuribayashi’s seal and fish tank. Or Lim Tzay Cheun’s take on Bohemian Rhapsody. ROTFL. Otherwise there was just TMV and TMI … er, thats Too Much Video and Too Many Installations. Arty fart pig … oink oink.

Three days in the valley

You must not think that Porcorosso flew all the way to Napa for half a dozen great meals – Porco was there for the same reason piggies go to market. Well, similar reasons anyway. After a disappointing start at Phelps, where the best thing going was the scenery and it was a far, far better thing to spit than to swallow, it started to get better when we got to the properties around the Rutherford crossroad, starting with Far Niente. The wines were very good and the tour was fun -  vintage racing cars and they were bottling the new vintage chardonnays as we walked through the cellars. What a smell! The highlight though was Swanson where we had a great time – great company, pictures of the family dogs and a pink tasting room. Oh and we dropped by Opus One before that just to pick up a bottle of the 2002 – I have never had much time for whited sepulchers and I don’t think much of their wines either.   

Don’t Talk to Strangers

Mr Wang, whom I respect very much, had this to say about blog comments. Porco thinks that as he would not speak to strangers on the street, why should he talk to even stranger strangers on his blog?

Napa Pig Out

Lest you think Napa is a one laundry valley, Porcorosso also ate at La Toque where the wine pairings was the definite highlight of the meal (there was a stunning pinot noir from Willamette Valley which I had never heard of before) as well as the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus (lunch on a sunny terrace among olive trees with tasting portions of eight wines), Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen as well as its sibling, Mustards Grill (where Porco demolished a 25 oz. steak). This little piggy went to Napa …