Pigs don’t fly

If only – Porco has been on his travails again before the holidays. Hong Kong, Korea and Mumbai. Worst part of it is the food on planes. Singapore Airlines food is terrible as is their wine.

In Hong Kong, managed a very quick lunch at Amber. Soothing decor if a little cramped. The food was tired and a trite too deconstructed. Poached prime rib was separated into various things to be served. I had a sip of the consomme but left it by the time I finished with the meat, it had gone cold. Highlight of Porco’s two weeks away was Konkan Cafe in Mumbai – superb food, airy interiors and sensible wine pairings. Crab, mutton and chicken – all delicately spiced and finely cooked. Chef Ananda Solomon is a genius.

Back home, Porco was sad to learn that Chef Dorin Schuster has returned to Bali – in fact, little did we realise at the time that the evening last year when he cooked Porco’s birthday dinner was his second last night in Singapore. Good thing he joined us for a glass of Pinot then – we will have to seek him out in Bali.

Home on the range

Fingers crossed. We may have done the last trip abroad for the year – a year which brought us to New Zealand for our honeymoon then Bangkok, Siem Riep, Beijing, Phnom Penh, South Africa and Shanghai. Not to mention my work trips to Hong Kong (four or five times, I think), London, Mumbai and Tokyo. I feel I’ve lived a chunk of the year on a plane – so two whole months before I travel again, I’m looking forward to being at home.

Autumn Leaves

The weekend just gone by has been the first one we’ve stayed in Singapore for some time. The three weekends before that, we were in Hong Kong for the Christies’ and Sothebys’ auctions, Beijing for Singapore Season 2007 and Phnom Penh for Denis Min-Kim’s exhibition. It’s good to travel but just as good to be home.

Which is just as well as I have found Singapore Airlines to have fallen short of the high standards we have become used to. The food has become increasingly inedible and more broadly, I think the general experience of flying has become less pleasant. It’s good to travel, if only to appreciate the comforts of home.

Pig today, Pork tomorrow

Funny how some stories get better with the telling. Last night, Mrs P and I had dinner with some friends who were off to Siem Riep today. Same place, same resort, still the same rainy season. So Porco regaled them with stories of waking up at 4.30 am to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat, which in the rainy season is a bit of a hit and miss affair. We missed.

One story we forgot to tell was how on the way to the temples, we saw live pigs transported on the back of motorcycles. On their backs over the back seat, legs tied and with their bits to the sky – which led to our guide commenting “Pig today, pork tomorrow”. Er … nice.

Rip off city

Porco hates shopping but he is compelled to visit retail outlet malls while on business trips because things are so much more expensive in Singapore, even during the Great Sale. For example, a pair of Armani Jeans are S$420 in Singapore but only US$75 in Woodbury Common. This has been common piggsley knowledge for many years but to his surprise, when he dropped into Watsons, G.O.D. and Muji in Hong Kong, stuff there was about 30% cheaper and there was much more range and choice. Boo!  

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.    

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.   

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 …  

Porco in Frisco

So Porcorosso has spent a week in California – having great food, drinking unfamiliar wines, watching the ocean and even getting a little sun. Oh, and he watched a movie as well – it wasn’t even on the flight. The flight was long but it was worth it – food and drink reports to follow.

California dreamin’

It’s summer and Porco is off to California for a week. First to San Francisco (via HK) and then a few days sniffing out the vineyards of Napa. Drinking? what drinking?

If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.