Verandah, Mandarin Oriental BKK, good food and productive meeting place

It was a sunny afternoon and Chaophyra River had a very nice cool autumn breeze. I had a very nice late lunch and a very productive business meeting. Thank you so much, Verandah!

1.Tried their summer breeze. So refreshing and it's not like most other cocktails, they go to the original fruity flavour instead of just putting heavy flavour syrup. 2. How can I miss this nice basket of breads.

3/4. Simple, comfortable and ambient environment.

5. Their burger is lovely. The potato chips is very nice. Very fresh potato! 6. I tried Veggie Pad Thai. I think this is the best Pad Thai I have had. The proper cooking for veggie is to first boil them in hot water (we call it "flying water") so that some unnecessary green smell would be not too overwhelming and gives the veggie more moisture and sweetness from this process. Then I fount out the carrot was cut in rolling cutting skill. This is very professional, as this way no matter how much they stir fried, the carrot won't be too mashy and yet the rolling cutting would have the carrot release more sweetness and natural aroma. I hardly imagine I can be a vegetarian but I can be with this nice veggie Pad Thai!

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A little make up, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok

In another 3 weeks, Mandarin Oriental Bangkok will finish its new phrase of interior decoration. Some parts have been done. The reception has moved to its previous area. The carpet and some furniture changed. More notable are the vertical flower presentations in the lobby hall.

Checked in a room much further to the end of the corridor and with a boarder river view. I really have no idea why the toilet is so inviting and de-stressing and as I watch it again, I feel like having my detoxifying assignment, and interesting made 2 big ones in just 6 hours. More amazing is those are not that rushing and no stressful feeling. Next when I looked at the bath tub, I couldn't help having a hot bath with MO's unique aromatic bathing salt. I felt so sleepy already after 30 seconds of soaking. What's more, the air-conditioning is perfect with the right temperature and moisture setting. You wouldn't feel your skin being tightened. Again, the hardware of this hotel is awesome!

This afternoon I had some business meetings in Verandah cafe. My business fellows and I have had 3 hours of chatting and discussion that all of us wouldn't notice time flied fast. Besides, it's the first time I could do some legal validated documents in such a fast way by photo taking on my presence in Thailand in signing those documents with a MO staff here and a MO environment plus Chaophyra River as a background. That saved me a lot of time and money if I do that outside of Thailand. Now MO has one more big merit for me.

The last 2 photos - the 1st one showed MO placed some sand bags to prevent the warning flooding of Chaophraya river. The 2nd highest tide will arrive tomorrow (30th Oct.) and the biggest one will arrive on 8th Nov. The northern part of Thailand has some serious blooding due to the massive cold front from China meeting the warm moisture of Thailand. Then the last one is Ciao - the Italian restaurant which runs for the dry season only as it's in open area.

Heartbreak hot and sour noodle, 傷心酸辣粉, Fok Wing Street, Shamshuipoo, Kowloon, HK

Many years ago my Taiwanese friend brought me to a "hot spicy" hot pot. I first refused so as it definitely upset my stomach, but my friend's boss somehow explained the Sichuan hot can relieve some stomach problem if the stomach tends to be "cool". It turned out it's true. Most of all, it's the only hot that made my head's hair sweat uncontrollably. I was told about this shop in Shamshuipoo for quite some time. Though they opened another branch in Dundas Street, Mongkok, I still wanna go to the first shop.

1. "mouth watering" chicken 口水鷄. It's the least hot dish among all those we ordered. The chili is quite special and aromatic. 2. the signature noodle - hot and sour noodle. Very nice, and I like the soup too. I ordered "small" hot but it's very hot to me indeed and my head sweat! The shop's waitress told me to get "baby" hot if I find it too hot. Actually I found out most others ordered "baby" hot. I wonder who orders super hot.

3. Chilled "water" squid, pork skin and stomach. Very nice and this hot is not like the other. This one with some light garlic and parsley flaour. 4. Mixed my noodle.

5. Chilled hot black fungus. Wow this one is the hottest among all though it didn't look like. I somehow like it. 6. Chilled noodle with chicken. For those who can't eat any hot, this one is a good choice and the noodle is very chilled. Nice dressing too.

7. Sichuan north chilled noodle. Under the waitress's recommendation, I tried baby hot so as to reduce a bit hot. 8. chilled bitter gourd. Not too good as it's a bit too mashy and too much garlic.

9. Chilled crystal jello. So good to have this one as they used some cane sugar as syrup. This is a good way to calm your hot meal. 10. the shop.

My dream for remote control toys

When HK was in the change for manufacturing business in the 60's and 70's, almost every family had some factory outsourcing work, like making plastic flower, plastic jewel, gloves..etc. I was very lucky to get the most-profitable work thru' my aunt - making watch's metallic strap. In just a few weeks, I could make around HK$60-70 (about 2 hours a day) (as compared to making plastic flower for HK$20-30 on the same working hour).

So in a few months, I had HK$180 and there I got my first remote car. Actually I was hoping for a speed boat, but it's too expensive back then. On and off, even after I worked in the first few years, having remote control toys was still difficult. There have been something I often thought about, e.g. helicopter, submarine and a speed boat.

Junior, 貓仔

This cat is very behaving. Kind of reminds me of my junior cat I used to raise before Michael and Brian came to my old apt. That was when I was 13 to 15. It didn't mew all the time and not get rotten. Most of all, it didn't annoy you much but just stand by you. For the first time after so many years, I made a meal again this evening for a cat. I ate the outer part of a grilled chicken breast and left the center part for him. Cat can't eat any salty things. Gotta be careful. Then I cut the chicken meat in pieces and stir with some plain rice. There he went for a dinner.

Traditional Cantonese snack, 陳意齋 Chan Yee Jai

Our senior generation wouldn't find this shop a stranger. The shop has been famous for its various local snack including the dried shrimp roe vegetarian roll 蝦子扎蹄, bird's nest sweet cake, barley sweet cake and the classic almond drink as well as a wide selection of preserved snack. As I noticed they have a sugar-free almond drink, there I went in for shopping more than just for that. As it's going to be a dry season, our throat will get some itchy for some coughing. The below "winter" ginger is a good choice for itchy throat. Note that the almond drink has French translation.

The wind blows

This morning I passed by The Fleming hotel Wanchai as usual on my way to office and I believe it's the first time I have seen some thick sticking tape on the windows after probably 25 years. In the old days, we used to have these to prevent windows from being shattered as sharp pieces to harm the others, not supposed as a protective thing.

Super Typhoon Megi (Korean name for a kind of fish and it's like catfish - and today it's a controversial topic for how to pronounce the Chinese name 鮎魚. In our tradition as take the upper or bottom part to pronounce if we can't have the right/left part 有邊讀邊無邊讀上下, we would probably prounce it as "jim yue", but a professor from Chinese University HK got fed up and sighed. So there we got to know it's 鯰 "nim yue".

Megi was once a super super typhoon with center gusty wind speed over 300 km per hour and around 80 meters per second. That means, it can blow you over 1.5 olympic size swimming pool in one second. Various weather stations warned that a large scale of swell from 7-15 meter high would take place and it'll break the record for the past 500 years. Swell is caused by the super typhoon pressing the water from center to edge. When such swell reaches coast, it will be like a tidal wave (just as what we see in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow").

Though Megi left HK but it is moving to Fujian and Taiwan strait. The vast plain of Southern Taiwan would be much threat, especially when the swell is to be pushed up by the Taiwan strait. Hope the north east monsoon wind will offset the massive warm moisture of Megi and get it softer....

Beppu Ramen 別府拉麵, The One, TST Kowloon HK

Remember Kimberley Center (TST Chatham Rd) where a lot of small trendy shops grew up in the late 80's. There went up with many new things, including this ramen shop and for the first time I tried a Japanese ramen in thick pork bone soup. 20 years passed so quickly. I visited this restaurant last week again. Not sure if I become picky or their quality dropped. For sure other Japanese chain ramen shops (e.g. Aijisen 味千) would be much better than this one.

When I travel to Thailand by myself, my friends often asked me what I would do besides shopping and eating. My answer is browsing in record shops, going to movies and buying some DVD movies. The movies that I go to are the international movies and the DVD movies I got are mostly Thai movies as long as they have English subtitles. This movie is one of my favourite collection - Citizen Dogs is a cult movie about a guy leaving his countryside family for Bangkok for a job. The story is not just about Bangkok but for most busy cities. People in the cities talk fast, work fast and think fast.