Honestly, I don't believe in equality between sexes. This is the natural law, I don't have any intention to fight against it as I've been told to try to exploit the unfairness instead. But this is just too funny, this is what I've observed in the recent days:
A 35 years old guy who is not yet married and still single, he is a "BACHELOR".
A 35 years old girl who doesn't have a boyfriend or fiance, she is an "OLD MAID"!
When men having trouble finding a girlfriend, they are just ""CHOSING".
When women having trouble finding a boyfriend, they are considered "HOPELESS"!
When men dating multiple women at the same time, flirting around smooth talking, constant appearance at night clubs, they are labeled as "PLAYBOYS".
When women having multiple boyfriends, signaling their avaliabilities, gyrating dancing around guys, they are labeled as "SLUTS"!
When men wear button down shirts, they call it "SEXY".
When women wear strappy 3" killer heels, they call it "CFM"??!!!
When men talk about male analysts sleeping with the female associates, they call it "BOYS' TALK".
When women talk about female associates flirting with their male bosses, they call it "GOSSIP"!!!
Seems like to me that guys' acceptance level is much lower than that of the girls. The image of women wearing aprons, staying home kniting, nursing kids, is still vivid in their mind. They cannot tolerate women having the same status as them. Is this an indication of low self-esteem? Why do men still have such a conservative mindset after more than 2000 years of evolution?
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
A journey to tropic?
I was walking back home late night over the weekend, hopped into 7-eleven looking for something refreshing and sweet. I found this:
Movenpick passion fruit & mango sorbet popsicle. All natural with mango coating and real mango pieces in passionfruit sorbet. It is very tasty as expected, mango is a bit sour but it's like fruit juice melting in my mouth. Fresh, cold, sour, sweet, creamy. What a relief in hot & humid weather. It says on the package it is produced in Italy. One bonus pt!
Movenpick passion fruit & mango sorbet popsicle. All natural with mango coating and real mango pieces in passionfruit sorbet. It is very tasty as expected, mango is a bit sour but it's like fruit juice melting in my mouth. Fresh, cold, sour, sweet, creamy. What a relief in hot & humid weather. It says on the package it is produced in Italy. One bonus pt!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Amber
HongKongers like to work over lunch, but that doesn't mean they'll go skimpy on food. Caprice, Amber, Nicholini, Petrus, Pierre, Joel Robuchon, are usually booked up during weekdays for business luncheons, not because they serve delicious food, but because they resemble class, so that we are too busy chowing down the foie gras rather than interrogating them for poor performance.
Attended Melco PBL's luncheon at Amber at MO Landmark last week..haha..see how efficient my blog is. Forget about how Crown Macau churn visitors for the first couple of weeks of businesses and the strategic positioning of city of dreams, this is one of the most pleasant meals I've had in HK.
Normally I criticize HK's high end french/italian restaurants for their pretentious setting, overpriced menu, inexperienced staff, and underwhelming flavors. My three course meal at Amber did surprise me on the upside and my mind was quickly drawn to the food from the uninspiring results briefing.
Unfortunately my social etiquette stopped me from taking pictures of the food as I was surrounded by people who pretended to be professionals but were there because of the free lunch. These are what I had...
Appetizer: Duck foie gras with smoked freshwater eel pressed in terrine, consumme jell-O and vinegared puree of white onion. The creaminess of pate bodes well with the saltiness of eel, complemented by the sweetness of caramelized onion.
Entree: Oven-roasted chicken with shaved button mushroom and green beans. Chicken was cooked perfectly, moist and soft.
Dessert: Caramel, sea salt & milk chocolate fondant with caramelized peanuts, chocolate short bread, brown butter & caramel ice-cream. I love the fondant, again salt and chocolate make an amazing combination. Brown butter adds some smoky flavor to the ice cream. Very nice indeed.
I think it would cost more than 1200HKD (US$150) for a dinner menu. Would I pay to dine there? ... Hum.. Found a better deal of $348 for weekend brunch, including à la carte starter and main course plus dessert buffet, and complementary wine and fresh juice. That would be a good idea!
Attended Melco PBL's luncheon at Amber at MO Landmark last week..haha..see how efficient my blog is. Forget about how Crown Macau churn visitors for the first couple of weeks of businesses and the strategic positioning of city of dreams, this is one of the most pleasant meals I've had in HK.
Normally I criticize HK's high end french/italian restaurants for their pretentious setting, overpriced menu, inexperienced staff, and underwhelming flavors. My three course meal at Amber did surprise me on the upside and my mind was quickly drawn to the food from the uninspiring results briefing.
Unfortunately my social etiquette stopped me from taking pictures of the food as I was surrounded by people who pretended to be professionals but were there because of the free lunch. These are what I had...
Appetizer: Duck foie gras with smoked freshwater eel pressed in terrine, consumme jell-O and vinegared puree of white onion. The creaminess of pate bodes well with the saltiness of eel, complemented by the sweetness of caramelized onion.
Entree: Oven-roasted chicken with shaved button mushroom and green beans. Chicken was cooked perfectly, moist and soft.
Dessert: Caramel, sea salt & milk chocolate fondant with caramelized peanuts, chocolate short bread, brown butter & caramel ice-cream. I love the fondant, again salt and chocolate make an amazing combination. Brown butter adds some smoky flavor to the ice cream. Very nice indeed.
I think it would cost more than 1200HKD (US$150) for a dinner menu. Would I pay to dine there? ... Hum.. Found a better deal of $348 for weekend brunch, including à la carte starter and main course plus dessert buffet, and complementary wine and fresh juice. That would be a good idea!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Dinner at Luk Yu
NO, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. It takes me ages to write this entry. Partial reason/excuse is that my brain is blocked and I couldn't think of anything except work.
I paid my first visit to Luk Yu last Friday.
For those of you who are not familiar with the place. It is well-known for being the tycoon's cafeteria, notoriously arrogant waiters, old school dim sum, creaky ceiling fans, domestic 70s gangster movie, and of course, the homicide happened last year.
It is one of those classic restaurants that're nostalgic of the times when HK started gaining prosperity in the 60s/70s, when money defined social status, and a series of tycoons amassed their fortune with property development.
Everything inside the restaurant stays intact to commemorate the flourishing times. They seem only offer classic dishes, their main concern probably is to retain old customers rather than attracting new ones.
I LOVE its sweet red bean soup for dessert. This is the best red bean soup I have ever had. They are very generous with the red beans and you can tell they must have been cooking the soup for a long time b/c the ingredients are all integrated, red beans and lotus seeds are very chucky and so soft!!
One dish that struck me the most is the pig lung and almond soup. I am not a big fan of animals' organs and I have never tried savory almond soup before..this is interesting, but I don't think I will order it again.
ToTo was our guest speaker for the dinner. He gave us a detail teach-in of how differently he does business nowadays, incorporating the western style cooking into traditional Chinese cuisine, utilizing different countries' ingredients to create cost-effective and delicioius dishes, detecting tricks that new tea houses' use to churn customers and make bigger bargin. Not only a professional chef and a renowned food critic, he is also a restaurant owner with good business sense.
His passion for food is indisputable. He loves to eat and constantly strive for innovation up to a point which may jeopardize his health. He looks so much chubbier than on TV probably because he is always seated and his chef uniform is able to cover up his big tummy.
I paid my first visit to Luk Yu last Friday.
For those of you who are not familiar with the place. It is well-known for being the tycoon's cafeteria, notoriously arrogant waiters, old school dim sum, creaky ceiling fans, domestic 70s gangster movie, and of course, the homicide happened last year.
It is one of those classic restaurants that're nostalgic of the times when HK started gaining prosperity in the 60s/70s, when money defined social status, and a series of tycoons amassed their fortune with property development.
Everything inside the restaurant stays intact to commemorate the flourishing times. They seem only offer classic dishes, their main concern probably is to retain old customers rather than attracting new ones.
I LOVE its sweet red bean soup for dessert. This is the best red bean soup I have ever had. They are very generous with the red beans and you can tell they must have been cooking the soup for a long time b/c the ingredients are all integrated, red beans and lotus seeds are very chucky and so soft!!
One dish that struck me the most is the pig lung and almond soup. I am not a big fan of animals' organs and I have never tried savory almond soup before..this is interesting, but I don't think I will order it again.
ToTo was our guest speaker for the dinner. He gave us a detail teach-in of how differently he does business nowadays, incorporating the western style cooking into traditional Chinese cuisine, utilizing different countries' ingredients to create cost-effective and delicioius dishes, detecting tricks that new tea houses' use to churn customers and make bigger bargin. Not only a professional chef and a renowned food critic, he is also a restaurant owner with good business sense.
His passion for food is indisputable. He loves to eat and constantly strive for innovation up to a point which may jeopardize his health. He looks so much chubbier than on TV probably because he is always seated and his chef uniform is able to cover up his big tummy.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Survival kit
I used to be able to leave work at 6/7ish. Now working late becomes my everyday practice. The cleaning lady is feeling bad because she can't vacuum the area I occupied..well, what can I do, I am doing two jobs and don't have time to move my ass out of my herman miller chair.Late night snack is required to compensate my weary soul. I have an uncontrollable addiction toward this Marks&Spencer wine gum. It is so good, I can keep chewing until I finish the entire bag, of course this ungraceful behavior would often trigger stomach bloating and discomfit. Mixing gummies and coffee is truly not the most desirable dietary habits. I need the sweets to keep myself awake, and coffee to help digest the glutinous mixture that clot my stomach...ha, sounds gross but it works.
For the one who keeps nagging me for Gwen Stefani's concert tickets.. not that I don't want to see the show, I also don't want to give up free tickets. But I only have limited time to complete what I was ordered to achieve and 4 hours of show time is just not part of the recipe. Hope this clip can compensate what you have missed...and I'll make sure you get the next round of movie tickets.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Saturday night revelation
Last night I went to a friends' birthday party with a bunch of others. We were a bit reserved and puzzled at first about the location of the party.. because it was hosted at a bar in Wanchai. Why on earth would they choose Wanchai while we can stay happily in LKF. Is it part of our summer retreat, trying to stay away from the overseas educated kids who are spending their summer vacation in HK and getting drunk everyday at LKF?
As soon as we got off the cab we saw all these Filipino domestic helpers in disguise wearing outfits that screamed out whore hanging around convenience stores waiting to be picked up by chubby greasy american gweilos with waistline over 40". This was just not the scene I wanted to be part of. With such a disgusted feeling we sprinted into our party and hoped the place could get better than worse...well, wanchai is still wanchai, the music was so loud that could blast your ears off, drinks were made with cheap alcohol, occasionally there were some Filipinos crashed into the party with an attempt to get some deals done. So disappointed with how the night turned out and I swear I would never cross the border of central, ever again.
After a late night snack at Tsui Wa, I shared a cab ride with a guy who I have met just for a couple of times and also lives in HV. What interesting was that he asked the cab driver to drop him off first because it was on the way to my apt, and our apts were just 2mins apart. I thought the whole point of sharing a cab together was to make sure the girl goes home safe at 2am rather than saving $. Even though he left enough fare to cover the whole cab ride, this was such a gentleman behavior to leave a girl alone with the cab driver when he could conveniently let me get off first and then make a route back home. There's always a reason for a 30 sthg years old guy with successful career making decent money and not bad looking to be single for the longest time. You thought British schools would teach people social etiquette in addition to science and literature..a 22 years old chap who failed his O-level and likes to ride horses than reading books even have much better manner than him.
As soon as we got off the cab we saw all these Filipino domestic helpers in disguise wearing outfits that screamed out whore hanging around convenience stores waiting to be picked up by chubby greasy american gweilos with waistline over 40". This was just not the scene I wanted to be part of. With such a disgusted feeling we sprinted into our party and hoped the place could get better than worse...well, wanchai is still wanchai, the music was so loud that could blast your ears off, drinks were made with cheap alcohol, occasionally there were some Filipinos crashed into the party with an attempt to get some deals done. So disappointed with how the night turned out and I swear I would never cross the border of central, ever again.
After a late night snack at Tsui Wa, I shared a cab ride with a guy who I have met just for a couple of times and also lives in HV. What interesting was that he asked the cab driver to drop him off first because it was on the way to my apt, and our apts were just 2mins apart. I thought the whole point of sharing a cab together was to make sure the girl goes home safe at 2am rather than saving $. Even though he left enough fare to cover the whole cab ride, this was such a gentleman behavior to leave a girl alone with the cab driver when he could conveniently let me get off first and then make a route back home. There's always a reason for a 30 sthg years old guy with successful career making decent money and not bad looking to be single for the longest time. You thought British schools would teach people social etiquette in addition to science and literature..a 22 years old chap who failed his O-level and likes to ride horses than reading books even have much better manner than him.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Typhoon no.8
Ha ha!!! I just had the happiest moment this week!
My office got so excited about Pabuck on Wed. We speculated that we might be able to get a day off since the wind was classified as storm and hitting directly toward HK, there was a high probability that hko would lift the signal to no.8 in Thurs morning. All of a sudden aside from analyzing stock prices, we all gathered around analyzing how the wind blows and by when we should expect no.8 etc...And of course, even though our job is to forecast the future, not everything is within our control especially the weather. We were so disappointed to find out the wind became a depression and needed to cancel mahjong plans the next day.
Probably on second thought, Pabuck decided to do us a favor and retreated back to HK. Wind signal was lifted to no.8 after lunch today and we were dismissed early in the afternoon. Finally I got to receive some benefit of working in HK during typhoon season. Sometimes good things happen when it is least expected.
I believe HKO has just become the most popular site and got the most hit rate in HK in the past couple of days..probably they should consider getting some advertisement there and make some money by monetizing the weather...just random thoughts.
My office got so excited about Pabuck on Wed. We speculated that we might be able to get a day off since the wind was classified as storm and hitting directly toward HK, there was a high probability that hko would lift the signal to no.8 in Thurs morning. All of a sudden aside from analyzing stock prices, we all gathered around analyzing how the wind blows and by when we should expect no.8 etc...And of course, even though our job is to forecast the future, not everything is within our control especially the weather. We were so disappointed to find out the wind became a depression and needed to cancel mahjong plans the next day.
Probably on second thought, Pabuck decided to do us a favor and retreated back to HK. Wind signal was lifted to no.8 after lunch today and we were dismissed early in the afternoon. Finally I got to receive some benefit of working in HK during typhoon season. Sometimes good things happen when it is least expected.
I believe HKO has just become the most popular site and got the most hit rate in HK in the past couple of days..probably they should consider getting some advertisement there and make some money by monetizing the weather...just random thoughts.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Dream on
Recently I have been asked so many times what my dream job is, what I want to do for the rest of my life, what would give me the most gratification, what I will enjoy doing for every moment and stress-free. Is this part of the quarter-life crisis that we all need to go through before we turn 30? Is it because we are doing something that we really hate for monetary reason so that we can retire early and our hatred wouldn't prolong for the rest of our lives?
I often struggle with the word "dream job". What exactly does that mean? I think the idea of a dream job is deluded, it is probably a game some people invented to talk others out of the battlefield so that they have less people to compete with. Ever since we are born we are told to utilize our talent to make a good living. We follow our instinct and work rigorously toward our lofty goals...and then a few years later plus a heavy dose of reality, we choke and start to wonder why we are dragging ourselves to work everyday.
Everything would become such an ordeal if our lives are depended on it. If we are willing to accept the fact that no job is perfect, we'll probably stop dreaming how our lives would be different to be out of the tedious job. As long as the positives outweigh the negatives, and we feel rewarding from what we need to put up with, then we should be on the right track.. at least that's how I convince myself to believe...
Yesterday in addition to other savory dishes I made a citrus tart featuring pink grapefruits and oranges. It undoubtedly looks like a quiche, that's what people have mistaken for....I made a sweet tart dough with basic ingredients, butter, almond powder, confectioners sugar, etc.. For the fruits, I cut out the fruit chucks free of membrane and let them sit for a whole night to dry up the juices. When I was ready to bake, I made a buttery and nutty flavored custard to pour into the tart shell over the fruits. So very simple but deliciously presented.
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