It's Somebody's Birthday...

[L-Spec]

Aha.. I've been hanging out in the DSM side of the forum. Every time I came back to OT, each topic had five pages or more so I just didn't even bother ..but this is a special occassion! What have you done so far to celebrate?

[2.2 Straight six]

Ate copious amounts of chinese food..

dinner for 11 at the local Chinese, which is amazing. even Chine doesn't make Chinese that good.

got a new computer to replace the 9lb brick which is my old one. godfather gave me a Sigma 70mm macro lens for my camera (it's amazing..) lots of books on graffiti and stencil art. big book on macro photography and some money.

[drunken monkey]

banksy and tristan manco?

you've probably heard this but chinese food in china isn't anything like chinese food in the uk.
UK stuff is a lot closer to the (bastardised) stuff you get in HK.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by drunken monkey

banksy and tristan manco?

you've probably heard this but chinese food in china isn't anything like chinese food in the uk.
UK stuff is a lot closer to the (bastardised) stuff you get in HK.

yeah, a Tristan Manco book (i have the earlier version already) a book on Bansky locations, a book on London Steet Logos and Graffiti World. if you're into that kind of art Freight Train Graffiti is worth getting.

Best Chinese in the world is Gung Ho on West End Lane just off Finchley road. (NW6)

went to HK, the food in the Mandarin Oriental is amazing.. rest of the food wasn't as good as Gung Ho.

[drunken monkey]

HK "junk food" is where it's at.
street side noodle shops and other random food shops.
the kind that don't speak english but full of young boys and girls.

restaurant stuff is ok....
but I come from a family of restaurant owners so i'm picky and not easily impressed. HK restaurants don't impress me that much. As far as i'm concerned, I (or other people in my family) can probably do better than a lot of the average restaurants in HK. Of course, the Mandarin Oriental (did you stay there?) isn't average....

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by drunken monkey

HK restaurants don't impress me that much. As far as i'm concerned, I (or other people in my family) can probably do better than a lot of the average restaurants in HK. Of course, the Mandarin Oriental (did you stay there?) isn't average....

Yup, stayed there. Amazing hotel. The breakfast there can't be beaten. enormous fruit platters, hot food, everything..

[replicant_008]

Sorry fellas, the best chinese food in Hong Kong isn't sold anywhere near Central (unless you are after yum cha, in which case there are plenty of places in Tsim Sha Tsui for the gwailos or places out in Tseun Wan where you won't find anyone who speaks English).

You'd find the best cantonese style of chinese food at the fishing village of Sai Kong in the NT - a place where you buy live fish and crustacea out of tanks in sheds on the wharf, placed into plastic bags and then taken down to restaurants that proceed to cook the stuff in front of you. Beautiful dishes that are really fresh, without the pretence of one of the 'bastardised westernised chinese food' and with genuinely fresh ingredients (that's where the wealthy locals go with their families for special occasions where the money is spent on the food rather than impressing guests).

The best Peking Duck is in restaurants that specialise in that Imperial Dish in Beijing without question.

And for restaurants, The Flower Drum in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia lays claim to be considered one of the finest restaurants in the country let alone the best Chinese one... or for that matter anyone of an array of Chinese along Little Bourke Street...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/restau...524935508.html

(The Age awards chef's hat as something akin to a Michelin star so Flower Drum is something special)

[drunken monkey]

is now a good time to mention that my home village is in sai kong?

[replicant_008]

Ok that's fair, my paternal grandparents' village is over the border on the banks of the Pearl River... and I was one of those ex-pats living in the Peninsula Hotel in TST for a while.

[pickle]

Happy birthday!

yeah yeah I'm late but go the marchies! (I expect presents tomorrow)

[2.2 Straight six]

mmk. good luck with that, yeah?