Not a horrible weekend, all things considered.

On Saturday, I purchased the Mediaman, a splendid bit of Korean technology. Basically it’s a hard disk enclosure with all sorts of outputs and firmware. Once you drop in a hard disk (in my case, 300 gig) and fill it up, you can then disconnect it from your PC, carry it into another room and hook it to your stereo and TV. It will output HD level picture quality and 5.1 surround sound and play AVI, MP3, MPEG, JPEG and a whole host of other media formats, complete with onscreen menu and a remote control. I filled up the drive and it works as advertised – finally I can lie in bed or stretch out on the sofa and watch downloaded movies in DIVX and XVID formats on a big screen and with surround sound. The cost for all of this goodness was a relatively modest $2480 (300 gig drive included), that’s roughly US$325 or so. In my case, well worth it.

The US Navy’s in town, in larger numbers than usual, and they’ve been uncharacteristically tearing up Wanchai. The police had to be called in to Joe Banana’s to break up a fight and JB’s had to shut down for a while to clean up the mess. Clearly a night like that calls for Lan Kwai Fong.

Believe it or don’t, but in all the years I’ve been here, I’ve never been to any of the “food festivals” in Lan Kwai Fong. After checking out the one this weekend, I shall not be going out of my way to attend any others. For such a wonderful food city, a place where so many of the world’s great cuisines are so well represented, what was on offer was woefully bland and unimaginative.

You could get hot dogs from Al’s Diner, bratwurst from Schnurrbart, hummus from Beirut, another place was selling “mini satays” and fishballs, another place had samosas and other bits of Indian food. I don’t like playing the partisan New Yorker but if you have ever been to the food festival along 9th Avenue, it makes this one look weak. Hell, walk down Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok and you’ll be offered wider and more imaginative choices than were on offer here. Didn’t seem to matter much to most of the other people there, they were mainly queueing for beer. But there are so many great places to eat in LKF, and you would think they might have prepared more imaginative offerings as a way to not just make a little money but also to whet your appetite to try the restaurant. I think it made LKF look bland and boring. Then again, the streets were packed with people so what the hell do I know?

Well, I will be heading back down to LKF or Soho for dinner tonight, unless I feel ambitious enough to schlep over to Causeway Bay and walk around there for a bit. Discretion being the better part of valor, avoiding Wanchai till the fleet leaves seems like a wise choice.

Hongkie Town
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