Had a meeting in Central yesterday afternoon and since I was there at the right time, thought I’d hit Web Wednesday. More on that later, first a few random photos for your edutainment.
First one comes under the heading of, “Can’t Anyone Fucking Proofread Anymore?” Here’s a menu page – not from some little out of the way dai pai dong but from Madison’s in Central. Okay, I suppose one might suggest that whoever was preparing this page was already drunk? Actually, everything about this place has gotten sloppy. From the fact that the sign on their front door had flipped around to say “Closed” at 5 PM to the waiter bringing my colleague a bottle of beer without even offering the choice of a glass.
Next category, “What Ever Happened to the Word ‘And’?” If you can’t read the sign below, it starts off, “National Day Drum Display Launching Ceremony Cum Archway Lighting Ceremony.” Exsqueeze me? Cum again?
Here’s a couple more shots of the drums with the IFC cum Jardine buildings behind, taken during the day cum the night.
Spin around 180 degrees to see the HSBC HQ lit up to pimp the East Asian Games. Do people actually care about this? Are people getting all wet and bothered in anticipation?
A bit further down, the four pedestrian bridges connecting the various Hongkong Land shopping malls have all been adorned with these animated signs and topped with over-sized Xmas tree ornaments. “Welcome to Hong Kong – hope you find some time to shop!”
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that all of these photos were taken hand-held with the Panasonic GF-1 camera, 20 mm lens (40mm equivalent)(which does not have any image stabilization built in).
Last photo for this morning … this hole-in-the-wall on Stanley Street in Central features what I am convinced are the absolute best prawn wontons anywhere in Hong Kong, if not the world. They’ve not only resisted any urge to remodel or upgrade the place, for some reason they’ve resisted the urge to raise their prices. And you can come here, buy just the dumplings, go to some fresh noodle shop and buy the noodles of your choice, come home and make your own soup with the fresh noodles and these magnificent lumpy round beasts. Oh, they also make their own chili sauce, which they bottle and sell – some weeks we go through two bottles a week at home.
Then, over to Web Wednesday. The first thing I want to make clear is that I have nothing but admiration for what Napoleon Biggs has done here. He’s built a monthly event from the ground up that now regularly attracts anywhere from 100 to 200 people. I always see friends here and I almost always make new friends here.
But actually I hadn’t been to WW in almost a year. First, I got sick, as most of you know. Second, once this migrated from a free event to one with a $100 door charge (with one drink included), I had to seriously mull over if it was actually worth my schlepping all the way to Central, what I would actually get out of it. Last night, since I was already in Central (and figured it would be a good opportunity to pimp PASM), I decided to go.
I gotta say, the venue absolutely sucks! Backstage Bar may be good as a setting for drinking and for music. But it’s too small for WW. People were crowded in elbow to elbow, no place to sit, drinks in hand, and then some people were surprised that most of the people didn’t stop talking when the official program commenced?
I realize that I was probably the oldest person in the room and so maybe my experience wasn’t the same as everyone else’s, but I can’t stand in one place comfortably for two hours. I need to either walk around (which was impossible given the crowd) or sit. So I sat on the banquettes along the rear wall of the bar, where I could neither see nor hear the proceedings. After awhile, my friend and I gave up and left.
And then, diagonally across the street for dinner at, where else?, Tsui Wah. A huge bowl of stir fried noodles, six plump fresh prawns, a bit of veg, a bit of XO sauce and a bowl of soup – for HK$37! Little wonder that their 3-floor restaurant on Wellington was full, as are most of their branches, day cum night.
