Two more Eggs Benedict venues

The first, which Sonia and I visited in HK on Saturday morning - "The Flying Pan". Someone has a sense of humour.

A "greasy spoon" type of place, the ambience is "pack them in, fry everything in sight". The Eggs Benedict was as you might expect - not great. Still, somewhere that you can have a hearty breakfast when you feel the need to pig out. The biggest thing on the menu is the 4X4X4X4 - four eggs, four sausages, four strips of bacon, 4 toast, supported by baked beans and grilled tomato (of course). If you prefer you can get eggs with black pudding. The Eggs Benedict was served on English Muffins (a positive if they were not squashed quite so flat). The eggs were poached but still running in the whites. The sauce was good, and the bacon cooked nicely. This was all backed up by fresh fruit (did not look overly appetizing) and fried potatoe slices. Coffee was filter coffee - not great.

The scores:

• Eggs - 7/10 - a bit runny
• Bread - 7/10
• Hollandaise - 8/10 - was ok
• Coffee - 5/10
• Ambience - 7/10 - ok if that's what you feel like, but not relaxing
• Total - 34/50

The second place is my sister's. Literally. We had sort-of Eggs Benedict on Christmas day for breakfast. Except that it was bacon instead of smoked salmon. Given the coffee obsession that has infiltrated the Palmer-Rickard families, the coffee was ok. Eggs Benedict were served on Bagels (finally!), and the eggs were cooked in a poaching fry-pan, which meant they were perfectly round (cheating really). The sauce was genuine, made in front of us, and tasted great.

The scores:

• Eggs - 9/10 - needs to be poached in a normal frypan or saucepan in order to allow the whites to spread out slightly (but not too much)
• Bread - 10/10
• Hollandaise - 10/10 - cannot beat handmade and fresh
• Coffee - 9/10
• Ambience - 5/10 - something to do with three excited kids on Christmas morning sitting at the same table
• Total - 43/50

Christmas in Kiwi-land

Today is Wednesday, the day after the day after Christmas. Christmas day was spent with the sister/brother's family in the morning, then my (Andrew) parents for lunch. My grandmother (Dad's mother) came around in the afternoon with an Aunty and cousin. It was good to see her - it's been a couple of years, and it could well be the last time I'll see her. Then up to Sonia's parents in the evening for a BBQ. The extended family was there, totalling about 35 people. Cricket on the lawn, golf balls, and general mayhem.

Yesterday we managed to sleep in until about 11:00am, much to the chagrin of the nephew and nieces, who were most put-out. We blame the jet-lag. Mission Bay in the afternoon to let the kids swim (along with half of Auckland), and fish 'n chips for dinner sitting on the grass. Interesting seeing the multi-cultural nature of Auckland - the Pacific Island family that we walked past, who were eating plates of rice with corned beef hash. The smell is something you have to work to get used to!

Today off to Cornwall Park, again so the kids can play. Better outside than inside. All this after managing to crawl out of bed at a relatively respectable 8:30am - still jet-lagged, I guess!

Tonight we're out for dinner celebrating the brother-in-law's windfall.

It's off to work I go...

Well after 3 1/2 months of being a lady of leisure I started work again this week. Keeping to our regular routine, Andrew and I once again work in the same office, and even have seats next to each other. We never last long not working together - how cute. Last week was an awkward one as I tried to work out which of two six month contract offers I should accept. Bravura Solutions finally came through with an offer that had been in the making for a few weeks, and Prudential also made it to the party with a very rushed through offer when they realised I was about to take something else. The advantage of a bit of competition... Only time will tell if I selected the right job!

Andrew is off in Tokyo tonight and back again on Friday. I don't think that seat next to his at work is going to get me much more talking time - he is never in town! His current challenge is convincing the Japan office that they do not need him there every week between now and the end of March - definitely not an option if he does not want to come home to a grumpy wife each week.

Saturday sees us flying of to NZ for Christmas - a very rushed trip and Andrew's first for just over two years. We are looking forward to it. We have rented a car from the airport so no-one needs to miss the Christmas church service to meet us. By the time you are all done with the carols and dramas we should be well and truly back in West Auckland and keen to catch up with everyone. Christmas day we are splitting between the Rickard house and the Palmer house. Apologies to everyone who has been waiting for us to finally make up our minds what we are doing! Blame the male in the house - he is very indecisive!

It is almost midnight and I will turn into a pumpkin if I do not head to bed. Have a happy day,

Sonia

Is anybody reading?

There are never any comments posted, which leads us to believe that mothers' and families no longer read this blog. If this is true, then I guess we should stop?

Winter is Here

Winter has arrived in North Asia.

Yesterday (Friday), I spent the day in Seoul. Going in I had the preconceived notion of an underdeveloped country, an understanding based primarily on a total lack of knowledge of Korea. The only information I had on Korea was what you see in the news. Right now, that means poverty, Kim Jong Il's penchant for luxury goods and nuclear weapons/technology. I had this mental picture of a developing nation, filled with the graceful ladies in the long white dresses that you see in the tourist pictures. It's nothing like it!

I was told that South Korea's economy is one of the top 5 in the world (I have not checked). The city is a modern metropolis, done up with millions of lights to celebrate the Christmas and New Year season. There was not much English being spoken, which is my problem, not theirs. The business there is booming, recording record growth far outstripping the rest of the industry.

I was lucky enough to attend the end of year party. An amazing night. You know it's amazing when you leave having understood very little of what has been said (interpreters are required), but still having laughed and had a very enjoyable time. There were five or six groups of staff from different departments who had all practiced performances. The first one was dancing (B-boy style), another was dancing to Korean pop songs, another was a parody of a Korean comedy show on TV, and more. The final group put on an amazing acappella performance - which won the first prize.

I'd flown into Seoul Gimpo airport from Tokyo's Haneda airport. Unsuprising given the geographical proximity of the two countries, I kept noticing little things that were very similar. Despite using a different alphabet and language, I could still hear some small similarities in the way people spoke.

I came away with quite a different perception of Korea. The people were much more professional and restrained than you see elsewhere in Asia. Initially this can seem a bit stand-offish, but as soon as you get to speak to someone for any length of time, they were amazingly friendly and keen for you to have a good time.

This morning, back to HK. Where it's warmer than Seoul and Tokyo (almost reaching zero celcius), sitting around 17 degrees when I landed. Definitely time for jackets/jerseys (Jo, that means pullover or jumper). Because of the cold winds coming down from China, the skies are a lot clearer in Hong Kong. We are abale to see across to Disneyland (fireworks at 7pm each night, about the size of an NZ 5c coin) and the mainland beyond. That is a very nice change!

Both Sonia and I are struggling to kick the coughs and sniffles. Hopefully if we behave this weekend it will be better in the coming week. For me, the week is likely to include another trip to Tokyo for a couple of days. Saturday morning is the start of a week's holiday in Auckland.

Tokyo

Taking a couple of minutes before I go down to find a taxi to the airport. Writing from Tokyo (4:30 in the afternoon) where it's dark outside - very dark.

I noticed that I started the previous post saying "feeling a bit better". Well, it has not got too much better all week, which is a bit of a pain.

Tokyo is, as always, cold, amazing, and quite an enjoyable place to be. The flight tonight takes me to Seoul, my first visit to Korea. I've timed it right and will spend the day meeting with the local team, then join them for their end of year party. I know a couple of the team from time spent in Malaysia, so it will be a great opportunity to catch up with them and see what's been happening.

Right - off to the taxi.

Jaspas

Feeling a little better, so we headed off this afternoon to try the Eggs Benedict at Jaspas in Happy Valley. In the end, the spinach mentioned in the description put me off - it was a choice of smoke salmon + spinach or ham + asparagus. Going for something called "Stacks of Taste" sounded better, although it too mentioned spinach. Sonia settled on the sauted mushrooms dish.

When the dishes arrived, they both turned out to be half a ciabatta with stuff on top. Stacks of Taste was bacon, two poached eggs, spinach, and hollandaise sauce. Sonia's mushrooms were piled on top of her bread, with some dried tomatoes mixed in, and hollandaise sauce on the side. The coffee was good - lattes.

Afterwards we decided to walk towards Central, so walked down to Causeway Bay. In the process we realised that it's significantly closer to town than we had thought before. Maybe it would have been ok to live in Happy Valley instead? We ended up walking to Wan Chai MTR station, then giving up and taking the train to Central. Walking up to the escalator, we made it back to the Phoenix Cafe. A pleasant hour or two there, then back home.

Now back home, we're puzzling over what to watch on the 30-or-so channels we have on TV. Strangely enough, most of it seems to be rubbish. Never mind.

Tomorrow night I'm off to Tokyo again. On Thursday night I fly to Seoul, spending Friday meeting with the local team there. Friday happens to be their Christmas/end-of-year party (how did that happen?) so it would be impolite to leave on Friday. I'll fly back to Hong Kong on Saturday morning. Another week away from HK. The week after should be more focussed in the office in HK, so that will be nice. Then we head to NZ for the Christmas/New Year week.

Let us know what you've planned for your Christmases - would be good to hear from you all!

The end of the week

Today is Saturday, and it's early afternoon.

Last night was the office Christmas party, themed with cowboys and indians. Some of the people went all-out with the costumes - very impressive. In the next area of the restaurant was another party with an all-white theme. They must have felt a little strange as a stream of cowboys and indians kept wandering through to get to the bathrooms!

Woke up this morning with a raging cold - sore throat, bunged-up nose, etc. We went back into the office this morning to collect suitcases, etc that we'd left there before the party (I flew back from Bangkok yesterday afternoon). Stopped at Starbucks on the way for breakfast. And ended up sitting by a couple of ladies with two screaming brats. Why did they think that it's ok to let the kids yell, cry, and eventually scream? Then back home for lunch (fresh french bread and marmite!) and a spot of TV for the afternoon.

When you look at it that way, a very normal, slow Saturday. Maybe there will be more to tell later on?

More Eggs Benedict

I keep meaning to post a review of Staunton's Cafe, another venue for Eggs Benedict. This was the site of a Saturday brunch a few weeks back, so my memory has probably become a little blurred since then.

The Eggs Benedict was actually called something else (I forget exactly what). It arrived as a reasonably sized helping, and looked delicious.

The bread was fresh and toasted just right. The eggs were poached correctly (seems to be a trend here as I really have not had any bad ones to date). The sauce was thick and creamy, and there was enough. There was enough salmon and it tasted good. The only down-side to the whole experience was the small pile of spinach that had been dumped onto the bread underneath the eggs! A little spinach is ok (some things have changed, mum), but not the small molehill that I was presented with.

Because the cafe is also a wine bar in the later parts of the day, the ambience was ok rather than anything special. It was great sitting there with the doors folded all the way back against the walls, but the cars do drive past about 4 feet away from the table. Luckliy it's not a heavily trafficed road!

Anyway, on to the scores:

• Eggs - 10/10 - cooked just right.
• Bread - 8/10 - bread instead of a muffin, but toasted right.
• Hollandaise - 8/10 - no issues.
• Coffee - 5/10 - just average really.
• Ambience - 6/10 - good open-air feeling, but traffic noise is disappointing.
• Total - 37/50.

And the Decorations multiplied

I really thought that red baubles, green baubles, santas in the trees and all the other bits and pieces I mentioned was the enough. But no. Imagine my delight to find that we now have choir singing angels, garlands on all the handrails and a boat - yes you read right - a boat - wishing us seasons greetings. Nothing but photos was going to do it, so here goes..















PS, Andrews apartment photos were a little premature - we are definitely still a work in progress. We'll post the final layout once we have it sorted...

The apartment

Well, it feels like time for some photos of the apartment, so here goes.

Let's start with the view. The apartment is on the 48th floor (out of 50), so we do get pretty good views. The apartment is located next to the Cyberport development, which is a set of three or four office blocks and a retail area with Starbucks and a few shops and restaurants. This picture is looking down and to the right from our balcony:


















Next, a couple of shots of the living area. First, from the wall next to the door into the apartment. Note the brand new flat-screen TV - Sonia chose, purchased, and arranged delivery and installation all by herself. And a great job of it too. We'll get a tube to hide the cables down the wall.














And then one taken from the other end of the room (standing at the far end of the sofa you can see on the left of the picture above):














Lastly, a shot into the spare bedroom/office. Right now this still contains the second bed (in packing leaning against the right-hand wall). There is not enough room to set up a bed in this room, and we plan to get a very narrow desk and set it up as an office. Note the new wardrobes that we mentioned previously.