Saturday, May 30, 2009

WE'RE ALL IDOLS! aka DON'T GET A JOB, GET A DREAM!

If you're anything like the one hundred million people who watch one of the many versions of American Idol, you're closer to understanding life.

Am I getting philosophical? No, I'm getting practical!

I believe in dreams. I've always believed in dreams. And, I believe in people with dreams.

Why are the thousands of people who auditioned for Idol like you? Well, for this simple reason: they took a risk......and, the finalists were going after their dream.

When was the last time you took a risk on a dream?

My Own Dream

I lived in a middle class suburban neighborhood in New York. From my home, I could look slightly west and see the Empire State Building. It became the symbol of my own dream for each of my 17 school years.

My dream was to live in the Big Apple. I dreamed of traveling the globe. I dreamed of meeting new people in new countries and making a positive impact on the world. I dreamed of making my mark on the world.

My father contributed to this dream in his own way. A seafaring man who ended his sea days as a cruise ship photographer, he talked about exotic ports and different cultures. He even married my mother a Cantonese-French gal from Brazil. And, I remember vividly his story of eating steak and drinking wine with the Argentine longshoremen on the Buenos Aires docks!

My dream became my single minded way of running my life. This dream dictated the movies I saw, the books I read and the things I taught myself. I was determined to pursue it.

One month after graduation, with my second paycheck from Citibank, I moved into The City on Park Avenue two blocks away from the Empire State Building. I'm still paying the price for this act with the loss of love from my younger brother who felt that I had abandoned the family.

One year later, I convinced the head of the international division at the bank to send me permanently abroad. After a nice bon voyage party with 100 family & friends, I was on my way. First stop, Nassau, Bahamas. Three continents, 30 cities and more than a thousand people later, I'm still pursuing my dream.

The story doesn't end there.

While still in New York, a friend and colleague, Norma, at Citibank, asked me to talk to her friend, Bikkit Tam, a processing clerk in the operations area. There was no reason given. No agenda. Norma just wanted me to talk to Bikkit.

Bikkit was from a modest background. I think she was born in Hong Kong. She may have been 2 years older than me. She spoke enough English to be understood, but not enough English to get ahead in a competitive environment. She was quiet and demure or what I would call a "typical Asian woman" profile.

I told Bikkit stories. Stories which I'm now sharing with you on my blog. I told her where I came from. How I convinced my interviewer to give me my first job. How I believed that anyone could do what I did.

I lost contact with Bikkit for several years. But, one day while I was living in Asia, she made contact with me. As her story goes, she managed to get her college degree and her MBA at night. She moved to Boston where she held a job in a bank as a manager which she liked. She eventually married. She was happy and felt that she was still pursuing her dream.

I thought to myself, "maybe Bikkit had already achieved it." I was proud of her.

So, what's my message? The message is you. Don't get a job.....get a dream. Even better, find a cause......join a cause.....set a bigger goal. Dream. And, believe in yourself!


Landy's Note: I refuse to let this be the end of the story. I'd like to hear about your dream, too. If I can help, write me through this blog.

Hong Kong Restaurants: Azure Restaurant Slash Bar, Hotel LKF, Hong Kong - Go There with Friends



Published in The Peak Magazine, Asia Edition, April 2007

I will always be in love with Hong Kong.

If New York is the “city that never sleeps,” then Hong Kong is the “city that never stops”... never stops growing, never stops changing, never stops entertaining!

I know. I lived there for eight years.
I still miss the one o’clock power lunches where harden deal makers conduct religiously their due diligence.
And, I miss the old fashioned hotel cigar stewards (usually female) who would dip my Cohiba into an aged cognac before handing it to me with a perfectly symmetrical five millimeter burn.

I learned about Azure Restaurant Slash Bar from my FF fraternity brother, Paul. Like all brothers, Paul is a bon vivant.

In his pitch to me, he cautioned me that only “those on the list could get in.” That was all I needed to hear! I decided immediately to check it out after Paul arranged for the owner to put me on the list.

My dinner reservation at Azure was on a Thursday night. The place was bustling.

Hip touches like the Azure's resident DJ (who spun tracks throughout my 3 hour long dinner) are indications that Azure is clearly the place to be. Nearly every table was filled by 9pm with Hong Kong’s rich and powerful and young.

I didn’t bother with the wine list and instead challenged Alex, the restaurant manager, by asking him to bring me the house wine. Alex gave us a few glasses of a full-body Shiraz from Sonoma’s famed Geyser's Peak Winery. It was a great red!

My Hong Kong dinner partner, Robert, a media mogul, liked his vegetarian tempura made from zucchini flour and stuffed with nicoise, pesto and smoked ricotta. I preferred my appetizer of tuna tartar with crab meat and basil and rocket leaves and salmon caviar.

We had a cold weather dish called cauliflower cream soup flavoured with white truffle oil and wild mushroom fricasse. It was a double success as both of us consumed our bowls in record time! (The main menu carries a carrot and coriander soup which my soup-loving friends swear by.)

One of our entrees was roast garupa with what Chef Cedric Alexandra calls a “virgin sauce” and linguini in saffron and roasted asparagus. I never did find out why it was called a “virgin sauce,” but I liked the saffron sauce better anyway.

That next entree was the grilled veal medallion with a mushroom Marsala cream sauce and sauteed radicchio. I thought it was better than the garupa. (I’ve heard a lot about the Boston lobster dishes… one on a papaya salad and the other with cannelloni and parmesan….....all of which I plan to try on my next visit!)

At dessert time, Nancy, a high powered talent agent, joined us as we were presented with a beautiful looking plate consisting of a chocolate cake in the shape of a Egyptian pyramid filled with molten chocolate and some banana caramel ice cream and brandy snaps on the side. This dish was made for chocolate lovers – which, surprisingly, I am not – so I eyed with envy the red berry millefeuille with ginger chibouste cream on the regular menu without ever taking any action.

In the best of Hong Kong tradition, the evening ended with us talking deals and nursing a few more glasses of the Geyser Peak Shiraz.

Azure Restaurant Slash Bar is well worth a quick trip to Hong Kong. Azure’s cool look, cool food and cool people make the place a cool hot spot not to be missed.

If you need to get on the list, just let me know when you're planning to go and I'll see what I can do.

Macau Restaurant Recommedation: Restaurante Il Teatro, The Wynn, Macau.....The First Choice in Macau for a Business Lunch or Romantic Dinne


Published in The Peak Magazine, Asia Edition, May 2007

I love Italian food. Who doesn't?

So, on one of my trips to Macau to film that city’s reinvention of Las Vegas, I decided to taste which culinary treats the Las Vegas casino kings were offering their high rollers, the ones who would actually stop gambling to eat.

I decided to try the newly-opened Wynn Macau. I made arrangements to go Italian at Restaurante Il Teatro and try its seasonal menu, which had been designed by Chef Aldo - a Sicilian who has worked in Monte Carlo, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, Moscow and recently, as executive chef for the Mandarin Oriental, Jakarta.

Il Teatro and its modern Italian selections have become quickly the businessman’s favorite venue for lunch or dinner, when they choose Western cuisine over Asian. Perhaps this is because Il Teatro makes everything from scratch… panne, grissini, focaccia... homemade mascarpone….and, of course, the pastas.

Steve Wynn is known for his attention to detail. You see this clearly when guests are seated. Anyone carrying a purse or even laptop is offered a tiny side chair about half a meter in height to rest parcels and whatever you’d like to keep in sight or use during the meal. A nice touch, Steve!

Though both VIP private dining rooms were filled that evening and the place was almost completely full, I was able to have a special menu of six dishes selected by Chef Aldo, one dessert and what I like to call a “palate cleanser.” All of the dishes were paired with great wines selected for us by Attilio, the personality at the door. (The food and wine pairings were outstanding!)

We sipped a flute of Cuvee Brut from the Taltarni vineyard in Victoria, Australia with our first appetizer of red prawns carpaccio which the Japanese would call “ama ebi sashimi.” (Supposedly, the high acidity of the sparkingly wine breaks down any fat found in the prawns, which were extremely fresh and according to Chef Aldo, they were flown from Italy and were not from China or Thailand.) Normally, the menu offers scallops instead of prawns, so this was a twist, but it worked!

A well-presented goose liver escallop with Italian Deliziia apple and a 25 year-old balsamic sauce was next. I thought that it was not seared long enough to give the centre portion of the liver a warmer feel to it when it touches the tongue.

Next was what the Chef calls a “typical ancient soup” made from eggs and white truffles was next. I’m not usually crazy about soup, but this soup was special. It was very smooth and delicate, with a wonderful aroma and flavour.

Great tasting tiny ravioli with beef, truffle butter and parmesan cheese followed, and was quickly praised by both Paul and myself. It was exquisite with a glass of Simon Hackett Brightview Chardonnay from the Barossa Valley in South Australia. The wine had a melon and white peach aroma, with almost a creamy butterscotch taste.

Then, we were pleasantly interrrupted by a refreshing lemon & grappa sorbet shot with orange zest.

A glass of 2001 Chateau Rolan de By, Medoc was offered to compliment a the roasted piece of wagyu beef tenderloin with grilled fresh lobster medallion in a light truffle sauce that followed. As opposed to earlier, when the goose liver was undercooked to the centre, this very sought-after beef was overcooked just a touch, which seemed to disappoint Paul since he was so looking forward had so looked forward to it. (Tip: ask for the beef to be undercooked or even rare!)
The barramundi - again an import from Italy and not Australia - was served with the best porcini mushrooms I’ve had in a long time. Another glass of Brightview Chardonnay went well with it.

We finished up with a – you guessed it! – tiramisu with expresso and frangelico “homemade” mascarpone cream.

So what are you waiting for? Get yourself to Macau and I’m willing to bet that Il Teatro will “wynn” you over!

Macau Restarants: Robuchon A Galera, Lisboa Hotel and Casino, Macau. - A Real Classic!


Original Version Published in The Peak Magzine, Asia Edition, March, 2007

While on a shoot with Hong Kong actress Karen Mok for Discovey Channel’s VIP Weekend, I overheard some friends bragging about what they described as “unbelievably great food.” Like a pedigree golden retriever when food is mentioned, my ears perked up immediately. What was it? Where was it?

I expected to hear about an inventive Japanese place or a cool Roman cafĂ©. I didn’t expect my inside tip to be a classical French restaurant.

Were my Hong Kong Chinese friends lost in some kind of epicurean time warp? With French restaurants closing everywhere from New York to San Francisco to Hong Kong. I thought French was “out” and almost everything else “in”

Putting aside my initial pre-conceptions on the future of French cuisine, it’s rich wine sauces and heavier meat entrees, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this particular establishment was opened by the celebrity chef, Joel Robuchon.

The next surprise was that the Robuchon A Galera wasn’t even in Hong Kong, it was across the way in Macau!

Luckily, I had scheduled a visit to Macau to begin some research on the influx of Las Vegas casinos in the former Portugese enclave. I was already in a “pamper me” kind of mood and with another colleague, we were desperately looking for Macau’s culinary soul.

Joel Robuchon was a “kitchen god” to his fans and the industry in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was a successful chef, popular international cookbook author and emerging French tv food personality.
He won his first Michelin rating in 1984 at the age of 38 when, after only two years, his first Parisian venture was given three stars making Joel Robuchon the youngest three star chef in Michelin history!
Joel Robuchon’s culinary trademark was to make masterpieces from basic - sometimes mundane - ingredients. His philosophy was simple: respect the original flavor. He is known as the creator of such admired signature dishes that they are now duplicated widely by many of the very best restaurants in the world. Dishes like: gellee of lobster with caviar in cauliflower cream; black truflle tart and potato puree…….you really can’t get more mundane than cauliflower or potato, now can you?

I was surprised – again - to find out that Chef Robuchon located his restaurant in Stanley Ho’s Lisboa Hotel and Casino.

If you’re not careful it’s easy to fill up nicely on wine and the mini-French and specialty breads overflowing on the bread trolley. I counted at least 11 different breads and breadsticks on offer that evening. We were careful, but it wasn’t easy to control ourselves!

The restaurant offers two dinner menus. A “Degustation” menu of 16 items for HK$1600 per person for those who want it all and an a la carte menu. We decided to all go a la carte. We thought it would be more fun. We were right!

A devout fan of all styles of goose liver anywhere, anytime, I started with an order of the warm goose foie gras on egg plant with caviar and my guest had the signature millefeuille of tomato and crab meat. Feeling adventurous, we also had to try the fried pigeon eggs with caviar and salmon.
In a very non-French way, we shared all the dishes and I can say that all three appetizers were delicious.

I was craving the rack of lamb….and my colleague had the lobster. The lamb racks were made - the way I like them - medium rare. I dabbed them into some great Dijon mustard for that classic touch. It really did melt in my mouth.
I would order the lobster on ravioli skin made from turnips, flavoured lightly with nutmeg, rosemary and a tangy sauce again anytime!It was terrific!

And, then of course, there were cheeses and desserts in typical, classical French fashion and, again, served all on a trolleys. I think we tried all of them! There were more than a dozen!

Without a doubt in my mind, Robuchon A Galera was the best restaurant find in Macau to date. I definitely plan to go back!