China

Happy Thanksgiving From Beijing

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Email from my son who is chef de cuisine in one of the restaurants in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing…to his friends and family:

On Nov 19, 2007, at 5:24 PM, Ryan Goetz wrote:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I write this now because in two days I am fully booked. I run a T.G menu for 4 days and will not have a chance to come up for air until next week. I ranked the #1 place to have thanksgiving in Beijing. It was not hard to beat out the American cafe called steak and eggs and then HOOTERS. Yes, they have thanksgiving at Hooters in Beijing! It is not a very long list of American restaurants in Beijing, but it is Distinguished!!! I never thought that my name and the boob and chicken wing restaurant would be named in the same article, but anything is possible in China!! So, if your jonesing for some Turkey then try hooters, because I am fully booked. I guess that is something to be thankful for.

On another note, Malcolm is at home and doing well!! He went for a walk with Phil, who flew to Hawaii to see his dad. He is a tough guy and even with a portion of his heart dead, he is still walking around. Phil says he is out of the woods and is being very “normal”. He is an amazing man! So that is another thing to be thankful for!

Amy and I have booked 10 days in Vietnam for xmas vacation, shopping, history and some warm weather. Beijing is really dry and cold!! There is snow on the Wall already. I am researching skiing in Japan. They are some great resorts there. Some in the North, near Sapporo and some right outside Tokyo. Lift tickets are around 4800 yen or $us 44 a day for 32 lifts !!! They say Japan has some of the driest powder in the world. I plan to check in out over a long weekend in Feb or March. They had the winter Olympics in Sapporo in 1972. They were supposed to have it in 1940, but the Indo-Japanese war took them off the list and then world war 2 which took Germany and Japan off for 1944. I wonder if we will lose the votes from the I.O.C. because of Iraq?? Probably not. These are the things you learn when you are married to a Historian! We are a great Trivial Pursuit team!

I know some of you have been planning vacations. I will have some time between now and April, but March to September are out of the question for me and anyone thinking of coming to Beijing this July- August is Out Of Their Minds!! The Olympics are going to turn this place into a Zoo. I am planning a wine trip (and Surfing) to Australia in the Fall, their Spring, in 2008 with a possible stop over in Bali. Anyone interested in Bali??

Cheers and Thanks,
Josh

Contemplating Leaving

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My one year visa in Mexico expires August 8. After visiting my son Greg in Las Vegas I should be back in Oregon by the middle of August…driving from Oaxaca to Queretaro to pick up my friend Patty who will be my traveling companion along the way. I have mixed feelings of course. Returning to my home country will be the measure of things great and small. In the fall I will return to Asia to visit son Josh and his wife Amy in Beijing and son Doug and his wife Luk in Thailand.

In the meantime I am reading my irreverent, indepensible, if tattered, “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” by the consummate journalist Robert Young Pelton. After Asia, maybe a visit to Syria? Or…? Then maybe a return to Oaxaca to get that language down after all.

A regular columnist for National Geographic Adventure, Pelton produces and hosts a TV series for Discovery and the Travel Channel and appears frequently as an expert on current affairs and travel safety on CNN, FOX and other networks.

“The United States has a very comprehensive system of travel warnings,” says Pelton, “but conveniently overlooks the dangers within its own borders. Danger cannot be measured, only prepared against. The most dangerous thing in the world,” he says, “is ignorance.”

Welcome to Dangerous Places…”no walls, no barriers, no bull” it says in the preface. “With all the talk about survival and fascination with danger, why is it that people never admit that life is like watching a great movie and–pooof–the power goes off before we see the ending? It’s no big deal. Death doesn’t really wear a smelly cloak and carry a scythe…it’s more likely the attractive girl who makes you forget to look right before you cross that busy intersection in London…

It helps to look at the big picture when understanding just what might kill you and what won’t. It is the baby boomers’ slow descent into gray hair, brand-name drugs, reading glasses, and a general sense of not quite being as fast as they used to be that drives the survival thing. Relax: You’re gonna die. Enjoy life, don’t fear it.

To some, life is the single most precious thing they are given and it’s only natural that they would invest every ounce of their being into making sure that every moment is glorious, productive, and safe. So does “living” mean sitting strapped into our Barca Lounger, medic at hand, 911 autodialer at the ready, carefully watching for low-flying planes? Or should you live like those folks who are into extreme, mean, ultimate adventure stuff…sorry that stuff may be fun to talk about at cocktail parties, but not really dangerous…not even half as dangerous as riding in a cab on the graveyard shift in Karachi.

[A big part of] living is about adventure and adventure is about elegantly surfing the tenuous space between lobotomized serenity and splattered-bug terror and still being in enough pieces to share the lessons learned with your grandkids. Adventure is about using your brain, body and intellect to weave a few bright colors in the world’s dull, gray fabric…

The purpose of DP is to get your head screwed on straight, your sphincter unpuckered and your nose pointed in the right direction.”

I love it.

Family In Thailand

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My sons and daughters-in-law, Luk, Doug, Josh and Amy on Koh Samui in Thailand for a week. Bob, their dad, took the picture. Doug and Luk live on Koh Samui. Greg, in Las Vegas, and I, of course, missed out. Amy flew back to her job teaching history in an international school in Beijing after a week. Josh had dental work in Bangkok (much cheaper than Beijing) and is staying a few days with Bob at his house in Johmtien which is south of Pattaya on the east side of the Gulf of Thailand before flying back to his job as Chef de Cuisine at the One East On Third restaurant in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing.

P1000662.JPG

Dual Pricing

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Found a hilarious travel article on Bootnall today about the luxury tax…or dual pricing for foreigners as it is called:

The Luxury Tax – Asia, Europe, South America
By: Adam Jeffries Schwartz
The following is a guide to how the luxury tax is levied, worldwide.

ASIA
China has the highest tax in the region! Charging a hundred times the regular price is typical. If you negotiate at all, they will stand two inches in front of your face, and scream You PAY, you PAY NOW.

Note: Exactly!!!
Read More

Largest Drug Raid in History…in Mexico

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The LA Times reports today from MEXICO CITY — Authorities confiscated more than $200 million in U.S. currency from methamphetamine producers in one of this city’s ritziest neighborhoods, they said Friday, calling it the largest drug cash seizure in history.

The seizure reflected the vast scope of an illegal drug trade linking Asia, Mexico and the United States, officials said. Two of the seven people arrested Thursday at a faux Mediterranean villa in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood were Chinese nationals.

The group was part of a larger drug-trafficking organization that imports “precursor chemicals” from companies in India and China for processing into methamphetamine in Mexican “super labs,” authorities said. The methamphetamine is eventually sold in the United States.

Bob, Josh and Luk In Bangkok

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My son Josh is Chef de Cuisine of “One East On Third” in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing. He was sent by the Executive Chef to Bangkok last week to check out some restaurants there. Luk, a delightful Thai girl who is married to our son Doug, had been visiting Bob at his rental house south of Pattaya so Bob, took Luk with him to Bangkok to join Josh. (Doug is currently in Oregon and will return to Thailand in a couple weeks.) This was the first time Josh met his sister-in-law, Luk.

This is Bob’s description of the visit…made me salivate reading about the Thai food!

“Josh missed his scheduled flight to BKK so arrived one day late. I extended my stay to allow for an overlap. He had hotel and culinary related meetings but we shared a few meals and today roamed around Chatuchak Market which he seemed to enjoy.

Josh let me choose the restaurants. I was the tour guide. (Although Josh has been to Bangkok many times!) He ate his evening meals with the Hilton folks first night and his second night at the Four Seasons. I think they had steaks at the Hilton as Josh’s hierarchy wants him to offer more steaks at the restaurant. Steak apparently is in demand in Beijing.

When we went out I gave him the option of streetside or upscale. We settled on Jim Thompson’s restaurant on Soi Saladang (we ate there before.) Had pomolo salad, gai with lemongrass , shrimp in a coconut curry, a fish souffle and morning glory in oyster sauce. All quite arroy (delicious) except the chicken. Second day we ate at a sit down restaurant at Chatuchak Market. Had a spicy Thai salad, fresh spring roles and sticky rice with mango and coconut milk. Josh enjoyed the cuisine.

At Chatuchak he purchased many items of Thai motif as his restaurant is going to do some things with a Thai theme. He would buy one item and then plans on having it reproduced in China. I think he wanted to buy more but was limited by what he was capable of carrying.

He appears to be doing well. Both he and Amy, (his wife did not make this trip) are apparently adapting better to cultural deviation. He says that Amy’s sudden unemployment left gaps that have resolved with her new job teaching history in an international school. They will return to Thailand in May to spend time in BKK again and then venture down to Samui where Doug and Luk live.

Luk was traveling with this huge suitcase (with wheels fortunately) that she could not lift. When going to BKK she insisted on high heels that were the stilletto variety with a single small strap across the forefoot. If you can recall BKK’s sidewalks and then picture her trying to get on and off skytrains and navigating all on the cobblestones and drains etc. Also I ended up with the suitcase as well as booking her hotel room. She remains pleasant company and generates many laughs.

Josh and Luk

P1000517.JPG

Seeing Red Over Mao in Alhambra

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Values in China today are only carried forward by the culture largely as a result of the destruction of ethical and civic standards wrought by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. In other words, in my experience, there is generally no honor given in China today for verbal or written contracts and the visitor will find him or herself at the mercy of Chinese pragmatism.

In China today portraits of Mao are everywhere and due to the controlled press few Chinese know the truth of their own modern history. And I am horrified when I hear “Maoism” being bandied about…even here in Oaxaca Mexico!

To understand how this came about, to understand the ability of the Chinese to dupe Westerners and to understand the anger of the Chinese community in Alhambra over the hanging of Warhol-like images of Mao you can read the 1995 “Mao: The Unknown Story,” an 832-page biography of Mao written by the husband and wife team of historians, Jon Halliday and Jung Chang who herself was a Red Guard during the Revolution. It depicts Mao Zedong, the former paramount leader of China and Chairman of the Communist Party of China, as being responsible for mass murder (upwards of 30-70 million people) on a scale greater than that committed under the rule of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.
Read More

Watching The Chinese

Posted on by Laughingnomad

A local newspaper in Borneo reported another logging agreement. China had just placed a rush order for 800,000 cubic meters of wood to be used in the construction of its sports facilities for the 2008 Olympic Games. Authorities are planning on cutting as much as four to five million acres of trees in the future.

In other news, China needs the Sudan’s oil and gas so it is blocking the UN from sending peacekeepers to help stop the genocide. On top of that China is forgiving the Sudan it’s debt and lending, interest free, money to the President of Sudan to build a personal palace…among other sickening things.

Chef Joshua Goetz

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Amy’s (son Josh’s wife) last blog post: “For the new edition of Timeout Beijing they listed the top 50 restaurants in the city. And, yes, you guessed it – One East on Third was on the list!! It was one of only 3 hotel restaurants chosen. Here’s what it said in the magazine.”

“Hilton’s swish new eatery has been transformed thanks to the culinary master of American-trained chef Joshua Goetz, who serves up a creative new breed of contemporary American cuisine, influenced by African and European flavors.”
(Timeout Beijing, January 2007, page 37).

I was so proud I started crying…makes it all worth it, says Amy!

The Best Of Amy’s Blog

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My youngest son, Josh and his wife Amy are living in Beijing. Her entries are best read from the bottom up.

Nov 25, 01:45 AM
The first week I was here Josh had a huge dinner to put on for the Chaine Society. Originally founded in France as one of the first guilds for goose rotissieres, the Chaine Society is now a world wide society though now less focused on rotissieres in favor of hoteliers. Since Josh hosted a dinner he was invited to the next gala event – a black tie event for which neither one of was really prepared. Rather than getting a tux, Josh had a custom Chinese formal suit made – dragon brocade, Mao cut and all! I wore the one black dress that I have in China with completely inappropriate shoes and spent the night hoping that I didn’t run my pantyhose cause they’re the only pair I have! Still, I think we looked pretty good all things considered!

But what was really hilarious was the “decorations” that Chaine members wear – collars made of brass plates and fake jewels with their names on them decorated with different colored ribbons signifying their position (ie. hotelier, GM, chef, etc). I forgot to take a picture of the real thing (Josh was monopolizing the camera taking pictures of the courses) but just imagine the necklace sort of thing that foreign ministers wore in Elizabethan England.

The food was underwhelming but the people watching was great! Read more…
Read More