What was your most memorable trip this
year? Chugging around rural Fujian Province on the back of a motorbike, on a visit to the extraordinary Hakka
roundhouses.
Your most memorable meal (not necessarily
on the same trip)? It was probably a meal in a state-run hotel
near Wuyi mountain in Fujian Province. All the dishes were
good, but the stir-fry of fresh and dried bamboo shoots was a revelation. The
fresh shoots were sublimely delicious, with a subtle sweetness and a delicate
crunchy texture, and they were complemented perfectly by the more mature tastes
of the dark, dried shoots. The Platonic ideal of bamboo shoots.
Did you stay in, or visit, a hotel that
particularly wowed you? The Patio Lounge at the Grand
Hyatt on the Pudong side of Shanghai. With its ceiling that soars to
33 stories, it's like being in a dream. And on the hotel's 87th floor, the
Cloud 9 bar is the highest in the world.
What place did you find overrated or
disappointing? The Nanxiang restaurant in the Yu
Gardens in Shanghai, which is the home of the Shanghai soup dumpling,
or xiao long bao. The whole area is crawling with tourists, and
although the atmosphere is fun, the dumplings are disappointing.
What was your worst (or funniest) travel
experience? Being caught in a deluge while on a flimsy bamboo
raft in northern Fujian Province. The heavens opened, there
was nowhere to shelter or even to moor the raft, we were wearing light summer
clothes, and night was falling. By the time we were able to disembark, it was
completely dark, and we were sodden to the skin and shivering.
2007: RING IN THE NEW
What's going to be hot this year?
I think Shanghai is going to continue being a very hot travel
destination. Everyone I know seems to be going there, either for business or
pleasure. It really is the epicenter of China's development, even though it's a
very untypical Chinese city.
What is going to be the big-deal hotel
opening? I only notice restaurants.
Is there a restaurant or a chef whom
everyone is watching? Jereme Leung at the
Whampoa club is attracting a lot of international attention with his efforts to
modernize traditional Shanghainese cooking.
What trips do you have planned for 2007?
I'll be in the United States in February and hope to visit some Chinese restaurants
in New York. It's interesting to see how China's opening up is affecting the development of Chinese cuisines in the West.
Where do you most want to go in the world
that is still a dream away? Iran.
Where wouldn't you go even if you won an
all-expenses-paid, first-class trip? Dubai. I
can't bear the idea of a place whose only reason for being is money and
shopping. On the other hand, no one has offered me an all-expenses-paid,
first-call trip there, and I hear the restaurants are very good.
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