Not content with 4 obscenely large stores in Orchard Rd, Louis Vuitton is set to open it's 5th store in Singapore on September 18th.
This will not be any ordinary store - it will be an island!
I guess there is no better way to blow your winnings from the casino than to visit this store. Ahoy Matey!!!
This second concept image I find particularly amusing, as the Singapore River/Marina Bay is not connected to the open water and there are no other "docks" that I am aware of within the confines of this area.
So for anyone to dock their boat at the Louis Vuitton island means that they own a yacht for the exclusive purpose of cruising up the Singapore River to shop at Louis Vuitton.
There was a party at the JW Marriott Jakarta celebrating the 84th anniversary of the founding of the PLA
On my last trip to Seoul I did not enjoy much - 5 consecutive days of torrential rains (that turned deadly 2 weeks later) and 17-hour working days.
The lone bright spot was the always fantastic Korean BBQ! Seoul is the Mecca of Korean BBQs - any true fan of the food must at some point make a pilgrimage to the place where it all began and still does it best.
The key ingredient in Korean BBQ is beef and the absolute best-quality beef is known as "Hanwoo" 한우 - it can only be found in Korea. The stuff is so delicious there is no export market for it as the locals gobble up all that is available. The Koreans I spoke with are extremely proud of the quality and look down upon Kobe/Wagyu/Angus and all the other "famous" cuts of beef as inferior.
This is heaven on a plate - big chunks of perfectly-marbled beef.
Notice the green bottle in the background - no authentic Korean BBQ experience is complete without copious amounts of Soju (Korea's national drink, a rice-based alcohol)!
After you are full to the gills with beef it is Korean tradition to order some naeng-myeon (냉면) or cold noodles.
The texture/temperature is a perfect antidote to the dragon breath filled mouth you are left with post-BBQ.
Korean BBQ is ubiquitous in Seoul - from simple street-side affairs to fantastically expensive luxury joints. Since my first trip to Seoul and my discovery of Korean BBQ I have always been curious about one thing: Do Korean couples go for Korean BBQ on a date? My anecdotal observations lead me to think yes - but why??!
Can you imagine a worse "date night" with a girl than Korean BBQ?
"Let's stuff our face with copious amounts of red meat, garlic, onions and slather a spicy paste all over it."
That garlic/spicy beef smell gets into your clothes and leaves a noxious substance in your mouth that takes hours to dissipate.
I guess it works because both the guy & the girl have such horrendous breath that they cancel each other out.
I was in Seoul from Sunday-Friday of this past week and it rained CONSTANTLY. Not a single ray of sunshine or a dry sidewalk. Reminds me of a trip to London several years ago where I didn't see the sun for 10+ days. Spending every day entombed in a murky gray sky saps the life out of you and you don't even realize it.
Normally I have a really nice view of Gangnam or the Han River from my Executive Floor perch the JW Marriott atop the Express Bus Terminal, but not on this trip.
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On a positive note I did consume enough kimchi in a week to feed a North Korean family for a month and gorged myself on Korean BBQ.
Yes, I had to go see Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon in IMAX 3D.
Gunther's is a very posh, modern French restaurant in Singapore that my restaurant sleuth of a mother managed to find me some gift certificates to for Christmas. This is not the first time my Mom has done this - pretty impressive for someone who lives 10,000 miles away!
So we finally found time to celebrate our Christmas present in May - blogging is not the only thing these days that I can't find enough time for...
Kia started off with Wagyu Beef Carpaccio. It was quite good with a melt-in-your-mouth beef flavor, but quite a small portion for S$30.
I opted for the Bouillabaisse and was disappointed. It was not the rich seafood stew that I was expecting - tasted more like salty tomato soup with some overcooked pieces of seafood thrown in.
The fantastic main course more than made up for the lukewarm starters. Salt-encrusted sea bass which was presented to us with the fish literally encased in a giant block of salt.
The texture and flavor were fantasic and the sides complemented it quite well while not drawing away from it.
It must be ordered for a minimum of 2 people if anyone stumbles upon this blog post and ever tries to order it.
No special occasion for Kia would be complete without a chocolate lava cake dessert - the quality of the Valrhona chocolate was excellent but too dark for our liking.
If I return to Gunther's it will be for just the seabass entry and I will resist the very hard upsells for angel hair pasta with caviar, sparkling water, and wine...
I will be spending the next week traveling around Turkey on vacation, and then working in Istanbul the following week. Hopefully I'll be able to blog - I'd say that I don't write about 75% of my travels because I just don't have the time.
The trip starts off at the Renaissance Polat Hotel with a beautiful view of the Sea of Marmara and Istanbul in the distance.
It's been over 5 years since I was last in Istanbul and there's not much I remember beyond the "Big 3" tourist sites - Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapi Palace.
I did make a great friend in that long weekend escape from Bulgaria in Feb 2006 and it will be cool to meet up again for the first time in 5 years...
Still a bit cold here, but the view from my window on the 21st floor is quite impressive.
