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Getting Modern,Going International
The Trendy, Quirky and Fine
HONG KONG - With Hong Kong at the helm, all of Asia
is witnessing a new era in cuisine. From city to city,
the young, hip and modern diner is finding a deluge
of restaurants especially created for youthful tastes
and styles.
The handover of Hong Kong to China in June inspired
a flock of restaurants that scream MODERN with giant
capital letters: Out with giant banquet-style dining
halls, fluorescent lights and red flocked wallpaper;
in with intimate salons, halogen track lights and clean,
white minimalist walls.
The biggest revolution here is taking place in what
the locals now call SoHo, for south of Hollywood, in
the Lan Kwai Fong district in central Hong Kong. While
the aromas of Stanton and Elgin streets used to be ink
and furniture polish, the air is now filled with the
scent of freshly roasted coffee, garlic, tacos and beer.
With names such as Nepal (with Himalayan yak's cheese
for dessert), Desert Sky (with Persian carpet place
mats), Club Casa Nova (fresh potato gnocchi), Sherpa
(Himalayan coffee) and Caramba (Mexican tacos and beer),
the culinary revolution is a sign that young Hong Kong
residents want more than dim sum and Peking duck. They
also want the Western lifestyle and all that goes with
it. They want cafés where they can hang out all
day with a cup of java, and they have it with Staunton's
Bar & Café, with its open feeling and giant
glass windows onto the street. When they do go Chinese
they want it to be retro, like the Red Star Café
with its own beer and Mao-era posters of blue-clad revolutionary
workers.
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Hold the Substance
They want everything that they consider cosmopolitan,
youthful and a bit bohemian. And in weight-conscious
Hong Kong, they want food that has more style than substance.
Wherever I went in Asia, the trend among the thirtysomethings
was clear. Vegetarianism is on the rise, and many restaurants
have a ''no red meat'' policy. Red wine is the drink
of the moment (Bordeaux, please, preferably top vintages
and preferably rare). A whole new style of tea shops
- offering extensive and rare collections - caters to
the young and well-heeled. Juice bars are the rage,
as people pause for such elixirs as carrot, parsley
and spinach juice ''for twinkling eyes, vitality, great
teeth & gums, good circulation, better digestion
and Vitamins C and E.''
There is at last a resurgence of interest in Southeast
Asian food, as Thai and Vietnamese restaurants (largely
ignored in Hong Kong for years) appear with SoHo's Wyndham
Street Thai and Vietnamese Café du Lac.
American-trained chefs with an Asian bent are also
flying high in Asia. The French-born Jean-Georges Vongerichten
(with Asian-French restaurants in New York and London),
has opened another Vong in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
In Singapore, the American-born chef James Chew (who
trained at Stars in San Francisco and Vong in New York)
oversees Brewerkz, a splashy microbrewery and restaurant
modeled after those in America.
There are, of course, inconsistencies and contradictions.
Take a look at the menu of the sleek, cool, chic Joyce
Café with three addresses in Hong Kong and others
throughout Asia. Decorated in black-and-white photographs
of Hong Kong's markets, and clean lighting, the cafés
are magnets for those who want to see and be seen. The
menu is largely Asian, with a Salad Kyoto that combines
crab roe and king crab leg, lemon zest, cucumber and
avocado and fragrant shiso leaves.
dessert binge Sensible enough. But only so one can
go wild on desserts: Such as a warm phyllo tart of figs
and berries topped with walnuts and strawberry ice cream.
Or dark chocolate and marmalade fudge cake with King
Island cream.
And then there is the fusion craze. Or too often, confusion.
I have to ask, with all the complexities, intricacies
and wonders of Asian cuisines - whether it be Japanese,
Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese - why dilute the power and
pleasures with willful Westernization? They call it
an attempt to combine the best of food from around the
world into a single cuisine. But who in his right mind
would order Lobster Nachos with Boursin Cheese, Asian
Tomato Relish and Guacamole? Or Spicy Gazpacho with
Black Truffles. Or Wasabi Mousse with Oscietra Caviar
and Shiso Potato Chips.
All these, and more, are found on the menu at Felix,
the ultramodern, ultra-trendy and frankly beautiful
Philippe Starck-designed restaurant atop the newly renovated
Peninsula hotel. What happened, I wonder, to the chef
who felt he had a responsibility to his diners as well
as the ingredients to honor both the dish and the diner?
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HOTELS throughout Asia have been quick to catch on
to the youthful appeal of multiple cuisines. At Raffles
in Singapore, the already popular Doc Cheng features
not only a mix of Asian and Western fare, but specially
designed dining utensils, one end is a fork or a knife,
the other a chopstick.
In June, the Hyatt Singapore hopes to open Mezza9,
an atmospheric, jazz-enhanced dining room with no less
than nine show kitchens, featuring everything from European
deli fare to a sushi bar, open Chinese kitchen, a walk-in
wine cellar and a martini bar and cigar room. Everything
but a place to park the kids.
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Next week: Thailand
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