Touring China, Hong Kong Through a Gourmet’s Lens
EXECUTIVE DINING
by Fifi Chao
We’ve just returned from two weeks in China and Hong Kong. In choosing to write about it here, I hope that any of you planning to go to either of those places will find some good information that will help you with an itinerary.
Seven friends joined us. Bill and Helen Hamilton, former owners of The Cannery and still owners of Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach, have been doing a lot of traveling and came along. Jean and Wayne McMurray from San Clemente and Ed and Breezy Elko, formerly of OC and now of Sequim, Wash., wanted to see China and trusted my planning, as did Joan Shuff. What a compatible group of gourmets!
Let me back up enough to say that two decades ago, Patrick and I began putting together cultural and culinary tours around the world for groups of 10 or less. To me, these small groups can best experience the “real” personality of a country. We’ve wined and dined well in many places and have come home each time feeling that we understand the culture and the people much better.
All of my tours are one-of-a-kind that I often put together through wine people and chefs I know in various countries. But in the case of China, you need a contact person to put it all together for you.
I gave Polly Yu at Travel Advisers in Carlsbad my food and cultural wish list and she came up with a mind-boggling itinerary, including private chauffeurs and a national tour guide, which still has us wondering how she managed such a special two weeks.
We had 25 lunches and dinners that ran from 12 to 20 courses (reg-ional Chinese meals where you tasted tiny bits of food, of course ,the miracle was that the food, about 400 courses overall, was never repeated).
We also had three other notable meals I will tell you about in another segment of this novella. So, if any of you want to follow in any of our footsteps, or want help from a top aficionado for your own agenda, feel free to contact Polly at (760) 635-1288. She’s a total perfectionist, the best.
Flying business class on China Eastern Airlines, directly to Beijing, got us off to a very good start. We were very pleased at the level of constant and pleasant service and the quality of the three meals,and endless snacks and drinks,we were afforded on the 13-hour journey. We were already “gourmeting it” and drinking wink, wink good Bordeaux wine.
We chose to stay in the Asian group of Shangri-La hotels, as we’d stayed in them before and I knew of their excellence; but in Beijing, we stayed in the pride of that city, which happens to be the Grand Hyatt at Oriental Plaza.
I can only begin to describe the beauty of three hotels,this one and the Shangri-La hotels in Shanghai’s new sector, Pudong, and in Hong Kong,as about three times as magnificent as our most upscale offerings.
American hotels just do not compare in dishing out such sophisticated beauty or solicitous service. Price-wise, these hotels are also much more affordable than hotels here.
The Grand Hyatt is a study in neo-classical opulence with strategically placed water elements, gold-leaf lattice handrails on majestic staircases and as balcony facades, marble and lustrous wood elements in both public spaces and rooms. Crystal chandeliers drip from ceilings everywhere.
It was hard to leave the hotel to go sightseeing on the four mornings we were there, as everyone wanted to linger in the elegant surroundings. We relished the music of the orchestra that played nightly in the lobby.
Even the restaurant, where we had our first 15-course meal in China, is a replica of a nobleman’s home and courtyard. The pool is so unique,with its stone statues, waterfalls, forest surroundings and virtual sky that creates different weather phenomena,that no photographs are allowed. I would not consider staying elsewhere in Beijing.
I have been to China four times and it is changing rapidly. Beijing is a bees’ nest of building activity, getting ready for the Olympics. Construction is going on everywhere, leaving little doubt that they plan on wowing the world in 2008.
We did Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City, historical museums, Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall, the Beijing Opera and we dined with a local family as part of our cultural investigation. We were most interested in the stoplights in some cities that give a countdown of how many more seconds you will have to wait for your light to change to green again.
Everyone must see the Terra Cotta warriors, guarding the tomb of Emperor Qin in Xian. They are now designated as the Eighth Wonder of the World. It gives you chills.
When we were first there in ’86, only a few hundred had been unearthed; now, more than 7,000 have been uncovered in that first excavation site alone. Three huge marble pavilions have been built to enclose each of three digs now going on. Keep in mind that every face is different, supposedly each the exact copy of a real warrior’s face, and that these date back 2,227 years.
We went to Guilin and took the cruise down the Li River. This is a province of extraordinary green beauty where one relishes the soaring mountains of limestone, partially draped in greenery and poking upward into the clouds,the romantic mountain scenes of so many of the Chinese paintings we have all seen.
We also went to Suzhou, the city of Venice-like canals with more than 200 bridges spanning the water and world-famous gardens. Some of the gardens are too serene and wonderful to be described in mere words.
We went to Hangzhou, a place that is also a melange of green trees and meadows, mountainous areas and a gorgeous lake with a teahouse in the middle of it. This is also where Patrick’s family had their summer home before 1949.
This leaves Shanghai, Hong Kong and the food along the way for another report. Meantime, if this makes you hungry for good Chinese food of the caliber we experienced, get in touch with me. I’ll lead you to our best OC dining spots. My email address is
chaothyme@aol.com.
