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Malaysia

Ok, I haven't been as good with writing in the blog this trip as I was the Olympics. The conference which is 2.5 days is actually ending this afternoon. I have a flight back to the US at 1:15 in the morning. Fly from KL to Seoul with a 1 hour layover and then Seoul to Atlanta direct. Thursday is going to be a long long day as it basically adds 12 hours onto the day with the time zone changes. Truth be told I really have not been in Atlanta for almost 3 months with all the events so it is going to be weird to be back for almost 2 months with just a touch of travel in between.

Monday night Honeywell did their kick off dinner in Splash. It wasn’t very well attended but those who came did enjoy it. We are not in the raining season here in KL but it rains religiously every darn day. It makes it hard to go out because of all the rain. Sunday rained all day. I never left the hotel at all. Spent some time in my heavenly bed and worked, met Paul for a brunch at the hotel and then met him again for dinner in their Asian restaurant which turned out to be really fantastic. The room is one of the most beautiful restaurant rooms I have ever been in. Very spacious and very chic.

A couple of things have come to mind as I have been here. Regarding the Arabic women who walk around with their robes and I am sorry I don’t know the formal name of this. I tried talking to a few of them. I wanted them to go home “having met” a friendly American. These women don’t always speak English but the few who did were nice. What did occur to me as we were doing our daily downpours is that with their hair and face covered they NEVER have to worry about make up/doing their hair/having it colored nothing. Like how great would that be? Food can get in between your teeth an no one sees it. The only place these women can remove their face veil is when they are at home. The thought is that only your husband can see your face. Odd since a lot of these marriages are arranged. One of the folks at the hotel said that women who have their veils though have beautiful skin because it isn’t exposed to sunlight.

Ok, enough of that – Regarding culinary – let me mention something about China that I forgot to write. The Chinese are big eaters! It is not uncommon for them to take a couple plates of food. What was very sweet is at the hotel in China we had chopsticks out for them to eat with but the tables were set with Western silverware. We saw many Chinese that would have preferred to have chopsticks but felt the need to fit in and use silverware. This turned out to be somewhat awkward for them because they aren’t used to it. Also the Chinese never pick up food to eat with their hand unless it is chips or nuts etc. So an egg roll or spare rib or bread roll they use a fork to eat it. It was so cute watching this Chinese man eat his roll off the middle of his fork. What is even more impressive is watching them eat the above with chopsticks. I will never be that talented.

Ok, onto KL. They are also big eaters here to. Folks will eat the hot food first in a buffet and then they will go for the cold food. Also with dessert – they will eat a ton of fruit for dessert with a small piece of cake or panna cottta. We never go through that much fruit in the US on a banquet meal.

I sat with the chef yesterday to discuss food trends for Asia and get his thoughts on banqueting. He is one of the few chef’s that really is concerned about the guest experience and doing it right. Chef King isn’t all concerned about the dollar. He said with labor being so cheap he has the flexibility to give guests extra. BOY I WISH THE FOLKS IN THE US WOULD PAY ATTENTION TO THIS…because they do could to extras to make it nicer but they are so focused on squeezing every dollar out of you that they loose site of the guest experience. He also takes time to really do some different presentations with food. For him moving forward it is more about atmosphere and creating an environment around culinary. For example today Chef King had someone walking around with a small pitchers of orange water with mint that soaked for 12 hours and they were giving people a morning alixir. So how much did that cost the chef to give people this morning kiss – NEXT TO NOTHING – it is called going the extra mile to be of service to your guests. Would that happen in the US – NO – does it piss me off – YES! This and providing interesting displays to put the food on is his direction of culinary. The last thing that I asked him a lot and this is where I think hotel chef’s get lazy is they don’t go out and eat – what’s around them or at their competition. Chef King is pretty in tune to that. Luckily he also has some street markets that the goes and tries on a regular basis. To chef’s in general I don’t find your food or presentations inspiring especially when you all have good sources around you. To be creative and inspiring you have to be active in the environment around you. Take advantage of the good and the bad. I learn just as much off a bad banqueting experience as I do a good one.

The one other element that stands out with banquets is the choices. You see I also did the culinary for the same conferences that are going on in Dubai and Mumbi India. Did you folks know that Bombay got renamed to Mumib? How the hell does someone rename a city after a million years of existence? That is strange to me. Anyhow in all of these places there is so much more choices to the banqueting menu than in the US. In the US chef’s give you a chicken , beef and think they handed you the world. Here on all menus I had to scale back on the number of offerings because it was just so much. In China I must have had 12 chafing dishes of food for people to choose from. All for less cost than in the US. Interesting eh? Sorry to bash culinary in America but it has gotten all so mediocre and arrogant that I walk away after this experience wondering why.

Tonight when the conference is over - we are all going to do our favorite Asian activity. MASSAGE! Two hour massage for $40.00 USD then back to the hotel to finish packing and off to the airport.

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

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Goodbye China and hello Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur to be exact. I took China Southern airlines direct to KL. – The flight was approximately 5 hours direct. Luckily for me I a bulk head seat so it went by uneventful.

Here we are staying at the Westin Kuala Lumpur which is across the street from the nicest shopping mall in the city and next door to the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton. This Westin is considered to be one of the top hotels in Malaysia and is quite busy. Since Malaysia is Muslim there are a lot of Indian influences on the menu. The General Manager actually came down to greet me and told me that their chef is a restaurant background chef and that the food here is quite good. I rolled my eyes at this because all GM’s say this about their chef’s and how good they are and most of the time it just doesn’t hold true. I didn’t eat breakfast that morning and sat down for a snack in the restaurant as soon as I arrived. I had a couple of Indian items from the menu and much to my surprise they were pretty tasty. Irene came to KL on another flight and was supposed to have plans that night. I was surprised to get a phone call from her hearing that her plans were cancelled and do I want to go with her to dinner. Having just eaten I told her I would go with her but was not going to eat. She and I walked about 10 minutes out of the hotel to an outdoor marketing stall area that had a wide selection of foods to choose from. They all had their little indoor seating areas behind their little makeshift kitchens. Irene found a place she was familiar with and settled into ordering. All the food items had pictures of what was being offered. She ordered me a BBQed chicken wing which is very different than what we get in the States…but equally as tasty. This wing was very much right off the chicken. I can’t remember all of what Irene had but it was an eggplant dish, noodle dish and I think she had something else. I just had a fresh cut up mango and some fresh squeezed mango juice. Afterwards I called it an evening because I had some work to do back in the states.

Friday morning arrived and I met Irene downstairs for breakfast. The hotel brags that their breakfast which is included in the room rate is a breakfast experience. Spending about 200 nights in hotels I once again rolled my eyes at this. All chef’s and hotels feel their breakfast is the best or their brunch is the best. This is the part where I need everyone to listen closely to this. THEY WERE RIGHT! THEY DO OFFER A BREAKFAST EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER. This was unbelievable and no other hotel that I have stayed at comes close to matching what they do. Folks, I don’t even know where to begin with this – Virgin Bloody Mary station, 4 types of fresh squeezed juice right before your eyes in addition to a juice station, a station that offers meats being cooked fresh in addition to any variety of egg you desire. After that there is an action station doing fresh Indian food along with several types of Indian food, next there is a big noodle soup bar in addition to more Indian/Muslim food, Chinese foods and Japanese food…am I done yet…not even close as this is a breakfast experience….walk further back into the bar area and there is a natural food station area – this selections here are a bit ackward but there are some clever moments. Part of the toast station has a real live honeycomb that they buy from a honeymaker in the mountain area of Malaysia. It is so elegant – once thing I have noticed since being here is that honey is a big thing and is sold everywhere…not done yet – then you walk into another section a whole other room and there are over THIRTY – count them THIRTY different types of breads, rolls, Danish, donuts etc all displayed beautifully, in this area there are 12 different types of cereal, cheeses, hard meats, crackers, fruit smoothie bar being made fresh, fresh cut fruit, someone making fresh waffles, French croissant being baked in front of your eyes and finally a display case of several savory goodies that are warmed up right in front of – oh an various small jars of fruit compote for you to try. THIS MY FRIENDS IS A TRUE BREAKFAST EXPERIENCE – once again – is part of the room rate…Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Hilton, Marriot, other Starwoods you all don’t even in your wildest dreams hold a candle to this – read it and weep.

A couple of other things you will notice being in KL is that it has a heavy Arab community visiting. We asked Joanne the DOC who is handling our group about this and she said that actually their Arab guest count is off by about 25% from last year. Didn’t look it to me. It is always so interesting watching another culture. There are 2 types of Arab women that we see..and I don’t mean to sound disrespectful on this – but 1 type is dressed in all black gown to the ground and even their face is covered. Just a little slit for the eyes. These woman are always walking with their husbands holding their arm as I think at times it can be a bit tricky. Their face veils don’t have a space for their mouth so they have to eat their food under their veil. I am sure they are used to it but at first it has to be a bit ackward to do. The second is a woman in black and has her face exposed but her head is covered. Irene and I sat next to an Arab couple at breakfast the other day. This man and woman barely spoke at all. The girl looked bored out of her mind. Most of these marriages are arranged and all of these women walk around with the most stylish of pocketbooks. What we did notice is how much food they wasted. Both of them was sitting with HUGE and I mean HUGE plates of breakfast pastries that went untouched. When we asked a hotel person about this they told us that when the Arabs come and stay that they often really trash the rooms and they don’t clean up after themselves. It typical of them to be so wasteful. That is when we were told that many of them visit KL because it is cheaper. In the day you would see this traffic in London in the summer time. But even with the economy they are seeing a drop in traffic and we were told that the designer stores across the street are also seeing the same thing.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Irene and I had our hotel meeting to review all the specifics for the meeting. We did go to the huge mall to do a little shopping. We didn’t get anything just more looking around. This mall is really nice and huge with all the designer stores. We did go to the grocery store and I got some sour cherry juice. It is really quite good. In the evening time after dinner we went for what?? You guessed it to the spa. In KL they have what is called the fish spa. We paid $94 ringles which his equivalent to $22 – USD for 30 min. fish spa; 30 minute back rub and 45 min foot rub. This fish spa is a must do in KL but it is a bit on the freaky side. Anyone who watches the travel channel has probably seen this. There are 3 different fish tanks in the fish spa – 1 being small fish, second medium fish and 3rd larger fish. And when I say larger fish I mean this tank has fish that are about 3 to 4 inches long. You basically stick your feet in the tank and the fish eat the dead cells off your feet and calves. It is such a weird feeling having all these fish nibbling at your feet. We started off with the larger fish and I started girl screaming as it was weird and keep in mind you have about 20 fish on each foot and they were nibbling a little too hard for my liking – so Irene being the gracious gal that she is moved me to the medium size fish where I seemed to settle down a bit. She then got a phone call from her boyfriend and she is yapping away to him about she yells at me to look. There was a dead fish floating between our feet that wasn’t there a second ago. We were joking that our feet were so bad we were killing the fish. Gosh that got us giggling. The rest of the massage went by peaceful and relaxing. We plan on going back for more before we leave.

Saturday – yeah my first day off in a couple of weeks. Irene left to go visit with her family for the rest of the weekend. In enters Paul. Paul works for Honeywell and is a specialist in fuel systems on airliner airplanes. He was with us in China and now is in KL to present to airliners on his speciality. A lot of the other Honeywell folks are spending their weekend in Singapore – but Paul didn’t have a reason to go there prior and came on to KL. Paul is what I call a soft sole of a human being. Very kind, easy to be around and a very nice person to dangling with for a weekend. He has been with Honeywell for 32 years and is extremely well versed in the airplane industry. We grab a cab to go to the market place and then onto the Chinese market which is a couple of blocks apart. Both markets offer different things but at the end of the day it is all shopping for this and that. We have a really nice time walking around both markets and we both ended up buying things at the market place. It is a lot less crowded and people don’t hassle you. The one thing I bought a ton of are beautiful silk scarves. They make fabulous gifts and don’t take up any room in the suitcase. There was also this amazing pottery kiosk that has very kool- thoughtful pottery. We both end up buying some things from there along with other goodies along the way. The Chinese market is on the street, very crowded and people hassling the heck out of you. We didn’t get anything from there other than I bought some cut up mangos in a bag for the both of us. The cost of that was .28 cents per mango. Afterwards we pay a cab driver to take us to a couple of different destinations to take some pictures and we come back to the hotel. I talk Paul into having a snack with me in the restaurant where we try a couple more Indian foods. The one thing at the Westin is they all were a name tag that says what their passion is. Oddly enough a lot of the staff likes “to BOWL” how funny is that. Who knew bowling would be big in Malaysia. Paul then tells me quite a bit about what he does with the airlines and it is all very interesting. He is definitely your “go to” guy to find out what airlines keep their maintenance up and those who are a little lax on it. Unfortunately because I asked the question I found out the airline that I am taking back to the states could be a little more forthcoming in their maintenance.

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

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Gas in China

Tuesday -

Was the first day of the conference. The Westin is an older hotel where we are at but they have been doing a lot of renovation and I feel the ballroom space is really beautiful. Very classic looking - something you would see at a Ritz-Carlton in the northern part of the US.

When working banquets in China you must have a bit of patience. They don't set up enough stations for the number of people attending. And of course you need more tea than coffee. The Chinese will plow through the tea. The other thing is for the morning food have savory snacks along with baked goods. They don't want very sweet in the morning they want more like muffins and lots of fresh fruit. The Chinese are also big eaters. I was astounded at how much they ate. Plates will be piled high. Also here at this hotel they wait staff will bus a table but won't remove the tray jack until I ask them too.

Lunch and dinner buffets are so much more plentiful than what we see in the US. Also you really have to explain to them double sided stations with the plates being at the front of each buffet. They were also putting smaller plates out on the hot food side instead of entree plates. This was a bit of a challenge as they were telling me they didn't have entree size plates for banquets. Don't get me wrong though this group of people will bend over backwards to get it right - but only once they understand what it is you want and this might take a couple of times to get correct.

Last night we did Beijing Duck - and they served the duck whole at the carving station....with the heat on - eyes out. I laughed as I struggle with what to do with this in the US. They said in China it is very important to always show the duck with the head on same with chicken and pig - because it shows the quality of the meat. Actually makes total sense to me.

My last blog I wrote something about gas and how I haven't seen any gas stations. I asked some of the locals about this and they started laughing. It isn't called gas here - it is called Petrol gas. No stations are opened are opened 24 hours. Here is how it works.

China purchased gas from the international market - and when the international market is too high the Chinese government won't buy as much gas and then the gas stations are only opened 5 - 6 hours a day. When the gas markets are lower then the government can buy more gas and the stations are opened longer. The Chinese petrol gas customer doesn't really notice any of this other than the availability to get gas or the length of hours of the stations. The government subsidizes the cost of gas so pricing wise it doesn't make much of a differences. It isn't unusual for the line or qu as they say in Asia to be over 100 cars /scooters/ long on a short gas day.

The last point that cracks me up beyond belief is we don't have chimes here to chime people into the meeting - we have a gong!

That is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

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I am back

In China that is - this time in the capital city of Shanghai. I am working for the Aerospace division of Honeywell doing meetings for the Air Transport Division. They are doing regional conferences around the world. I did the culinary for all 6 and actually on site for 2. It felt very kool getting to come back to this amazing country. I had a warm feeling hearing people say the familiar Neehow - which means hello to each other. And fun for me to automatically say it back. The convenience of this trip is I was able to fly Delta direct from Atlanta and the flight was about 15 hours. When I arrived at the airport there were still reminants of the Olympics all over the airport. A couple of Beijing 2008 banners, billboards advertising the Olympics and some tourist books that had the Bird's Nest on the cover. I wasn't surprised by any of this as the Chinese are going to hold onto this memory for as long as possible as one of their more aspiring moments to the world.

The 45 minute drive from Pudong Airport to Shanghai is one that tells a lot. Number 1 people own washing machines but not dryers as everyone whether it is a nice apartment building or old and crumbling has their laundry hanging in the window to dry. and #2 centeral air is non existant over here. Everyone has window units.

Staying this time at the Sheraton in the old part of Shanghai. The city is divided be the river one side being the old part the other side being the new part. I am working with Irene Loh who is a meeting planner for Honeywell based out of Shanghai. Irene is a sweet as they come and I am blessed to have someone who is excited I am here and truly wants to spend some time showing me around and explaining the city to me. First order of business on Saturday was to meet with the hotel to go over all the BEO's. We did end up making some changes to the menu because I had too many sweet things on the morning menu. Irene explained Asian's like savory in the morning almost more than sweet. Steamed Dim Sum buns, Egg Rolls and Finger Sandwiches are amoung the most popular. So we made the changes along with some space that needed to get rearranged. In Asia they don't charge for little incidential meeting things that we do in the states which is nice. Power cords are free; each meeting room gets 1 wireless mic for free and flipcharts are complimentary as long as you aren't asking for too many. Also when it comes time for eating banquet style the Asians really do want you to enjoy banquet style. To them 10 choices of entree type foods are very typical in the food world to them. Remember from Beijing - it is most common in the Chinese culture to ask someone if they have eaten - OVER asking them how they are. My needing to cut back on budget though had me cutting down the entree selection to get the price lowered. Doris our catering manager here was more than gracious in working with me.

Once business was done Irene and I went off to eat lunch - because I don't miss a meal and then to the fabric market to get clothes made. Irene took me to the old side of Shanghai to a restaurant on the river that looked over to the new side. In between the river were many riverboats filled with toursits, a floating electronic billboard and barges tugging up and down. This isn't a river that is used for recreational activities at all. Shanghai was actually occupied by the French a gazillion years ago so has many French influences regarding building and lifestyle. We ate a fusion restaurant and was not bad. I had a Malyasian style lunch of Rice, Spicy Prawns and Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce.

After lunch Irene and i went to the fabric market to get some clothes made. Luckily for me she did my barganing. There are about over a 200 stalls with fabric and different tailors all hanging sammples of their clothes and styles. Then they have many books that you can select what you want to have made. I am having several short skirts made for a cost of $100 RMB which is roughly $14.00 USD. Most of them are going to be ready by Monday and the order was placed on Saturday afternoon. I am also getting a pair of pants made that I don't have much hope for as I never have lunch with getting pants made but I am trying it again as they only cost $22.00 USD and they are fully lined..as are the skirts. The last thing I am getting made and I hope this works is a cashmere winter coat. is saw a style that I like that ends above the knee and decided to go for it. That too will be ready on Monday afternoon. If it doesn't fit then they will make adjustments on Monday and I can go back on tuesday to get it.

Irene said that it is fun getting clothes made but in the long run she finds they don't hold up as much as commercial clothes. I can see where she would say that but I so far have really enjoyed all the clothes I had made during the Olympics so why the heck not try it again.

After being on our feet for several hours Irene had the brillant suggestion to go for a foot massage. I think I wrote about this in Beijing but this is so much fun to do. They have massage palors all over the place and it is so dirt cheap people get it done constantly. It is something they do naturally here in Asia. We did an 1.5 hour massage and trust me it is so freaking relaxing and it cost $17.00 USD with a $4.00 USD tip. I feel asleep as my feet were getting worked on. Irene also explained that you can buy a package of 50 foot massages for a big discount and then keep going until they are used up.

On the way to dinner I asked Irene how far Beijing was to Shanghai. She explained it was 2 hours flight north. They see far colder weather than Shanghai. This makes sense as the local staff in Jing commented that it will be cold in Shanghai in October and to bring sweaters. The reality is it isn't that cold here but it is now getting cold in Jing. Irene said that actually up till about 5 years ago though that Shanghai malls and buildings was much colder in the winter inside the buildings than Jing...because Jing was considered a cold climate to the government and Shanghai was considered warm climate. So even though it gets cold in Shanghai probably like the Carolinas in winter - they didn't heat any of the shopping malls and public buildings so imagine doing shopping or doing business in January in a cement building it is freezing. Whereas in Beijing because it does truly get cold - much like Pennsylvania in winter they do heat everthing. Irene said it was only about 5 years ago that the government started heating all the buildings in Shanghai so now it is doable in the winter time.

We went to dinner at the Shangri La hotel's Chinese restaurant. Luckily for me there were many items on the menu that anyone would recognize. Dinner was very good and I tried a couple of items I never had before. What was truly one of the best was the fish. It was steamed and fresher than fresh. Plus they bring the whole fish to the table..present it and then take it to the back to debone it. I should mention Irene isn't Chinese she is Maylasian so a lot of the Chinese customs are familiar to her but different than her home culture.

After dinner we were waiting to take cabs back me to the hotel and her to her apartment..and we saw cars pull up with a pink ribbon on the door. These meant they were bridesmaids car...as the hotel had a couple of weddings that day. Last I took a cab back to the hotel. In the cab - the driver didn't speak a word of English - the ride took about 35 minutes as there was a lot of traffic. Plus I was going from the new side to the old side. Cabs in Shanghai are just as cheap as Beijing and drivers are not used to being tipped much if at all. This guy was very good driver and my fare was $42 RMB which is approx $5.50 USD for a 35 minute ride. So I gave him $50.00 RMB and said no money back...he didn't understand and started to give me my change...I tapped his window and shook my finger and said no money - money yours. Well he finally understood and the smile of sheer excitement of getting an 8RMB tip was overwhelming to him. Which is approx $1.10 USD that he couldn't quit saying sank you to me..the chinese don't do "th" their "th" comes out as an "s". For me that was a perfect way to end a perfect day courtsey of Ms. Irene Loh.

Folks, that is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Wow - weird being back on this blogging thing.

Claire

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