Breaking Down The Times: March 22, 2010
Aman Resort at Summer Palace, Beijing [Elegant Resorts]
Welcome to Breaking Down The Times, in which Gridskipper tries its ideal to speed things up for you by sifting through the NYT Travel Section and telling you what you need to know.
1) Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: The expansionist Vietnamese chef Michael Huynh gives journalist David Farley a tour of Ho Chi Minh’s legit street food. There are stands specializing in pho, sticky rice, banh mi, pig’s blood porridge, and bun, as well as visits to the restaurants Com Nieu Sai Gon (made famous by Tony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential”), Minh Duc, and Lang Nuom Nam Bo. Though the Empire Builder doesn’t touch the stuff, Farley does try rat.
2) Taipei, Taiwan: Andrew Jacobs writes about Taiwan’s northern end, hot spring country, whose “therapeutic allure dates back a century, when Japanese soldiers wounded in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 took solace in the sulfurous waters that burble forth, above the tectonic collision of the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates. These days, workaday refugees from the mercantile bustle of Taipei, the island’s capital, flock here to soak away ailments real and imagined.” Go to Beitou, only 30 minutes away from the capital city, where you can check out the municipal bath or simply enjoy the sulfurous waters in your hotel room tub. If you decide to visit the bucolic Yangmingshan, stay at Landis Resort.
3) Hong Kong, China: The focus of this week’s Surfacing is Hong Kong’s Wan Chai neighborhood, formerly known for its massage parlors, seedy bars, and historic tenements. Among the recommended spots are gastropub The Pawn, the Michelin-starred Bo Innovation, which does molecular gastronomy and serves dishes like “kangaroo steak with a Sichuan pepper crust,” Books Attic, where you can sip on free tea as you search through boatloads of books, Habitat Lounge, a nightclub that features wonderful views of the harbor, and Kapok, “a creative hub, selling whatever mix of jewelry, housewares and clothing.”
4) Macao, China: The historic private residence Mandarin’s House has reopened to tourists after an eight-year, $5.3 million restoration. “One of just two 19th-century Chinese-style dwellings open to the public in Macao,” it features “many typical Chinese elements: a walled private garden, decorative tiles, elaborately carved doors and a master’s quarters consisting of two adjoining courtyard homes. Yet look closely, and you’ll also see Tuscan columns, false ceilings and large, Western-style windows — evidence of the cross-cultural currents at work in the Portuguese territory.”
5) Mumbai, India: There’s a positive review of the Mumbai restaurant Prakash, where a meal for two will run you just over 2 bucks. Sabudana vada, “which is made by mixing translucent, presoaked sago pearls — extracted from sago palm trees and similar to tapioca — with cumin, green chilies, potatoes and crushed peanuts, and then frying the rolled contents into balls,” is the specialty, but there are over 30 items to select from. Other recommended dishes include misal (a colorful layering of savory ingredients including lentils, sprouted mung beans, poha, sev, potatoes, onions, cilantro and, most important, a dozen or so ground spices) and thalipith (“a chewy, pitalike bread studded with shreds of garlic and ginger and roasted on a greased pan; and kopra pak, grated coconut squares, soaked in a sugar syrup and garnished with sliced almonds and pistachio bits”).
6) Beijing: Aric Chen raves about the hotel Aman at Summer Palace in Beijing. The property is actually the Qinq dynasty’s palace, “a sprawling compound of historic and historic-looking buildings, with 18 guestrooms, 33 suites and amenities fit for an emperor.” The service is “flawless,” the amenities endless (there’s a 37-seat motion picture theatre you can book privately, for God’s sake), and the bathrooms spacious. The bottom line: “For a getaway within Beijing, there’s no better place to claim your own mandate of heaven. The standard rooms are a bit small for the price, but with all the extras, you may be too pampered to notice.”
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Submited at Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 3:00 pm on Europe by ethan
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