70 years ago today was D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history. The Normandy Landings were the turning point in World War II, when Allied forces sailed across from England to fight German forces on the coastline of France.
10 years ago I ate in Hakkasan London. Not just once. We'd eat there every few months, especially if clients were in town. As Alan Yau's Flagship masterpiece, it was the antithesis of the hasty, sloppy cantonese food we'd munch over on Gerrard Street. Hakkasan was a sultry and considered affair. The dishes were familiar yet they were refined versions of their poor relations. We believed this was an evolution of fine Chinese dining.
The NoFuP (north of Fuxing Park) area is becoming quite the hotbed of dining activities. Urban Diner is a new addition to the scene, offering a decent selection of quasi-Italian cuisine in a relaxed space that doubles as a café by day.
If you’re slightly intoxicated on Yongkang Lu and yearning for a quick bite, then Oh My Kebab is the answer. This little spot next to Café de Staigieres takes a lively and slightly scrappy approach to drinks and nosh that seems fitting for the bustling street.
A couple weeks ago was the F1 Grand Prix in Shanghai. We've been every year for the past five because it's one of the most accessible and cheapest F1 races in the world. I also harbor a boyhood fascination with cars. If engines and speed is cool to you, then there's no better feeling as a spectator than being stood looking at the F1 starting grid when the flag goes down.
Being in Shanghai is like watching a civilization grow on fast forward. Every modern civilization develops, of course it does, but here in China, this re-emergence as a developed country is happening so fast that it's building up as layers of evolutionary culture. These layers mark progress in a particularly curious way, as each rises from the last before it has even solidified.