Boom, boom Poom
Think Korean cuisine is all barbecues and kimchi? Well, you can thank the K-towns of the world for that. Head to Seoul and you’ll think again. The proliferation of bibimbap, a rice bowl topped with a riot of julienned veggies from places like Café Sobahn, attests to the Korean love of veg, for both palatal and visual pleasures, as well as health. But bibimbap is just too common, you say. Well lucky for you, Your Highness, because Poom Seoul, perched on the slopes of Mount Namsan, reinterprets the even more meticulous royal cuisine for cosmopolitan tastes.
Hurrah for sakura! [Photo by Yoshikazu Takada/Flickr]
Tokyo’s a bit like having sex with someone unattractive – it’s much nicer in the dark. For a city that’s fabulous in so many ways – it’s clean, efficient, quiet, polite and spoiled for amazing food, it’s a shame about all that ugly post-war reconstruction. That said, Tokyo’s at its prettiest when the sakura (cherry blossoms) bloom, an ephemeral spectacular taking place right now. And what’s better than seeing the cherry blossoms bloom? Seeing it while you’re shopping, of course, and the place to do it is in Naka Meguro.
Oriol Balaguer's eggstravaganza
Spring has sprung, Easter is almost upon us and our thoughts turn to daffydills, fluffty lamblets, edible bunnies, oh, and luxury chocolates. Doh! Now is the time to say laters to Lent and throw all those good intentions firmly out the door with unique, bespoke, playful and most importantly, mouthwatering treats from the champs of couverture and masters of the mould. Here then, our pick of five fabulous places to get a really eggceptional Easter fix – it’s a bittersweet life, but someone’s got to do it.
The door to foodie heaven
If you think ‘local’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘Cantonese cooking’ in Hong Kong are mutually exclusive concepts, you’re right. It’s either ocean-depleting abalone and endangered shark fin delicacies, or mass produced battery hens, thrice frozen prawns and genetically modified tomatoes. Bad for the environment, bad for you. Well, The Chairman is out to change that, and they’re doing it with dishes to rival those being served at the top end of town. Intrigued, we hot-footed it quicksticks, or should that be chopsticks…
Here's looking at you, BB
Who are you, and what are you wearing?
Bernhard Bohnenberger, or BB for short. I’m Deputy Chairman and Managing Director of Six Senses Resorts & Spas, a resort and spa management and development company committed to promoting sustainable travel and tourism. I’ve been with the company since it’s beginnings in 1991. One of our mottos is no news, no shoes, so I wear shoes only when in the city.
This article was first published by The New York Times T Magazine Blog ‘The Moment’.
The Four Seasons Florence, a grand hotel with grand charges
Life is full of unexpected charges, isn’t it? Parking fines, service charges at restaurants when you’ve had no service to speak of, crippling death duties…. Which is precisely why one doesn’t expect to be ripped off in one’s hotel room. Room rape. I spend an inordinate amount of time in hotels, some good, some bad, some splendid, but one of the chief reasons that gets my dander up are the hidden costs.
Softly does it
We all love a good yarn, but there’s yarn, and there’s yarn. When we came across Bemboka on a whistle stop trip to Sydney recently it was with a sharp intake of breath and long exhale of ooooh. Luxury cashmere throws, wool blankets, and cotton towels and linens seldom come in such a distinctly curated, highly desirable and usable collection, nor with such a distinct pedigree. Wrap up and read more.
Style factory
In the beginning there was local lifestyle store pioneer Gaya, and now Vietnam’s commercial capital, Ho Chi Minh City, moves one step closer to proving her cosmopolitan cred with the opening of L’Usine, Saigon’s first truly international clothing and luxe lifestyle concept store. It’s guaranteed to keep designer gals and hipster guys looking cool in the heat, so get ready to pull out your dong and get spending…
Splendour in the hills
Share with us in under 50 fab, fun, feisty LUXE words your 2010 New Year’s resolutions for a chance to spend a few days R&R (Retoxing & Retailing) on the Island of the Gods…
With these few simple words we set in motion an avalanche of good intentions, stern promises, desperate pleas, hopeful goals and patently doomed fantasies, all in the hope of winning three fabulous nights for up to four peeps at the stunning private Villa Bukit Naga on Ubud’s ravishing Ayung Gorge. We’ve tittered, tutted, tossed and turned, and here’s what we’re loving… Get ready to say Bali Hi!
Stuffed and fluffed
Darlings, we’ve been swanning round in Turkish delight Rifat Özbek’s lovely ethnic threads for over 20 years, but what do you know, the notoriously shy (and not unhandsome) poppet has taken his trademark contemporary-cultural motifs and stuffed them. Quite literally. After turning his love for bold, exotic patterns into rugs for Christopher Farr, Riffy’s gotten cosy with the lifestyle domain and has worked his magic on his very own line of cushions. All the more reason to lay back and peel a grape, Beulah…
Follow us on 
