In The Huffington Post: A Word from Grant Thatcher, Regional Chairman for The S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants
BY The LUXE Editors
Amber, Hong Kong's first restaurant to grace the top 50
Dear hearts, long-time readers will already know that LUXE‘s founder and Publishing Editor, Grant Thatcher, is also the Chairman of the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Academy panel for the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy. But for the poppets who are new to LUXEtasy.com, Grant has whipped up a quick blog for The Huffington Post to take us through the eating, drinking, and voting process for the W50Best as votes start coming in for the 2012 list, to be announced next April. So, which restaurants do you think should be included?
Pickled and smoked quail's egg - get clicking
Here’s one to add to your wish list – Noma, Copenhagen, voted the world’s best restaurant, two years running. René Redzepi’s avant-garde, esoteric Danish-Nordic foraged cuisine is as much a mental as it is a gustatory exercise, but what a journey. World’s best? Find out for yourself; reservations are very difficult to come by, but not impossible. Perseverance is key, as is a lightning quick click speed and lots of luck. Bookings for March 2012 open Dec 5, 10am, Danish time. Cancellations also occur daily, so get on that wait list. Or, book The Staff Room, which seats up to 15 guests and requires a min spend of 25,000 DKK. Bonne chance!
Want more pics from the LUXE team’s travels around the world? Check out this album on our Facebook page.
Above the street hustle
Vietnam’s bustling commercial centre, Ho Chi Minh City has been hard at it developing a metropolitan slink and drink scene, with high ambitions of giving Bangkok a run for its money for cosmo cred. The just-opened Chill Restaurant and Sky Bar, featured in the brand new edition of the LUXE HCMC guide, seems to have taken these lofty aspirations quite literally, by debuting as Vietnam’s first open-air sky bar. Perched on the 26th and 27th floors of a high-rise in downtown District 1, it’s super handy for when you need to escape from the street-level hustle, especially if the moped army’s got your knickers in a twist.
Altogether now, mmmm...
Art Basel Miami Beach is just a fortnight away, signalling the end of hurricanes for the year and the start of the party season. Perfect timing then, for the release of our brand new edition of LUXE Miami, so you’re always in the know, and one of the hottest new places you need to know about is Yardbird Southern Table & Bar, South Beach. It’s down home cooking you could gorge on, but don’t go overboard, unless you want to be mistaken for a stranded dugong.
Now that we have your attention...
Savvy gastronauts would know that one of the best lunch deals in Paris is at three-Michelin-starred Le Meurice, where Chef Yannick Alléno whips up his magical morsels for a fraction of the cost of dinner. For those in Asia, there’s no longer a need to hop on a long haul flight to sample Yannick’s tasty nuggets, because he’s brought them to a new venture, S.T.A.Y., in Shangri-La Hotel, Beijing.
To kick off our New York September, we’ve asked some fabulous NYC insiders for scoop on the style inspirations behind the ever-evolving and eclectic city. Handpicked for their unique takes on NY style, you’ll get dedicated guest posts from renowned bloggers.
Today we bring you thoughts from Jamie Beck, the vintage-chic glamazon behind photography, fashion and lifestyle blog From Me To You. Multidimensional; with a unique voice and style, not only does Jamie celebrate anything vintage (think Mad Men), she also celebrates the classic feminine form, anything that is classic, traditional and romantic….and she works non-stop. This gal not only looks fantastic but has the goods.
One of our faves has to be Jamie’s moving pictures, see it to believe it. The cheeky, fun montages encompass New York’s essence perfectly. She’s also got a ton of Fashion Week updates coming up, so check in with her for all the latest.
Hello Gorgeous! [Photo: fromme-toyou.tumblr.com]
The LUXElife Q&A
Matt's dream coming true at Yardbird
If you think everything tastes like chicken at Yardbird, you’re pretty much right. Matt Abergel, who trained under Masayoshi Takayama at three-Michelin-starred Masa in New York, before heading up the kitchen at the Hong Kong outpost of Zuma, has opened the Fragrant Harbour’s coolest restaurant so far this year. It’s a neck-to-tail yakitori joint dedicated to the humble chook, with the focus of Tokyo’s famed Birdland, plus a big dose of New York-style, sass and fun thanks to its industrial shophouse interiors and hostess with the mostest Lindsay Jang. This is one piece of fowl play we’re happy to support, but be prepared to wait, it’s been rammed since opening and takes no reservations. Here, Matt talks chicken with LUXE, and tells us what Yardbird is about, the challenges of opening a restaurant, and his favourite places to dine and drink in Hong Kong and beyond.
Going coo-coo for cocoa at Patrick Roger [photo: Paris by Mouth]
If you read our first guest post by Istanbul Eats, you’ll know that we’ve been asking some of our fave bloggers to appear here on LUXEtasy as occasional guest writers. This time, we bring you food-lovin’ Yankpats in Paris Barbra Austin and Meg Zimbeck, editors of the fabulous Paris By Mouth, a website dedicated to the edible pleasures in the City of Lights, with a crew of name-drop-worthy contributors. For LUXEtasy, the gals tell us their favourite sweets and where to get them. Hips be damned (or as Barbra suggests, get your leg over a Vélib’), et on y va!
Mourning the end of elBulli? Read on… [Photo: Charles Haynes/Flickr]
Missed your chance to dine at recently closed culinary trailblazer elBulli? There, there sugar, your appetite for Adrià can still be satisfied. Get yourself a reservation at Tickets, Albert and Ferran Adrià’s latest venture in Barcelona. While the brothers make it clear that this is no replacement for the legendary former temple to modern gastronomy, the menu does feature a few of elBulli’s greatest hits at a fraction of the price, reason enough to get on that plane.
Red (and green) hot chilli peppers
Here at LUXE City Guides, we believe in getting a local’s perspective. After all, our guides are written by editors who are resident in each destination. The whole wide world of the internet has also opened our eyes to plenty of fantastic blogs, many of which are written by locals who are clearly passionate about their city. We’ve asked some of our faves to appear here on LUXEtasy as occasional guest writers. To start, we bring you Yigal and Ansel of the self-explanatory Istanbul Eats, who take us on a lipsmacking tour through the area of Aksaray, or as they’ve dubbed it, Little Urfa, near the ancient centre Sultanahmet. So, without further ado, let’s hand it over to the boys.
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