]
Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong
OUR COVER
He wasn't exactly smooth-talking,
Your
suave-dressing,
sleek-physiqued television producer, but he definitely was one
of the most loved characters around the Club facilities. And when President Bert Okuley presented him with the finish-line photofrom Happy Valley, where
many of Vice President Jack Worth's latter-day investments were made, it seemed an entirely appropriate gesture. Jack is one ofthose who can probably truth-
fully say he left without
an
-- and with the respect of just about everyone -- foisaw them, and all. enemy
bles as some
And to closer friends, a fond farewell to "O" also. Photo by Van Es
LE@W PARIS
,lz2lr,ut,i
Sole Asents: FRENCH FASHIONS LTD., Hong Kong'
/t
By the time you
receive this The Correspondent, preliminary work will have begun on the newly-acquired 18th floor, the first step toward expansion and refurissue
of
bishing the FCC.
The Long-Range Planning Committee, working closely with the Board of Governors, developed a
general plan designed
to provide
as
many additional faeilities as possíble, while at the same time making more efficient use of existing space. Presentations were made by five
architect-design
firms, and
after
careful consideration the LRP Com-
mittee unanimously recommended Board that the firm of R. Hauser & Partners be given the contract. The Board similarly gave
to The
its unanimous approval.
The Hauser firm has an impressive set of credentials, including redecoration of the entire Peninsula Hotel group, and its representat¡ves demonstrated an immediate enthusiasm to take on the FCC job, even though the firm's average contract involves far more money than the FCC project. The work on the Hong Kong Peninsula, for example,
came to HK$l0,000,000.. The FCC job will involve an estimated
$s00,000.
ln the coming weeks the work. will proceed in the following se-
with a small service bar. lt is proposed to have a microwave oven for the serving of hot sandwiches, but no other hot food will be available. Next
to the gaming area and
situated at the extreme west end of
Discomfort
for o time, but your club is
The kitchen will be extended across the east side of the dining room, including a storage area. This
stretc h in g
will add about 116 square,feet of kitchen area, which is sorely needed.
The extension wall will sit about eight feet into the present dining area, running north and south and will eliminate three dining tables. This area will also provide space for
itself to o nother
a dumb waiter (no remarks, please)
that will serve the 15th floor with nine covered trays every twenty
floor
seconds. Obviously, this eliminates the annoyance of waiters rushing up and down the stairs with hot food
one table.
On or about February 10 construction of walls begins on the 18th
Carpeting for the 18th floor will come from cleaned and renewed carpeting currently in use on the
room, adequately l¡ghted and completely enclosed for privacy and
quiet.
ln a room
next to the library there will be a table gaming area
both the 14th and 1 Sth ,fþors. A brighter, new patterneO lcarpet will be installed, as well as fighte,rand make the room 'cooleri in the
18TH FLOOR
the same space it occupies on the 1Sth floor, but entirely separated from the rest of the facilities and with a door opening onto the stairwell. The library'and work area will be situated next to the changing
The stained wood remains
throughout, but slightly lighter in color and completely treated with flame retardant. The electrical wiring will be totally replaied and ;a single sound system with speakers flushed into the ceiling will serve
summer.
the floor on a slightly lower level there will be a billiards room with
The staff changing room will move to the extreme east end of the floor, taking up approximately
floor, but at the same time to make it more attractive and a bit brighter.
colored curtains, lined with,a material to reflect the sunlight otl¡wards
quence:
floor.
ments, the LRP Committee and the Board perceived a general desire on the part of the Membership to retain the present character of the 14th
14th and 1Sth floors.
Work on the 18th floor, as on the other floors, four weeks.
is expected
to take
14TH FLOOR Work on the 14th floor is scheduled to begin immediately after the Chinese New Year's holidays, and will necessitate moving the scene of action temporarily to the l Eth floor. Through conversations and com-
trays or dirty dishes.
All pillars separating the windows on the 14th floor will be
covered in an attractive grass cloth and the steel window frames will be repainted to match the new decor. The same grass cloth will be used
to line the ceiling light wells and
the area over the bar, and to cover the new wall of the kitchen extension. This wall can also serve as a display area.
The massive furniture currently in the lounge area alongside the bar will be replaced by booths with tables of normal height, providing
additional space
for
those who
would like to dine as well
as
drink.
All chairs in the dining room will
È
.;
be recovered and new and brighter tablecloths will be added'
screens are recessed the 1 sth
áitott
will
be
an entirelY oPen area when
the occasion calls for it'
Erich
15TH FLOOR
says... The question You must ask vourself is: should I trust mY äyes to someone who is not cover the Pillars and walls' We shall retain
views in Hong Kong.
Its location and area, of course'
the Present tables'
but the chairs will all be new' as *.if ut tablecloths and other furnishings.
oualified?
Anyone in Hong Kong - regardleis of training or qualifica-
Iion - can open an oPtical business, conduct eYB éxaminations,
prescribe and
fit
contact
lenses
are identical
We will have a net gain of 12 tables for four on the 15th floor'
and eveglasses'
more accessible and comfortable because it will not get the entrance traffic that swirls around the bar on
cocktail lounge'
duated from the College Óf OPtometry in West Berlin'and has been in Practice in Hong Kong
to the lounge area on but it should be floor, t+ttt it'r.
flus four to six tables in the new
the 14th.
of, OPtica srich Schwaabe 'qualified ProLtd. is a fullY fessional oPtometrisÇ He gra-
The decor on the 15th floor will
brisht and modern' The wall ir',ri nä* houses the library w.ill ¿own and when the mobile "omt
assured
alified
Oe
i¡
is deterrequire-
well worth the trouble' ments.
New Yeor's Eve WhooPie?
Erich Schwaabe of OPtica Ltd' Wing Cheong House, lst floor I LiYuen Slreet West, Central
Tel5-256937 ..DOWN THE LANE
IN CENTRAL"
tomer trank
FCC Prexy
Robeilson
visifs old HK haunls
President of the FCC in Hong Kong in 1960 (Year of the Rat), he contrived to see as many friends as possible during his three-week stay, sampling with nostalgia the Club's
gin, wine and wafer offerings. He also attended a meeting of Hong Kong's 20-year-old cultural body, of which he is a founding member: Alcohol ics Synonymous.
Frank Robertson, Aussie corres. pondent for US and London newspapers in the Far East for a quarter
of a
century, now working for The Daíly Telegraph in London, was back in Hong Kong before Chr¡stmas on a rushed and crowded research mission. He is writing a book for a British publisher on Chinese triads,
Frank won one of the US Overseas Press Club's two post-war awards for his reportage of the Pacific war. The only Australian
who ever worked for INS (with Howard Handleman in Tokyo at the beginning of the Occupation), he filed the first Tokyo-datelined report by a gaíjin Correspondent from the Radio Tokyo Building before General MacArthur's official
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arrival. He drew a gun to "persuade" the reluctant and perplexed Japanese cable staff to file his uncleared report. He covered the Korean war be-
fore he moved to Hong
Kong.
Anthony Eden, then Leader of the
Opposition, told the House of Commons that Frank's on-the-spot report of the Gloucesters' stand in North Korea against the flood of Chinese "volunteers" was "the most magnificent battle report" he had read.
Frank travelled widely in China before Mao's "liberation", drove a truck across Sinkiang, and then, in March 1947, flew, with Chou Enlai's blessing. in an American Air Force plane to the caves of Yenan.
His dear wife, Ruth, whom
Stronger things to come?
he
married in Tokyo during the Occupation, is a renowned photographer, artist and interior decorator (whose talent was evident in the furnishing of Government House when Sir David Trench was Governor.) She is still hammering Frank's back to make him wríte h¡s reminiscences.
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Barrell' and Joe at Anant's coffin by UPL Joe Lee under fire in Beirut (above) courtesY Sarah Webb
ilewslllêll' by
Bert
W. OkuleY
About a week after the American Broadcasting Co' (ABC) cameraman Joe Lee lost his left leg to a landmine while on Patrol with Thai trooos near the MalaYsian border, he left the Bangkok Nursing Home and drove home for lunch. Drove the brand new sports car Purchased a few weeks for lunch! home earlier
he had
Another friend
of
mine,
Joe's
Thai soundman, Anant Chomchuen, was killed bY the mine blast, a sorelv missed member of the Bangkok
pr.tt
and friend
"orpt Lee. including
of
manY.
Joe insisted on using his crutches,
unassisted, and walked uP a long flight of steps to PaY tribute to Añant during the eight-day Buddhist funeral rites.
Joe Lee also has a new set of oolf clubs and when he saYs he íntends to use them one of these days, he's not
kidding.
He
will
as
his long-time friends and admirers know.
o
I
Joe and his sound technician Anant "tift off" in a Thai mititary'"chopps¡; on the ill-fated assígnment. Below, a frame from Anant's last roll of film. daa
ü
Courtesy of UPl.
"The only time
I
ever saw him
lose his cool was when he missed a chopper to the front," says Kate Webb, now UPI's manager in Singapore.
"When everybody else was hittingthe deck in Beirut -- including me -- Joe was standing upright
filming the action," says Jim Bennett, the ABC Correspondent who worked with Joe in Cambodia, Vietnam, Lebenon and on that fateful
day last month in Songkhla Pro-
vince when Lee's number almost came up.
"He's just an unassuming, very
professional guy," says Alan Dawson, UPI's Manager for Thailand and another longtime colleague of Joe Lee.
As The Correspondenf went to in New York with members of his family, where ABC is going to get him the best press, Joe was resting
leg money can buy.
Joe Lee has been getting shot at,
and sometimes hit, s¡nce 1952 when he was an infantryman with the South Korean forces.
ln 1966 Presiden! Hee presented
Medal
for
Park Chung-
liim with the Hwang
bravery,
assuming command
for actions
in
and whose commander had broken down,
ln 1970, Lee was caPtured bY North Vietnamese troops on High-
way 7 irl Cambodia and held two weeks before the communists let
I
ânswered them
period.
Per-
5aos you'd liked
December 27,1976
There were many of the media who
Dear Sir:
Americans (other than Robert Holden) who had worked on the death
of a ROK com-
pany which had been ambushed
and
ilâneaG
only grunted and shook my
were astounded that there
The enclosure is AN
OPEN
LETTER TO DONALD WISE. lt
in
rebuttal
it better if I had
is
to an article which
appeared in The Correspondents, Vol 1, No.12. ln the interests of fair play, of
I presume the British know all about, I respectfully request that the OPEN LETTER be printed in The Correspondent and for which effort I am now thanking you. The enclosure will explain who I am, so, I will just sign myself off. which
head. were
railway, and the trestles, and the bridges. And so Stanley Willner, my buddy, and myself, came halfway round the world, at our own expense, to support Mr. Nagase's ideals and to rid the world of hate. They wanted to know HOW we managed to get caught in the web. After all, we were unique in a way that we didn't surrender to the Japanese and neither did we surrerÞ
der to the Germans. We had to be of the ocean and the press wanted to know. AnÇ, we told
fished out
them. Frankly, I
n'ever, éxpected
the attendant publicity. ;l thought it would be just a local affalr but
Gratefully yours, S/Dennis A. Roland "H" Force Yank One Of Those Who Also Knew The Bridges, The Trestles and The Rail-
road intimately; and, who
returned
on October 25,
also
1976.
Dear Sir: A
nant
Ch omch
uen,
N
ewsman
him go after he convinced them he wasn't an American CIA operative. The following year his left hand was smashed by an AK-47 round in
Cambodia (he was then with Vrsnewsl and Joe spent six months in and out of hospitals. ln 1974 Joe was wounded twice by shrapnel
but remained on the job.
ln 1975, ABC
ordered him out
of Phnom Penh one week before the city fell and out of Saigon three days before the communists took over. Joe left reluctantly. "l'm
never scared," he told,Asla-
week magazine in Bangkok. "l'm concentrating
too much for
that.
lf you don't go to a dangerous
place, you don't get good pictures. It's as simple as that."
Joe's got only one really
big
problem these days: he discovered that those golf clubs he bought were left-handed. He isn't.
Get well quick Joe, from colto res-
leagues/friends who learned pect you long ago. 10
It would seem to me that one with your long years of experience in the reporting world could have done a much better piece as noted
in
above reference regarding the
October 25, 1976 River Kwai Pilgrimage. lt also appears to me that the cynical comments are both cruel and sacrilegious. Therefore, before replyinS (it you care to) please meditate over the constructive criticism.
My interpretation of the word
"DUMPED" is something akin to trash or garbage being disposed of; and, if as you stated I was dumped
into a Singapore POW camp, then, in effect you meant that I was thrown into the garbage heap or trash heap said trash or garbage heap consisted solely of The Defen-
of
Singapore; ie, the British 18th Division, the Australian 8th Division and the Dutch Army. Mr Wise, is this the way you classified
ders
the aforementioned POW? Trash, garbage? Unbelieveable!
!!
Now, how do you analyize the
word "loquacious"? The
press,
including yourself, asked questions
instead it seemed to attract worldwide human interest. lt's what sells papers, is it not? And so, Donald Wise, did you attend as a former POW, or, did you attend as a paid correspondent? Ask yourself these
questions and come
out with
a
straight answer.
My age, as noted in the press, is
68. Thirty-four years ago I was age 34 and my weight was ten stone (140 pounds). I also had a full head
of brown hair. When I was finally released f rom Changi my off icial weight was 5 stone or 70 pounds. YouT ,,YAM SHAPED YANK,, when you met him was 34 years
later and nature has a habit of piling weight upon most peoplej also, changing the color of whatever is left of their hair and mine has turned grey. lf you care to have a photo of myself taken in uniform about six months prior to losing my ship l'll gladly send you a copy. Perhaps you can use it as a dart board to vent your venom after reading this letter.
The f lags you seeÍt to make comments about are two special flags with special sentimental value
to me. ln the first
place they are
I am proud of them and my nationality. The American flags and
Bicentennial or Bennington flag was
a 1975 birthday gift to me from one of my three sons. The other was presented to me by my US Congressman Mario Biaggi. lt is authenticated as having flown over the cap¡tol in Washington, DC. Of course I don't owe you an explana-
tion, but since you mentioned them in your article I feel that your readers are entitled to one. As for them being outsize I am sorry I did not get your opin¡on and/or your permission about the flags or the sizes. Perhaps I should have removed the lapel pin and waved that
instead. You again have me babbling away amusingly as you put it and I don't know how you noted this because you were nowheres near me and so
if I were babbling
away then everyone else was because we all were talking more or less about the event. Again, your observation is as poor as your hear-
ing because you did not mention
Itisntt
that the other flags on the bridge that day were Thai national and they weren't carried by Thai nationals at all. Or did you notice? Operations in the jungles and elsewheres were performed alrnost
Well, I guess it's about time for me to sigri off but before I do I want to once again impress upon the press that I personally feel that
the dropping of the two atom bombs on Japanese cities was a
daily. l'm not a doctor but in their defense I will say that the doctors and the surgeons were superb; would say they were magicians. what rhey did with NoTHING should have won them KNIGHTHOOD to say the least. Amputations were commonplace. lt was a
terrible mistake.
of Do or Die. You state you had a "beef" in that you were the only Briton to attend. Again, I ask the questions, did you attend or were you sent there to cover the event? Think it over Pal and don't get sore as we damned YAMS say. lf the shoe fits then wear it. lf you felt so keenly about attending as a former POW
Mr Roland did not demonstrate admirable brevity in his response to
I
case
then you should have brought along
a British flag. We could have babbled side by side. There are dozens of articles written about The Friendship Walk but your's takes the boobY Prize for its insipidness.
Well, so long, from
A YAM
YANKEE WHO ALSO THERE.
WAS
Dennis A. Roland Force Yank
"H"
Mr Wise and hence we can only publish a very limited,portion of ì his letter herein. The original has
been transported to Donald Wise for any furthe¡ disposition, he wishes
to make. The Edltor
yulshes
to thank Mr Roland for his iletter and apologize for the inabilÍty tò publish it in its entirety, but.also to
point out that a closer readihg -one with less of an effort to Suspect mockery and/or criticism of himself -- might have allowed him to better understand Mr Wise. The Editor
the
s
don
the There is a common opinion that all gins are the same. It may be true of some. But not of Gordon's. For the way we use juniper, coriander and other botanical ingredients in ourdistilling recipe. makes subtle differences to the taste of our gin. The actualdetails are of course a secret. But the results are not.
Gordon's is thebest selling gin in the world. Need we say more?
GORDOT\Ù3 The in drink for generations
@trIcttr'I'VELL
f'rË1'NÀil souvfìNtn
You souyenir me?
It was love at first sight. FCC iazz buffs crowded into the Cl Hong Kong and China Jazz Compariy,s four hour session. Led by piani5t Beda, tenor saxophonist Abel Valdavia and drummer R crowd begging for more with favorites like lake :ívè, My
- Or me souyenir you. ''
¡
llar" January 30 to hear the rumpet, basóist Chris Hiiton, up had the nostaliga-soaked and Green Dotphin Streei.
Now that we kn.rw there is an ardent jazz following in the membership, the Entertainment Committee
promises a return bout for the band. Meanwhile, if you want to hear them before the next fCC they play every Sunday afternoon at the Excelsior Hotel,s Dicken,s Bar.
12
¡.r
såtr¡on,
I 204 Willoughby House
BARBICAN
City of London
London E.C.2
1Sth January, 1977 Dear Sir,
Just a note from the land where beer is as expensive as petrol and the
soup kitchens are strained
to
the
maximum of their resources by tired and emotional expatriates - to say how much we enjoy our copies of The Correspondent whose photographs provide some good laughs.
S/E.
-Nickie
Pelc
tlìe
Quin?-
Aír Commodore Erl
-
fuel ín hond
-
prepores book po,rty
Richord Todd visits the lSth British stage, screen and television star Richard Todd spoke to a packed FCC entertainment luncheon
on February 2. While appearing in the Hilton Hotel
Playhouse's presentation of On Approyal, Todd found
t¡me to visit British troops, help open the Fifth Annual Hong Kong Arts Festival and inspect (and give his opinion on) the new Arts Center.
ln his speech to the assembled luncheon guests Todd emphasized the uniqueness of Hong Kong's dinner theater movement and suggested th¡s might be one way of spreading theater to venues which have ready audiences but lack theaters. The next entertainment luncheon, on February 25,
will feature English
actor/comics Eric Sykes and
Hattie Jacques, who will be appearing at the Sheraton Hotel Theater's production of a brand new comedy
called The Engagement, written
by Eric Sykes.
o o
o o o
so
I Famed aviation pioneer, World ll air hero and stunt flier Ert
War
Bo-Klee plans a bourbon-and-cheese book-signing at the FCC in the near
future to mark publication of his revealing and gripping autobiography, The Stoned Eagle.
lf ONE of Hong Kong's expatriates has nothing else good to say
about the two branches of Doggi's Restaurant, they can at least appreDOGGI'S RESTAURANT
"l remember all of them - all of รปe greats," mused Ert as he pol-
German Shepherd schnitzel: $18 Roast beef and Yorkshire poodle:
b) The Gutter, Main Street, Kowloon
Sweet and sour Pekinese: $5.00 Chihuahua con carne: $7.50 Hot dog: $3.00
Street, Shaukiwan (TelePhone disconnected).
Walled
City (Telephone - 5.30 am
Wiley Post, Amelia Erhart and Glenn Miller. They used to write all the time, but I haven't heard from them lately. Maybe I oughta drop a line
stolen)
SELECTED DISHES
up: $7.50 iel consomme: $7.50 e (French): $'10
dle (domestic): $5.00
Afghan paw: $5.00
Purebred chow four-course dinner: $32
to my old pal
His father became despondent after that and it was only a few months later that the old man, too,
see
cashed
Leslie Howard and if knows what's become of 'em."
The old flier steadied himself of his childhood and of being born to the against the hangar as he told
Flying Erts -- his mother the wing walker and his father the intrepid pilot -- the two of them making
the county fair circuit each year with Ert tied securely to the tailskid by his diaper.
"l
was delivered," reveals Ert.
"ln the rear cockpit of my father's Sopwith Camel by Ceasarian sec-
it in.
He
hit a three-holer
broadside while cropdusting in Ala-
bama. As Ert recalls it:
10,000 feet below was, to me, what
an ice cream cone was to other
lady got on the wing and Pop headed under the Tallahatchie
bridge while the crowd gasped. He cut it a little too close and wfien he came out the other side the old lady wasn't with him. We figured she might have wanted to go that way but nobody got to ask her." 14
Coke
'n' collie: The paw that
re-
freshes: $3.25 Take-away bark's
lunch: $8.00
they are breaking the lawT meat lovers can be seen lining up in long queues by the dog's early light, when dog butchers keep their cleavers swinging merrily away while
of his beast. These dogpoachers are as liable to take the mangiest canine as the most wellbred pedigree to serve his unwary diners. And many a foreign tourist who doesn't know the difference
Gay on a pink Pacific lsle. Their flight was intended to change his-
tory, But Ert notes, "l
never
To this day Ert always rents a room on the highest floor of a hotel and then gets out on the ledge and feeds the pigeons or does handstands. "Keeps me in shape," nods
heights. The thrill of hanging over
the side of the cockpยกt and staring through empty space to the ground
beagles (Sunday brunch
only): $2.50
Ert's most memorable experience in 1945 when he and his crew climbed aboard that famous B-29 Enormous
came on that fateful day
Then tragedy struck when Ert was only 10. "The old man," he recalls, "had been in Clancy's until 3 am and I guess when he got ready for the show the next morning he was a little rocky. Anyhow, the old
tatยกon for soaring through the heavens. "l have just always loved
Lox and
the stews boil tastefully on
kids."
Ert became enamoured of flying and of maintaining the family repu-
The hair of the dog: $2.50. Mutt: $.75 (per piece)
"He landed right in the middle of the mess and they had to let him air out for three days before they could get close enough to bury him."
trusted our navยกgator, who kept this little bar beside his maps. He was most often lost. And the guys who were loading the bomb were also unsteady. I asked them if the thing wasn't a practice bomb, but they assured me it was the old mushroomer. Anyhow, four hours later we wound up dropping five hundred pounds of flour on Anchorage, Alaska. The only thing good that came of it was that Pillsbury
tion. That's why I still walk funny." As the year's eased by, young
$8.20
Shaggy dog (shaved): $3.00 Shaggy dog (unshaven): $2.50
Open 10.00 pm
ished his goggles and attached them
to his leather helmet. "There was Carole Lombard, Will Rogers and
need insure their success, especially
during the cold season. For though
Between Hoi Ning and Hoi An
a)
Ace Ert, as his crew affectionately dubbed him in WWll, pulls no punches in this candid story of the love affair he has had with airplanes and flying folk since he was a tad.
ciate the fact that no paid advertising and no public relations flack
gave us all medals."
Ert. His flying is now confined to the big commercials as a passenger. But he travels as often as possible and
you can see him in most any departure lounge asking when the next flยกght leaves -- and setting back his watch.
the
stove.
What gives dogmeat a bad name
is the "wildcat" dog butcher who cares hardly an iota for the cleanliness
will stolidly dine on this
inferior canine, afterwards complaining of its strong (are really rather unlikeable) aroma and taste.
This, though, is hardly the way with Doggi's Restaurant. The management (whose name must obviously remain secret) prefer to raise their own canines in the New Territories, feeding them on a special diet of rabbit, corn, Stilton cheese and baked apple strudel, until fattened up for the kill. As for "killday," then it's what up front that counts - and devil take the hindmost. Maxims were formed around its
eating ("When the fleet deer is caught, the hounds are cooked," said one victorious but corrupt general who fled his country), and after the Manchus banned the eating
of dog, the revolutionary Kuomintang used the eating of dog as a symbol of protest against their masters.
But this was all in the past. The present - that is, the Hongkong
net's
of
means dogmeat, and lots it. -Europeans may scoff, sneer
and (excuse the expression) snarl, and righteous dog-owners may in-
7êSî tRtê0
"no educated people eat dog." But the truth is simply that sist that
dogmeat is a treat for all.
True, the uneducated may ascribe all kinds of pharmaceutical alchemies to dogmeat which are belied by medical testimony. But educated folk are well aware of dogmeat's purely culinary value
-
and they would never ever slaughter
one of their pet dogs merely to sat¡sfy their hunger.
As for its medical properties, most young people would still prefer to take pills instead of dogmeat. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
But this is
beside the point. More apt is Doggi's Restaurant itself, for atmosphere, service and food.
One cannot detail the atmosphere
by Horry
of
Doggi's since various govRolnick ernment officials (i.e. the policel prevent the restaurant from "sett-
ling down," so to speak. Like a floating crapp game, Doggi's is a floating restaurant, chased from block to block, tail between its leg, harried from street corner to street corner, pots, bones, meats, cabbage,
ginger toted upon willing backs, diners abruptly jumping from their seats and running for cover when the constable's whistle blows. Never mind, though. Once Doggi's finds a place, it is impossible
not to admire how adept the
rest-
aurant is in settling down.
No bones about it, Doggi's has class. The class of a temporary canvas thrown over the street (usua-
lly with a
sketch
of
some bile
medicine advertised on the outer side of the canvasl. The chairs aie historical, ranging from Victorian baroque backs (or Victorian baroque
backlessl to informal beach chair (borrowed, I am reliably told, from unwary summer bathers at Repulse Bay, but returned before April), to
kindergarten school chairs upon which sit the younger diners.
Nor does Doggi's rely on ordinary, garish electric lighting. Like
the
3 g
winter
famous gourmet restaurant,
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2 fl
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the case
Walled City,,by
E'
o oo q, =ä o
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lit by tapers,
of the
Kowloon kerosene lamps.
Romance is in the air, Romance which is happily
yes? aug-
=
=
Ë Ëdx = ggõ =+o. B
Gaddi's, the tables are
or, in
cLo J.
IT
.T
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'
J
I I
And how does one know the difference between good and bad dogmeat? At Doggi's, breeding tel ls.
As old maxim has
it, "A
cold
mented with a pre-dinner Tom Gollie cocktail at the nearby Waggin'
nose means a warm stew."
Bar.
to order at Doggi's. The solution: Order to your heart's content. Some people like to buy purebred chow by the tael, others buy dog
But not only romance is in the Also in the air is the unmis-
air.
takable - and prodigiously pungent - aroma of dogmeat: sizzling on the open stove, bubbling in the pot, gurgling on the wok.
As the old maxim has it, "With dogmeat here, can spring be far behind?"
Hardened dogmeat lovers take
their dog straight off the stove. But this appeals to few others. More
to
European liking is dog-
in a stew, with plenty of Tientsin cabbage - and a meat cooked up
heaping lot of ginger to take away that aroma. At Doggi's, the stew boils away for 30 minutes or more
to really bring out the sl¡ghtly bitter but delightfully meaty taste of the animal.
Many tóurists are baffled by how
by the catty (or catty by the dog), others insist on the four-course dinner: Terrier Tail Soup, Dogfish Cocktail, Breast of Pooch, and Baked Alaska Husky, and others settle down to a simple but nourishing dog stew.
At any rate, though H KTA won't admit it, there are few tourists who don't rel¡sh their first taste of dogmeat in Hong Kong's winter. And when they do taste their dogmeat, they should taste ¡t in a reputable restaurant, not a mere "fast flesh service." Nowhere in Hong Kong is the food better, the meat more reliable than at Doggi's - wherever
it may be.
Chow, babe
- or bone appetit.
t
The Art of Gommunication
Total Glecommunication