Food and Drink

Fifteen countries. Approximately 1091 restaurant meals. The 2011 Sam Khok Awards have arrived. The criteria? I ate here in 2011 and the meal, dish, or drink was worthy of further mention.

Since my last report. Seven more flights. Seven more international airports. Three countries. More birdie dances, to be described in requisite detail in the forthcoming golf report. And the amazing places than one can go by air these days.

In a year full of birdie dances, this was surely the most daring. Would you dance at the edge of a balustrade-free domed Mughal tomb at twilight? I didn’t think so.

I’m happy to report that Kolkata and New Delhi have been salubrious. The days – cerulean; the nights – here I foreshadow an astonishing incident – sublime. And the breakfasts have been quite good.

This month I continued my research for the 2011 Sam Khok Awards. Eight flights, five countries, one cancelled flight, two evacuations of flooded Bangkok, and the nice view above of Bangsai CC and the former ATC Research Facility surrounded by floodwaters in Ayuddhaya.

I’ll start this series by posing a question: how best to divide one’s time between the full-service noodle bar at the ANA Lounge in the No. 4 Satellite zone of Narita International Airport Terminal 1’s South Wing, and the self-service sake bar at the opposite end of the same lounge?

I went undefeated in September, first winning a nine hole match in Shizuoka and making an incredible birdie that I celebrated first by planking the green and then by performing a crepuscular birdie dance.

You’ve seen the report from Wuhan, but you may not have realized how we struggled to get the pictures just right. The banner positioning, and who should stand where, was a temporary conundrum which we resolved, but not before some rather pedestrian efforts.

You’ve probably already seen the classy birdie dance photo from last week. Perhaps you followed along on twitter, or Facebook, or Google+. But those are hardly the place for copious disquisitions.

I almost took the month off from golf, but was coaxed into a match on a hot afternoon in Hanoi. And I’m glad I took part in that skins game.