I know, I know - SORRY for the horrific photos of my body and condition.  I am only trying to be authentic (despite the embarrassment) of what it was like to experience Hong Kong head-first.

Hong Kong is not China.  As an American I thought they were the same.  It's like saying New York City is America or Dubai is the Middle East.  The are quite different in culture, cuisine and currency.

As an international restaurant consultant I can say with confidence that Hong Kong is one of those places anyone in the trade should see first hand.  I feel it is just scratching the surface though.  Perhaps one day Mandarin will be as common place as English.  We should all start warming up to the cuisine not just because it's likely to be a global cuisine in 20 years but because it's a wonderful cuisine and culture steeped in history, tradition and delightful culinary sensation.

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen

November 2009 Cairo Egypt

Cairo is such a unique place in all the world and it was a thrill to at long-last check it off my list of travel goals.  A city with more than 25,000,000 people, Cairo is burstling with energy.  The ancient is juxtaposed against the modern.  The old world pyramids of Giza transport us back to a different time (and then the lazer shows that happen nightly in front of the pyramids bring us crashing back to the modern day).

One rumor I can confirm with certanty is the use of car horns.  As one cabbie put it "Here we can drive a car that has no lights, no radio, no seats, but we would never drive a car without a horn".  There are few street lights, cars not pedisterians have the right of way, and as a result the honking of a horn is the most dominent and frequent sound throughout the expanses of the city.  You hear honks of anger, honks of hello, honks of "watch out or I'll run you over", and honks that seem to be made just as a matter of muscle memory habit like blinking an eye.  The pyramids seem to stand in patient persistance in the noise and commotion all around them.

The food in Egypt is a melting pot of Middle Eastern flavors.  There are approximately 23 dialects of Arabic spoken in the Middle East.  It is hard for an Egyptian to understand the Arabic of a Saudi national.  This creates an interesting dimension for the traveler seeking to go deep into the culture and understanding of the region.  Sadly, many Americans see an Asian and think they are Japanese or Chinese and don't think much further.  The cultures of Asia are as rich and dierse as can be found anywhere in the world and they can't be lumped together in such a way.  Similarly, the Middle Eastern Arab nations and cultures have their own uniquenesses of culture, tradition, heritage and beliefs.

While Egypt is on the continent of Africa, it is an important part of the Middle East.  Egypt is not representatie of the entire Middle Eastern experience.  Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Qatar are all starkly different in many important ways.  A similarity they share is the unique Arab Hospitality that has been passed down for thousands of years by the Bedouin tribes that roamed the Middle East.  Arab Hospitality is about lavish generosity.  There are many stories of families selling their most important and prized possessions to pay the costs of hosting a guest.  In Bedouin tradition, even enemies were given refuge and were hosted graciously.

There are many misconceptions of the Middle East.  There are also many story-lines that are currently going unnoticed.  For instance, while China is leading the world in growth in manufacturing and India is leading in outsourcing, few know that the Middle East is the fastest growing hospitality market in the world.  More posts on that coming soon.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

Aaron Allen

Middle East Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen

Restaurant Grades
Legislators: Find another industry to pick on

The June 21, 2010 story in USA Today on restaurant health inspection grades offers another example of how a bored and misguided legislator walks around looking for ways to get their name on a new piece of legislation at the cost of the restaurant industry.

The story starts out:

It's a Saturday night in Washington, the Capitol rotunda is in view, and you're walking along the avenue, trying to decide where to eat.

Posted outside restaurants' windows are menus, Zagat ratings and clippings of local newspaper reviews. What's missing, says D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, is information about the restaurants' sanitary conditions.

Cheh supports requiring restaurants to display a letter grade based on their most recent health department inspection. She says that now, residents must file public records requests for details on restaurant inspections.

"Surely the nation's capital, with all its restaurants, you'd think we'd be a little more progressive," she says.

This is exactly how it happens, folks.  A legislator like Mary Cheh is walking around bored, looking for something creative she can champion and look like a hero.  You know, get her name on a bill, some good press; nothing too controversial for her constituents.  “Wow, look at these busy restaurants,” she mumbles in half-baked fascination.  “Why don’t I figure out a way to slap them with new legislation and legal requirements – look how busy they are – it won’t hurt them and my constituents will rally behind this idea…boy, Mary, you are so smart”, she thinks to herself.

The story goes on to state how shrinking budgets are cutting health inspectors in the field so this is one idea for how to get the public to police restaurants.  There’s a quip in a sidebar story about how we are all familiar with letter grades and how they work.  My favorite quip though is Councilwoman Cheh’s about how she would expect more from the nation’s capital (those poor D.C. restaurateurs having to deal with politicians like Cheh babbling and bumbling about dreaming up new and unnecessary regulations in their dining rooms).

Sure, this all sounds perfectly logical to a layman.  Many restaurant industry professionals refute this notion though and I am one of them.  Yes, I want to eat in a safe and clean restaurant just as much as the next person.  What I don’t want though is the government forcing us to clutter up our menus with nutrition information, constantly hit a low-margin industry with new taxes and minimum wage hikes, and then mandate obtrusive signage and Scarlet-Letter type grades outside our restaurants.

If restaurants have to post a grade out front of their business why shouldn’t others?  Shouldn’t an emergency room have to post how many lawsuits and negligence claims they had last year?  Shouldn’t a hotel have to post at their check-in desk a report of how many of their rooms were found to have bodily fluids on their blankets during last month’s random inspection?  Shouldn’t all lawyers have to post their college transcripts including their grades in ethics curriculum?  These are important too, right?

If Councilwoman Cheh really wanted to do something that moves us further in the direction of transparency, she should suggest a law where all legislators wear a badge on their chest with their criminal records and number ethics violations.  It’s just as important to know if our legislators have criminal records, one could argue.  Think the United States Congress would go for that?  Okay, okay, well maybe forcing them to wear it is over the top, but how about if they at least have post it in full on their websites and in the voting booths?

How far should transparency go?  And shouldn’t the standard of the law be applied equally across all business sectors?

The fact is we all eat out.  Half of every food dollar in the U.S. is spent in restaurants.  Legislators likely spend 80% of their food dollar there, what with the schmoozing and all.  They usually have no idea how the business works but look around at the bustling tables and eventually get one of those light-bulb moments thinking they are the first to find a new approach to legislate the industry in a way to gain popular favor among all those other dining patrons they see.

The restaurant industry is the largest non-governmental, non-agricultural employer in the United States employing over 13 million people.  The restaurant business is incredibly capital intensive and has an average profit margin of just 5%.  The restaurant associations do their best fighting-off unnecessary and poorly conceived legislation but with limited budgets they too have to pick and choose battles. 

If restaurants have to wear their grades on their front doors other regulated and licensed businesses should have to also.  Let’s start with the politicians first.

Full USA Today Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-06-21-healthinspect21_ST_N.htm

Restaurant Consultant Aaron Allen