This past weekend at the FHA in Singapore, the Hong Kong Chefs Association all women team took home a gold medal and finished as first runner up just 2 points behind the lead, a team from Singapore. We here are all very proud of their great achievement.

Last night on Hong Kong’s award winning TV news magazine: “The Pearl Report” the led with a segment on so called cleansing diets.” Of course they did offer the obligatory skeptical views, but to my view the segment was highly promotional of this bit of medical nonsense, and even went as far as to video one of their staff on a 10 day cleansing diet, where she even gives recipes and tricks to do the process. So off to the letter mill I went, sending a rant to Pearl, the SCMP Letters, to our television complaints body, and also to two medical licensing bodies because one of the proponents – a naturopath – was constantly referred to as Dr. (he even had a lab coat – cheezy).

My first letter:

I am absolutely astonished that TVB Pearl saw fit to promote such unhealthy, unhealthful pseudoscience as detoxification diets. As demonstrated below, anyone spending mere moments of actual journalistic research could have noted that there is no scientific validity to any of the claims of the proponents (all for profit quacks) or practitioners (sad but misinformed people).

Shame on you. As a premier public information source you have a responsibility to be the fourth estate, to inform the public of fact, while remaining independent from political, business, and misguided cultural biases. The integrity of the Pearl News Department has been damaged greatly by airing this tripe as legitimate investigative reporting.

http://www.naturowatch.org/
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=88
http://www.quackwatch.com/Naturopathy
http://www.skepdic.com/natpathy.html
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4083

TVB Reply:

Dear Mr Gallaga,
 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding The Pearl Report this week. The show looking at detox diets was not aimed at promoting them, but rather, looking at both sides of the story. That is something we always strive to do no matter what the topic.
 
The show in question showed some detoxification diets, but also included their criticisms. There were two medical professionals, a dietitian and a professor of medicine and therapeutics, who offered views similar to yours: namely that detox diets can be harmful and are not scientifically or medically proven. We had two experts to counter the claims of the one naturopath we did include. We never claimed that any of the detox diets work; in fact, we stated clearly that the body already has natural ways to detox, and that medical experts do not recommend them.
 
The comments from the retailers were included to show the growing popularity of these detox diets and products in Hong Kong. There is indeed much interest in the public about these diets, and that is why we produced a show on this topic.
 
The professor did also comment that there is not a lot of scientific evidence to show just how good or bad these detoxes are. Just as you have found numerous sites to refute naturopathy’s efficacy, there are equal numbers of sites proclaiming detoxes and naturopathy work.
 
We felt it fair to allow both sides to share their views and ultimately, it is up to the viewers to decide for themselves what to think of the information we provide.
 
Thank you very much for supporting our programmes,
 
Sincerely,
 
Diana Lin
Senior Executive Producer,
TVB News & Information Services Division,
Hong Kong.
Tel:23352151

My Rebuttal:

Dear Ms. Lin,

First: Starting your program with your own staff taking and promoting the healthiness of a 10 day detox diet shows that the report was squarely promoting the diet and set off with an un-journalistic bias. Reporters and scientists should not be their own guinea pigs it allows for far too much opportunity for confirmation bias, which was glaring in your report. 

Second: The sites I listed are all credible empirical resources showing the scientific invalidity of such nonsense with nothing to gain from promoting public education. While any search for proponents of this nonsense will only lead to snake oil sales people who are interested in garnering a buck at the expense of the health of and through taking advantage of the gullibility of consumers.

I have forwarded a complaint to the broadcasting authority and I believe at the very least you owe the public a clear and unambiguous reframing in the next show which states clearly that these forms of alternative medicine are dangerous and show no efficacy whatsoever. It is a matter of unambiguos fact that they are not even scientifically plausible – nature just does not work in that way. 

Regards,

Christopher Gallaga

Round 2:

Dear Mr Gallaga,
 
Our case study taking the 10 day detox is NOT a member of our staff. She is a case study. We use case studies frequently in all our documentaries.
 
It is of course your prerogative to go to the Broadcasting Authority. We stand behind our neutrality and recognise that there are people who are against alternative medicine as there are people for it. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Diana Lin
Senior Executive Producer,
TVB News & Information Services Division,
Hong Kong.
Tel:23352151

My reply:

That is a ridiculous position.

There are people who are all for cocaine use, namely cocaine dealers and their duped users, are you going to produce a show that shows both sides of the cocaine issue?  Please don’t try to act as if your show had integrity or that you presented an unbiased view. You presented and perpetrated a medical sham, and you well know it. At the very least admit to the low standards you are sticking by so doggedly.

Morons.

In 2003 of my past business ventures was made into a management training research case. The case, from what I know, has been used at Harvard and can be (and apparently is ) purchased by anyone in the global educational industry.

This past weekend, as one of my duties and pleasures with the Hong Kong Chefs Association, I was chaperoning a group of culinary students visiting from the Johnson County Community College of Kansas. JCCC has a noted culinary program associated with the American Culinary Federation, and as such the students and some staff were coming through Hong Kong on the way to Singapore to compete at the FHA. We – the Hong Kong Chefs Association – always gladly host these visiting chefs whenever we get the chance.

So anyway…while taking the students to a local fish market, one of them asked if I had heard of Fat Angelo’s, because they had researched it as a case study recently in their school. What fun for us all when I was able to admit that not only did I know of Fat Angelo’s but I am the founding partner and chef mentioned quite frequently in the case study.

Life is strange. I have been teaching people about my industry since 2003 without evening knowing I was doing it.

So the white house is welcoming the pope – the leader of a religion noted for child sexual abuse.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/04/16/pope.wed/index.html

Meanwhile the government has invaded a Mormon church because of suspected child sexual abuse.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/06/texas.ranch/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

What gives?

By the way Bill Maher also noted this – but regardless of my personal feelings about him or the pope, Bill is still a Moron.

So today I made the caramelized onion & chevre tatin:
and the ravioli beef bourguignon;
We had these as appetizer… The dish at the top was supper…
ho mei.

I have another “audition” menu request. Odd, 28 years in the kitchen and this is the first time people want to see me cook before they hire me…ah, cest la vie.

This one wants modern haute french cuisine so I am going to prepared a tasting menu for them. My plan:

Nicoise bundle

Gazpacho consomme

Caramelized onion & chevre tatin

Lobster mignon, lemon parsley butter, sous vide

Fig & thyme sorbet

Ravioli Beef Borgignon

24-hour roast rack of lamb, pea shoots, raspberry mint glaze.

Black truffle & boulangerie potato

Four cheese cake with fresh berries

Demitasse of hot chocolate

Today I played with the borgignon for the ravioli filling as well I made the sorbet – I love the interplay of the thyme and the fig, that was very nice.

I also did the Lobster Sous Vide…Sous Vide is vacuum slow poaching. I have read much on this but never really tried it before. It really yields outstandingly fresh color and texture with a deeply infused – concentrated taste. I am going to have to work more with this method.

The pic above is the Lobster. More pics later as I play around.

We have had quite a meaty few days, so this morning we were feeling kind of like vegging out. Being Sunday it is also tradition to have Chinese brunch – Yum Cha! This includes strong tea and dim sum, which is usually very meaty and oily.

I got on the inter-tube and found an absolute treat of a vegetarian dim sum teahouse right in the heart of Hong Kong at the beautiful Hong Kong Park.

Hong Kong Park is probably my favorite splice of greenery in our concrete jungle. Not only is it sandwiched in between the luxury hotels, shopping malls and sky scrapers; but it also contains, fountains, gardens, fish ponds, a bird sanctuary, and historic buildings; all the sorts of things any good park should have.

Nestled along the gardens is a series of victorian structures known as Flagstaff House. The home of the Hong Kong Museum of Tea Ware and inside of that the delightful Lok Cha Tea House.

Lok Cha has two branches but this one has all the elegance of a centuries old tea house, and all the relaxed ambiance of being transported to another place in time.

The dim sum – small chinese dumplings, pastries and other dishes that are traditional to the convivial yum cha (drinking tea) – are all vegetarian, very light and flavorful, but also somehow all very traditional in taste and texture.

The tea…well there is probably no better place in Hong Kong to buy tea or tea ware and to have the staff prepare your tea in the elegant and somewhat ceremonial, traditional fashion. With the gardens and movement of the park outside the windows the environment is very tranquil.

The surprising thing is that this little gem is hidden away, it seems that few know of its secret presence in such a bustling yet idyllic setting. So do me a favor let’s keep it between you and me, so I can get a table next week.

I took a pretty hard tumble down some steep, wet, stone, stairs on todays hike. I am battered, scraped, bruised and stiff, but unbroken (other than some areas of skin). Actually the worst pain seems to be from a pulled trapezius muscle that apparently did double duty both arresting my descent and keeping my head from smashing into the stone steps.

The event could not have lasted more than a few seconds, but the odd thing is that, to one facet of my mind, time slowed to a crawl, while to another, it went by so fast that I am still not sure what happened.

I clearly remember turning to answer a question Henry asked. I remember the feeling of falling back wards down hill (I was now facing up the steps where Henry was). I remember searing pain as the thing my lightning fast hand tried to grab started tearing the flesh off my fingers and palm.

In comparing notes Henry and I have very different stories on many key points. I remember tumbling and shouting ow-fuck, ow-fuck, ow-fuck! But Henry remembers that I made no sound. I do not remember Henry at all but he swears that he lunged to try to catch me, though he missed. I then I remember lying face up in the washed out ditched next to the steps finally stable. Apparently I rolled 4 times, though I only remember 2. Oh and the hand reaching to grab what I guess was a tree limb? Henry remembers me trying that half way through the tumble which slowed me to a pause…I remember that as the first thing…before the tumbling.

Once my decent was halted, Henry rushed to my side and asked if he should call an ambulance. I said I didn’t need it…but asked him to let me catch my breath first. After a minute I determined I was merely battered, not broken or bent.

While we were luckily on our final downward segment of the hike we still had a good 20 minutes to go. I hiked out and the pain didn’t really start till about the bottom, perhaps 10 minutes after we started hiking again and probably 15 minutes after the fall.

In a very strange turn of events as we were climbing down that last segment we came across a company of rescue workers heading up the hill (In all our many hikes we have never seen them before). Apparently someone else had a bad day on the trail as well.

It is an odd sensation. Where was my conscious self and what parts was it responsible for? It seems to me it was mostly present after the fact and didn’t do much of anything except try to make sense of what had happened.

I am beginning to agree with the many who believe consciousness and self are an epiphenomenon that takes stock only in hindsight. The student, lesson planner and teacher, but not the participant.

It certainly seemed like the I was not in control of anything here and it doesn’t even recall very well what happened. Oh, and that autonomic nervous system? It sure is fast.

ETA: It appears my pack strap also bruised my collar bone, which has become more sore with use throughout the day. I always find it an unusual (and in an odd way enjoyable) experience, when parts of my body are immobilized through injury…it gives opportunity to take an often ignored measure of their true utility.