Back Then, There Was

Tuesday, the day with no food.  Not at least till dinner.  Hot black coffee.  Water.   Cold black coffee.  Water.   I have a dinner meeting down in Guomao at 5:30PM.  There will be a brief meeting with a partner and then off to dinner.  I’ll be ready to eat.

Down at Guomao now.  The one term used to be enough.  Arriving I told the guy hey, didn’t I say “China Great “fandian?”  “No.  You typed in China Great jiudian”  Both mean "hotel."  I figured I was off to the posh hotel to where, as I recall, a good friend once bumped into the late Herbert Walker Bush there at the gym.  But that, is the next skyscraper over.  This is the newer, better, place and it better be where I'm going as this is the address my friend provided.   

Around 2006, when I lived in Hong Kong, I always used to stay near here at the Traders hotel, which was and has now once again, been dwarfed.  It was cheaper and had all the requisite facilities.  It’s still right there.  Down below all of this, is a tremendous mall that used to be quite something before there were eight seven other malls the same size strewn throughout this neighborhood.  Back then there was a coffee place named Arabica Roasters and it was a big deal, until the city opened its first Starbucks in this same mall.  To think, they probably vexed about whether or not it would succeed. 

Restaurants came and went.  Shops of note were here until they weren’t.  I’m sure there are other things to discover here now, that are achingly important to someone.  We rendezvous, have our brief 5:30PM meeting and stroll across this mall, out side and into that mall where we take an elevator up to the fifth floor.  My friend, another old-Beijinger directs us to a posh little Vietnamese place that is sold out on a Tuesday night.  Achingly important to someone.  Good business.  We take a seat at the bar and order scotches and chat until they can seat us.  

With supreme discipline I let my friend order the food.  It sounds as though he hasn’t ordered enough.  I keep silent.  The goi cuon hits the table and I try to appear nonchalant as my friend takes the first piece and I inhale my first bite of the day, and then my second.  The food isn’t bad, though the young waiters seem a bit clueless and we have to keep repeating ourselves, but the lighting is dark and our conversation is strong enough so that we only occasionally notice the middling service. 

Tuesday 12/04/18