A Hidden Gem.

It is over 30 years since my passion for East Asian food was fuelled by touring Hong Kong and Japan. Actually the latter was hugely disappointing as it looked great but tasted bland. When I went to Cambridge in 1988 I spent far too much in Charlie Chan's particularly after a small legacy came my way a year later. Then of course I went mad.

If you have read "A Pillar of Impotence" you will recall the desperate battle I had with so little money. As a result I sought out cheap places. Chinatown then was cheap but not so much now. After I met the karate guys in 1995 I was introduced to what I have always considered the finest Chinese food I ever ate outside of Hong Kong. If you had walked past the Hi Tin in Tontine Street Folkestone in those days you would probably have passed it by. But if you went in and met Michael Lo and has wife Lisa you were in for a treat. And it cost next to nothing. Sadly it is no more as they retired a few years ago.

During the equally desperate search for a teaching job around 2000-2002, I often stayed with my friend Beth when she lived in Hackney. There we discovered another obscure gem on Mare Street. Go to the Hai Ha if you are there and feast on splendid Vietnamese fare.

Now I still seek good food but at a good price. I was down with Beka this weekend to design the cover of "Charon's Ferry". On Friday we discovered the most sublime Pan Asia food I have ever eaten-and it was dirt cheap. Zaibastu at 96 Trafalgar Road Greenwich is a must for foodies-just go! Stunning sushi, noodles, ribs, squid and what I ordered, much to the surprise of my companions, marinated eel was simply sublime. I will definitely go again.

It was a good weekend and my mood lifted to +2 for the first time in several months. Maybe the change did me good. And there is the makings of fine cover design. Beka will do more detailed work in the next few days so we are a step closer to the paperback emerging.

Off to Fu Hao now to celebrate the Chinese New Year, too cold, and not conducive with an overnight back to attend the festivities in Chinatown. More soon.

I Heard a Voice.