Why I love connecting in Hong Kong

Only because I can get great zhong zi (steamed rice dumplings )between flights! Oh, and free wifi. Liveblogging it here, in 1 hr, off for a mega-long flight to Chicago. Good thing I was up 24 hrs the night before, should be able to doze out most of the next flight...

My 36 hours in Singapore


A completely successful 36 hour trip to Sngapore - got my food cravings done, spices purchased, friends visited, but didn't quite buy all the clothes I was looking for. Was very fortunate to meet up with my classmate's fiance who was doing the same routing, but with a 5 hour stay in S'pore before returning back to the US! It was fun though, stayed w/ my INSEAD friends until about midnight, met Sen's cousins and brothers briefly before going to the airport, met my classmate's fiance at midnight at the airport, and spent 4 hours in the S'pore late night life... eating food at the hawker centres (and finishing up my 'to-eat list') and checking out the 24-hour Mustafa Centre to buy some Indian home goods.

Overall a great trip, but definitely too short. I really missed being in S'pore, wish I could have spent more time, but every minute here was definitely time well spent.

Back in the US by Sunday night...

Edit: And a link to my friend's blog, for her perspective of those 4-5 hours...

Mileage Run

I'm doing one of those crazy mileage runs, quick overseas trip that makes sense due to the cost of the ticket, and/or mileage bonus in return, going from Minneapolis to Singapore for an extended weekend. Plus, I needed to pick up a few things from the grocery store, and was kinda "homesick" for Singapore.

Interestingly, this is concurrent with the flu threat. I'm currently at Narita Tokyo airport, where the Japanese Ministry of Health has really gone overboard on trying to protect people from the flu. Apparently, as a part of new procedures, planes from the US are held up at the gate, while officials come in with thermal imaging cameras to check people's temperatures (at least non-invasively), ask you to fill out forms about your health, where you've been, etc, and requiring everybody to wear masks as they exit the plane. That was really an interesting experience, considering masks are actually not that effective in preventing you from getting the flu. (although they are more effective in preventing people from spreading it), but yet at the airport, there's nothing keeping you from taking off the masks, and there are plenty of people who aren't wearing them. (probably from non-US flights).

Just to put it in scale, regular flu kills something like 30k people in the US every year, and we're seeing this reaction where there's been only 10-20?

Lamb Kheema Recipe

I first learned about kheema, an Indian minced meat dish with spices and peas and served with bread, when I used to frequently stop by a nearby Indian/Pakistani grocer, which had this fantastic cafe in the back run by the aunties. You would often see single male South Asian engineers from nearby tech companies stopping here to eat after work. Unfortunately, the owner has since moved, so I have had to suffer.

Luckily, while at INSEAD Singapore, my roommate and I found a North Indian hawker at the Dover Market, across from INSEAD who had a half decent lamb kheema, but it was always scary to see that the hygiene rating was a C (normally A or B is good enough). I never got sick, but at least I was able to complete my kheema craving.

This weekend, with the help of my Indian roommates, we were able to re-create a kheema recipe from a cookbook. The recipe is somewhat based on Sanjeev Kapoor's Khazana of Indian Recipes

Here are the ingredients:

Vegetables:

• 1 tomato, finely chopped
  
• 1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
  
• 1-2 green chilies, thinly sliced
  
• Coriander leaves, chopped, to taste
• 4 TBS Frozen Peas (depending on your taste)
  

Spices:

• 1/2 tsp cumin seed (I'd be a bit more generous here)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  
• 1 tsp red chili powder (or to taste, depending on how spicy you like your food)
• 1 tsp coriander powder
  
• 1/2 TBS ginger paste
• 1/2 TBS Garlic paste
• salt to taste
  

Meat:

• 1 lb ground lamb

Steps:

	1. Chop the onions and tomatoes finely
	2. Heat up about a tsp of oil and a similar amount of ghee in a pan on medium heat. Take care that the oil isn't smoking hot
	3. Add in the cumin seed, mix them with the oil, and fry until the seeds start to bubble
	4. Once the seeds are bubbling, add in the chopped onions. Continue to fry over medium heat until the onions start to carmelize and turn soft. Be sure that the onions don't start to burn on the edges, that means the heat is too high.
	5. Once the onions are brown, add in the sliced green chilies, garlic paste, and ginger paste. Continue to fry the mixture until the chilies are soft, for about 1-2 minutes.
	6. Add in the ground lamb, break up the meat into pieces and make sure that the onion/chili mixture starts to stick to the meat. You can turn up the heat a bit here if it helps to turn the meat brown. (Note: not recommended to have meat sit in a big ball as pictured - harder to break up!)
	7. Once the meat is browned, add in the remainder of the spices: turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder. Mix in with the meat and continue the fry up the spices.
	8. Add in the tomatoes, continue to fry until the tomatoes are "melted soft" and turned brown, and you see some oil leaving the spice mixture. (typically 5+ minutes)
	9. Add peas to the mixture, and add 1 cup water to slightly thicken the mixture, add salt to taste, then simmer for 15-20 minutes.
	10. Once finished, add chopped coriander leaves into mixture.
	11. DONE! Serve with rice or chapatis

New Disease - Coronary Arrest, the hybrid combination of coronary infarct and cardiac arrest

I was reading this Wall Street Journal article about Citi and Hedge Funds getting hurt on the trading of Citi shares when I read this funny quote:

"There are a lot of hedge funds looking for free money, and a lot of people were betting against Citi," says Jonathon Trugman, who runs Pendulum Capital Management, a stock-picking hedge fund in New York. Hedge funds lost money on Citigroup because "not every patient who goes into coronary arrest fails to come out of it."

Coronary arrest? Sounds like a new disease, the love-child of coronary infarct and cardiac arrest....

Although, I guess if you have an infarct, it would lead to coronary arrest, after cardiac arrest. =P

Singapura Daily Makan Photo: Kampong Fried Chicken @ 34 Dover Road



There are days where I really miss things from Singapore, and reading the blog post above (courtesy: Singapura Daily Makan Photo) made me miss the fried-chicken shop that was next to school. This place was great, they had an incredible chicken cutlet dinner, with fries, cole slaw, two thinly sliced fried chicken fillets, yum! Or, you could order a whole fried chicken for yourself. Note: these are not the American sized chickens, they're a lot smaller, and I think, tastier.

The blog post brings back memories about an afternoon where one of my classmates walked in with takeout from this place, and I immediately felt a craving for it, but was too lazy to walk across the street to get one for myself.

The shop used to be located in the coffee shop on the opposite side, but apparently they moved while I was in France / Geneva. For a while, I really missed the place, but when they re-opened on the other side, I was so excited!

Did you notice the name? Kampong Fried Chicken? KFC anybody? (Kampong means village in Malay)

Where's George?

A while ago, I came across these $1 bills stamped with www.wheresgeorge.com. It was a pretty cool idea, based on the bill's serial number, people could see where and when it was last entered into the database, and you can see where the bill has travelled.

Over a year ago, I encountered a number of bills like this, either at work (where I think somebody was stamping them), and at the local farmer's market. So, when I got one, I decided to enter the bill into the database.

Today, 1 year, 184 days later, that bill has been found and re-entered in the database, in Texas! Pretty cool. The most ironic part is that this bill originated from the TC, ended up in Fargo, and then back to MN, then I tried to make sure that I spent it someplace away from the TC so it wouldn't get stuck here.

Check out the report: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php?key=ec71992f85999609d32b3683fca617da3833122e83a34a28

You call that a small?

Culture shock x 2 this week. Was driving, decided to stop at Burger King for a quick lunch. Didn't want something too big, so I got a whopper w/ cheese and a small coke. The lady pulls this gigantic cup and places it on my tray.

Me: Um, that's a small right?
Lady: Yes, that's right.
me:

Culture Shock

I've been back in the US for about a week, and it's been a bit wierd to be back. Especially when it's super cold out, and just a week ago I was talking around in shorts and sandals.

But one of the most interesting moments happened to me today at the store. I was looking for some reading material, and decided to browse the magazine rack. You know you're back in the US when you can't find a single issue of the Economist to catch up on international news, but there's a whole section carrying 5+ gun magazines...

I'm done!!!

After 1 year, EUR50,000+, tons of work, I'm finally DONE! Classes ended at different times for everybody, but mine finished at 5pm on Monday. (well, officially, I had to leave class at 4:30pm to catch a plane)

In true tradition, I've left right away for vacation, travelling with friends to Kunming, China, with a stopover in Hong Kong. I'm in HK right now, after visiting the city for 1 hr, sleeping for 6, and then checking in to my next flight. Kinda cool, I had a chance to eat some true HK dishes, admire the skyline, all in time to come back to the airport before the airport express train shuts down.

It's strange, because I don't feel any different than when I started, except maybe a little more disciplined, and a little bit (ok, a lot) tired. It doesn't quite seem final yet for me, especially given the job situation.

At least graduation comes by on the 17th, I get to travel in the region for a bit, and should be back in the US by January.

Top Gear and Roasted mini-crab snacks
Today is my last weekend of real homework/classes!! And so, while slacking off in school, my roommate and I were watching Top Gear, the BBC show about cars, and this episode was about racing through Japan on public transit vs. a car. In the show, the host, Jeremy, was given some Japanese snacks to eat while he drove, including some mini-crabs. I thought it was a joke, until my roommate came back with the exact same snacks from the grocery store next door.

It's gotta be the weirdest things I've ever eaten. They are actually real crabs (small thumbsized ones), that seem to be fried, and then there's a sweet sauce with sesame seeds on it, like typical Japanese snacks. I thought it'd be really hard to eat, but it's a bit like softshelled crabs. It's SO wierd to look at these things, because they're real crabs, they have arms, eyes, and everything. Even if you bite halfway into one, there's "stuff" on the inside of the main shell.



And I have to say, it's kinda tasty. Crab flavored, as you might expect.

More Cabaret Videos - (inspired by the Japanese movie Battle Royale)

Incredibly hilarious, although there might be some inside jokes that aren't as well appreciated, but plenty of references and physical comedy. Read the movie notes on YouTube to see the references...The shaven-head guy giving out weapons (and dancing at the end) is an American statistics professor here. As you can see, he's quite fit, and apparently, he was at a bar in Singapore, where another guy was trying to pick a fight with him, giving a hard time, making nasty comments to the girl with him, etc, expecting that he was some fancy ex-pat. The guy asked him what he did, and he said "I'm actually a US Navy SEAL, on assignment to provide combat training to the Singapore Armed Forces". Apparently, it was so believable that the harassing guy shut up and was trying to become his best friend!

Cabaret

I can't believe this incredible year is coming to a close so quickly. We had our Cabaret event, with incredible hilarious student skits, and some really great memories about the past year. Here are a few of the videos... including an incredibly funny Mac vs PC (or iNsead vs HBS) themed commercials...

iNsead vs. HBS - Language


iNsead vs. HBS - Out of the Box


iNsead vs. HBS - iTravel


It's Nine in the Afternoon Lip-Sync

What's in my Wallet?


Just got back from my trip to Geneva / London for a VC conference. You know you're from INSEAD when you can act as a one-man money changer! This is a real snapshot of what was in my wallet today: (top to bottom)

US Dollars, British Pounds, Swiss Francs, Cambodian Riels, Malaysian Ringgits, and Singapore Dollars. And that's just the currencies I used within the past 2 weeks...

Movie stars at the VC Conference in Geneva?

Not sure if the MBA has shortened my attention span, or if this conference is a bit too long-winded, but I'm typing this post out in the middle of the conference! Good thing wifi is free.

The funniest thing about this conference is that we have a host that looks/sounds like the manager from the Office (Steve Carrell's character), and he can't read people really well, which has lead to sadly hilarious problems, and there's a presenter that looks and sounds like Alan Alda...

Angkor Wat

From Angkor Wat

Blogging from the road... now in London Heathrow, on my way to Geneva. Just got back from a weekend at Siem Reap / Angkor Wat. It was an incredible experience, travelling with my classmates for a weekend. It was the first time I've been to a country where everything for tourists ran on USD. Restaurant prices were quoted in dollars, not the local currency. Anything that you buy, would be based on dollars. The only time you might receive local currency is if the price was like $4.50, then you'd receive local bills for change.

Cambodia is a poor country, if not one of the poorest in Asia, but you really see an entrepreneurial class developing. Our very nice boutique hotel was $56/night... and that was for a HUGE room. The basic room was $30/night. Meals at nice restaurants would be $5-7 per dish. The infrastructure is clearly developing, and seeing young kids selling things at the major temples is a bit disconcerting when they should be in school, but I had the impression that tourism was really a major force in developing the economy. A lot of Asian budget carriers are flying into Siem Reap, which really is a small town, and there's a hotel boom that's happening. And all the accessory things, like spas, restaurants, entertainment, are developing around this.

It's all an amazing change from the 70-80's, where the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam war created a lot of trauma for the people living here. There are still landmines being cleared here, and you can see victims playing for these "landmine victims bands", playing traditional music for money. Even our guide was telling us stories about how he and his family used to survive in the jungle during the Khmer rouge era. It's amazing for me to think about his experience, from surviving in the jungle, to now, a grandfather, seeing his kids/grandkids grow up safely, earning a decent wage from being a tour guide, exposure to so many foreign tourists, and having very good English skills.

Would definitely recommend a visit to Angkor Wat/Siem Reap... friendly people, amazing history and temples, and your tourism dollars can go directly to improve the economy of this amazing country.

Photos are, as always, up on picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/kent.x.lee/AngkorWat

Monsoon Ball 2008

From Monsoon Ball

I don't normally go to these types of events, but Monsoon Ball is the last big social event for our class, and I'm really glad that I went, because it was completely fun. They had rented a whole lobby of a hotel, there was an outside patio with snacks, 2 rooms with music, dancing, and lounging areas. Monsoon ball was a campus-wide ball, including staff, current students, and alumni that were visiting for Meeting in Asia Alumni event. The official dress code was "black tie", but national dress was highly encouraged. So, lacking a Chinese suit, and not wanting to sweat it out with a shirt, jacket and tie in the tropical heat, I went to the nearby touristy shops in Holland Village and found this great Chinese style jacket. best part: No ironing required! And, not too expensive, S$50, or about US$35

It was so much fun to see all my classmates dressed up for the evening, and the different hybrid national dresses, like seeing an English guy wear a Indian Kuta, or a Taiwanese girl wear a Chinese cheong saam, but made from Indian sari material.

Photos are posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/kent.x.lee/MonsoonBall

Lots of upcoming trips

Hard to imagine that I'm almost done, but I've been a good student and haven't done too much travelling in the region, because I didn't want to miss my classes. But, now that I'm almost finished and planning to leave the region, I need to finish up my travelling. I'm excited, the following trips are coming up:

Nov 14-16: Cambodia / Angkor Wat
Nov 17-22: Geneva for a VC conference (courtesy of my summer internship VC firm)
Dec 5-7: Possible trip to New Delhi/Agra to see the Taj Mahal and meet up with my former collleagues from the US
Dec 22-28: Penang/KL (no, not my initials, but Kuala Lumpur)
sometime in January: Return back to the US

Day in the life of Kent..
Taken from the real events (and times) of October 29th...

	7:50am - Wake up before the alarm, but decided to go back to sleep and wait for the alarm to wake me. 8:30am - Alarm goes off... but decided to hit snooze
	8:40am - Finally woke up for real, started to wash up, prepare myself for school
	9:00am - Leave the apartment, walk to school, and on most days, I pick up a steamed bun (bao zi) at the coffee shop on the first floor. Today, I'm still full from yesterday's dinner, so I don't get breakfast
	9:10am - Check the clocks at the entrance... 9:10am, go to my locker to pickup reading materials
	9:15am - Check emails, read the wsj.com online site to catch up on the news that happened overnight. (and hope that there wasn't any more financial damage on Wall Street from the night before) 10:00am - Start preparing for my interview on the next day, reviewing my resume, going over case questions, and comments from my last interviewers
	12:00pm - Attend Global Strategy Management class, where we discussed the case about whether INSEAD, a European school, should expand to include an Asian campus. 1:30pm - Class ends
	1:45pm - Grab a quick lunch in the cafeteria that's full of students just finishing classes, chat with some friends that just arrived from the European campus, and prepare for a 2pm class 2:00pm - Attend the Models for Strategic Planning class... class finishes at 3:30pm 3:45pm - Attend the Business Plan Workshop class until 5:30
	5:30pm - Attend the Entrepreneurship day lectures, with a special session on "How to get a job in Private Equity", with 3 people that are already within the field.
	6:20pm - received a call from a friend, reminding me that we're supposed to leave early for a surprise birthday party for another classmate 6:30pm - Entrepreneurship day lectures finish, went to the lobby to share a taxi to go to the restaurant for a classmate's birthday dinner
	6:40pm - While in the taxi going across Singapore on the AYE, admire the incredible view of the Singapore skyline at sunset (on the left), while laughing at the jack-o-lantern that's hanging from the Singapore Flyer (on the right, but not pictured)
	7:00pm - We're first to arrive at the restaurant, so we decide to buy a birthday cake for our classmate at the nearby mall. While waiting for a stoplight, I get "bombed" by a bird flying above. Yuck!
	7:34pm - Our friend arrives at the restaurant for her surprise birthday dinner! Except, we're seated at the front of the restaurant, and there's these huge windows, so she could see us waiting there! 9:45pm - Leave the birthday dinner a little early with a classmate to go back to INSEAD for a 10pm interview call with the US 9:55pm - Arrive back at INSEAD, prepare for my interview with the US, but the interviewer re-schedules the meeting. 10pm - 11pm: Prepare for my McKinsey interview the next day, reviewing Case In Point, and lessons learnt from previous case interviews. 11pm: Take a call from a US recruiter for VC firms, talk about career goals and explaining my resume 11:30pm: Return back to my apartment 11:45pm: Iron my shirt for tomorrow's 8am videoconference interview with McKinsey New York 12:00am - Sleep! Need to get up at 6:30am the next morning to make sure I arrive at the McKinsey Singapore office by 7:30am.

Follow-up on Evolvence Capital

A few posts ago, I spoke about our video-conference with the people from Evolvence capital in Dubai/India. One thing I didn't mention: this was the first time I realized the power of the LinkedIn network. In the class, my classmate decided to lookup the guy we were speaking to (the founder of the fund). According to Linked in, he was already 3 degrees away from this founder. I decided to do the same, and found out that I'm also 3 degrees away from this guy as well. It was me, to one of the MPs at my summer internship, to his contacts, to this guy.

The power of personal networks is staggering - you may be already connected to people that you just recently met for the first time, through other people. Hopefully, my LinkedIn network will result in some job offers, given today's MBA recruiting situation..