Suits you, Sir

Another action packed weekend. More obscenely good food at absurdly low prices to a gross gourmand like myself. My culinary tour of Asia moved on to Korea and then a two day stop over in Japan.

South Korean food is spicy and delicious (North Korean food is more difficult to find - especially if you live in North Korea). Cooking it yourself on a tabletop barbecue with the firepower of an out of control gas flare is a blast too. And anyone who has ever gasped at the bill in a posh sushi place in London will find themselves in nirvana here. I went very upscale at Shintori (very hip warehouse style place too) and also Sun and Aqua on The Bund. Just in case my colleague Patricia reads this, I will refrain from mentioning that dinner with Michael on Friday night (which was up there on the quality scale with anything I've ever eaten in London), including 2 bottles of wine, cost £66. Oh sorry.

I went partying with Tony on Saturday night but left early - fatigued from Friday night and all this tireless, incessant restaurant research which I am engaged in purely for the sake of my saintly wife Abigail who will be reading this too as she eats the children's leftovers. Sunday found me refreshed and it was back to the grindstone for me. Yes Sirrree, no rest for the wicked! First stop, lunch at Dian Shi Zhai restaurant with Isabella and her husband Eric. Superb Shanghainese cuisine including delicious spicy (not stinky) tofu, long-tailed anchovies deep fried until the bones melt in your mouth and leave a lovely sweet flavour, and many other fantastic dishes.

Shanghai is short on greenery - Shiji Park (Century Park) is about as grassy as it gets. We spent the afternoon there trying to escape the ridiculous heat by taking to the lake in a boat. The musical fountains (Colonel Bogey anyone?) added a surreal aspect to the afternoon.

5pm - just time to visit my tailor and pick up my new threads before dinner... The shirts are excellent, fit perfectly and let's remind ourselves that they are 100% cotton and cost £6.66 each. The suit is pretty dapper actually. Timothy Everest probably isn't going to be giving up the game in a huff when he sees the attention to detail, but nonetheless it kicks the pants of most off-the-peg stuff that I've bought. Unless you are built like a model (I'm built like a model - a model of a sea-cow) most suits from the high street look like you've still got the coat hanger in when you try them on. This one fits beautifully although dare I say it, with my recent weight loss, it could do with being a bit more fitted.

Me and Tony are flying to Shenzhen for meetings tomorrow and then onwards by train to Guangzhou. I find it hard to imagine, but aparently it's even hotter down there at the moment. But don't worry, apparently the food is great.