Eshin Direct

Last night I managed to completely mis-manage my meal times. I had a late lunch at 1700 in Central at this place called Zhong Guo Song, which promises no msg and less oil in their cooking. Tastes great even though I like my food ladened with MSG more often than not. Anyway, with dinner at 1900, the smaller dishes of the Turkish cuisine at Merhaba in Knutsford Terrace, would allow me to have dinner gracefully. If it had been something larger, I think I wouldn’t have been able to eat at all.

My time mismanagement reminded me of two things that actually have more to do in the context of business meals. First, I remembered the advice in “How to be a Rainmaker” and it says that a business meals you aren’t there to taste the food, sample the wine or generally indulge in the fineries surrounding you. So make sure that your client sits facing away from the window. That means they are focused on you more.

This was backed up by some useful advice that my father told me. Whenever he took out important clients, he would take them to his favourite restaurant. It was his favourite for two reasons – one being that he could vouch for the food, two being that he could always count on them to bring him a half portion for him. He said that clients usually listen better when they are eating. It’s hard to talk with your mouth full.

I guess my two cents worth would be to eat before hand and go to some Middle Eastern place. Okay, I guess my advice stinks in comparisson but it got me thinking about those two points again.

Of course, I’ve heard rumour that in places like Korea, they don’t actually trust you until they’ve seen you drunk and that has an important impact on business. Wonder if Jeffrey J. Fox has answer for that. And I’ve never seen my father drunk, despite his ability to drink legendry amounts of Smirnoff in an evening and not showing any significant change in sobrietry.

Zhong Guo Song
6 Wo On Lane
Central, Hong Kong
Tel. 2810 4040
www.zhongguosong.com

No MSG, Less Oil!!!!

Merhaba
G/F., Yiu Pont House
12 Knutsford Terrace, TST
Tel. 2367 2263

Note in the menu the kebabs/skewers are listed as “2 pcs” for HK$40-50. This doesn’t mean you get 2 pieces of meat but two skewers. Well worth the try.