Quick Note: Upcoming Speaking Engagement

Just a quick note about another upcoming speaking engagement next week.

I will be speaking at the Giftex Prepay Conference at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Toronto this Monday, July 13th.    For the handful of clients, colleagues and friends I have in the area, please feel free to stop by.

I’ll be giving a talk about how increasing Internet credit card fraud rates are causing major problems for retailers who sell plastic and virtual gift cards online.

Cool Hotels, Volume 3: The Salon Suites at the Tower Suites, Wynn Las Vegas

One of the most common questions I get asked about my travels is “Where do you stay when you visit [insert city here]?”   As a result, I figured that I’d start documenting some of the more interesting hotels that I stay at.  This is installment Number 3.  Note:  Some of you may recall a previous post I made about the Wynn Las Vegas, also covering the Salon Suites, the electronic mini-bar system and the baggie of drugs discovered in my room.

Tower Suites at The Wynn Las Vegas

3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702) 770-7000

Web: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com

[Above, left to right:  A photo of Wynn Las Vegas and the sun shining off of its sister tower, Encore.]

For the past couple of years, I have rented a one bedroom suite in the Tower Suites at the Wynn Las Vegas, only to be to be upgraded to their amazing Salon Suite.  The Tower Suites at the Wynn Las Vegas are the only rooms in Las Vegas to have earned, both, Mobile Five Star and AAA Five Diamond Awards and they are integrated into the resort using a “hotel within a hotel” concept:   separate entrance, small and intimate lobby, private check-in, dedicated concierge and private pool.   Your room key also gives you line jump privileges at certain venues, such as the Wynn Buffet.

The Salon Suite is the largest of the hotel suites that can be rented by hotel guests (anything larger is by casino invite only).  The size and amenities of the suite are opulant, to say the least.   Measuring in at almost 2,300 square feet (larger than my apartment at home!), it includes a massive living and dining room, full-size bar, private massage room, powder room, master bedroom and a master bathroom which measure nearly 400 square feet in itself.  There are three flat screen televisions and a fully-stocked vanity of bathroom amenities, including hair products by Bumble & Bumble.   One entire side of the suite is composed of floor-to-ceiling windows, which overlook the Vegas Strip.   You could probably easily sleep 6 in the room without stepping over each other, although there is only one king bed in the suite.

One reason why I rent a suite each year is to have a private meeting space where I can spend time with clients.   The price of the suite is nearly half of Wynn would charge for a meeting room one-third of its size.   I must say, however, that it is almost embarrassing bring people into a room like this.  I am waiting for a client so say something like, “you’re charing me too much money if you’re staying in a room like this!”.

(click for larger view)

(click for larger view)

Omelette of the Bizarre: Okonomiyaki in London

I rarely write about food, which is quite surprising, given that I am a huge foodie and that stuffing my face is usually an integral part of my worldly travels.   The truth is, that I don’t have the time to start YAFB (yet another food blog), particularly since I have the opportunity to eat so many wonderful things in my every day life and could never find the time or patience to capture all of the good bits.   But my friends and colleagues will often tell you that I am the the go-to guy when it comes to finding new and interesting cuisine, which is probably fueled by my unofficial part time job researching good restaurants, a large collection of food and travel-related books and my personal addiction to FoodTV.   So imagine my wonderment (and shame!) when I was encountered with an Okonomiyaki restaurant in London – a type of Japanese cuisine that I never even knew existed.

My friend had walked by the small outpost of Abeno, hidden just off of Leicester Square on Great Newport Street in London, and suggested we give it a try.

Sitting at the Okonomiyaki at Abeno in London.  It is usually a good sign when you are the only white person sitting in an Asian restaurant…

Wikipedia describes Okonomiyaki like this:

Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き^?) is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning “what you like” or “what you want”, and yaki meaning “grilled” or “cooked” (cf. yakitori and yakisoba). Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.Kansai (Osaka)-style okonomiyaki is the predominant style of the dish, found throughout most of Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated yam, water or dashi, eggs and shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat (generally pork or bacon), octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, kimchi, mochi or cheese. Okonomiyaki is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and may be referred to as “a Japanese pancake”, or even “Osaka soul food”^[1].

Most okonomiyaki restaurants are set up as grill-it-yourself establishments, where the server produces a bowl of raw ingredients that the customer mixes and grills at tables fitted with teppan, or special hotplates. They may also have a diner style counter where the cook will prepare the dish right in front of the customers.

In Osaka (the largest city in the Kansai region), where this dish is said to have originated, okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are fried on both sides on either a hot plate (teppan) or a pan using metal spatulas that are later used to slice the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (fish flakes), Japanese mayonnaise and pickled ginger (beni shoga).

The entire experience is interesting, to say the least.   You are presented with a number of choices for your Okonomiyaki, which looks like an omelette and does, actually, include some egg, but not as the base ingredient – I suppose the single egg is used only to bind the other ingredients together.  The main base this concoction is, surprisingly, finely shredded Chinese cabbage.  The ingredients are brought to your place at the bar and mixed in front of you, creating an unappetizing glob that is cooked right there:

The blob is shaped into form and topped with whatever it is you’ve asked for (in this case, sliced pork):

It then sits there for a good ten minutes, cooking away as you munch on some starters, such as these rice balls with a tart plum filling:

The resulting product looks like this:

This is a photo of my cabbage-based combination of kimchee, chiles, pork and a bunch of other stuff.

You are then presented with a variety of toppings, including something I would consider a “Japanese bar-b-que sauce” and shavings of smoked tuna, which tastes more like bacon than anything that could have come from the sea.

All in all, quite tasty, if I do say so myself!

And while Abeno claims to be the only Okonomiyaki place in London, I did discover that there are more than a few joints serving it up in New York City…right under my nose all this time and I’ve never discovered it!

Quick Note: Four Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Just a quick note about four upcoming speaking engagements in the next month…I’ll be quite busy on the speaking circuit!

On Friday, May 1, I will be speaking at the Edgar Dunn & Company Fraud Round-table in Philadelphia.  The audience will be a small group of Chief Risk/Compliance Officers from the nation’s largest credit card issuers.  I am not sure if this is a public or private event, but it looks interesting.  I’ll be speaking on topics related to emerging merchant fraud detection tools, techniques and technologies.

Then, on Wednesday, May 13th, I’ll be speaking at the European CNP Payment Forum Annual Conference at the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel Barcelona, Spain.  The presentation will be called “The DNA of Fraud” and will look at some of the core elements and causes of payments fraud today.   Anyone is welcome to register for this three day event.

I will be back home in New York City on May 21st, speaking on a more technical topic.  This time, I will be speaking at the Golden Gate Roadshow at the Westin New York Times Square, where I will talk about current architectural trends related to the real-time, highly-available database systems (Yes, sounds fun, doesn’t it).   This event is open to registered guests.

Finally, I will be back in London on June 17, speaking about, errrr, well, that is TBD – but it will also have something to do with high availability systems.  This one will be at the wonderful Vinopolis on Bank End in London.

Cool Hotels, Volume 2: Cavello Point Lodge, Sausalito, California

One of the most common questions I get asked about my travels is “Where do you stay when you visit [insert city here]?”   As a result, I figured that I’d start documenting some of the more interesting hotels that I stay at.  This is installment Number 2.

Cavallo Point Lodge
601 Murray Circle
Fort Baker / Sausalito, California 94965

Web: http://www.cavallopoint.com

[Above, left to right:  A photo of the bay and Golden Gate from the property's front lawn, the living room from one of the guestrooms and the instructional kitchen.]

The Cavello Point Lodge is one of the more unique hotels that I’ve ever stayed at.  The word “hotel” doesn’t quite describe it, however, as it is more of a resort, comprised of a number of early 20th-century buildings constructed at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge.   The buildings, and the property in which they sit on, were formerly known as Fort Baker, the US Army base erected to protect the mouth of the Golden Gate from potential intruders.  The original buildings have been carefully renovated into a five-star resort which features a number of yoga and wellness classes, cooking classes, an excellent spa and fitness facility, a high-end bar and restaurant and, most importantly, unique and spectacular views of downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

They have an excellent cooking instruction facility and their Cooking Director is Kelsie Kerr, who is the former chef at the famed Chez Panisse and recently co-authored The Art of Simple Food with the legendary Alice Waters.  On the day of my arrival to a board meeting last month, the group of 14 that I was meeting with was brought upstairs to the culinary studio and cooked our own dinner – after instructure from Miss Kerr, of course.    To my surprise, the food was great and the overall exeperience was a great teamwork exercise.