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A panic alert flashed across Alberto Herrera’s computer screen. Men claiming to be with the notorious

Gulf Cartel had stopped a convoy trans-porting chemicals through a lawless region of northeastern Mexico. They seized two drivers from an escort truck and demanded the valuable cargo in exchange for their release.

Giant flat-screen monitors blinked with the GPS locations of dozens of vehicles carrying cargo coveted by criminals: de-signer jeans, rare art and business execu-tives ripe for kidnapping.

The phone chatter and chirping two-way radios sounded like a police dispat-ch, but this was the emergency response room of International Private Security, a Mexico-based company that helps clients like PepsiCo, Audi and BP do business in the unpredictable landscape of a country where organized crime rules entire swa-ths.

A direct line to Mexico’s federal police sat on Herrera’s desk, but he had orders

from this client not to use it. Instead, the client’s crisis team negotiated the release of the drivers and their cargo.

“They didn’t want us to call the police,” said the 32-year-old Herrera. “People don’t necessarily trust the cops.”

Distrust of police has made private security big business in Latin America, where a majority of public security for-ces are deemed incompetent, corrupt, or both. In the world’s most dangerous region, an army of nearly 4 million pri-vate security agents make up an industry growing 9 percent a year and projected to reach about USD30 billion by 2016. That’s more than the economies of Paraguay or El Salvador.

IPS alone has doubled its employee ranks to 4,000 over the last five years. Across the region, private guards outnumber public officers beyond the global average of 2-to-1. In Brazil, it’s 4-to-1; in Guatemala, 5-to-1; and in Honduras, it’s close to 7-to-1.

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COPS INC.LATIN AMERICA

X2 PÁTIO DA ILUSÃO illusion

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OCumberbatCh shines as wartime Codebreaker

DRIVE INJocelyn Noveck, AP

Tis clearly the season for Oscar-worthy performan-

ces by British actors playing mathematical geniuses facing daunting personal odds.Sound overly specific? Consi-der: A few weeks ago we had “The Theory of Everything,” starring Eddie Redmayne as the brilliant physicist Ste-phen Hawking. And now we have Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game” as Alan Turing, the man chiefly responsible for cracking the vaunted Enigma code used by the Germans in World War II.But even though Turing lite-rally changed the course of history — Winston Churchill said he’d made the greatest single contribution to the Allied victory — and, by the way, ALSO created one of the first modern computers, you may well have never heard of him.That would be reason enough to applaud the arrival of “The Imitation Game,” directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore based on a

1983 book by Andrew Hodges. But though it often feels like your basic high-brow British biopic, the film also happens to boast impeccable acting, especially by Cumberbatch, who masterfully captures the jittery, nervy brilliance of a man whose mind could bring down an enemy yet couldn’t process simple human inte-ractions.Was Turing autistic, or did he have Asperger’s syndrome? Who knows — today we’d probably say he was “on the spectrum.” He’s a man who can’t coherently answer whe-ther he wants a sandwich for lunch. At the same time, he’s conceiving a machine that will somehow defeat the Ger-mans’ own cipher machine, the Enigma, which uses code that changes every 24 hours, rendering traditional decryp-ting methods useless.As we learn about this pain-ful duality in Turing’s life, we also learn he was gay, in an era when homosexual activity was criminalized in Britain.

ne’s activity. Eureka!The story gets more interes-ting as the team realizes it must keep its huge break-through a secret, lest the Na-zis figure it out and change their code. They enter into a painful calculus: Which infor-mation can be used, and hen-ce which lives saved?There are surely numerous narrative shortcuts taken here. There’s also one of those slogan-type lines that seems far too tongue-trippin-gly clunky to be uttered by one character, let alone two:

After the war, he was prose-cuted for indecency. Given a choice of “chemical castra-tion” or prison, he chose the former. He committed suicide at 41, a cyanide-laced apple by his bedside.Oddly, though, the film ad-dresses Turing’s death only with a quick line in the pos-tscript, and no word on the method. It’s a strange omis-sion — particularly given that Turing was said to have been fascinated by the “Snow Whi-te” story.We begin after the war, with the police investigating a mysterious break-in at Tu-ring’s home and wondering what this fellow’s about (they don’t yet know about his role in the war). Soon we flash back to 1939, and younger Tu-ring’s job interview with the commander running the se-cret codebreaking program (a nicely crusty Charles Dance). Given Turing’s dreadful per-sonal skills, it doesn’t go well.But he’s hired, and imme-diately starts alienating his colleagues, especially the charismatic Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode, excellent and also perhaps the bes-t-looking mathematician ever portrayed onscreen). (Well, at least until Keira Knightley

makes her entrance in this film.)Turing is ridiculed for insis-ting on building his machine, taking up time and money while soldiers are dying. De-nied funding, he makes a di-rect plea to Churchill, who puts him in charge. That’s when he hires Joan Clarke (an appealing Knightley), the only woman on the team and his eventual fiancee.Still, things go badly, until an offhand remark by a woman in a bar makes Turing realize a way to speed up the machi-

“Sometimes it’s the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”But there’s truth to it. Turing’s story is indeed hard to imagi-ne. Thanks to Cumberbatch’s committed performance, a lot more people will know it.

“The Imitation Game,” a Weinstein Company release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion

Picture Association of America for “some sexual references,

mature thematic material and historical smoking.” Running

time: 114 minutes. AP

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BOOK IThurtling towards disaster - the modern addiCtion to speed

tTUNESturmoil helps aC/dC shine on new album

In 1980, AC/DC’s very existence was at stake: singer Bon Scott died just as the band was starting to get big. They used the un-

certainty and grief to dig down deep, and the result was one of the greatest albums in rock history, “Back In Black.”In 2014, AC/DC is once again in turmoil: founding rhythm guita-rist Malcolm Young had to leave the band due to dementia, and drummer Phil Rudd recently saw charges that he hired a hit man to kill someone dropped, but still faces serious legal matters. And once again, the band has come up big, with “Rock or Bust.”The album is based on lead guitarist Angus Young’s butt-shaking, foot-stomping guitar riffs, elegant in their simplicity and their abi-lity to burn themselves into your brain. The title track, and the first single, “Play Ball,” are perfect examples of this.“Miss Adventure” adds a “nah nah nah” chant to a bouncy blues beat in the same way that chants benefited their previous hit “Thunderstruck.” And “Emission Control” is one of the all-time great song title double entendres.But the happiest surprise here is the re-emergence of Brian John-son’s voice. During the ‘90s and early 2000s, you could literally hear it crumble before your ears, seeming to get weaker with each new album. Whether it has re-energized during the time off since the band’s tour wrapped in 2010, or is just miked and processed better, it sounds strong and vibrant again — an essential element of the classic AC/DC sound.

Wayne Parry, AP

Speed,” it seemed to Aldous Huxley, “provides the one ge-

nuinely modern pleasure.”In “Speed Limits,” however, mo-dernity’s apotheosis of speed has more to do with pain than pleasure. An ever-quickening pace of life threatens to plunge us into a dystopian nightmare that Huxley himself could scar-cely have dreamt up.“Speed Limits,” like other works in this nascent genre, such as “24/7: Late Capitalism and The Ends of Sleep” by Jonathan Crary, draws on the impact of newer, quicker technologies to form a sweeping critique of ca-pitalism.Mark Taylor, the book’s author and chair of the department of religion at the University of Co-lumbia, sees humanity’s addic-tion to speed as a fundamentally religious phenomenon.The tale begins with Martin Lu-ther and the “birth of the mo-dern subject”. From there, each broad historical trend - the in-dustrial revolution, the advent of newspapers, the spread of literacy and the dawning of the technological revolution - are conjoined contributors to the same need for speed.If speed has become a religious infatuation, it is within the wor-ld of high finance that Taylor finds its cathedrals: glass-de-cked investment banks, which are the tallest buildings of their day, where traders worship at latter-day Bloomberg altars. In “Speed Limits,” these high

AC/DC “Rock or Bust” (Columbia Records)

“Speed Limits: Where Time Went and Why We Have So Little Left” by Mark C Taylor, Yale University Press, £18.99/$28.50

food to (speed) dating. Even the hu-man brain, he suggests, may be evol-ving to consume 140 characters rather than the lengthy texts still taught at university.In the final chapter, after outlining the perils of speed, Taylor confesses that he struggles to write in the city, pre-ferring a converted barn in Massachu-setts. The book similarly begins with an invocation of the pastoral.The switch to the rural is illuminating. There is a sense that “Speed Limits” is essentially about the virtual geogra-phies of urban financial centres, and the lives of those caught up in them. Beyond apocalyptic scenarios, howe-ver, it is unclear how the cult of speed stands to affect rural populations.Whether or not a dystopia is immi-nent, utopia - rural or otherwise - seems out of the question. In his Nobel Prize address in 1992, economist Gary Becker offered an explanation. It is the “constant f low of time” that ren-ders utopia impossible because “time becomes more valuable as goods beco-me more abundant”.The trade-off between abundan-ce, with its associated higher living standards, and time, complicates the book’s conclusions. It elegantly lam-basts the cruelties of urban life but evokes a pastoral nostalgia that, at times, fails to acknowledge the harsh realities of rural life. Taylor convin-cingly depicts the quasi-religious sa-crifices of modern cities. But the question of whether, in the many environments racked by impo-verishment and unrelenting slowness, it might be worth sacrificing time for abundance, is never quite addressed.

Thomas Hale, Financial Times

priests of finance and economics, gal-vanised by the sacred writings of Mil-ton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, are committed to the ritual sacrifice of time for money. Obsessions with the pace of economic growth are part of the same kind of sacrifice.This infatuation with speed, Taylor argues, is rapidly swelling beyond fi-nance into all areas of life: from (fast)

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Keira Knightley, from left, Matthew Beard, Matthew Goode, Benedict Cumberbatch, seated, and Allen Leech appear in a scene from "The Imitation Game"

28.11.2014 fri

Katharine Corcoran, Mexico City

CONTINUED FROM X1

“The private sector should be a complement (to the police),” said Boris Saavedra, a national security professor at the Center for Hemisphe-ric Defense Studies in Washington. “But in some countries, they’re not the complement: They are the main actor.”

While private security is growing worldwide, Latin America is the region where the boom directly relates to rising rates of homicide, kidnapping and extortion. Plagued by drug cartels and violent gangs, Latin America has surpassed Africa to claim the world’s highest murder rate.

Private guards are part of everyday life in Latin American cities. With large guns and bullet-proof vests, they guard bakeries, even mattress deliveries, and ride shotgun in trucks carrying anything from Coca-Cola to cold cuts. They don earpieces and hide pistols under dark suits as they escort executives’ children to school.

But they’re not a solution to the rampant crime. Security guards only push crime to unguarded areas. They weaken the sense of community and widen the gap between the rich and poor in a region that already has the largest income disparity in the world, said Mexican international relations professor Rafael Fernandez de Castro, coordinator of the team that produced last year’s U.N. report on Latin Ame-rica security.

The guards-for-hire offer protection to the wealthy and middle-classes. Poorer residents get by however they can: forming vigilante groups or paying thugs to leave them alone.

“There’s a huge lack of trust among people, so they act independently,” Fernandez de Castro said. “That makes for fertile ground for organi-zed crime.”

Drug gangs rule through fear, often employing local police to work for them. One of the most egregious cases occurred in September, when officers in Mexico’s southwestern Guerrero state allegedly handed 43 college students to a drug gang which, au-thorities say, likely killed them and incinerated their bodies.

The hills and deserts of rural Me-xico are known as dumping grounds for the burned and mutilated bodies

Private firms filling Latin America’s security gap

of narco victims. Commuters in Brazil face being robbed by gunmen on motorcycles who speed off with appalling ease. In a middle-class su-burb of Buenos Aires, resident Jorge Kiss says he has been kidnapped once and assaulted three times in his home even though his neighborhood has its own private watchman.

Insecurity is so pervasive that 13 percent of Latin Americans— or near-ly 75 million people — feel the need to move to escape crime, according to the United Nations. Fear of gang violence is one of the main forces that has sent thousands of Central Americans, including unaccompanied children, toward the U.S. border.

The lack of faith in official justice sometimes leads some victims to take matters into their own hands. Armed robbers in rush hour on a crowded Mexico City bus tried to steal a pas-senger’s belongings several weeks ago and got pumped with bullets ins-tead from the gun of a fellow passen-ger. One died on the floor of the bus, the other after he fled.

Lynchings have been recorded re-cently in places where they were pre-viously unheard of, including Argen-tina. In central Guatemala, Alfonso Cu was pummeled to death by towns-folk who accused him of abusing a 3-year-old in a public bathroom.

“People feel powerless in the face of violence and act with instinct rather

than reason,” said Guatemala psycho-logist Marco Antonio Garavito.

The weak state of public police for-ces in part stems from the region’s history. Officers across Latin America traditionally protected political regi-mes, not citizens. As the region tran-sitioned to democracy, many police forces failed to adopt new practices — although countries such as Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua are excep-tions. Officers traditionally have been low skilled, low paid, and receive litt-le training, making them susceptible to corruption.

Truly reforming public forces would require a long-term change in philo-sophy and training, the effects of whi-ch would not be seen for generations. So politicians instead choose quick-fix solutions that are visible to voters, such as spending on equipment and new patrol cars, said Gerardo de Lago, Latin America security and safety director for Laureate Interna-tional Universities.

Such displays do nothing to rid de-partments of rogue cops, he said. “It’s the same bad guys with new clothes.”

The spread of private policing, however, comes with unpredictable results. Growth of the industry has outpaced government regulation, creating a “buyer-beware” market for those hiring security officers.

The quality of the forces varies widely. Some top guards are trained

by former Israeli commandos and land middle-class salaries protecting the executives of major corporations. Others scrape by with far less. One 56-year-old retired Honduran police officer said he was handed a machete to guard a medical building, where he earned just USD190 a month.

In general, however, private guards in Latin America are the most heavily armed in the world, with 10 times more weapons per employee than pri-vate forces in Western Europe, accor-ding to a 2011 survey by the Graduate Institute of Geneva.

“Poorly trained private security guards with shotguns and pistols only make the shootouts more dangerous to innocent bystanders,” the U.S. State Department wrote last year in a report for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

Most of the region’s security bu-sinesses operate without formal registration, meaning there are no accurate statistics on the number of killings and other crimes in which their guards become entangled.

In Buenos Aires, only 150 of 15,000 nightclub security guards had com-pleted required training courses, according to U.N. Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Deve-lopment in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Costa Rica, 20 percent of security companies were investiga-ted in 2012 for misconduct, including

obstructing police work and general abuse.

In Venezuela, Julio Delgado, a guard who helped form an association of private security workers, estimates that 25 percent of his colleagues are committing violent crimes in their off hours.

The bodyguards of a Venezuelan congressman are accused of conspi-ring with Colombian paramilitaries to plan his October slaying. Au-thorities in Brazil said this month a 26-year-old security guard confessed to killing 39 people, shooting many of them randomly from his motorcycle while “cruising the streets.”

In Mexico, the head of Elite Systems, a Guadalajara-based protection and alarm-service operation, Arnoldo Villa Sanchez, was alleged by the U.S. government to be security chief for the cartel led by Hector Beltran Leyva before the capo’s arrest in Oc-tober. Elite Systems, which has 150 employees, is also suspected of laun-dering drug proceeds. Villa Sanchez couldn’t be reached for comment. The company’s phone number is not working, and an email inquiry from the AP was not answered.

Even security experts find themsel-ves at risk.

A neighborhood security guard was the main suspect in the 2011 robbery of the Bogota, Colombia, home of Daniel Linsker, who manages Latin America for the global security analy-sis company Control Risks.

“Even if you have security guards in buildings and take security precau-tions, things happen,” Linsker said.

IPS is among the firms requiring background checks for unexplained income and lie-detector tests for prospective employees, according to the company, which is in the process of registering its staff with Mexico’s national police database and is fully licensed. In an effort to maintain a clean force, IPS job postings specifi-cally say “No former police. No mili-tary deserters.”

Those Latin Americans without the resources to hire their own security guards do whatever they can to give themselves some sense of safety — including paying off the very groups that threaten them.

In El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, criminal gangs originally formed in United States prisons in the 1970s and ‘80s, have become the de facto rulers of many neighborhoods. Their ranks continually replenished with local recruits and deportees from the U.S., the gangs murder, rape and rob, while extorting businesses for protection.

“They’re the law,” said Josefa Mar-tinez, whose neighborhood north of San Salvador is controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha gang. “If you can, you give them a little so they leave you alone. Almost everyone gives them money. ... You have to learn to live that way.”

In Guatemala, middle class nei-ghborhoods are enclosed like prisons, with high walls, razor wire and guard shacks at iron gates. In one subdivi-sion, where an iron gate obstructs what’s supposed to be a public street, a cheerful banner promoting aerobics and Zumba classes hangs below a stern black-and-white sign warning that all buses and delivery trucks will be searched.

“Nobody’s secure,” said Raul Perdo-mo, a 44-year-old banker, who lives in a gated community on the outskirts of El Salvador’s capital. “We have security guards at the entrance, so it’s quiet. But outside it’s different.” AP

NEWS OF THE WORLD

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Private security trainer Julio Delgado, who helped form an association of private security workers, demonstrates an exercise to students in Maracay, Venezuela

Gerardo Castell, a private security escort with the Lucena Group, a global security solutions company, follows a lead car while driving executive clients through Mexico City

Students attend a personal self-defense class at the Alcancy security school for private guards in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

X4 PÁTIO DO SAL salt

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WORLD OF BACCHUSby Jacky I.F. Cheong

The Wildness of BeautyUnited and indivisible as the republic proclaims to be, France is a country of irrepressible diversity, especially in its limitrophe regions such as Alsace, Brittany, Savoie, the Basque and Catalan southwest, as well as Corsica, the bir-thplace of Napoléon Bonaparte.Often referred to as l’Île de Beauté (“island of beauty”), Corsica was for centuries ruled by the Republic of Genoa, hence its unique Italian-inf luenced character. In fact, the island was anything but French until 1769, when the Ancien Régime annexed the Corsican Republic, having just declared itself independent from the said maritime republic. The disposed and exiled leader Pasquale Paoli, considering the young Napoléon too ambitious and sym-pathetic to France, would later on become his political enemy.Located 170km from the French mainland yet merely 90km from Italy or 11km from Sardinia, Italian inf luen-ce can be vividly felt in Corsican culture and language, cuisine and wine. Vines were first planted here by Ionian Greek seafaring traders from Phocaea in the 6th century BC. The island’s main grape varieties are the Italian-ori-ginated Vermentino, Niellucciu (Sangiovese) and Sciac-carellu (Mammolo), along with French Pinot Noir, Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Cinsault, as well as Spanish Tempranillo – such diversity was unheard-of until the emergence of all-encompassing AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) of the US. The most southerly wine region of France, Corsica is surprisingly good at producing refreshing whites and elegant reds, since many of its prime vineyards are situa-ted on high altitude, and vines are often grown on mine-ral-rich granitic soil.

To be continued...

Rhône Wines Ltd is a specialist of biodynamic / organic wi-nes from Rhône, Provence and Corsica, supplying to trade and private customers alike in Macao and Hong Kong. Face-book: Rhône Wines Ltd; E: contact@rhonewines.com.hk

Jacky I.F. Cheong is a legal professional by day and columnist by night. Ha-ving spent his formative years in Britain, France, and Germany, he regularly writes about wine, fine arts, classical music, and politics in several languages

Clos Canarelli Figari BlanC 2013

Located in southern Corsica, Figari AOC is the oldest viticultural area of the island. This single-varietal Vermentino was matured for 8 months in old oak foudres and barriques. Light lemon-yellow with pastel golden reflex, the uplifting nose offers lemon peel, lime, apricot and fleur de sel, decorated by pear blossom. Supported by crispy acidity and clear minerality, the pristine palate delivers lime peel, lemon, green apple and greengage, infused with fresh herbs. Medium-light bodied at 13%, the refreshing entry continues through a stimulating mid-palate, leading to a tantalising finish.

Clos Canarelli Figari rouge 2012

Of the same provenance, this blend of 80% Niellucciu, 15% Syrah and 5% Sciacarellu was matured in old oak foudres for 18 months, then bottled unfiltered and unfined. Rich garnet with cardinal-carmine rim, the elegant nose reveals bilberry, red cherry and fleur de sel, adorned with maquis and violet. Buttressed by tangy acidity and juicy tannins, the stylish palate provides cranberry, raspberry and smoked spice, imbued with Qimen red tea and lavender. Medium-bodied at 13.5%, the delicate entry carries onto a poised mid-palate, leading to a discreet finish.

Domaine Comte PéralDi 2011

From Ajaccio AOC in western Corsica, Domaine Comte Péraldi is arguably the most prestigious estate of the island. This blend of 70% Sciaccarellu, 20% Cinsault and 10% Carignan was matured in old oak barrels and concrete tanks for 12 months. Bright ruby with amaranth-crimson rim, the floral nose effuses strawberry, redcurrant and rose hip, embellished by maquis and camellia. Underpinned by animated acidity and velvety tannins, the endearing palate oozes red apple peel, hawthorn and pomegranate, infused with fresh thyme and rose tisane. Medium-light bodied at 13.5%, the fragrant entry evolves into a succulent mid-palate, leading to a graceful finish.

Domaine Comte PéralDi Clos Du CarDinal 2011

Of the same provenance by an estate which has been planting vines since the 16th century, this single-varietal Sciaccarellu was matured in old oak barrels for 18 months. Rich ruby with rosso corsa-scarlet rim, the perfumed nose radiates raspberry, redcurrant, jujube and cinnamon, complemented by maquis and violet. Braced by spirited acidity and silky tannins, the sophisticated palate emanates cranberry, lingonberry, morello cherry and nutmeg, augmented by Dahongpao red tea and violet essence. Medium-bodied at 14.5%, the serene entry persists through a subtle mid-palate, leading to a lingering finish.

28.11.2014 fri

TASTE OF EDESIA

Chopped fresh red pepper is pickled for over a week until the acidity and saltiness have been fully absor-bed. The fish head, organically farmed in Dongting Lake and flown in to ensure ultimate purity and freshness, is carefully steamed to maintain its delicate texture, allowing the rich flavors of the chopped red pepper to infuse the entire dish. The whole is served on a layer of spicy oil with the mouth-watering fish head set off by richly colorful fresh red peppers for an enticing and uniquely fragrant dish.Last but not least, the head chef for noodles and dim sum, Chef Li Shuan Xiang, ensures that noodle lovers will be able to satisfy their each and every craving. Born and raised in Shanxi, a region sometimes called the “Home of Noodles”, Chef Li has been studying the art of noodle-making since 2000.

When was the last time you had spicy food? Do you remember the feeling that rushed through your brain when you saw a pile

of food covered with red chilies? It is as if every part of the body becomes firm, and the vessels dilate with blood. The sight, the smell, and the rush are indeed just foreplay. Nevertheless, it is a prelude, sensory elements that signal - "Danger, you are in for a wild ride."There are many cuisines around the world that offer spicy dishes, but Sichuan and Hunan cuisines are on the top of my list due to their complexities. Recently, StarWorld Hotel opened its brand new Sichuan and Hunan restaurant, Feng Wei Ju, headed by Executive Chinese Chef Chan Chak Keong. For over a year, Chef Keong has devoted himself to the study of local specialties across China’s many provinces and has searched the country for chefs who share his pas-sion.For Sichuan cuisine, the head chef is Chef Chen Shi, who spent 15 years honing his abilities and maste-ring the most intricate of Sichuan dishes, giving full expression to the unique colors, smells, tastes and shapes of this sumptuous style of cooking. Renow-ned for a wide range of ingredients and spicy dishes, Sichuan cuisine features unique cooking techniques and dazzling variety. An example of such is pork neck meat with hot gar-lic sauce, a dish that requires both advanced cutting skills and a developed sense of seasoning. Using his superior cutting techniques, Chef Chen slices the pork into near-transparent strips no thicker than 2mm with a distinctive texture, reminiscent of films of silk drying on wooden stands. An aromatic ma-roon sticky dip complements the delicious meat and makes for a memorable gastronomic experience. Equally spectacular, Hunan cuisine has always been famous for its sophisticated approach to seasoning and the compatibility of tastes between different raw ingredients. Well-versed in the science of comple-mentary flavors and having carried out meticulous research on Hunan dishes for a number of years, head chef for Hunan Cuisine, Chef Wang Min, stri-ves to offer diners the most exquisite delicacies.Steamed carp with assorted red chili showcases Chef Wang’s unique insight into complementary tastes.

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A consummate “noodle artist”, Chef Li prepares a wide variety. These range from steamed beef kui to spicy oil wonton, knife shaved noodles and many others. One of his many praised delicacies is Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles, a prestigious dish popular for cen-turies in the Ba-Shu (Sichuan) state, named after the way noodles were carried by street vendors in pots hanging from shoulder poles (“Dan” means to bear something on your shoulders in Chinese). Specially selected flour is flown directly from Inner Mongolia to hand-make the noodles. Carefully prepared minced pork, ground from both lean and fat pork meat and topped with a secret mix of seasonings, is the dish’s crowning glory. Cooked to an alluring brown, the result is a moist salty bowl of noodles and the perfect end to an extraordinary dinner.

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WHAT’S ON ...

mondaY (deC 1)maCau in a gentle WinD - solo exhiBition By hsiao mei

This year, Taiwanese artist Hsiao Mei made a third visit to Macau, engaging herself in a seven-month artist-in-residence project. Here, she is filled with nostalgia for the city’s bygone quaintness – the pristine ambiance, the sea breeze, the evening sun, those meandering streets and alleys, the two-storey old western buildings, and the Portuguese style arches. She creates canvases showing both contemporary and ancient Macau with distinctive flair. As a former Portuguese colony, the city features a unique blend of East and West with great old charm, hence an enchanting, historical city with many precious legacies worth registering. This time, Hsiao Mei comes with a gentle wind, painting Macau’s all-time, old and new, charms through her imagination and observation.

time: 12pm-7pm (Closed on Tuesdays)until: December 7, 2014 Venue: Ox Warehouse, corner of Avenida Do Coronel Mesquita and Avenida Do Almirante Lacerda aDmission: Free enquiries: (853) 2853 0026 organizer: Ox Warehouse http://www.oxwarehouse.blogspot.com

tuesdaY (deC 2)WonDer oF the WetlanDs

This exhibition introduces the territory’s unique seawater wetlands of Long Chao Kok, rocky shore wetlands near Hac Sá beach in Coloane and the freshwater wetlands abutting the Taipa Houses-Museum artificial lake, home to migrating birds plus a treasure trove of flora and fauna. Recognized for their inherent beauty and important place in the local ecological system, these unique and irreplaceable tracts are part of China’s Top Ten Charming Wetlands.

exhiBition on “Charm oF WetlanDs in maCau” time: 9am-1pm & 2:30pm-5:30pm (Tuesdays to Sundays) Venue: Guia Hill Nature News Station time: 9am-6pm (Tuesdays to Sundays) Venue: Garden of Flower City (Taipa) Nature News Station until: June 30, 2015aDmission: Free enquiries: (853) 2888 0087 organizer: Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau http://www.iacm.gov.mo

shaDoW oF a giant

Austrian composer Anton Bruckner had a peculiar and unpretentious music style. Throughout his life Bruckner focused on composing symphonies and established his fame with his ten symphonies, which he bequeathed to subsequent generations. Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 is the first symphony in which the composer entirely embraced his personal style. Music lovers will be able to experience the romance and beauty of Bruckner’s melodies under the baton of Lü Jia, in the magnificent St. Dominic’s Church.

time: 8pmVenue: St. Dominic’s ChurchaDmission: Free (Tickets distributed one hour before show time at concert venue) enquiries: (853) 2853 0782 organizer: Macau Orchestra http://www.icm.gov.mo/om

sundaY (noV 30)guiDeD tour oF olD Villages oF Coloane

Coloane, long the remotest part of Macau, is fast becoming part of modern society. This tour recounts the history of the ancient villages, their long association with fishing, junk building and subsequent development. Wander the narrow, picturesque lanes and try the traditional local food on a route taking in Ka Ho Village, Kun Iam Temple, San Seng Temple, Seac Min Pun Ancient Path, Hác Sá Village and Tai Wong Temple. time: 9am-1pm aDmission: Freelanguage: Cantonese No. of participants: 30 Shuttle Bus PiCkuP loCation: Chinese Octagonal Pavilion Library bus stop, Avenida da Praia Grande / Olympic Sports Centre, Ave. Olímpica, Taipa enrollment or enquiries: (853) 8394 3783 / 8988 4000 organizer: Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau http://www.iacm.gov.mo

todaY (noV 28)2014 art mo international art Fair

ART MO is an exciting young art fair with a focus on emerging contemporary art, rare classic artworks and state of the art high quality lifestyle products. The fair is situated in Macau where abundant resources from the entertainment industry and the dynamic tourism development are major assets for the building of a new platform for art. The city holds a unique tactical geographic location, open information environment and full capacity to embrace multiple cultures. ART MO is establishing an annual art event that aims to further generate impact in the region.

time: 12pm-8pm until: November 30, 2014 Venue: Exhibition Hall B, The Venetian Macau Cotai Expo enquiries: (853) 8204 6203 organizer: ART MO Limited http:// www.ART-MO.com

tomorrow (noV 29)JorDi saVall & hesPèrion xxiUNESCO’s “Artist for Peace” and Grammy award winner, Jordi Savall is recognized as one of the most important icons of early music the world over. A viol specialist, conductor and creator of a unique style, Savall has been devoted to the rediscovery of forgotten musical treasures for more than 40 years. He will lead Hespèrion XXI, his all-star ensemble, to introduce the audience to a string of unknown, rare works. This is an unforgettable vocal and instrumental journey, uniting exotic nations from the Mediterranean like Morocco and Algeria, spreading peace through music from landscapes as diverse as Israel, Italy, France and Turkey.

time: 8pmVenue: Macau Cultural Centre, Avenida Xian Xing Hai, s/m, NAPE aDmission: MOP100, MOP150, MOP200, MOP250enquiries: (853) 2870 0699 organizer: Macau Cultural Centrehttp://www.ccm.gov.mo

28.11.2014 fri

wednesdaY (deC 3)reD sanDalWooD art exhiBition oF olD BeiJing City gates

To commemorate the 15th Anniversary of Macau S.A.R. Establishment Day and to inherit traditional Chinese culture, MGM Macau is inviting representatives of the China Red Sandalwood Museum to present the ‘MGM Macau • Red Sandalwood Art Exhibition of Old Beijing City Gates’. By reinventing the ancient charm of old Beijing through sublime red sandalwood craftsmanship, the MGM Art Space hopes to inspire diversified art development and to foster cultural exchange between Macau and the mainland.

time: 12pm-9pmuntil: March 22, 2015 Venue: Level 2 MGM Art Space, Av. Dr. Sun Yat Sen, NAPE aDmission: Free enquiries: (853) 8802 2666 organizer: MGM Macau http://www.mgmmacau.com

thursdaY (deC 4)art arena – ProJeCt From Centre PomPiDou

‘Art Arena - Project from Centre Pompidou’ not only targets children but welcomes the participation of the public. In their busy urban life, both adults and children have to encounter the pressure of work, life and study. Thus, the Macau Museum of Art hopes to ease exhibition-goers’ pressure via the delightful display and interaction of this exhibition. Exhibition-goers can converse with themselves while exploring. During their visit, they can, to their heart’s content, enjoy the delight brought by art creation.

time: 10am-7pm (closed on Mondays, no admission after 6:30 pm)until: January 4, 2015Venue: Macau Museum of Art, Av. Xian Xing Hai, s/n, NAPE aDmission: MOP5 (Free on Sundays and public holidays) enquiries: (853) 8791 9814 organizer: Macau Museum of Art http://www.mam.gov.mo

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28.11.2014 fri