The Chinnery Bar in the Mandarin has the kind of clubby atmosphere that is forever England. A perfect place to line up a few sausage-and-mash calories, and a good place to invite Hong Kong Philharmonic viola player Emma Ayres, who 'needs to eat as much as I can' before she sets off to cycle from Britain to Hong Kong to raise money for a local charity's music therapy programme.
After eight seasons with the orchestra, Ayres is packing up her viola, taking the trans-Siberian to Britain, and then heading off at the end of the summer for a nine-month bike journey back to Hong Kong, mostly on her own. She will pack a three-quarter size violin ('the biggest I can carry, and the smallest you can get a decent sound from') in her paniers, hoping that whatever dusty towns she ends up in after a day's cycling, she will be able to link up with other musicians, whether in France, Turkey or Pakistan.
The Chinnery offers vegetarian choices which, because they are from the grill, have astronomic prices. We toyed with the idea of blinis with green lentils and fromage frais (at caviar prices - $210), but settled on sharing the Middle Eastern plate of hummus, couscous, courgettes and a fabulous orange-coloured garlic dip.
Ayres timed her trip around crossing Turkey and Iran in winter, because 'that's when the Kurds are quietest' and it is the most practical time for cycling swathed from head to toe in the black burkah 'which my mother is sewing for me'.
The grilled vegetables and dips were impeccable, although at $195 we were spending a week's food budget on one dish. Ayres was vegetarian for years. 'But earlier this year I was playing rugby and using a lot of energy, and I started fantasising about meat.' I chose the fish casserole ($125), while she ordered lamb cutlets ($130).
'How would you like your lamb, sir?' asked the waiter.