Striking it rich

THE Holy Sacraments of the Church of Fook Lam Moon Restaurant are displayed on the ground floor behind the heavy opaque doors.

Here, below a blood-red altar, is a video screen exhibiting the latest gold figures, London currency fixings, stock exchange prices and foreign exchange rates. Here also are bottles and jars filled with abalone. Those who have prospered in the Church of Fook Lam Moon will find 10 coin-shaped pieces of abalone valued at $24,000.

Two devotional acolytes . . . er, sorry, two leggy ladies press the button for your private elevator, and you are whisked to the Church of the original Fook Lam Moon Restaurant (a newer version opened four years ago in Kowloon). Yet even before entering the room, Pious liquors are on show. In a large glass case parishioners leave their unfinished bottles, their own names firmly affixed to the labels.

The labels themselves are significant. Nothing so prosaic as Teacher's Whisky or Gilbey's Gin. The rule is Hennessy's, but not ordinary Hennessy's. The Cognac is labelled X.X.O., or Royal X.X.O.O. or V.X.O.X.X.

One experienced restaurateur didn't have the slightest idea what the initials stood for, but the message was obvious. This brandy is regal in price.

Fook Lam Moon is the Cantonese restaurant for the rich. The marble furnishings, the fine black lacquer-ware, the special Thai-made plates, the solid pictures and the unprepossessing atmosphere breathes success.