Dining Out, New York Style

NEW YORK. NEW York.

It's hard to give up the cliches of the Big Apple. From the "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere" optimism to the glitter of Times Square - even if the Hollywood version is so much better than the garish, hard-sell, tourist-infested reality.

And then there's the infamous New York service - the strange, no-tip-no-service culture that is such a jolt to our Asian senses. Or to put it in a Singaporean way, "tip also no service type". Not even in a Singapore-owned hotel near Times Square, where the rooms have no minibars (unless you ask for one), housekeeping is a privilege not a right, and bell captains think nothing of telling you off if you inconvenience them. Where's the Imperial Tokyo when you need it?