吃喝玩樂 - Diary of a Growing Boy

Shanghainese Village New Year's Feast

2012-01-23T22:05:00.000+08:00

It's the first day of the Year of the (Water) Dragon, and there was a rare occasion for the two sides of my family to gather for a meal. You don't get a whole lotta choices when it comes to restaurants that open today, so dad booked Shanghai Kitchen (上海鄉村) and got us a room. Unfortunately our table wasn't that big enough, so the 15 of us had to squeeze a little...

Stir-fried shrimp with freshwater eel (蝦爆鱔背) - I was expecting the eel to be deep-fried, but oh well...

Stir-fried fish with mustard greens (雪菜魚片) - not bad, and I liked the slices of bamboo shoots.

Radish balls and conpoy (銀球元貝) - I felt they added a little too much starch into the soup, so I didn't drink it.

Simmered shiitake mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots (油燜雙冬) - the mushrooms were good, but the bamboo shoots were a little too old and fibrous.

Stir-fried prawns with lily bulbs (百合蝦片) - a crowd favorite tonight. The prawns were large and pretty fresh, and for the Shanghainese lily bulbs are a favorite. Nicely done with a little green asparagus.

Steamed crab (清蒸肥蟹) - these were pretty good, but for some reason not very popular tonight as half of it was left on the plate. Was there simply too much food, or were we just a bunch of lazy diners?

Braised pork belly and sea cucumber (烤方烏參) - the single most popular dish tonight... and why should anyone be surprised? It's all fat and collagen, after all! Steamed buns were provided so we could make Taiwanese pork sandwiches - gua bao (割包). This was simply awesome, and happens to be one of the signature dishes here.

Steamed garoupa in oyster sauce (蠔油紅斑) - not sure which type of garoupa but it was red and had spots... This was a little weird for me, because the fish tasted like it had been marinated or somewhat air-dried, since the flesh wasn't as succulent as I had expected from a steamed fish. It was made with marinated manjack berries (破布子), so the taste was somewhat Taiwanese...

Sliced squid with vegetables (花枝竹笙時蔬) - I thought this was supposed to be abalone on the menu?! Ho hum.

Claypot chicken soup (砂鍋土雞) - a huge pot of soup with a pretty darn big free range chicken. Very yummy.

Spring rolls (春卷) - kinda surprised that the stuffing was like a fish paste...

Sycee (元寶) - it's traditional to have food shaped like sycees during lunar new year, since they symbolize wealth. These baked pastries were pretty decent, with red bean paste inside that tasted pretty good.

My Aussie uncle very kindly brought some wine, and in fact brought something vintaged that you can't find easily nowadays...

1996 Penfolds Bin 407 - a classic wine with no surprises. I think the last time I drank this vintage was more than 10 years ago...

Elves in my kitchen day 3: all day breakfast

2012-01-15T17:07:00.000+08:00

Once again, I woke up to the sound of ruckus in my kitchen. It was 7:30am and both Dyson 2000 and J were hard at work. Dyson 2000 was chopping up water chestnuts, trying to make a water chestnut pudding (馬蹄糕) for mom without the right ingredients. We had tried in vain to look for water chestnut starch around town, but ended up settling for tapioca starch instead.

After a few rounds of steaming in the oven, we had a product that hopefully will be reasonably close to the real thing. We'll see in a few days when mom gets her hands on it...

Meanwhile, J was making some gougères with cheese, spring onions and some of the leftover diced smoked chicken from yesterday. I do have to say that adding the chicken was pure genius... these were simply divine!

My contribution this morning would be in the form of eggs. Soft-boiled eggs, to be exact. I filled my new toy, SousVide Supreme, with some water and dropped 3 organic, free-range eggs inside. With the temperature set at 62°C, the eggs were cooked for a little more than an hour. With a sprinkle of finely chopped spring onions and a little soy sauce, it made for the perfect breakfast.

J also made another batch of canelés, which turned out a little better than the ones from yesterday. There were a few that came out whole. Very yummy.

Of course my guests weren't gonna just stay cooped up in my apartment all day. It was time for lunch, and we headed for Fu-Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿). One of the most famous of breakfast shops - in part due to its row the government last year for tax evasion - this place is popular with both locals and tourists alike.

I ordered a bowl of hot soy milk, and then the specialty of the house. You can't come here without getting the baked flatbread (燒餅), either on its own or with stuffing between the halves. The flatbread is baked in a fiery oven not unlike a tandoor, and sometimes we see flames shooting out. There are two varieties here : one which is thicker than the ones that you'd find at most other breakfast shops, and another that's thinner.

For myself, I got the mac daddy of them all - baked flatbread with deep-fried crullers and omelette (燒餅油條蛋餅). This is a giant pile of dough, crispy thanks to both the baked bits as well as the deep-fried bits. Absolutely delicious.

Just for kicks, I also got a baked caramel puff (焦糖燒餅). I can't resist anything with that many sesame seeds on top, and the fact that there was a liquid, sweet filling inside made it even better.

Our appetites satiated, my guests spend the last remaining hours they have in Taipei doing some last-minute shopping. I think they had a good time this weekend, and I look forward to welcoming them back soon.

Elves in my kitchen day 2: eating non-stop

2012-01-14T23:43:00.000+08:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of something being slammed against a hard surface. Thwack! Thwack! I opened the bedroom door and found Dyson 2000 hard at work, working one-handed on some dough. I guess we'd be having some homemade bread for breakfast!

When I returned from voting in the presidential election, there were 3 little piles of dough in my oven, and the fragrance started the disperse through my kitchen to the rest of the apartment. We could already see the large air bubbles...

The brioches were sent back to the oven a second time after glazing, and re-emerged with beautiful brown tops.

The cross section reveals the beautiful texture, which Dyson 2000 attributes to doing it "the old fashioned way" by hand instead of using an electric mixer. Light and airy. Yum. I broke out a jar of my Pierre Hermé / Christine Ferber Ispahan confiture for this, and poured everyone a glass of sweet soya milk.

The parental units came over and continued the prep work for today's syllabus. As it was lunch time, I decided to take my guests out for more local food. We strolled around the Yongkang Street (永康街) area and finally settled on Yongkang Shaved Noodles (永康刀削麵), as both J and Dyson 2000 wanted some beef noodles.

We were told that as it was kinda late, they only had 1 bowl of beef noodle left. The owner recommended that we share 2 large bowls of noodles plus a bowl of soup. That sounded OK to us...

The beef noodle (牛肉麵) was OK. The noodles are shaved from a block of dough, so they are irregularly shaped. Texture was a little chewy but I thought they had overcooked it. Could have been better. The beef was OK - tasting halfway between the light broth (清湯) variety and the full-flavored braised (紅燒) variety.

Zha jiang mian (炸醬麵) was OK. I've grown up on mom's version so it's kinda tough to beat... We also talked about the bastardized Korean version of jajangmyeon (자장면), and how I've never had a decent version - even in 5-star hotels.

I was reasonably satiated, but knew that my guests still had a long way to go. We tried to get some rice with pork lard (豬油拌飯), but both Lu Sang (呂桑) and Sit Fun (喫飯食堂) were taking a break after regular lunch service, so we walked away empty-handed (or was it with half-empty stomachs?!)

Our next stop was Ximending (西門町), since it was on the way back to my place. In fact I live just across the river from here. Ji Guang Delicious Fried Chicken (繼光香香雞) was a convenient place to stop and grab some popcorn chicken. Deep-fried meat that you poke with a sharp stick, dunked in some spices. Mmm mmm good.

Since we're only a few steps away - accessible through a small back alley - there was no reason not to stop at Ay-Chung Rice Flour Noodle (阿宗麵線). This is one of the most famous street food stalls in all of Taipei, and I think the ladies were impressed. After grabbing some bubble tea, we headed back home to finish the lessons.

J had whipped up some batter for canelés, and decided to bake some even though there hasn't been enough time to age it. So once again my oven was put to good use while mom was stir-frying on the stove and dad and I watched the vote-counting live on TV. This was the first time for me to watch these babies during the baking process, and it was kinda cool to watch them rise out of the copper molds. Unfortunately I didn't have any beeswax to coat the insides of the molds, so the finished products didn't pop out of the molds as easily as they should have.

Dinner time, and we all got the enjoy the fruits of the ladies' labors. No doubt mom did the bulk of the heavy lifting, but J and Dyson 2000 both spent a lot of time sharpening their knife skills (pun intended). We all sat down in my dining room, and used the space (and furniture) for the first proper meal since I moved in.

I wrote about mom's perfect ten (十全十美) a while ago, and our lunar new year celebrations are never without this essential dish. Tonight my guests got a glimpse of just how much effort was needed to come up with a dish that, all too often, could be easily dismissed as just another vegetarian starter. Try cutting up 10 different ingredients into thin shreds, stir-frying them separately, cooling down each ingredient so that they retain a crunchy texture, and gently mixing them together so that the texture of each bite is reasonably uniform. No small feat.

Another of mom's specialties is stir-fried diced smoked chicken with garlic scapes (大蒜炒燻雞腿). We tested out the quality of the smoked chicken drumsticks earlier in the week, but still ended up putting a little too much chicken in the final mix - thanks to our northern cousin whose palate is used to more salt. The knife work that went into this dish - making sure that the chicken, winter bamboo shoots and garlic scapes are reduced to almost a powder - was also incredible. Wanna see someone inhale a bowl of rice in 10 seconds? Just add a few spoonful of this.

Finally, the one dish where only a handful of people can come close to mom... sautéed string beans with minced pork (干扁四季豆). Most restaurants just want to get their customers out the door quick, so they never bother to take the time to ensure that the beans are in the wok for long enough to dry them out and get the flavors in. The results speak for themselves...

We needed some exercise after all that food, so we did a shopping excursion to a few department stored around town... and eventually ended up at Eastern Ice Store (東區粉圓). No, this ain't no secret hole-in-the-wall gem, but just about the most famous outlet in Taipei selling shaved ice. When I brought another visitor here about a month ago, we sat in front for 45 minutes and there was never a moment without a new customer lining up to place an order... and that's in December! I got myself some mung beans, sweet potato "balls", grass jelly and aiyu jelly (愛玉). Looking at the way three of us inhaled the contents of our bowls, you'd think we never even had dinner...

A pretty fulfilling day, I think...

Elves in my kitchen day 1: Keelung food crawl

2012-01-13T23:58:00.000+08:00

Dyson 2000 and J are here in Taipei for the weekend. I've set up a weekend of cooking lessons for them, and mom will show them some of her signature dishes. I was really excited to receive my guest room's first visitors, and really looked forward to spending some quality time hanging with them.

After spending most of the afternoon in my kitchen with mom, my visitors met up with me for our excursion out of Taipei. We met at Taipei Main Station (台北車站) to take the train up to Keelung (基隆). Our destination? The famous Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市). My first visit here came only about 2 weeks ago, and apparently Dyson 2000 salivated at the picture I posted after my visit.

But first a little something to whet our appetite. We had a little time to spare thanks to the trains being delayed, so I stopped at Maison Kayser to pick up a few canelés. The ones here are big, but actually pretty decent. A little crispy on the outside and moist on the inside - although slightly more custardy than I would normally prefer. Slurp.

After I finally got my bearings straight, we made our way from Keelung Station to the night market. Our first stop was Wang's Tenpura (王記天婦羅) - Stall 16 at Miaokou. No, they don't sell tempura (天ぷら), but deep-fried fish cakes like satsuma age (薩摩揚げ). A little bowl of fish cakes, dipped in a light hot and sour sauce. A few slices of pickled cucumber round out the flavors and textures.

Next up was the reason why we are here tonight: the "nutritious sandwich (營養三明治)". It was a picture of this that got Dyson 2000 all excited, and I can hardly blame her. What's not to like about a hunk of deep-fried dough?! This is basically a long hot dog bun, coated with panko (パン粉) and deep-fried. It's then stuffed with thick slices of ham, cucumber, tomato and spiced egg (滷蛋) wedges. The finishing touches are in the form of Taiwanese mayo (美奶滋), which is plentiful almost to the point of overflowing.

Personally, I love this baby. The taste is quintessentially Taiwanese, thanks to the sweet mayo. And it is indeed "nutritious", as the major food groups (carbohydrates, vegetables, protein and even a little bit of dairy) are all represented. I'd have it again and again, but I know Dyson 2000 wasn't impressed. The original stall which invented this is Tian Sheng Pu (天盛鋪) - Stall 58 at Miaokou.

I didn't stop at Jun's Braised Eel Soup (圳記紅燒鰻羮) on my last visit, but they are apparently famous for their pike conger soup. The conger is marinated in red lees (紅糟) before being deep-fried. From my last trip to Tokyo, I knew that pike congers have lots of bones but never knew how long they were until today... This was pretty good.

The steamed meatball dumplings (肉圓) from Tainan Shrimp Meatball (台南府城蝦仁肉圓) were so good that I made sure we stopped there. Chunks of shrimp and pork flavored with pepper aside, Dyson 2000 was really impressed with the steamed dumpling skin.

I loved the oily glutinous rice (油飯) from this stall on Aisi Road (愛四路) so much that I went back for some more. The rice has always been something I loved since childhood, and while this one can never hope to beat what mom makes for me, it wasn't bad at all.

I was curious to try the crab soup (螃蟹羮) from the same stall, and decided to have some even after Dyson 2000 a.k.a. the Food Neanderthal dropped a load of ground pepper on top. Pretty decent.

There is little to complain about the bite-sized sausages at One Bite Sausage (一口吃香腸) - Stall 43 at Miaokou.

There are two stalls right by Dianji Temple (奠濟宮) - which gave Miaokou night market its name - selling the Fuzhou specialty rice flour roll soup (鐤邊銼). Tonight we patronized Xing's Rice Flour Roll Soup (邢記鐤邊銼) - Stall 25 at Miaokou. This turned out to be Dyson 2000's favorite nibble of the evening. The rice flour rolls have a certain bite to them, and the soup is delicately flavored.

I was pretty full by now, and my hair is wet from being under the drizzle for the last 2 hours or so. There was one more stop to make - to get ourselves some shaved ice. Unfortunately Far East Bubble Ice (遠東泡泡冰) was closed for the next couple of months, so I went back to Shen's Bubble Ice (沈記泡泡冰) - Stall 37 at Miaokou. The staff use a tablespoon to whip the shaved ice together with the syrup or ingredients, creating that special mixture where the flavors are evenly blended into the ice.

Having had the black plum (烏梅) and the pineapple (鳳梨) last time, I decided to get myself some peanut and white Dutch runner beans (花生花豆). What a mistake this turned out to be! While this was absolutely delicious - full of the flavors of the beans - it was akin to feeding myself a mound of peanut butter... Not something you want to do when you are already full.

It was getting pretty late, so we made our way back to the train station and headed back to Taipei. I think it was interesting to show my guests this particular night market, featuring some items which aren't usually found in Taipei.

Western cuisine = steak

2012-01-08T22:22:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I last met up with a couple of friends for a meal, and we all happened to be around tonight. Someone was in the mood for beef, maybe because we had such a horrible experience together a few months ago. Since Danny & Co. was not free, we decided to head to Robin's Grill at the Grand Formosa Regent.

It's a Sunday night, and the place was doing brisk business. As I'd realized a few months ago, for many people in Taiwan having a "Western" meal still means having steak for main course. Well then, might as well go straight to a steakhouse...

There was an amuse bouche of smoked salmon roll with caviar. Ho-hum.

I started with the salad bar, which had a really nice and pretty selection. There was also the cream of mushroom soup, which tasted pretty good until I decided to knock over the bowl and spill the remainder on the table...

The three of us shared a 40-oz. Angus ribeye, which we asked for medium rare. I thought the meat was pretty decent - there was enough fat to make it tasty, and it wasn't overdone. I was happy, and even picked up the bone with my hands to work on it. Good stuff.

The desserts at the salad bar were OK, but nothing to write home about.

Strawberry macarons - one look at these and we all knew they would FAIL. Sure enough, these were pretty dense and chewy. One of us took one bite and put it down...

1999 BOND Matriarch - minty, metallic, sweet, a little smoky with grilled meats. I've had this wine a few times, so no surprises here.

Getting drunk in Paris (1930)

2011-12-27T23:40:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I was last at Paris 1930, and I had occasion to return tonight along with my Favorite Birdbrain Cousin and the Specialist. It's been a while since I had a decent amount of wine in Taipei, and tonight we would be pulling up my average intake...

I dropped off the wines with Rolf last night, and learned that a new chef has come on board at the beginning of this month. I wondered what Provençal touches Chef Christoph Buffille would be adding to the menus. Rolf has arranged with the chef so that each dish would match a specific bottle of wine which we will be drinking.

Zucchini cream with pork meatball - we all thought it was broccoli... Not a very interesting amuse bouche.

Chaud-froid of veal tongue sauce ravigote - the very thin slices of veal tongue were pretty good. For once I actually didn't mind the slightly acidic sauce, made with a little mustard.

1998 Krug - a little yeasty, a little ripe, nice and very ready to drink. Good acidity balance. Opened up a lot more with time, with some marmalade and Chinese licorice (甘草).

Pan fried foie gras with lentil and cream of nutmegs - the execution of the foie was perfect... beautiful to behold, wonderfully fluffy and creamy inside. The use of lentils and nutmeg gives the feeling of winter, as least in my mind. Very nice.

1990 Vogüé Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses en demi-bouteille - meaty, slightly smoky, ripe and a little pruny. A little sweet fruit, and perhaps a little burnt around the edges. Nose was lovely but the body needed time to develop. Still very youthful. Picked up at an Acker auction last year.

Monk fish roti, risotto and sun dried tomatoes palet, pancetta dry and foam - FAIL. The monk fish was actually passable, in terms of texture and flavor. But the execution of the risotto failed miserably. It's been a while since I tasted risotto that was this bad... probably the one I had at Les Deux Magots a few years ago. I joked that as out of practice as I am, I could probably make one that is less soggy. The fact that the ladies barely touched their portions is a testament to the quality...

1975 Trotanoy - smoky, tea leaves, dried herbs, a bit alcoholic at first. A little animal, brett and coffee. Very fragrant. Nice and sweet, very smooth on the palate. A delicious wine and a generous contribution from the Specialist.

Roasted aged striploin steak, yam mash, asparagus, truffle sauce - I must say that the beef was pretty tasty and done pretty well. No, it was not cooked sous vide, but tasted delicious nonetheless.

1995 Gaja Costa Russi - smoky, minty, good amount of fruit. Still pretty hard and took some time to open up.

Seeing that we still had plenty of wine left, Rolf sent out a little bit of cheese for us. Sadly, the cheese selection in Taipei just can't compare to what I'm used to seeing in Hong Kong...

Camembert - nice with some dried apricot.

Port Salut - slightly bitter as expected.

Fourme d'Ambert

Green tea and chocolate cake with jujube sorbet - actually not too bad, and the sorbet was unusual and interesting.

We adjourned back to my new apartment, and the drinking continued... I opened a bottle of Egly-Ouriet Brut Rosé Grand Cru (disgorged November 2009), which showed nice nose of strawberries. I was honestly too drunk and sleepy to get much more out of it...

A special fishy Christmas

2011-12-24T23:33:00.000+08:00

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm having dinner with the Specialist. She's in Taipei for a few days, and I promised to show her a couple of places that I've found worthy. Not wanting to be forced to take any special Christmas set menus, I decided to go Japanese and revisit Gyodoike (魚道生). My first visit there just a month ago was pretty spectacular, and I was relishing the opportunity to return.

We sat at the sushi counter, although at the wrong end... meaning we were the farthest away from the head chef. Damn... I started to get a little worried. Years ago I had a similar episode at a sushi joint in Hong Kong, and the food was so bad I never went back.

As usual I let the chef decide what to serve us, but we did tell the waitress specific items that each of us didn't want to have. She seemed to have trouble getting it right on paper, and as we found out later, the right info didn't make it to the chefs as we were served items we had said we didn't want.

Beef consommé - we were given a bowl to warm our stomachs. Nice way to kick off dinner on a cold winter night. There were tiny chunks in the soup, though... which was yummy.

Raw oysters - from Hokkaido (北海道), in a bowl of ponzu (ポン酢) marinade along with some spicy grated radish (辛おろし).

Flounder (平目) - not bad, with an acidic dipping sauce.

Yellowtail (鰤) - very nice, just torched (炙り) on the outside so it's still raw in the center.

I honestly don't understand why they bother to give us an "appetizer platter", since it never seems interesting enough. Twice in a row this was the weakest dish during the entire evening. The three items on the plate were:

White fish (白身魚) - just like last time, chopped and marinated in plum vinegar with shredded (not quite chiffonade) perilla (紫蘇) leaves.

Christmas shrimp (聖誕蝦) - I was told that this is so named because they had added a bit of shredded leaves and carrots to make it red and green. Deep-fried. Ho hum.

Abalone (鮑) - actually, not bad.

Whelk (つぶ貝) - for the second time in a row, I somehow forgot to take a picture of this nice and crunchy shellfish.

North Pacific giant octopus (水蛸) - coming from the Hokkaido area, this is the world's largest octopus. Nicely served with a couple of perilla flowers and a yuzu (柚子) dipping sauce.

Round-snout nase (鯃) - I had this local fish instead of fatty tuna belly (中トロ). Like last time, this was served with some wasabi on top and yuzu rind shavings.

Grilled beef - the flavors were alright, but the beef was definitely overcooked. Oh well.

Squid (イカ) - we weren't told but I suspect this was scored some 60 times like the chef said on my last visit... Perilla flowers and yuzu rind shavings.

Male snow crab (松葉蟹) - pretty yummy. Can't remember the last time I had it as a 軍艦巻き.

Sea urchin (雲丹) - yummy like last time.

Mackerel (鯖) - just like last time, with a thin piece of pickled kelp (昆布) on top. Lovely.

Conger eel (穴子) - this was good, but didn't blow me away like last time... probably because this was a smaller piece and not as carefully selected.

Scallion sprouts (芽ねぎ) - apparently this is often served in Japan, but for some reason I've never had it. Actually pretty interesting just to have the young sprouts with some bonito (鰹) flakes on top.

White miso soup with clams - the miso was pretty sweet, no doubt aided by the sweetness from the clams. The Specialist was pleasantly surprised.

All the courses from tonight's "regular" menu had been served, but I wanted a little more... so the chef sent us a couple of additional items:

Grilled mullet roe (カラスミ焼き) - I love mullet roe and Taiwan happens to be a big producer. Here we got pretty thick chunks, not the thin slices that one sees in traditional Taiwanese restaurants. VERY yummy. Nice crust with that smoky, grilled flavors, while being soft and fluffy inside.

Ark shell (赤貝) - pretty good after the chef slammed it on the counter top...

Finally, we get to our extra order of diced sushi over rice (バラちらし鮨). I do like the way this is done here...

Red bean soup with mochi

Rihaku Daijinjo Tobingakoi (李白大吟釀斗瓶囲い) - one of my favorite sakes. Sweet mid-palate, dry and spicy on the finish, but at the very end of the long finish one feels sweet again. A pretty complex sake that took time to open up to reveal its tropical fruit and floral notes. The Specialist approved.

This being Christmas Eve, the Specialist wanted to go for a round of drinks after dinner. I decided to show her Max Bordeaux/Wine Gallery and Cellar (美樽廊) in the Grand Formosa Regent. I accidentally discovered this place not long ago, but kinda laughed when I saw that they were only serving 2008 Bordeaux in all the Enomatic machines. C'mon! This is pure infanticide! Why would I want to drink 2008 Lafite now instead of waiting for it to become mature?!

But the place is run by Bordeaux Wine Bank, with whom the Specialist has a business relationship. So here we are, on Christmas Eve, and the Specialist is talking about drinking the "Ultimate Nine"... Since we just wanted to taste, we took 25ml tasting portions of each. I decided to go for wines that I didn't taste during en primeur tastings back in April 2009.

2008 Calon-Ségur - very sweet, with dates, oak, dried herbs, vanilla and coffee on the nose. Pretty decent.

2008 La Lagune - smoky, dried herbs, vanilla and oak on the nose. More classic claret and not as sweet. Later I realized that I had actually tasted this wine at the UGC tasting in Hong Kong earlier this year.

2008 Ausone - Alain Vauthier was busy when we turned up at his door in April 2009, so I never got to taste this wine. I decided that I owed it to myself to see what this tastes like. The nose was very open and approachable, typically sweet fruit with vanilla and oaky notes. Very fragrant. Not quite ready on the palate but one can see greatness in the future.

Alas, the wine bar closes early so we were only able to grab 3 glasses each. At least I got to sip some Ausone...

Dumplings and hairy crab roe galore

2011-12-18T17:10:00.000+08:00

Caught up on some sleep last night, but woke up at a pretty reasonable hour. B has limited time in Shanghai, so we left our service apartment mid-morning to walk around town a little. But first, we needed to add some fuel for the rest of the day, so breakfast was in order...

Linlong Fang (麟笼坊特色小笼包) is a good walk from where we were, and it was time to go downmarket today. Xiaolongbao for breakfast doesn't sound like a bad idea when you're in Shanghai... As we weren't far from lunchtime, I decided to stick to just a dozen of these babies for the two of us.

Pork and crab roe dumplings (鮮肉蟹粉小籠包) - not bad at all. The sweetness from the pork mixed in with the delicious crab meat and tomalley.

That was just to keep our hunger pangs away, and the best is yet to come.

The Dongtai Road Antique Market (东台路古玩市场) is within walking distance from where we were, and we decided to check it out. I don't buy anything antique becos I just don't know my stuff, and I'd be slaughtered like a fat-bottomed sheep in Uzbekistan. As it turns out, this was just like a flea market, with lots of old and beat-up stuff that mom would call 破銅爛鐵. We walked through the place quickly and moved on.

We were heading for lunch, and decided it would be a nice walk to People's Square instead of taking the subway for one stop. We passed by the Shanghai Art Museum, which was putting on the Shanghai Biennial. It would have been a great opportunity to get in some arts and culture, but I decided that we should do food first and art later.

It was barely past 12 noon when we arrived at my favorite XLB joint - Jiajia Soup Dumpling (佳家湯包). We didn't have to line up, but noticed that most of the items were already sold out. Fortunately we came for the most expensive item on the menu - pure crab roe xiaolongbao (純蟹粉湯包) - which pretty much never sells out. And given that they've raised the price from RMB 81 to 99, I'd say the chances of selling out is even slimmer...

These were good. Maybe not 20% better than the last time I had them, but I was happy. I think B was, too. Nothing beats a mouthful of crab meat and tomalley.

And I stayed true to my usual ritual by going across the street to Yang's Fried-Dumpling (小楊生煎). I got us 2 taels of fried dumplings (生煎包) and a bowl of soup for B. Maybe the dumplings today weren't as good as I remembered, but they were still yummy and I was happy.

I was stuffed, and it was time for my next mission. I promised to bring back some hairy crab roe (蟹粉) for mom, but had forgotten to inquire about where to source the good stuff. I decided to call up Xinguang Restaurant (新光酒家) - my favorite hairy crab restaurant in Shanghai - to see if I could buy some. Of course I could, they said, and I walked over and picked up a couple of containers.

Mission accomplished, but it was getting a little too late. There wasn't enough time to go to MOCA or the Shanghai Art Museum for the Biennial. We walked back to the apartment, where I packed up my stuff - hairy crab roe, braised pork and all - bid farewell to my dear friend B and headed for the airport. We'd seen each other twice in the last 2 months, and hopefully we'll see each other again soon.

My favorite braised pork in Shanghai

2011-12-17T18:21:00.000+08:00

Today was the highlight of my trip: 2 meals at my favorite Shanghainese restaurants in Shanghai. Honestly, I wouldn't come to Shanghai to eat much else... and I always return to my handful of favorite places. There just aren't any new places that can do better!

As I walked up to the door at Jesse Restaurant, I was surprised that they had changed the name from 吉士酒家 to 老吉士. I guess they just got tired of the confusion with Xinjishi (新吉士), which nowadays is probably more well-known to tourists thanks to the branch in Xintiandi.

My friend decided to order up a storm, even though there were only two of us for lunch. Her excuse was that she could always pack the leftovers, so I had no more complaints...

Jishi's salted chicken (吉士咸雞) - pretty decent.

Mixed mushroom with beancurd sheet (腐竹熗蘑菇) - I've always liked this dish, and this was one of the lighter dishes.

Jellyfish with vinegar (老醋蜇頭) - crunchy as always, with good amount of vinegar and coriander.

Sugar candy kumquat (冰糖金桔) - very, very delish... Served with just the peel and soaked in a bowl of cold, sugary water. Just perfect.

Stir-fried freshwater shrimp (清炒蝦仁) - so pretty with the little tails still attached... and so tender and yummy.

Stir-fried rosette bok choy and winter bamboo shoots (塌菜炒冬筍) - my favorite veg dish in Shanghai. Too bad I didn't have more stomach space...

Deep-fried baby yellow croaker (酥炸小黃魚) - oh-so-good... I just can't get enough of yellow croaker... and execution was perfect.

Braised pork in brown sauce (外婆紅燒肉) - my number one reason for coming to Jesse... unfortunately my friend - who is a regular and knows the staff - didn't know there are many "options" one can add to the dish, and forgot to order the cuttlefish as an s. Oh well... the pork on its own was still extremely good. Even though mom never made hers this sweet, somehow I always felt that this was the most "homey" version for me. This calls for a bowl of white rice...

As is traditional, I placed an extra order of the pork so I could take it back home with me...

I spent the afternoon digesting all the food I had shoved in through my mouth, and waited for B to arrive. She had shortened her trip and hence missed lunch today. And where did I choose as dinner venue tonight but a place where she has already been to twice on her last trip...

It's been a while since I was last at Fu 1088 (福 1088), and during that time the already steep minimum charge per head went up even further, and is now at RMB 400. That's pretty tough to meet when all the homey dishes are cheap and drinks don't count toward that minimum... Anyway, I was charged with the ordering and made sure we ordered a couple of expensive items...

I asked for a sampling of 4 appetizers:

Deep-fried fish in sweet soy sauce (老上海燻魚) - still as good as I remembered. Crisp on the outside.

Tea smoked egg topped with caviar (黑魚籽煙燻溏心蛋) - a little light in terms of the smoky flavors... actually light in seasoning, too.

Black fungus with sour chili sauce (涼拌木耳) - pretty good.

Slow-cooked lotus root filled glutinous rice with rock sugar (金絲桂花糯米藕) - this has been one of my favorite things since childhood, although I'd never seen it presented this way...

Braised diced chicken, conpoy, sea cucumber, fish maw and mushroom with abalone sauce (满坛香) - the menu says this was inspired by Buddha jumps over the wall (佛跳墻), and while some of the ingredients were the same, this was really a "dry" version with some abalone sauce, instead of a whole bowl of hot soup. I ordered this because the price was half of our minimum charge... While there wasn't anything wrong with the dish, I also thought it didn't deliver value for money... The mistake I made was to finish the pieces of chicken, because they really didn't deserve to take up space in my stomach tonight.

Sauteed fresh river shrimp (清炒手剝河蝦仁) - these were pretty good, but I had already had this for lunch earlier, and was more interested in another dish that arrived at the same time...

Sauteed hairy crab meat, served with toast (清炒蟹粉伴吐司) - this was the pièce de résistance for me. Wonderful, delicious crab meat and tomalley, sauteed to a viscous state like condensed milk or hot fudge, to be spooned on top of crisp sticks of toast.

Even though I was already feeling kinda full, I persevered and went through 3 sticks and lots of crab spread...

Sauteed minced duckling served with baked sesame pie (生炒鴨崧配叉子燒餅) - B had ordered this on her last trip to Shanghai but no one had the stomach space to eat any of it. So I decided to give her another chance to try it out. The minced duck was pretty good, but it was the baked sesame pie that really stood out. They were thin, crispy, and completely covered with sesame seeds on one side. The fragrance of the sesame was simply incredible. Pity I only had stomach space for one of these...

This was definitely too much food for the 3 of us, but fortunately my friend was able to pack up the leftovers to take home. Unfortunately the last 3 dishes arrived at the same time - in typical Chinese fashion - and got cold very quickly in this weather... and crab tomalley isn't something you want to have when it's cold. Oh well.

I was happy to be able to eat with B in Shanghai, after our meals in Switzerland and Hong Kong. Next time I will plan things a little better, and actually take her somewhere that she has never been...

Cassoulet in Shanghai

2011-12-16T23:44:00.000+08:00

I'm in Shanghai for a short weekend, just to hang with B and showing her some of my favorite places in Shanghai. The point was to have proper Shanghainese, but I have one free meal and felt like something a little different.

I had heard about Mr. and Mrs. Bund some time ago, and after a little research I realized that the chef used to be at Jade on 36. My good friend Dr Poon used to rave about the restaurant at the Pudong Shangri-La, but I never got the chance to check it out before the chef's departure. Now that Mr. and Mrs. Bund has been voted No. 7 among the Asia's Top 20 in the Miele Guide, I figured I'd give it a try.

I landed around dinner time, rendezvoused with my friends and headed to the restaurant for a late dinner. I was thinking that the building looked familiar, when I realized that it sits just below Bar Rouge. Memories of a few years ago...

We were a little overwhelmed by the menu initially. It was divided up into different sections, with the "Rookie Menu" at the front. After a while it dawned on us that this was essentially the most popular dishes, or a sort of "greatest hits". The rest of the menu were categorized by the main ingredient, but we paid particular attention to the section titled "Very French". Here were a selection of very homey dishes that Mr. Locust and I love, which we didn't expect from a place like this. Pot au feu, cassoulet, tripe, trotters... I could easily have ordered half of this section alone.

Quite frankly, we were a little surprised. Given the chef's reputation at Jade 36, I was expecting something more modern, perhaps not quite to the point of molecular but certainly more "refined". What I saw on the menu were the classics and a lot of what we would call comfort food.

The bread basket came, and there were little baguettes with very long and stretched "nipples". Pretty-looking, but unfortunately not so interesting in terms of quality and taste.

There was a tin of foamy spread, which I think was made with salmon (?) and a little lemon. Mr. Locust was in good form today, and pretty much inhaled the entire tin by himself before we had a chance to taste much of it...

We decided to order all main courses and shared them. As it turned out there was still a little too much food...

Black cod truffle new meunière - I had an itty bitty bite of this. Not bad. Mash with truffle sauce on the side.

Tripes "sauce piquante" - well, this was definitely piquant, with the acidity coming from capers, tomatoes and black olives. Not bad. Didn't quite get the presence of new potatoes, though. Oh, and definitely better with the butter they provided on the side...

Cassoulet royal - the minute I saw this, I was sold. Mr. Locust wanted it, too, which was why we decided to share our dishes. We were told that this would a portion for 4-5 diners, but we ordered anyway. Well, it was definitely heavy, but not as big as we initially feared.

Besides the beans, there was a whole duck confit that had been cut into pieces, plus chunks of petit salé, the pork skin, little cubes of foie, slices of sausage and boudin noir, and slices of truffle. Lots of goodness. The only problem was that the whole thing was just too damn salty.

French fries - not bad at all.

I was stuffed, but there was still dessert. I ordered the orange and orange tart PP, one of the signatures here. Peeled orange wedges, orange curd, sorbet... and sablé were stuffed inside a candied whole orange rind shell. Not bad at all.

2001 Beaucastel - Mr. Locust very kindly brought this bottle, which was purchased by his wife at the château itself a number of years ago. The nose took a few minutes to open up, and showed lots of ripe fruit, oak and other wood scents. Sweet and lovely.

We all thought this was a pretty good meal, and if I lived in Shanghai I would definitely go back time and again. Do I think it deserves the No. 7 spot on the Miele Top 20, ahead of Alvin at Bo Innovation, Umberto at Otto e Mezzo and Chris at Mozaic? Not a chance. For homey French peasant food, I'd take my friend David Lai from On Lot 10 and Bistronimique any day.

One gripe: why does the restaurant insist on turning into a nightclub?! After 10:30pm or so, they dim the lights so that it looks like a lounge club. Well, many of us are still eating, and we'd like to be able to see our food, not to mention photograph it. Make up your mind about which type of establishment you are, please...

Indian beef curry

2011-12-11T17:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, you read the title correctly. I had the words "Indian" and "beef" in the same sentence. And yes, I did have that for lunch today.

About a year ago, the Rubberman created a fuss in Hong Kong when it awarded a macaron to a place called Hin Ho Curry Restaurant (恆河咖喱屋). Many of us have never been to this place - I had never even heard of it - and there it was, with a coveted Michelin star. No doubt it was part of the publication's effort to go downmarket and try to award some more "cheapest Michelin star on the planet"... I, along with many others, uttered the usual "WTF" at the news.

One year on, and the restaurant received a star for a second year. Thanks to the publicity and the additional business, the owner had made enough money to open a second branch. And my friends and I collectively uttered another round of "WTF".

But, as we have been discussing for the last few months, one isn't entitled to criticize the food at a restaurant without trying it first. As I was in town this weekend, I hollered on Facebook and rounded up a few friends so that we can all try it for the first time. As people were replying to my call to have some "Indian beef brisket curry", one of my Indian ex-bosses from London chimed in with the comment that "Indians don't eat beef"...

Well of course they don't! Any idiot who has ever been to India would have seen the way cows are allowed to roam the city streets, and cars have to dodge and make way for them. When was the last time you saw beef on the menu at a real Indian restaurant?

To be fair, I'm not sure if the restaurant ever advertised itself as an "Indian" restaurant, although with the range of food they serve and the name 恆河 - the Chinese name for the Ganges River - one would be forgiven to see it as such. The experts from Michelin have this to say in their 2012 Guide:

"Seeing the tandoor in the front window tells you that you're in for an authentic experience. The chefs are from Nepal ad trained in Delhi so the cuisine has a north Indian bias; Gosht Rajala, lamb with nuts and spices, and Jeera Pullao, delicious buttery rice, are popular choices. If you can't decide then the Nawabi Bhojan or "Royal Fare" menu offers a great selection of classic dishes. The simple decor comes with a hint of Bollywood."

I guess the Rubberman convenient ignored the plethora of beef dishes on the menu when passing judgement on the authenticity of the cuisine.

But the most important thing for us, of course, is whether the food tastes good. So we ordered a bunch of dishes for an early lunch - we got seated by 11am, when the place opened - and here's what we had:

Tandoori beef tongue - this was actually really good... The slices of tongue were tender, and the spices weren't half bad, either. I had expected this to be a little more dry, but didn't mind the abundance of sauce. Loved the onions.

Goa fish curry - this was OK. There was a little fishy taste from the skin but this was mostly covered up by the spices.

Tandoori chicken - apparently the tandoori chicken and the tandoori baby chicken are actually the same item... Pretty decent and enjoyable.

Lamb knee masala - the lamb shank was OK, and came with a two-pronged spoon apparently designed to remove the meat from the bone. Not as melt-in-your-mouth as some of the slow-cooked ones I've had elsewhere, but I wouldn't complain.

Beef flank bhuna - hmmm... it said 牛腩 in Chinese but it's actually short ribs. Not bad, and the addition of tomato is a nice change from the usual masala, korma...etc

We shared a few types of naan to go along with our food. I ordered the onion kulcha, which had curried onions inside. There was also the special naan, which as it turned out was made with shredded coconut, sugar and diced pineapple. I guess it was pretty special...

Verdict? We all thought the food was pretty decent and tasty, and this was a good neighborhood joint. Was it the best Indian meal I can have in town? I'm pretty sure I can do better, and given the out-of-the-way location it is unlikely that I would go back. Was it star-worthy? Not in my mind. Would other one-star chefs and owners in town be proud to tell customers that they are ranked at the same level as this place? Not on your life...

We wandered around the area in search of more food... Unfortunately On Lee Noodle (安利魚蛋粉麵) had a huge line outside, as expected, so we passed it up and headed for 低調高手大街小食, a stall famous for their egg waffles (雞蛋仔). I'm no connoisseur when it comes to this stuff, but these had to be the best egg waffles I've ever had in Hong Kong. Dry and crisp on the outside, with perfectly moist interiors. Yum.

No more WTF from me

2011-12-03T15:37:00.001+08:00

The 4th edition of the Rubberman's guide to fine dining in Hong Kong and Macau came out a few days ago. Having been out of Hong Kong for a few months, the exact date had slipped my mind. But on Thursday morning I suddenly noticed a lot of traffic on Facebook and Twitter, and realized that it must have been the big day.

My friends and I have been collectively uttering "WTF" for three years in a row, and this year it was no different. All of our complaints - including those I had highlighted in last year's post as well as Quest For Stars - remain and in fact has gotten worse.

This year, I'm not going to publicly grumble about the Rubberman's choices. I've done it enough, and now that I've moved out of Hong Kong I no longer feel qualified to give an opinion. I'm less and less likely to eat at any of the places listed in the new guide, and as I've said to some of my friends - you can't really give an opinion or trash a place until you've actually tried the food.

So I'm zipping up. That is, until the next trip when I pay a visit to that certain "Indian beef curry" joint and see for myself what they put in the food to make those anonymous reviewers go gaga about the place...

No way this is better than sex

2011-11-26T23:55:00.000+08:00

I'm back in HK for a very short weekend trip, and accepted a very kind invitation from the Specialist to have dinner at her home. After our dinner in Paris, she very swiftly acquired a SousVide Supreme and began trying out sous vide cooking at home. She claimed that all her family members had been satisfied customers, so I agreed to be the next guinea pig. Well, truth is that I had placed an order for my very own SousVide Supreme for my new kitchen in Taipei...

We started with some 48-month jamón ibérico, which was certainly delicious. There were a few of those hardened clumps of protein that one finds in aged ham. Mmm mmm good.

The salad consisted of veggies imported from France... Apparently my host now feels that the veggies from France tastes sweeter/better... I myself have no idea.

Next came the first of two sous vide dishes - chicken thigh. These were slow cooked for about 6 hours, then finished by baking in the oven. I must admit that I have no memory of ever having had sous vide chicken... The meat was definitely very, very soft and tender... almost fluffy. Any softer and it'd probably start to get weird. There was the ubiquitous rosemary, but thankfully they were easily removed and not too heavy.

One of the most obvious items to cook sous vide is steak, and one look at the color leaves very little doubt as to how the beef was done. The color was evenly red inside, while the meat was quickly pan-fried in a skillet to brown the exterior. Very tender and yummy... bringing out the full taste of the beef. I've never cooked steak enough at home to master it, and have always had difficulty getting it right. This is clearly the solution for me!

We paused for a little while and waited for the Specialist's BFF to arrive after her dinner. It was then that the Specialist broke out a pretty-looking box of cakes from Mrs. B's Cakery. The socialite owner behind this joint needs no introduction in Hong Kong, and the place was opened based on the popularity of some of the cakes at Sevva. I had never gone out of my way to buy any of these, so I was curious to try.

Better than Sex - of course we had to start with this one. I was just trading messages on Twitter with Your Highness about the very same creation, and made the snide remark that if one thought this was really better than sex, then one should consider changing partners... This is simply some sort of chocolate fudge cake, and the verdict? Three thumbs down. None of us thought it was even anywhere close to the best chocolate cake we'd ever had... To think that they had the audacity to attach such a controversial name to it... was simply asking for trouble.

Memoirs of a Geisha - umm... unfortunately the page for this one in my memoir will be left blank... Memorable for the lack of flavor... I didn't get much red bean flavor out of this, and I was left wondering why there was a whole grape inserted in the middle of all this...

Madame Butterfly - again, notable for the lack of flavor. The top layer was supposedly "exotic" beetroot, but there wasn't even the slightly hint of it.

Banana Lust - the best of the lot. At least we could tell it was made with banana... but then again it's not really better than the average banana cake.

Fortunately all was not lost. Besides the good stuff we had before dessert, there was - surprise, surprise! -plenty of wine tonight.

2004 Louis Roederer Cristal - nose was a little yeasty, surprisingly a little pungent - sulfur? Mineral. Good acidity balance, though, and very approachable. The nose turned a little metallic once the wine warmed up in glass.

1970 BV Georges de Latour in half bottle - my third time drinking this great wine from my vintage. Nose was a little prune, a little smoky, with brett, dried herbs, tea and a little woody. Very lovely, and pretty much what I expected of this wine.

1971 Biondi-Santi Riserva - lots of sweet grass and herbs... Would have guessed this was a Bordeaux... perhaps a Saint Julien. Herbs, a little coffee grinds, and perhaps a hint of soy sauce. Don't have much experience with old Brunellos so didn't know what to expect. My surprise contribution.

1990 Troplong Mondot - from a stellar vintage with a near-perfect Parker score. Expectations were high, thanks to the generosity of BFF who brought it on account of me. Nose of green peppers, tea, a little smoky, minty. Definitely pretty alcoholic. Honestly pretty disappointing...

Fish is a way of life

2011-11-22T23:04:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I met up with Big Mac, and when I found out a couple of days ago that I'd have a free evening tonight, I decided to ping him and see if he's available for dinner. I was sure glad he said yes! Unfortunately, he left it up to me to choose the venue, whereas I would normally have appreciated for others to suggest new and interesting places for me.

I thought this would be a good chance for me to check out Gyodoike (魚道生), a Japanese restaurant that came highly recommended by the Ox. I never found the right opportunity to try this place, but I was pretty sure Big Mac would appreciate it.

We asked for omakase, and wanted to get a couple of hot dishes. What followed was a feast that left both of us stuffed but smiling all the way...

As a start we were offered some sea grapes (海ぶどう) along with pickled ginger and radish pickled with perilla leaves (紫蘇) and yuzu (柚子). The radish was particularly yummy.

Cod milt (鱈白子) - definitely one of my least favorite things to eat, although many of my friends consider this a delicacy. At least the chef had lightly poached it so it wasn't actually raw semen...

Yellowtail (鰤) - this is definitely the season to have it, but the chef chose to serve it slightly torched, so I didn't really get the chewy/crunchy texture. Pretty good, still.

Then came an "appetizer platter" with a few different items:

Some sort of white fish (白身魚) marinated in plum vinegar and shredded perilla leaves (紫蘇). This was OK.

Lightly (grilled?) cuttlefish (イカ) - rather forgettable.

Half a mussel, and a thin slice of smoked duck. Not really getting this part...

Abalone (鮑)

Splendid alfonsino (金目鯛) - lightly torched.

Whelk (つぶ貝) - nice and crunchy.

Round-snout nase (鯃) - apparently abundant in the waters of Danshui River (淡水河). Taken with both a smidgen of wasabi and a sprinkle of yuzu rind.

Red seabream (真鯛) - dipped in apple ponzu (ポン酢).

Fatty tuna belly (中トロ) - unfortunately I forgot to tell the chef that I didn't want tuna, so this was prepared and served while we were chatting. I decided that I should probably try it here once... VERY, very good. Almost melted in my mouth. Served with a "marinade" of wasabi and soy sauce.

Bonito (鰹) - with a marinade of soy, red peppercorns, ginger...etc and served with some shredded myoga ginger (茗荷), which isn't grown in Taiwan.

Scallop (帆立貝) - scored and lightly torched on the outside.

Rock fish (紅喉魚) - very nice. There's just a touch of salt on the skin and around the fins. Flesh was moist, perfect with a just a rub of lime.

Salmon roe (イクラ) - very, very fresh and delicious. So fresh that the exterior membranes were still firm and required a little extra force to break open, after which the contents simply burst into the mouth. The shavings of yuzu rind was a really nice way of adding a different twist to the flavors.

Black flounder (黒鰈) - filleted and deep-fried. I thought the batter was a little thick on some parts, which meant I was tasting mostly dough and not the fish. The bones were also deep-fried, and they were very yummy.

The beef was pretty nicely done, with two small chunks that wasn't too heavy. Garnished with a burdock (牛蒡) mash, miso and some mushrooms.

Before moving on to the sushi section, the chef served us some pickled wasabi (山葵) stems to cleanse our palates. Very interesting... I could definitely taste some of the earthy, green flavors.

Squid (イカ) - the chef told us that he scored it 60 times before serving...

Glass shrimp (白海老) - from Toyama Prefecture (富山県). Lovely.

Young gizzard shard (小鰭) - a very lovely fish. The chef here again showed off his knife work, which is quite different from what I saw at Sushi Kanesaka (鮨かねさか) in Tokyo last year. Taken with a sprinkle of yuzu rind.

Yellow porgy (黄鯛) - very yummy.

Sea urchin (雲丹) - wow! Just really fresh, sweet and tasty! Melted in my mouth.

Conger eel (穴子) - just about the best piece of conger eel I can remember... Absolutely just melted in my mouth like I was eating cotton candy. With rock salt and yuzu rind on top. I'll take 3 more of these, please...

Mackerel (鯖) - with a thin piece of kelp (昆布) pickled in vinegar. Pretty yummy, too...

I was pretty happy at this point, but Big Mac insisted that we each get a small bowl of sushi rice, which he said was really the signature dish here. So I had the diced sushi over rice (バラちらし鮨), which looked extremely pretty. It was also very, very delicious, with salmon roe, scallop, shrimp, tuna belly, tuna back (赤身), egg, seaweed (のり), cucumber, sweetened ginger mash... The bowl was empty in no time.

Tomato with tomato jelly and shiso - nice and refreshing.

Dassai Junmai Daiginjo 50 (獺祭純米大吟醸 50) - seimaibuai (精米歩合) of 50%. Didn't pay much attention to this tonight, but noticed it was a little on the dry side.

A fantastic dinner, but the chirashi at the end put me over the edge... It's been a few weeks (since France, anyway) since I last carried my stomach out of the restaurant, but it was worth it.

Perrrty seafood

2011-11-21T23:06:00.000+08:00

Tigger came into town today, and I managed to catch up with him for dinner. It's been years since I was last in Pearl Liang Seafood (漂亮海鮮) at the Grand Hyatt, so I was curious to see what the food was like nowadays.

Ever the connoisseur, he chose from one of four set menus put together by the restaurant. There was definitely a little too much food...

The appetisers combination (漂亮前菜開胃碟) came with three different bites:

Pan-fried scallop with radish cake - the single scallop was nicely pan-fried so that it was slightly brown on the outside. There was a small piece of radish cake (蘿蔔糕) below the scallop, which was unfortunately a little mushy.

Chinese yam "noodles" with peanut sauce - thin strands of Chinese yam (山藥) were mixed with peanut sauce, and surprisingly good.

Drunken chicken (醉雞) - it might look a little different, but the taste was definitely what I expected of the classic dish.

Seafood noodle - this was ordered for our little guest, who apparently likes scallops and noodles. I got to share a small bowl. A little too late, perhaps, so the noodles had soaked up most of the soup.

I passed on the bowl of shark's fin soup, but I did enjoy the poached Australian fresh abalone, superior broth, sugar peas shoot (豆苗上湯浸鮮鮑).

Braised cod fillet, eggplant and mushroom, premium oyster sauce (茄子炆龍鱈) - I poked fun at Tigger by calling this dish "Chinatown". The fish is battered and deep-fried before braising; the sauce is a little hot and sour... all elements popular with foreigners. Truth be told, the dish was fairly tasty...

Wok fried Australian lamb chop with garlic and fragrant salt, black pepper sauce (蒜香淮鹽澳洲羊排) - not bad...

Braised sea cucumber with goose web, lin chi mushroom, abalone jus (海參靈菇扣鵝掌) - taste-wise this was OK, but the goose webs just haven't been braised enough, so they weren't anywhere close to melt-in-your-mouth.

Fried rice with abalone, assorted seafood, oyster sauce (鮑粒海鮮燴飯) - pretty good, actually... and I actually gave half my portion to Tigger, knowing how he can just suck this up like a Hoover...

There was a good selection of fruits, which I really enjoyed. The desserts however were not really up my alley. I am not a fan of frog fat (蛤士蟆), so I stayed away from my bowl of dessert soup...

1997 Hospices de Beaune Corton-Charlemagne Cuvée François de Salins par Louis Max - nose was extremely oxidized and sweet, with Chinese licorice (甘草), sweet grass, straw and plum (梅子). Kinda metallic on the palate, especially when drunk with food.

Overall this was a pretty decent meal, but no thanks to Tigger's so-called "ordering skills." Nevertheless it's always good to see him...

Ich bin ein Berliner

2011-11-19T21:58:00.000+08:00

OK, so I'm not really from Berlin... nor am I really a jelly donut, the way JFK is reputedly to have proclaimed himself to be. For years I have been cracking a stupid joke by telling people that this is the only complete sentence of German that I can speak... thanks to the attention and controversy about the grammatical accuracy of JFK's speech back in 1963.

Anyway. I had a rare dose of culture tonight thanks to the parental units. They had received tickets to a concert tonight by the Berliner Philharmoniker, and thought a little classical music would do me some good. After my 6-hour ordeal earlier today, dad and I rushed over to the National Concert Hall and made it just in time for the event.

We had extremely good seats - front row center circle. We had a bird's eye view of the stage, and there was nothing to complain about in terms of acoustics. The concert was being simulcast to 2 other venues in Taiwan, and was also being recorded for a future DVD or as a concert in Digital Concert Hall - Berliner Philharmoniker's online concert library.

The evening started with Ravel's Alborada del gracioso, a short and playful piece. Given that I was still recovering from the mad rush to get into my seat, I really appreciated the fact that we started with something that was light and cheerful.

With the second piece came something I had never experienced before in a classical concert - not that I've been to many. Toshio Hosokawa's Concerto for Horn and Orchestra - Moment of Blossoming calls for the placement of several horn players among the audience - in this case at strategic points on the circle level. I was a little surprised to find Sarah Willis standing in the aisle right next to me with her French horn. She very politely apologized to us in advance, saying that "it is a little loud, but we can still be friends!" As it turned out it wasn't loud at all...

A very interesting piece, given my very limited exposure in recent years to classical music. Also interesting to find out that the piece was commissioned in part by Berliner Philharmonika and dedicated by the composer to Stefan Dohr, Principal horn of the group.

The final piece after the intermission was Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in d minor, the last and unfinished piece of work of the composer. Nice, but evoked no special emotions within me.

A very nice break from the usual routine, especially on such an otherwise awful day.

Huit par Hermé

2011-11-10T21:25:00.000+08:00

I never miss a chance to load up on Pierre Hermé's macarons whenever I see them, and this past trip to Paris was no exception. I was glad to be able to try out a few new flavors.

Truffe Blanche et Noisette - the most awesome flavor, EVER. Once the lid is open on the box, it's hard not to notice the fragrance of white truffles hitting you... My second year of grabbing these when they are in season.

Rose - lovely floral fragrance, best to start with this and move on to the bigger hitters.

Americano Pamplemousse - very nice flavors of grapefruit, with grapefruit rind seemingly marinated in Campari.

Crème Brûlée - that vanilla flavor was pretty obvious...

Infiniment Caramel - just can't beat salted butter caramel...

Pietra - hazelnut inside and out.

Azur - looks like pure chocolate on the outside, but with the extra acidity and a hint of fragrance provided by yuzu rind.

Infiniment chocolat Sur del Lago - wow! I've been underwhelmed in recent years by chocolate desserts, but this one surprised on the upside. The single source chocolate from Venezuela was really, really good.

A little slice of heaven, these macarons... Now I wonder what got into me when I was in the shop... Should have taken one of every flavor!

The cousin from the north

2011-11-08T23:44:00.000+08:00

Dyson 2000 was in town on business, and was kind enough to stick around for an extra evening after traversing our little beautiful isle visiting clients in the space of a day. I, of course, tried to be a good host and took her to a couple of local places. The poor thing had nothing to eat but bentos (便當) bought at the various train stations!

Our first stop was at Lu Sang (呂桑), the same place I took David when he was in town a few months ago. I decided to let the starving woman choose her own dinner, so didn't make any recommendations at first...

Steamed chicken (白斬雞) - compared to what David and I had last time, the portion tonight was downright puny! Maybe because this time I came with a lady instead of a big guy... I think the chicken itself was still decent, but we didn't get a lot of meat to gauge the texture. The skin was good, though.

Rice with pork lard (豬油拌飯) - there was never any doubt that we would each order a bowl of this... and guess who "Dyson'ed" what was in her bowl? Then again, what's not to love about lard?!

Deep-fried pork with spring onions (三星卜肉) - never had this before... Strips of pork are coated in starch batter and deep-fried. Dyson 2000 kept wondering about the batter, since she felt it was distinctively sweet. There were clumps of deep-fried spring onions, which were of a special cultivar called Sanshing (三星) from Yilan (宜蘭)... kinda like Japanese kaki-age (かき揚げ).

Deep-fried liver flower (肝花) - the mix of chopped liver, water chestnut...etc. in tofu skin was pretty OK.

Yilan gaozha (宜蘭高渣) - initially I didn't order this, but I knew that Dyson 2000 wanted a little something more, and this is something really special for me. Deep-fried chicken soup in batter. The chunks would fall apart with the slightest pressure at the wrong location. Literally melts in your mouth. It's obvious that the batter has absorbed a lot of oil in the frying process, but this is just too good...

Our northern cousin obviously still had lots of stomach space, so we hit another one of my favorites just down the street. Sit Fun (喫飯食堂) also sells Taiwanese fare, but doesn't have the Yilan specialties that Lu Sang offers.

Dyson 2000 sat down and immediately started to work on a bowl of rice flour vermicelli with sesame oil (麻油麵線). I was already pretty full from the pork lard rice, so I saved room for the other dishes we were about to have...

Stir-fried bird's-nest fern with white bait (炒山蘇) - Taiwanese people love eating their fern, and I relish the opportunity to have something a little unusual. The stems and the tips are crunchy, while the leaves are a little slippery and felt a little more like kelp (昆布). Fried with yummy white bait as well as marinated manjack berries (破布子).

Pan-fried pig's liver (香煎豬肝) - this is what we came for. Mom loves the fried liver here instead of the perfectly steamed variety at Lu Sang. Tonight we felt the slices were a little too thin, so the center was a little overdone. The exterior was still yummy and slightly browned/singed. I guess it's just personal preference.

With our bellies full, I took my guest on a tour of the Shinyi branch of Eslite (誠品) since it's close to her hotel. We toured most of the floors here, including both the lifestyle section as well as the vast selection of books and magazines. Like many people before us, we wondered if it were possible to have something like this in Hong Kong... and whether the high rental was the only hurdle. Oh well, she's always welcome to visit anytime...

100-point dinner

2011-11-02T23:35:00.000+08:00

About a month ago one of my friends hosted a dinner party at her home. When I browsed through the pictures she posted on Facebook, I jokingly commented that she and her friends were committing "infanticide" by drinking wines like 2001 Lafite-Rothschild and 2003 Montrose much, much too young.

That, of course, drew swift reaction from the participants... including the contributors of the wines who vehemently defended their decisions to pop open a bottle of First Growth at the tender age of 10 - and using Robert Parker's comments as ammunition. Well, just because a wine can be drunk now doesn't mean now is the right time to drink it... unless, of course, you've got a warehouse full of cases of the same First Growths that you can age.

My friend the host then challenged me to bring a 100-point wine at our next dinner - a wine that is old and mature enough so it wouldn't be infanticide. I accepted the challenge, and agreed to meet up for dinner the evening that I return from France.

After I landed in Hong Kong this morning, I made a trip to Hong Kong Wine Vault and fished 2 bottles from my cellar. On the way back home, I did have a little hesitation about popping open this particular 100-pointer. It's rather rare, and it's my favorite vintage of my favorite wine. Did I really have to open it tonight? Couldn't I just bring something else that also fit the bill? I'll bet a bottle of 1990 Montrose would be equally mind-blowing...

Well, I made it to Fan Tang (飯堂) with the same two bottles. The venue was chosen by one of the foursome who is apparently a regular there. That makes a huge difference here, as my previous observations indicated.

The manager suggested a few dishes and we decided to keep things light.

Stir fried diced beef fillet with garlic (蒜片牛柳粒) - these were OK.

Deep fried small yellow croaker with chili and pepper (椒鹽小黃魚) - these were really good the last time, and still something worth ordering. Not exactly the healthiest dish, but definitely very yummy.

Deep fried salted egg yolk with corn - off menu, but pretty yummy. The saltiness of the yolk is tempered by the sugar in the corn kernels.

Fried glass vermicelli in clay pot - not bad at all, with lots of wok hei (鑊氣). A little short on ingredients, though... but this meant that the calorie count - especially with the vermicelli made from mung beans - was kept low. The fried rice vermicelli with barbecued pork and vegetables (家鄉炒米粉) I had last time was much, much better...

Pan fried chicken pieces with ginger and spring onion (順德生煎雞) - not bad.

Stir fried choy sum (清炒菜心) - the chef sources some of the best ingredients around, and it definitely showed here. This was just naturally sweet, and doesn't need much in terms of additional condiments.

Crab roe xiaolongbao (蟹黃小籠包) and baked flaky pastry with ham and spring onion (黃橋燒餅) - not bad. Hairy crabs are in season so lots of places are now offering XLBs with the crab roe (technically tomalley...) The baked pastries were pretty good, though.

Onto the wines...

Jacques Selosse Exquise - a bit acidic on the nose, a little fruity. Definitely a sec and not a brut, very round and voluptuous on the palate. The finished seemed slightly bitter at first. Nose of dried straw. Much better after 15 minutes. 30 minutes after opening, the nose really opened up to show minerals and salty plum (話梅). I chose this for our lady who prefers Champagnes that are not so "aggressive" and more like wine, and this seemed to have done the trick.

1983 Guigal La Mouline - double decanted at home. A little brett and medicinal at first, which was surprising. Slightly mineral. The second pour after 2.5 hours was very sweet, plummy, a bit smoky, gamey, and a little dirty. Sweet on palate with very silky tannins. The finish was a little short. Black olive and savory. Pretty disappointing considering this is my favorite vintage of my favorite wine, although perhaps I had allowed it to over-breathe. Seems that the last bottle I had from my cellar also underperformed...

After dinner we adjourned to my friend's place just around the corner. She decided to pop open another bottle for us...

2003 Lascombes - very sweet and ripe, with coconut butter, smoke, dried herbs, a little woodsy and coffee notes. Drinking pretty well despite the young age.

It was a very enjoyable evening, although unfortunately nothing came close to 100 points this evening... except the company.

Visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites

2011-11-01T12:58:00.000+08:00

Since early 2007, I have been wanting to gear my future travels towards visiting more locations which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are so many amazing places around the world to see!

Here is the list that I have already visited so far. Click on the links to see pictures from my Picasa albums.

Total count: 51 sites in 18 countries

Australia
Greater Blue Mountains Area - 1976
Sydney Opera House - 1976

Cambodia
Angkor - 2001

China
The Great Wall - 1997, 1999
The Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang - 1997, 1999 (Beijing only)
Mogao Caves - 1999
Temple of Heaven - 1997, 1999
Summer Palace - 1997
Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties - 1997
Historic Centre of Macao - 1990, 1995, 2005
South China Karst - 2000

France
Paris, Banks of the Seine - 1994, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011
Cathedral of Notre Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims - 2002, 2009
Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion - 2009
Bordeaux, Port of the Moon - 2009
Palace and Park of Versailles - 2009
Historic Center of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge - 2011
Roman Theater and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange - 2011
Historic Center of Lyons - 2011

India
Agra Fort - 2007
Taj Mahal - 2007
Fatehpur Sikri - 2007
Humayun's Tomb, Dehli - 2007
Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Dehli - 2007

Indonesia
Borobudur Temple Compounds - 2005
Prambanan Temple Compounds - 2005

Japan
Himeji-jo - 1998
Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) - 1998, 2006
Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara - 2006
Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range - 2003
Shrines and Temples of Nikko - 2007

Kazakhstan
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi - 2008
Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly - 2008

Korea
Changdeokgung Palace Complex - 2008

Malaysia
Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straights of Malacca - 2003

Oman
Bahla Fort - 2007
Falaj System of Irrigation - 2007

Portugal
Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belen in Lisbon - 2006
Historic Centre of Oporto - 2006
Alto Douro Wine Region - 2006

Spain
Works of Antonio Gaudi - 2006

Switzerland
Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces - 2008, 2011

Thailand
Historic City of Ayutthaya - 2008
Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns - 2008

United Kingdom
Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church - 1976
Tower of London - 1976, 2005

United States
Statue of Liberty - 1994, 2006

Uzbekistan
Itchan Kala - 2008
Historic Center of Bukhara - 2008
Historic Center of Shakhrisyabz - 2008
Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures - 2008

This list will be continuously updated as my travels take me to more sites.

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 9: Faire le pont

2011-10-31T23:28:00.000+08:00

My last full day in France, and it happens to be the Monday that's right before a holiday - All Saints Day. Finding things that are open these last few days have been particularly difficult, since many French people have the habit of "faire le pont"... literally to make a bridge, but in essence taking a long weekend. We had that problem on our trip to Burgundy last year.

Got up this morning and was determined to go grab some breakfast at Blé Sucré. It's within walking distance from my hotel, and I was dying for some kouign amann. I had one on my trip last year and have been thinking of it ever since...

So I was utterly devastated when I arrived at Square Trousseau and found the place closed. Ils vont faire le pont!!! Aaarrrggghhh!!!

I decided to get my croissant and coffee at one of those places inside a métro station. Probably because I was wearing my UNICEF jacket with Chinese characters, one of the other customers - a taller, better-looking and blonder version of Eric Tsang (曾志偉) started chatting to me. Apparently he's a hairstylist and had been in Paris for some time, and he's looking forward to retiring in a few years after making enough money.

After this brief encounter, I wandered around rue Saint-Honoré, and eventually made my way to my one stop before lunch: Pierre Hermé on rue Cambon. As usual, I went a little crazy and bought up a storm - only 9 jars of confitures this time... and thanks to a miscommunication with the staff, only 9 boxes of macarons. I had originally intended to buy 9 boxes of mixed flavors PLUS 3 boxes of the truffle blanche et noisette, but they thought I only wanted 9 boxes TOTAL... Of course, I made the mistake of not counting...

Lunch was literally right next door at Chez Flottes. I had originally wanted to go to Tante Louise, but that venue - along with a few others I was interested in - was closed as Parisiens "faire le pont"... We needed a location that was close to the Specialst's hotel that was open today, and this was the best available option... How convenient that it was right next to a Pierre Hermé boutique!

Bigorneaux, la portion - I was trying to figure out what to order first, when the familiar name of a shellfish caught my eye. The first time I learnt of the name bigorneau (periwinkle) was during my lunch at Robuchon a Galera in Macau. The chef had added a sprinkle of them into the bouillon that made the dish. I was eager to try them out here... Big mistake. I had forgotten that I wasn't at a 3-star restaurant, and that I would have to take these little suckers out of their shells... There must have been close to 100 of them on my plate, and they didn't even give me a utensil! I had to make do with the metal spear that the waitress stuck into our pile of bread... I went through about 2/3 of it, which I thought was respectable...

Saucisse d'Auvergne au couteau, aligot - I ordered this not for the saucisse, but actually for the aligot... The saucisse was alright... tasted decent and was rather chewier than I had expected.

It was nice to finally taste aligot in France, even if I wasn't in Auvergne... Mashed potato with cheese... Mmmmm.....

I was more than happy to take a break, but the Specialist wanted to drink... and she wanted something that she normally wouldn't open. So we opened a bottle of 2006 Faiveley Mercurey Clos des Myglands. We chuckled to ourselves at drinking this monopole, because with this crowd on any given day, we'd probably be drinking some other monopoles that are a few notches higher in stature... Anyway, the nose had some fruit with a little mineral. Chewy tannins.

During lunch I chastised the Specialist and her friend for not buying any macarons truffes blanches noisettes from Pierre Hermé, so I took them back to the store after lunch. The manager was clearly happy to see me again, especially since I brought 2 ladies with me who ended up walking away with boxes of them. I think we successfully reinforced the stereotypical image of the big-spending Asian...

I bid the ladies farewell, and continued on my shopping errands. I had to make my obligatory stop at the Virgin Megastore on Champs Elysées, for my Mylène Farmer fix. I also picked up the French issue of Pina, the 3D movie by Wim Wenders about Pina Bausch and her dancers in Wuppertal. Very excited about watching it in 3D in my new apartment!

I crossed the road and walked past the Ladurée shop on Champs Elysées. I had heard that the place caught on fire last week, and sure enough, it was closed to the public... and two bouncers were at the entrance. All the second and third floor windows were open, obviously to ventilate the space so it wouldn't smell of smoke.

I spent a little more time around Champs Elysées, then head to the Left Bank in search of some cheese. Think that it wouldn't open tomorrow due to the holiday, I thought it would be clever to hit Androuet on rue Mouffetard today. After walking around in circles, desperately trying to get to the store before what I thought would be the closing time, I walk up to the door and... it's closed! They don't open on Mondays! Merde! Now how did I NOT do my homework on this trip?! Last year I had it all figured out... which days to hit which shop. This year? TOTAL FAIL.

I dropped some stuff off back at the hotel, and went to meet my friend Ralph for dinner. I had finally caught up with Ralph last year after a 25-year break, and this time we met up for dinner... on Halloween night so I could make him ditch his daughter...

I was pretty happy to find Le Violon d'Ingres - the 1-macaron bistro by Christian Constant - open tonight. I'd never tried any of his restaurants, so I was really looking forward to it. A couple of weeks after Ralph made the reservation, I suddenly realized that fellow blogger Scubagolfer had written about his meal there earlier this year. Memories of my discussion with him came back, and I decided that I would order some of the same dishes that he had.

Millefeuille de langue de bœuf et foie gras de canard façon Lucullus - I'd been thinking about the picture on Scubagolfer's blog... and was so excited when I saw this on the menu. When it arrived, though, I was a little taken aback. Because of the way SG takes his pictures - and I guess I'm kinda zooming in the same way - the real portions were actually a lot smaller than they looked on the blog. In fact, they seemed downright measly! Nevermind. I start to dig in, and this was indeed heavenly. What's not to like about layers of ox tongue and foie gras?! It was, of course, incredibly rich, so after these three little slices, I was pretty happy to move on to something else. Oh, the haricots verts on the side were pickled so the acidity helped cut the richness...

Andouillette de pieds de porcs panés, sauce à la lie de vin - well, I remember that SG didn't think much of this dish. I didn't, either. But probably for different reasons. What I had wasn't hard and dry, but while the stuffing inside was moist, I thought it was just a tad too acidic for my taste. I prefer the taste of my andouillette to be full-on, and I don't need no vinegar or anything else to distract me from it. I couldn't have cared less that the sauce was made with wine lees...

Soufflé chaud à la vanille Bourbon, caramel à la fleur de sel de Guérande - normally I would have gone for the millefeuille, but how could I pass up salted caramel?! I didn't think twice about drenching the soufflé in the sauce...

We started the evening with a flute of Vranken Cuvée Diamant, which I honestly thought was nothing special...

2010 Jean-Luc Colombo Condrieu Amour de Dieu - floral, fragrant and ripe. Exactly what I wanted out of a Condrieu. I wanted something light for a change, and this was perfect.

After dinner we decided to walk around a little... crossing Pont de l'Alma back to the Right Bank, and up Avenue Montaigne. After passing groups of would-be models near Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Ralph and I came upon what I thought was a ridiculous-looking car. Later on I would call it James Bond's Toyota. It was an Aston Martin Cygnet - basically a Toyota dressed like an Aston. I guess there are people out there who think this is a cool idea...

Finally I say goodbye to Ralph, and call it a night. Hope to see him again soon!

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 8: Enfin, Paris!

2011-10-30T23:49:00.000+08:00

Another early start to the day, as I get ready to leave Switzerland and go back to France. B very kindly made us a huge breakfast, and I joked that the spread is about half the size of the 5-star luxury hotels that I had been staying at during the past week...

After getting dropped off at Nyon, I took the local train into Gare Cornavin in Geneva, and boarded the TGV to Paris. I was wondering why it would take 3 hours for us to make the journey, then it all became clear as we snaked along the river gorge during part of the journey... Can't exactly travel at 200 km/h given this kind of terrain!

The train pulled into Gare de Lyon, and I quickly checked into Hotel Mercure Gare de Lyon - rising above one corner of the train station. I dropped my luggage quickly and ducked into the Métro below. I was already late for my lunch appointment with the Specialist and her friends.

Le Grande Café Capucines is normally not the type of place I would patronize in Paris. Everything about it screams "TOURIST TRAP"... But I was only tagging along for lunch, so I happily joined in. When I arrived I saw what was left of the stereotypical seafood platter one finds so often at tourist restaurants in Paris, and it was time for us to order our main course.

Choucroute de poissons fins (saumon, daurade, haddock fumé), beurre blanc au cumin - I never knew that people actually made a seafood choucroute... and I figured I owed it to myself to check it out, since I love the original pork version so much. While it may not have been a great dish, it was just what I needed for lunch today. Having fillets of fish was much lighter than having meat, and the mound of sauerkraut gave me the acidity to help digest the food that's been in my system for the last few days...

2006 Louis Latour Chassagne-Montrachet - nose was a little muted, with some minerals.

After our lunch we strolled around to help digestion, checking out the flea market along Boulevard des Capuccines which stretches to Boulevard de la Madeleine. I was surprised to come upon a Baillardran boutique, and it took me all of 5 seconds to turn around and go in. I looooooove canelés, and I couldn't resist buying a box along with a dozen copper molds and some cute canelé-shaped candles.

We stopped in at Dalloyau on Faubourg St.-Honoré for a cup of tea, and to rest our tired legs a little. I was sad to learn that my favorite tea - N°10 - has been discontinued and isn't even available for dining in. I made do with something similar... Pêche de vigne. I also took a few scoops of sorbet, since that's what I had on my very first visit here back in 1994.

It's Sunday and dining options are pretty limited in France. I made reservations for us at Pur' in the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, which has themselves one little macaron. I didn't have much expectations, and didn't really spent much time reading up on the place. It was open on a Sunday night, and is close to the hotel where the Specialist was staying... that was good enough for me!

We started with a glass of Jacques Lassaigne Le Cotet, an extra brut blanc de blancs. This was pretty yeasty and metallic.

Then came the foie gras lollipop...

...and some more little nibbles... The little gougères are filled with savory cream... and a lot saltier than I expected.

...and some ribbons of celery with peanut butter; and potato cream w caviar.

We took the 5-course dinner with wine pairing, which we thought was very reasonably priced:

The amuse bouche was pan-fried scallops with caramelized turnip and muscovado. This was pretty interesting in terms of the flavors, since the turnip sprouts were a little bitter, and the turnips themselves were also slightly bitter. The turnips had been pickled so there was acidity, but the foam was made with muscovado so it was sweet.

Champignons crémeux, girolles "bouton de culotte", mûre au vinaigre de cidre et crumble de noisette - mushrooms galore... taste of the fall season. The acidity of the blackberries was able to balance out the butter used in sautéing the girolles.

2008 de Vénus L'Effrontée - a little mineral, almost no nose. Definitely no palate except the alcohol...

Saumon sauvage confit, concombre l'huile d'aneth & purée de sésame noir - this was the first dish that really "wow'ed" us. The Scottish white salmon was cooked sous vide at 44°C for 15 minutes. It was incredibly tender and delicious. The use of black sesame purée and cucumber oil was interesting, but surprisingly the sesame did not overpower the salmon. Very, very good.

2008 Georges Jayer Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits - strawberry, jammy, mineral. Very surprisingly did not clash with the salmon at all... perhaps thanks to the sesame.

Pigeonneau cuit en cocote "au mélilot", épeautre & échalote grise - with herbs from Savoie and cébette onion on top. The little ball was made with pigeon foie, which was very tasty. The pigeon itself was nicely done, quite rosé, although I could have taken it just a tad more rare... The spinach barley risotto was not too bad... and clever use of barley instead of arborio rice.

2008 Catena Zapata Malbec - sweet, ripe, mint and forest. Still very tannic, but thankfully the heavy sauce of the pigeon was able to stand up to it.

Pruneau gonflé, Ossau Iraty & sirop de cassis - the prunes were marinated in white wine, then stuffed with cream cheese made from sheep's milk. Slices of Ossau-Iraty cheese on top.

A pre-dessert came in the form of goat milk sorbet with crispy milk, honey, green and red apple shavings. Looked so good that I dove in without taking a picture first...

Figues «de Monsieur Baud», pain perdu aux graines de lin & crème glacée Normande - a trolley was rolled in front of us bearing two of these mounds... and we had no idea what they were. In the dim lighting of the restaurant, I thought they had baked some rice cakes for us...

Our waiter proceeded to cut them open, to reveal whole figs which had been baked inside the sugary shell. I've seen plenty of salt-baked dishes, but don't remember ever seeing something baked in sugar...

The final product: fig bakes in sugar, sorbet made with lait cru on bread, yogurt panna cotta with fig coulis. The fig was very moist and the baking intensified the flavors. Very nice.

2007 Kracher Cuvée Beerenauslese - Alois Kracher died in 2007, so this would have been the first Kracher vintage without him. Nose of honey, white flowers and orange blossom. Delicious. We were supposed to get a glass of Pedro Ximenez with dessert, but the waiter very kindly substituted this one...

Mignardises: orange and Grand Marnier marshmallow w almond flakes

Dark chocolate with chocolate ganache

What a fantastic meal! We went in with zero expectations, and were totally surprised on the upside. For the price that we paid - EUR 100 for the food, EUR 160 including wine - and dining at a Michelin 1-star restaurant inside the Park Hyatt in Paris... this was a complete steal! One can easily pay more in Asia without getting the same level of quality, or creativity. I would definitely come back again.

And I think it's finally time for me to order the SousVide Supreme from Amazon and get it delivered...

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 7: 3-star detour

2011-10-29T22:44:00.000+08:00

I'm on the road again... After less than 24 hours in Lyon, I got up early this morning and headed for Gare Lyon Part-Dieu to catch the train to Geneva. I'm headed for one of my favorite restaurants in the world - Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville in Crissier. I was here around the same time 3 years ago, and met my friend B for the first time.

Once I arrived at Gare Cornavin in Geneva, I took a local train to Nyon. B picked me up in her black SLK... new since my last visit. My giant Rimowa barely fit in the trunk... We dropped off my luggage at her house, and Mr. B drove us all to Crissier.

It was a beautiful day around Lake Geneva - blue skies instead of gray 3 years ago. We met up with another couple who had come in from the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Lunch for 5 would be a lot of fun.

Vinaigrette de couteaux de l'Atlantique et petits coquillages au fenugrec - this was absolutely fabulous! Probably one of the best courses of the entire meal. I thought I had tasted a very delicate and refined dish featuring razor clams a few days ago at Troisgros, but this one wins hands down. The tiny pieces of razor clam, along with red and yellow clams, worked beautifully with vinaigrette and fenugreek cream, as well as the tiny little carrot balls, celery...etc. Right off the bat, I knew this meal would confirm Rochat as the best out of the three 3-stars on this trip...

Foie gras de canard chaud, artichaux épineux, fleurs d'hibiscus à l'huile d'noisette - very good. The exterior was browned and crispy, basically croustillant. Soft and lovely in the middle. And that hazelnut oil... wow!

Oeuf en surprise à l'italienne aux truffes blanches d'Alba - the soft-boiled egg was hidden inside a pasta shell, which was pretty interesting. Of course nothing beats the perfume of white truffles from Alba...

Noix de Saint-Jacques de la rade de Brest au Champagne rosé et caviar osciètre - another delicious dish with a surprise. The scallops were mi-cuit and delicious, interesting with the rosé Champagne foam. Nice dollop of caviar on top.

But the whole structure consisted of 2 scallops, with a layer of finely diced celery in between. The whole thing was then wrapped in a thin layer of celeriac.

Sole de l'île de Noirmoutier au jus de racines citron vert et gingembre - yet another dish with a middle layer... this time it was diced onions. Flavored with carrots, lime and ginger, along with something sweet like honey. Perfectly balanced between the sweetness and the acidity.

Homard bleu de l'île de Sky à la coque parfumé à l'estragon - lovely lobster, lightly perfumed with tarragon. Served with a few gnocchi "à la parisienne". We all wondered what that meant, but my explanation is that Parisian always screw up their pasta by making them mushy... such as my last risotto in Paris a couple of years ago. And yes, the gnocchi were a little mushy...

Lièvre à la royale - just can't get enough of this dish, especially when it was here 3 years ago that I first had it. Yum yum yum!

Sélection de fromages frais et affinés - only allowed myself four: the Swiss Mont d'Or - that puddle in the back - is made with pasteurized milk, as regulation forbids making cheese with lait cru. The Époisses de Bourgogne is from Berthaut, and pretty ripe. The thin slices of Simmental are four years old, and the salt crystals are pretty obvious. And no, Peter, they don't have Comté in Switzerland... it's called Gruyère here... and this one was half-salted.

Espoumas de poire Williams du Valais aux baies de sureau - the pear and alcohol are down at the bottom of the glass. Very, very yummy. Elderberries are nice, too.

Succulent pur Caraïbe au crémeux arabica - these days I tend to shy away from chocolate desserts, but this was simply amazing! Together with arabica coffee... Such a nice way to finish the meal!

Macarons, pâtes de fruits et chocolats - shouldn't forget the mignardises...

Someone wanted sorbet so the trolley was rolled out. I chose the Piña Colada sorbet, which was one of the best sorbet I've ever had. Tasted just like the real thing.

I was happy not to have the responsibility to choose the wines for our meal - that job went to Mr. B. Prices are pretty steep here, so stuck to good value offerings from more recent vintages.

2009 Comtesse Eldegarde Sauvignon Gris - mineral, a little green apple, muscat. Acidity a little high. Guess it's kinda similar to Sauvignon Blanc...

2008 Marc Morey Puligny-Montrachet - toasty, sweet, buttery. Lots of acidity here.

2008 Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes - very ripe and sweet, mint, forest. alcoholic. Nice body with soft and chewy tannins.

2010 La Colombe La Grive - very sharp nose, with mineral, flint, forest and sous bois. Ripe and sweet both on the nose and the palate.

As it had been 3 years ago, lunch was more than a 4-hour affair... but I was extremely satisfied. I couldn't find fault with a single one of the courses today... and that is very, very rare. Towards the end of our meal, Chef Philippe Rochat came into the dining room to introduce his successor, who will take over the restaurant starting April next year. I've been privileged to dine here twice when Chef Philippe was in the kitchen, and I'll always remember these two lunches.

We went back to Mr. and Mrs. B's hillside residence, and I got to admire the view over Lake Geneva. The clouds had come in by now, so we weren't able to see the Jet d'Eau nor Mont Blanc, but it didn't matter. The view was still beautiful.

Some two hours after returning home, while neither Mr. B nor I were yet hungry, B started to lay out some food on the counter of the open kitchen. She had bought some cold cuts and cheese this morning, and thought it was time for us to start nibbling. There was some Swiss air-dried beef, prosciutto, and jamón ibérico.

There was also a good selection of cheese, including a Saint-Marcellin that was almost liquified...

We obviously didn't have enough wine at lunch, so we started by finishing off the leftover 1998 Rayas I had last night. It drank OK, but had clearly oxidized a little too much.

Mr. B then opened a bottle of 1999 Léoville-Las Cases. This was smoky, a little chalky, dirty, wet cardboard on top of some sweet fruit. I can't help but think the bottle was a little corked.

A very relaxing end to a long day of good food...

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 6: Bicycling in Lyon

2011-10-28T23:21:00.000+08:00

The roadtrip was over and we went our separate ways this morning. A few of us took the car back to Lyon, and after a quick drop-off at Saint Exupéry Airport, the car took me to the Hilton Lyon where I would be staying the night.

Checking in was a breeze at the hotel, and soon I was able to drop my luggage in my rather spacious room. Too bad my room didn’t come with a view of either the beautiful riverside or the adjoining Parc de la Tête d’Or, but that’s what happens when you book through one of those hotel booking websites…

It’s lunchtime and I’m hungry again. I venture out of the hotel and decide to rent a bicycle from a station just outside the hotel, one of hundreds citywide. Instead of getting frustrated like I did in Paris 2 years ago, this time I found the process incredibly easy. Soon I was on the bike going down the biking/jogging path right next to the Rhône River, heading into town looking for lunch.

I didn’t have a reservation for lunch as I wasn't sure exactly when I would get into the city, so I was hoping for some luck. Took me a few minutes to find La Meunière as I overshot it on the bike and had to double back. I entered the busy restaurant - a lone Asian carrying a rather large camera bag - and met with some stares from the customers. I could see that they were full, and the sole table remaining was soon filled by some people who already had reservations. Bummer.

Well, I was kinda stuck. In my utter foolishness I hadn't counted on these old, famous bouchons being busy for lunch on a Friday, so I had no backup. I looked around for other options, and after navigating the streets around Hôtel de Ville, I was turned away by two more places before finally finding a table at Le Garet.

Rillettes d'oie - there was never any doubt as to what I would start with... I haven't had rillettes on this trip and it was good to do it the French way... They just bring you the container, you get a big dinner spoon, and any amount of bread for you to spread it on. For me, of course, it had always been a disproportionate amount of rillettes on top of each piece of bread...

With all the bread and fatty goodness, you gotta wash it down with something. I asked for a pot of Côtes-du-Rhône, as the locals would, and this is what I got. Oh and that bottle next to the wine isn't really Vodka... it's the "carafe" for my water.

This was placed on my table when I arrived. In the fall one sometimes find restaurants serving nuts, but this didn't look like any kind of nut that I'd ever seen. I picked up a piece and nibble... deep-fried pork lard. Oh baby...

Sabodet cuit aux gênes - I was all ready to order my favorite andouillette when I was distracted by the description of this daily special. Somewhere along the line I heard the words "tête de porc", and I was done! I was definitely gonna try out a new type of sausage for me... made out of head cheese!

Like other Lyonnais sausages this was kinda big and fat. It was definitely made with different parts of the pig's head, as I can taste the collagen as well as the crunchy cartilage from the pig's ears. Interestingly, this was cooked with both the moût (must) of the wine grapes after pressing as well as the free-run juice from the press. Very delicious.

Saint-Marcellin de Mère Richard - having a demi of Saint-Marcellin is de rigueur in Lyon, and Mère Richard is the most famous affineur.

While the cheese was nutty, creamy and delicious, the plate that it was served on was far more interesting... Look what you see after you've consumed the cheese...

With my stomach full, I set out to look at some of Lyon's famous historical sites. Two cathedrals are on my list, and both are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Cathédral Saint-Jean-Baptiste is in Vieux Lyon, with a fountain in front depicting the baptism of Christ. The stained glass windows and the astronomical clock are some of the nice details inside. Once upon a time this was the seat of the archbishop of Lyon.

From the station just off the Place Saint-Jean, I took the funicular up the Fourvière hill to visit Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. This is the great white basilica plainly visible from afar, sitting majestically atop the hill next to an eyesore - an Eiffel Tower mini-me. It stands over Lyon like Basilique du Sacré-Cœur watches over Paris.

The beautiful white exterior of the upper sanctuary is nothing compared to what's inside. The interior is incredibly ornate and gilded. The phrase bling-bling comes to mind. I was definite in awe at the amount of work and resources poured into this place. I guess that's the power of faith... or money... or both.

It's starting to get late, and I still have errands to run. I walk down the hill through the trees facing the river, and find my way to Antic Wine. It's supposed to be one of the best wine shops in town, and I'm here to look for something specific... I've been carrying around 10 empty wine bottles in my suitcase since the start of this trip, as I had forgotten to bring my own stash of stickers to remove to labels. Having failed to find them in wine shops during the last few days, I was hoping to be able to find them in Lyon so I can get rid of the excess baggage. No such luck. They did look like they had a pretty good selection, but I simply didn't have the time to browse.

I head into the main shopping area on Presqu'île and hit a few shops that sell kitchenware. They do sell some wine paraphernalia but not the stickers. I grab another bike and cross the Rhône to Part-Dieu. Out of desperation I call the concierge at the Hilton Lyon, and manage to get the names of a couple of shops from the guy. It's past 6pm and I'd better hurry if I wanted to make it to any shop that was still open.

Vavro and Co. is in a great location, at least for me. It is exactly two doors down from my remaining shopping destination in Lyon, so I was able to hit both in the space of a few minutes. Perfect. Here in this spacious wine shop I finally found what I was looking for. Success! Now I won't have to lug around all that glass anymore... It gets pretty heavy, you know... I also manage to pick up a couple of bottles of whites from Alsace from a producer I don't see much in Asia.

Bernarchon is apparently THE chocolatier in Lyon, and happens to be next door. I must admit that I didn't do much homework before coming, and in reality my luggage was running out of space faster than I had expected. I selected a few different chocolate bars to bring back as gifts, as well as a little bag of caramels. It's now past 7pm and I needed to get back to the hotel. I get back on the bike and ride up north.

Dinner is at 2-macaron La Mère Brazier, an institution in Lyon. One of the first "mère" restaurants where the first female 3-star chef was crowned, this is apparently where Paul Bocuse apprenticed. It has now been 90 years since the first opening, and its place is the culinary history of Lyon is without question. I didn't want to do Bocuse and asked for recommendations, and this came from Felix at QLI.

Nice little nibbles

Crème de châtaignes - interestingly with pine nuts and what seemed to be pickled shallots inside.

Fricassée de champignons des bois, œuf mollet, escargot et jambon iberico - the egg was done perfectly... egg white was firm but with bounce, and a runny yolk with a solid layer on the outside. The mix of escargot, mushrooms and jamón ibérico all worked well together.

Galette de blé noir, purée de poireau, et andouille - not exactly what I expected, but oh-so-delicious! The tiny buckwheat galette bore a thin slice of andouille on top. This combination would have been OK, but I didn't expect to have an oyster in the mix... This beautiful oyster came from Florent Tarbouriech around Montpellier, and is bred to be incredibly plump. The taste was incredibly well-balanced, creamy yet delicately tasting of the briny ocean. Mi cuit so that it was a little crunchy in texture. Of course it worked well with the leek purée...

Grosse langoustine rôtie au radis noir acidulé, vinaigrette au miel et romarin - the one dish that failed tonight. The giant langoustine looked beautiful, and did taste somewhat sweet. Unfortunately the texture had turned to mush in the middle, which tells me it's not very fresh.

Interestingly with Japanese elements, as seen by the poached radish on the side as well as the two maki (巻き) on top. Inside the seaweed were shreds of carrots, radish, cucumber and ginger.

Pigeon rôti et céleri braisé, chutney de coing, les cuisses confites et toast de foie - very nicely executed, with rosé breast. The little toast with pigeon foie was especially delicious.

Promages affinés - of course I had to have some Saint-Marcellin... which was really salty tonight. Livarot was salty and slightly acidic mid-palate.

The Époisses de Bourgogne was from Berthaut, so it's not made with lait cru - unpasteurized milk. The ones I've had before haven't been this salty and ripe... With a sip of wine in the mouth, the combination brought out pine nuts and macadamia nuts. The cheese was so salty that it brought out the acidity on the finish of the wine.

The pre-dessert was a madeleine with some fromage blanc - another local favorite. The fromage blanc was cool, silky and sweet... almost like a yogurt sorbet. The madeleine was beautifully done - crispy and lovely on the outside, while warm, soft and moist on the inside. Bravo!

Mille-feuille craquant à la vanille Bourbon - a classic, beautiful example of how it should be done. Delicious to the last bite.

Mignardises

I was originally looking at the demi-bouteille section of the wine list, since I didn't think I could finish an entire bottle myself... However I spotted a very special bottle on the list and the price was very reasonable... so I ordered it in honor of Lord Rayas and the MNSC boys. We couldn't believe that it would be so difficult to find a decent bottle of Rayas during the entire trip, so it never showed up at any of our meals. I guess I just had to have this bottle...

1998 Rayas - a little muted at first with some red fruits. Long finish. Mint, forest and ripeness really came out after 45 minutes, and body developed further. After an hour the nose was sweet and like strawberry jam. Good tannins here, and this wine will last for a long time. Black plum notes. Two hours later the wine was big, ripe and sweet. Clearly not hitting its peak yet. I saved the remaining half of the bottle for tomorrow...

As is customary at 2 and 3-macaron restaurants in Europe, Chef Mathieu Viannay came out the greet the diners at each table, and came to me before dessert. I think he was a little surprised when I told him that everything was perfect, except that I thought his langoustine wasn't fresh. He was a little taken aback, and told me that he gets them fresh daily. I told him that I was giving him my honest opinion and I loved everything else.

When I asked for the bill, I was puzzled as to why it would take more than 15 minutes to do this. When the maître d' finally arrived with it, they had decided not to charge me for the langoustines, so I would be paying for 3 plats instead of 4. In spite of the fact that I thought the service was painfully slow for a solo diner (it took 3 hours), this earned them brownie points in my book.

When I was waiting for my taxi outside the door, Chef Mathieu came to ask me once again for my thoughts. I told him again that I enjoyed just about everything... and especially the flawless desserts. I hope he got the message that I really enjoyed my meal here...

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 5: The best of Chateauneuf

2011-10-27T23:55:00.000+08:00

Got an early start this morning since we had 3 appointments before lunch. First stop was at Clos Saouma, the new property from Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakin of Burgundy's Lucien Le Moine. Details of the visit are here.

Our next stop is with an MNSC old friend, at Château de Beaucastel. Details of the visit are here.

Our final stop before lunch is at the legendary Domaine Henri Bonneau to meet the man himself. Details of the visit are here.

We are running very late for lunch, and still have a little distance to travel for it. We swing through the town of Orange on the way, and come to a stop at an unassuming looking arch that looks like a miniature version of Paris' Arc de Triomph. It's under restoration, and I hesitated but decided not to take out my camera to snap a picture. Little did I know that this is the "Triumphal Arch" that is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Orange...

The venue for our lunch was Restaurant L'Oustalet in Gigondas, owned by the Perrins. Pierre had been there for a while as we were late. We were also joined by Rotem and Mounir.

A few delicious amuses bouches to start us off:

A little bit of Parma ham.

Chicken from Ardèche, mi cuit, with fennel and rosemary - very tender and succulent.

Ravioles de homard croustillantes, petits lègumes à l'huile d'argan sur un bouillon Thaï - we found it interesting that these were deep-fried like wontons. Interesting flavors with ginger and chives. Pretty yummy.

Bar et cèpes, a la racine de persil, émulsion au cresson - the sea bass was pretty good, wrapped in nori (のり) and worked very well together with the watercress. The little clams were delicious and I wanted more than just the three...

The sautéed cèpes on the side were sooo good... I devoured them in no time.

L'agneau de Grillon aux blettes et pignons de Méditerranée - this was damn good lamb... garnished with a wafer-thin slice of eggplant. Chard and pine nuts on the side were good.

Le plateau de fromages affinés par Claudine Vigier à Carpentras, d'ici, du Barroux, de Corse et d'Ailleurs... - I ended up taking 3 little bites of cheese: Reblochon; Époisses de Bourgogne, sadly, not made with lait cru...; Gaperon d'Auvergne, which tasted of a little garlic and pepper. Delicious with a little fig jam on the side.

Queques framboises sur "Macalong" le bleuet et la myrtille en sorbet - this was simply amazing collection of berries... with intense flavors, especially the blueberry sorbet. Perfect way to finish.

2009 Yves Cuilleron Condrieu La Petite Côte - very ripe, sweet, honey, marmalade and straw. Good acidity but I thought it was too ripe on the palate.

2009 Beaucastel Roussanne Vieilles Vignes - beeswax notes. Good balance between acidity and ripeness. Sipping this wine after eating the deep-fried ravioles turned it into something that was really hot and ripe on the palate.

2009 Clos Saouma (unnamed Châteauneuf-du-Pape) - nose was a little sharp, minty, and very sweet.

2000 Henri Bonneau Réserve des Célestins - black olives, black fruits, smoky, very salty and mineral.

1989 Beaucastel Rouge - rubber, leather, farmy and sharp. Drank beautifully with some Reblochon, which turned the wine into a sweet, jammy nectar.

A very delicious lunch, and some delicious wines! Many thanks, of course, to Pierre for his generosity. On our way out, we decided to purchase a few bottles off the wine list to take to dinner.

With no more winery visits planned, we returned to La Mirande and spent a little time in the outdoor courtyard, taking advantage of Pineapple’s generosity by lighting up a vintage cigar.

We walked through Avignon on the cobblestone streets, heading to our dinner at Numéro 75. This ain't no haute cuisine... it's a casual restaurant that fit our needs. The hotel concierge had called in advance to make sure that we can bring our own wines to dinner.

Salade poisson - ho-hum.

Ravioli with foie gras, mushroom and duck - not bad at all... Nice cream of mushroom sauce with more mushrooms added, which always works well with foie. I'm pretty happy.

Magret de canard - again, not bad at all. I confirmed with the manager that I wanted it rosé, and that's how it was served. Of course it paired very well with the wines...

We opened three fantastic bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape:

2000 Beaucastel Hommage à Jacques Perrin - nose was pretty open, showy, with animal, leather, spices, mint and prunes. Later on there was lots of toast. So big and fragrant. Wow!

1995 Henri Bonneau Réserve des Célestins - lovely nose with ripe fruit and mint. Good acidity balance.

1998 Roger Sabon Le Secret des Sabon - nose was a little muted at first. Very ripe and sweet on the palate. Very alcoholic and burns the back of my throat going down. Tannins still very big. Obviously a Parker wine, which explains the very high scores given for this first vintage. Three and a half hours later, nose was much more open, with ripe and a little cooked fruit, a little mineral and savory. Really sharp and alcoholic now.

After dinner, we decided to take the remaining half bottle of Sabon back for a final drink. The original plan was to sit in one of the town squares and enjoy the cool evening air, but unfortunately it had begun to drizzle. After checking for a couple of other options, we ended up back in the bar at La Mirande.

Pineapple disappeared to flip through the hotel wine list, and returned with the sommelier bearing 5 glasses of wine. Our final bottle for the trip would turn out to be 1959 Palmer – a fantastic bottle that would give the 1961 Palmer a run for its money. Lots of sweet grass, a little smoky, a little mineral, plenty of toast. Sweet fruit. Lovely.

What a way to end our five-day journey in France!

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 4: Pope and Avignon

2011-10-26T23:02:00.000+08:00

We left Maison Pic early this morning and said goodbye to northern Rhône, heading down south to focus on Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Our first visit was at Domaine Roger Sabon in Châteauneuf-du-Pape this morning. Details of the visit are here.

Next we headed to Tavel and visited Domaine de la Mordorée. Details of the visit are here.

Fabrice very kindly treated us to lunch at the restaurant in La Mirande, the hotel in Avignon where we were staying.

Cream of pumpkin soup with nuts and truffle – this was not bad, with some spices to add a little something more interesting. Nice piece of white truffle on top.

Rémoulade de céleri-rave au saumon frais – the salmon was decent, but the rémoulade at the bottom really made the dish. The cream helped to balance the natural slightly bitter taste of the celeriac, and spices like peppers kept the taste from being boring.

Magret de canard, ceps – the breast was pretty tasty, cooked to a good rosé. A little veiny, but I don’t have a problem with that. The ceps were deliciously pan-fried.

Marron mousse, panna cotta, meringue – FAIL. How does any restaurant serve something like this, which has clearly keeled over/toppled, to a customer? The taste was OK, nothing to write home about. But the presentation here gets a big fat ZERO.

Speaking of zero… the waiter who served us also gets a big, fat ZERO for his service. He didn’t bother to introduce the dishes to us, and when I asked for a description he simply blurted out something simple and gave me a look of disdain. Dude, if you don’t want to be here serving dishes, don’t show up for work! If you decide to show up for your job at the best, fanciest luxury hotel in town, please do so with a smile.

2008 Beaucastel Roussanne Vieilles Vignes – really big and rich, with intense ripeness, glycerin, beeswax. Really ripe and alcoholic on the palate.

2009 du Caillou Châteauneuf-du-Pape Les Quartz – good sweet fruit, intense, with forest and pine notes.

Our appointment for the afternoon was cancelled, and we were left with an afternoon to explore the city. La Mirande is just a stone’s throw away from Palais de Papes, the old papal palace when nine of the Popes resided in France and refused to take their seats in Rome. It’s now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The complex is reasonably big, consisting of a mix of older and newer buildings. Most of the halls and chapels are now empty, devoid of any furnishings. It takes some imagination to picture this place in its prime. A few of the smaller chapels and the papal bedroom still have the original murals on the walls. I walk through the complex fairly quickly, not having enough patience today to listen to all the explanations from the audio guide.

I decided to skip the adjacent Cathédrale Notre Dame des Doms, with the large golden Virgin Mary on top. I walk through the Rocher des Doms till I’m standing at the edge of the cliff. Here I am granted a spectacular view of the River Rhône, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon across the river, and the Pont St-Bénézet that once connected the two banks of the river.

It’s past 4pm and the light’s still pretty good, so I descend down to the river bank, and get up onto the historic bridge, also inscribed on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. First built some 800 years ago and rebuilt several times since then, it no longer connects Avignon with Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. I stuck around for a while and snapped a bunch of pictures, and get a good look at the Rhône from up close. I also spent a few minutes watching a bunch of ducks swimming around while they look for bread from a French family out with the kids.

The sun’s slowly sinking, and I have a mission to accomplish. I’ve been saving the bottles that we’ve drunk over the last few nights so I can keep the labels, but unfortunately I forgot to bring my own packs of label-removing stickers from home. I’ve gotta hit a decent wine shop and see if I can find some locally. The people in the little shops in Châteauneuf-du-Pape have never even heard of them.

I walked the cobble streets of this historic town, headed for the best wine shop recommended by the hotel concierge. No luck. The shop wasn’t particularly impressive, at least for a wine snob like myself, and I head back to the hotel a little dejected and fatigued.

Dinner time rolled around, and we headed for Restaurant La Beaugravière in Mondragon. I had done a little research, and found that the idea here was all about black truffles which are from this area. I’ve got a feeling that this little unassuming restaurant is similar to Ma Cuisine in Beaune…

We started with a complimentary bowl of soupe potiron aux truffes. Not bad at all… and when was the last time your humble pumpkin soup had chunks of black truffles in it?

All of us ended up ordering œuf brouillard aux truffles. Honestly, this really is the best way to get your truffles – by having them together with wet, runny scrambled eggs. Of course, the eggs here taste much better than most of the crap we get out in Asia… Wonderful stuff.

We all could use a little more green in our diet, so we get a round of green salads. I’m feeling a little full after the sequence of three dishes, before my main course even arrived…

Poulet de Bresse rôti – the manager asked if we wanted breast or chicken, and the response was unanimously “cuisse!” Yes, we’re Asian, and we like dark meat… Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the bits of truffle on my chicken, even though it wasn’t specifically mentioned on the menu. The skin wasn’t as dry and crispy as I would have liked, but it was still pretty yummy. I just love Bresse chicken.

1990 Clos des Papes – ripe, a little stewed, smoky, savory minerals, black olive, and a little dusty on the nose. 93 points.

1990 Guigal La Mouline – sweet nose with coconut butter, animal, bacon fat, a little mineral and savory, a little smoky with grilled meats. What a beautiful wine! 98 points.

1929 Jaboulet La Chapelle – Wow! What a treat and privilege to be able to drink this! Savory, mineral, dusty, chalky at first. Gradually opened up to reveal a beautiful sweet and fruity nose. Amazing! With this last bottle, some of us we romanticizing a little and thinking that it has seen WWII, numerous economic cycles and French presidents, just lying in a cellar somewhere… waiting for someone to come pick it up so that it can offer itself up for our pleasure. Well, this is certainly one bottle of one I won’t easily forget.

Would it surprise anyone that I fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel?

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 3: two giants in northern Rhone

2011-10-25T23:53:00.000+08:00

Our morning visit having been cancelled, our day was a relatively easy one, and I got some much-needed sleep.

The first item on our agenda today was a visit to M. Chapoutier in Tain l'Hermitage. Details of the visit can be found here.

Michel Chapoutier hosted us for lunch inside the main office.

Salade d'andouillette grillée et de pommel de terre – made from pigs raised by Chapoutier, Michel prefers to cut open the casing and just pan-fry the pieces. As an andouillette lover, I was totally in heaven. So happy that I didn’t have to look for it on this trip…

Pavé de bœuf, légumes craquants et champignons de bois – I didn’t ask about the breed, but I’m assuming it’s Charolais. Perfect done the way a Frenchman gourmand would prefer – bleu. One of the best steaks I’ve had in a while…

Salade de fruits frais – beautiful, ripe and sweet strawberries, pineapple and more. Great way to finish.

2006 Chapoutier Ermitage de L’Orée en magnum – honey, glycerin, elegant, fat and lovely.

2006 Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie La Mordorée en magnum – lovely floral nose with violet and mint.

2007 Chapoutier Les Coufis en demi-bouteille – made from Viognier. Glycerin, a little polyurethane, ripe orange marmalade on the nose, and still pretty sharp. Really ripe and sweet on the palate, but mid-palate was slightly bitter, which carried over to the finish.

Our next visit was with E. Guigal in Ampuis, and we had a fantastic tasting with Philippe Guigal. Details of the visit can be found here.

The final visit of the day was with Ogier, and Stephane Ogier led us through the tasting. Details of the visit can be found here.

Dinner tonight was at Pic, the 3-macaron gastronomic restaurant inside Maison Pic.

A series of four amuses bouches were presented:

Foie gras with fig and verbena; peanut marshmallow

Salmon with sour cream; ceps macaron

Crème brûlée of foie gras with granny smith apple mousse - pretty interesting, with a balance of sweet and savory flavors in the foie, and the acidic flavors coming from the mousse.

Les oursins violets: langues et crémeux d'oursins en fine gelée d'oseille coulant de jaune d'œuf au poivre cubèbe - love the runny egg yolk, but didn't like the sorrel jelly since I just don't like dishes that are too acidic. But the acidity did kinda get my stomach juices going...

Les Huitres Spéciales Gillardeau N˚3: au naturel, nuage d'une fondue revisitée - Gillardeau is my favorite oyster, but I had expected somewhat more than a few cut up pieces of it in this bowl...

Le bar de ligne au caviar d'Aquitaine: comme l'aimait mon Père ~1971~ - the sea bass itself was very tender and juicy. The foam was very interesting and flavorful, but just too heavy on the salt. Having the caviar there didn't help with the salt content... Technically correct, just a little heavy-handed to make me love this dish.

La poularde de Bresse: suprême cuit lentement, navets fondants au chutney de dattes Madjoul, et poivre de Voatsiperifery, jus de volaille - pretty tender chicken with yummy skin. The sprinkle of ground pepper on top was very nice. Radish and date chutney on the side was pretty interesting.

Lièvre à la royale - very traditional, which means the meat was made into a hard, solid block that's a little tough and dry without a good helping of the sauce. Reminds me of the version that Chef Vincent makes at Caprice.

Le Brie de Meaux revisité - kinda interesting to make this into a crème without the brûlée on top. Vanilla seeds are mixed in. The whole thing actually tasted of sweet corn, funnily enough...

L'intemporel soufflé chaud au Grand Marnier - simply the best Grand Marnier soufflé I have ever tasted in my life. Period. Every other version I have had uses the liqueur to make a creamy sauce. Here they dispense with the sauce, and instead lights Grand Marnier on fire before letting the soufflé soak it up. The result is a much more intense orange fragrance and flavor, since the liqueur wasn't diluted. Wow! Why don't other people do that?!

Les myrtilles sauvages et la vanille de Tahiti grand cru Bora-Bora: crémeux acidulé de yaourt brassé à la vanille et confit de myrtilles, chantilly poudrée à la vanille de Tahiti - this was very pretty, and tasted good, too. I wonder why we don't see much wild blueberries in top restaurants in Asia, when we seem to be getting a good amount of wild strawberries...

The wine lineup tonight was... a trio of really big guns.

2000 Leflaive Montrachet – big, explosive nose, toasty, minerals, lemon, ripe and sweet on nose without being over ripe. A long finish, with acidity slightly on the high side.

1996 DRC Romanée-Conti – my first experience in drinking an RC, even though I first bought some over 10 years ago. Floral, elegant, feminine, a bit smoky and a little sharp on the nose. Then it turned a bit animal, meaty, a little soy sauce and savory, which was more masculine…

1990 Chave Hermitage Cuvée Cathelin – very lovely and beautiful, very ripe fruit, leather, grilled meats, still a little alcoholic, slightly cooked prunes. An amazing wine!

It was certainly a privilege to drink any one of these wines... let alone all three of them together!

It would be natural for me or anyone else to compare the food at Pic with that of the other 3-macaron restaurant we visited earlier. I think when you consider the quality of the ingredients, the execution, presentation, service...etc... Pic definitely deserves their 3 macarons. Everything was flawless. However, it is unfortunate that the menu we chose - Collection Pic - was the more classic and hence heavier than our preferences. The flavors were simply too heavy-handed, as opposed to the more delicately balanced creations from Michel Troisgros.

Well, I've got one more 3-macaron meal coming up, and I'm really looking forward to that one!

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 2: Two vignerons in the north

2011-10-24T22:19:00.000+08:00

After a rather sleepless night, the focus this morning was firmly on breakfast. Breakfast at Troisgros is a serious affair, and I was certainly not going to miss it!

The basket of pastries included the brioche aux pralines, which was as fragrant from the hazelnuts as it was sweet from the sugar. The savory selections included three different sausages: a boudin noir with beef tongue, another boudin with pig’s ears, and a saucisson. Doesn’t take much to make me a happy man in the morning…

We bid farewell to Maison Troisgros, and headed south into Rhône valley to begin our tour of the domaines.

Our first stop was Domaine Georges Vernay in Condrieu. Details of the visit are here.

Lunch was at Georges Vernay, catered by a chef.

Foie gras en papillote - big chunks of delicious foie gras on toast, with caramelized figs in between. Very delish, and I finished this in no time.

Dinde sot-l'y-laisse - amazing to get a collection of "chicken oysters" but these are actually from turkeys. Very yummy.

Panna cota avec ananas de Madagascar - dunno if it's the pineapple or the vanilla in the panna cotta that came from Madagascar... In any case this was really sweet but really delicious. Loved the candied pineapple.

1990 Georges Vernay Condrieu - wow! First time for me to taste such an old Viognier! Nose of straw, beeswax and a little honey. The floral notes are long gone. I have a new appreciation for how this grape varietal ages.

1997 Georges Vernay Côte-Rôtie Maison Rouge - Christine's first vintage after entering the business. A little smoky, minty, smoked meats. Very lovely.

After lunch, we headed to Tain l’Hermitage for our second visit of the day. We arrived early and had a little extra time on our hands, so I asked to stop at the Valrhona Boutique. I figured that since we were here, I might as well pick up a few things from where the chocolates are made.

There was a bewildering array of chocolates, and I honestly am not up to speed on my Valrhona. After making a quick tour of the premises, I focused on a selection of single origin bars from the 2011 harvest. I didn’t realize that, like wines, you could have millésimes for chocolate…

Our second visit was to Domaine JL Chave, one of the best properties in Hermitage. Details of the visit are here.

After our surprisingly wonderful visit with Chave, we moved to Valence and checked into Maison Pic, where we would spend the next two nights. Apparently the hotel actually does not accept guests on Monday night, but made an exception for us…

Dinner tonight was at 7 par Anne-Sophie Pic, the casual bistro in the hotel. The restaurant was extremely busy and full, since it offers high quality food from the only female 3 macaron chef at an affordable price.

We started with some nibbles:

Pâté en croûte - very good stuff.

Jamón

Cream of butternut squash with coffee foam - kinda interesting...

L'oeuf bio moelleux, moules de bouchot, légumes de saison, sauce émulsionnée au safran - pretty good. The slow-cooked egg has a very viscous yolk. The julienne of veggies has tiny little mussels mixed in, and the sauce was very delish, as the acidity was just what was needed.

Les pâtes fregola sarda, préparées comme un risotto, champignons de saison, crème de cèpes - very, very yummy... just like a mushroom risotto, but fregola is a little chewier in terms of bite. Love the flavors of fall mushrooms.

Chocolate and mint with ginger ice cream

Given our visit to Chave earlier in the day, the choice for wines tonight isn't very surprising...

2006 Roulot Meursault 1er Cru Charmes - very smoky and toasty nose. Ripe and a little alcoholic.

1998 Chave Hermitage Cuvée Cathelin - spices, dried herbs, minty with grilled meats. Still very tannic and not ready.

1995 Chave Hermitage Cuvée Cathelin - sweeter, black fruits like prunes, dried herbs. A little sharp on the nose. Much better on the palate.

MNSC Rhone Trip Day 1: Back at Troisgros

2011-10-23T22:59:00.000+08:00

So here we are... at the start of another MNSC road trip. The region we have chosen this year is Rhône, and for the second year in a row we are starting the trip with a full day spent with the Troisgros.

Two of us arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport early in the morning, and after grabbing a simple cup of coffee with a pain au chocolat, boarded the TGV and headed to Lyon. After getting picked up at Lyon Part Dieu station, we picked up the rest of the crew at Saint Exupéry Airport and the connecting TGV station. Within one hour, the Viano was full and we headed north for lunch.

The landscape started to look familiar in the final minutes before arriving at La Colline du Colombier, and as we pulled up to the gate it was comforting to see that Couline and Rose - the two donkeys of the farm house - were still running around in their pen. The weather was warmer and nicer today compared to our visit last year, and I noticed that tables were laid out on the patio.

The restaurant was crowded on a Sunday as usual. We took the same table as last year, next to the fireplace so that the fumes can fully interfere with our olfactory senses... EXACTLY what you want while drinking some expensive stuff.

I remember the painful experience of stuffing myself at lunch, which meant I wasn't hungry at all when dinner time came. I was determined not to make the same mistake this year, so I asked the gang not to over-order and try to save some stomach space...

We started with some nice jambon...

...and pâté aux lentilles.

Soupe de potiron - a nice pot of butternut squash soup to keep us warm. I stuck to having half a bowl...

Scrambled eggs with chanterelles - this was really good. Runny scrambled eggs with lovely fragrance and flavors from the shrooms, together with what looks like a red wine reduction. Curious to find two little scoops of butter placed on top...

We ordered a round of mains and shared them all between us:

Boudin noir with apples - I would have been happy to have this on my own, but in this case I had a couple of chunks to satisfy my perennial craving. Soooo good...

Lièvre à la royale - I knew I'd be having it sometime on this trip, but didn't expect it to be so soon! Absolutely loved it. The sauce was incredibly rich with all the blood, liver...etc. but there are some fruity acidity to balance it somewhat. Most definitely the best lièvre à la royale I have ever had.

Frog's legs in parsley garlic butter - just as good as it was last year.

Côte de boeuf - what a huge hunk of beef! I don't understand why the French always say that something like this is "for two"... because it would need to be "for four" or more when it comes to us.

Very nicely done with garlic cloves and shallots, this came to the table pre-carved and "bleu". Absolutely perfect in terms of execution, and totally delicious.

These amazing potato puffs were served on the side. Just the sight of a whole basket of them is impressive enough...

Golden and crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside - like mashed potato with lots of air bubbles.

Given our history last year, there was never gonna be any surprises as to what we would be drinking for lunch today...

2004 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Genevrières- nose of toasty oak, smoky, a little grassy with obvious straw. A little ripe on the palate. Honestly, a little too subtle for a Coche-Dury...

2004 Coche-Dury Meursault 1er Cru Perrières- much bigger nose, heavier toast, explosive almost as I would expect from a Coche-Dury. A hint of lemon and toasted corn. More acidity on the palate, and this was a very well-balanced wine.

1993 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée - lots of fruit, sweet and lovely nose. A little floral and smoky.

1995 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée- minty, nose was a little closed. Some dried herbs with ripe prunes.

I absolutely, totally failed in my mission not to get stuffed at lunch. There'll be hell to pay at dinner time...

We moved out to the patio since the weather was so nice, and took our coffee there. The meringues they served us were very good... still soft inside the hard shell.

The five city slickers went out on the patch of grass next to the restaurant and took in the views of the surrounding areas. One of us decided to lay down on the grass to look at the blue sky above, and one by one we all followed suit. The sun bestowed its warmth on me, the gentle breeze caressed me, and the sweet smell of unpolluted grass filled my lungs. I began to feel that I had left all my troubles behind... and the next few days would be to relax and take in a little fun.

We drove to Roanne and checked into Maison Troisgros. The devious Pineapple waited until the last minute to inform us that, due to the hotel being incredibly busy, there would be only 3 rooms for the 5 of us. Two of us from the Taiwanese mafia would be sharing a room for the night. Now it's looking more like a college road trip!

Dinner time rolled around, and I was once again not the best bit hungry. What's worse, my buzz from lunch had just worn off after drinking some of that wonderful thé aux fruits rouges et à la menthe served by the hotel in our room. For some reason, they always know exactly what to serve you as a welcome drink to refresh you... and they give you the recipe for you to do it at home, too!

We started the evening in the library, with some nibbles while waiting for the entire crew to assemble.

Caramelized cherry tomatoes

Pumpkin on Parmigiano toast, semolina cube with lemon, cuttlefish with tapenade on ink toast

Pigeon mousse millefeuille

Jamon lard croustillant

1990 Troisgros Cuvée Jean-Baptiste, elaboré par Duval-Leroy - Michel Troisgros sent this bottle of the house Champagne for us to start off the evening. Lovely, oxidized nose, a little metallic and mineral, sweet and caramelized, a hint of salty plum (話梅), sugar cane, and Chinese licorice (甘草).

We moved to the private dining room in the restaurant, where we spent a wonderful evening last year.

The snack on the table to start us off was a bowl of deep-fried pork rinds. These had to be the most bling-bling pork rinds I had ever seen... flavored with seaweed.

There were also some deep-fried pumpkin strips. These were OK...

Since I wasn't hungry at all, and had already had a few snacks, I decided to forgo the full tasting menu and just order à la carte.

Couteau en gelée à la clémentine et à l'estragon - for those of us not having the tasting menu, Michel sent us the same starting dish as those who were. Very interesting to have razor clams served this way. Lovely citrus flavors of clementines to tone down the flavors of the ocean. Radish strips provided an Asian element. The tiny bits of tarragon added another subtle touch, which I really appreciated. I can't tell you how many times I've been pissed off by a chef's heavy hand with herbs...

Macquereau croustillant, inspiré de Venise - I love mackerel, and here you've got the acidity from the capers, grapes and vinegar helping to cut down on the oily feeling in your mouth. Kelp, onions, chicory and saffron all come together to create a complex flavor profile.

Moules et maïs voilées de lait - I got a taste of this dish, which combined the creamy textures of milk and mussels. Not bad.

Plins à la truffe blanche d'Alba - this was our favorite dish last year, and I sure wasn't gonna pass it up this year! The full portion was at least double the tasting portion, and I was in heaven. The little agnolottis simply exploded with the slightest pressure in my mouth... and the flavors from butter, Parmigiano, Marscapone just filled my mouth.

Of course, one mustn't forget about the wonderful white truffles that are in season... A totally awesome dish!

Anguille à la laque, vinaigre et yuzu - the presentation of the eel was definitely very, very artistic. Nicely glazed on the surface. Served with a duck jus / vinegar reduction. The waiter shaved some yuzu (柚子) rind on top, but the taste in the mouth was actually yuzukosho (柚子胡椒) as promised. Pretty nice, but I was just too full by this point to finish the dish.

Swiss chard - served on the side with the eel.

The cheese platter here is as impressive as I've seen anywhere, but I just couldn't take any... Michel did send us panna cotta à la poire, which was delicious with grapefruit and clementine rind.

I nibbled on some of the mignardises, including these little pebbles that explodes upon cracking the hard shell, filling the mouth with Chartreuse.

We still had a lot of wine for dinner - something that is increasingly difficult to handle given our jet lag...

2002 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne - beautiful, big nose of toasted corn and smoke. Very pure, and extremely well-balanced on the palate.

1992 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Cros Parantoux en magnum - lots of forest and sous bois notes, a little sharp on the nose, with mint and dried herbs.

1999 DRC La Tâche - a bit smoky, still pretty sharp and alcoholic on the nose due to the young age. A little tight and took some time to open up. A little raw and simply too young. Infanticide. We finished the bottle in my room after taking a quick walk around town, and it drank a little better.

This was an amazing day. After two dinners at Troisgros, I can see what Pineapple has been raving about. Michel Troisgros is able to construct his dishes so that the flavors - subtle or prominent - come together in perfect balance. Nothing is out of whack. While we may not be wowed by his use of Asian ingredients or preparation method, the dishes themselves are still pretty faultless. I look forward to coming back here again...and again.

Gold coins on the run

2011-10-22T21:22:00.000+08:00

I’m flying out tonight for my annual wine tasting trip, but still had time for one more dinner in Hong Kong. I met up with Tigger and family for a quick one, and I took them to Manor Seafood Restaurant (富瑤海鮮酒家) so I could get my fix.

I started with a bowl of snake soup (蛇羹), which was pretty disappointing. There was simply not enough ingredients (like snake meat, for example) in the bowl, and the chef had decided to starch up the soup. Not the mark of a good snake soup… perhaps something I’d expect from places like Sher Wong Fen (蛇王芬) but not when I’m being charged the prices I’m paying here…

Roasted “gold coin” chicken (懷舊金錢雞) – I saw pictures posted by Dyson 2000 a couple of weeks ago, and they brought out my cravings for this. The cholesterol sandwiches have just gotten thicker with each visit, and I’m totally loving it! I can't get enough of this multi-layered creation of chicken liver, barbecued pork and lard in that wonderfully sweet honey glaze. I originally ordered one for each of us, but it looked pretty daunting to some of the others... so I ended up with two of them. I was very, very happy. But honestly, though... two of these babies is a lot to take in!

Hot and sour shredded potato (酸辣土豆絲) - this was pretty decent, and the ladies inhaled the dish between the two of them...

Steamed crab with Shao Xing wine (花雕蒸大花蟹) - I wanted to have this signature dish again... and this time the flower crab was humongous! The flesh was very sweet, since the crab was fresh. The best thing, of course, is always the sauce that is made from chicken fat and Huadiao wine (花雕). I passed up the claws as I normally do, but had most of the body of the crab. Yum!

Of course we asked for the leftover chicken fat to be mixed in with some noodles. Incredibly rich and decadent.

Diced beef with spring onion and butter (牛油蔥粒爆牛柳粒) - this was OK.

Bean vermicelli pot in Fukjen style (福建粉絲煲) - this was really good... and I wish I had more room in my stomach to fit in more of this! Done at high heat to maintain the right dry texture, while searing some of the ingredients to release the fragrance.

Stir-fried choy sum (生炒菜心) - sooooo good... Stir-fried with chunks of pork lard... and the lard cubes were seared and so delish...

Very stuffed, and very happy. A perfect meal to send me on my way to France...

Dim sum with Big Tony

2011-10-22T15:51:00.000+08:00

Big Tony flew into Hong Kong on the day that I was to leave for France, and I felt lucky to have had some overlap with him as both of us were having short stays here - 3 days for me, 1 for him.

The two of us met during our high school days in Singapore. Even though we were in the same school for only a semester, we became fast friends and I got to know his family well. After I went off to college, we didn't see each other for a number of years due to the distance between us. The last time we met was when I went to visit him in San Antonio, just before leaving New York for Hong Kong. That was many, many moons ago.

He was hungry and wanted to eat, so I took him out for dim sum at Victoria Seafood Restaurant (海都酒家). I figured there'd be enough variety and new things that they ain't got down in San Antonio...

First up was a serving of honey glazed barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒). I was dying for some good char siu, and these were pretty decent. But then again, being in Taipei these last few months have definitely lowered my standards...

Baked flaky pastries with ham and spring onion (黃橋燒餅) - can't imagine myself ever getting tired of this... Love the moist and juicy filling, and never mind the oil!

Pan-fried rice flour rolls with XO sauce (XO醬煎腸粉) - today I am thankful for the smaller portion since there were only two of us. Still as yummy as I first tasted it 16 years ago.

Deep-fried Bombay duck (椒鹽九肚魚) - I think I blew Big Tony's mind with this one... I can never get tired of how they melt in my mouth...

Baked pastry puff with radish (蘿蔔絲餅) - kinda surprised that this came as a more "Western" baked version instead of the usual deep-fried variety soaking up all the oil. Not bad, but definitely not as amazingly yummy as some of the other fatty versions I've had elsewhere... such as the perfect example here.

Pork ribs in black beans / chicken feet (豆豉排骨/鳳爪) - Big Tony had to get a taste of the classic items. Guess they don't feed him chicken feet much down in Texas...

Steamed dumpling Chiuchow style (潮州粉果) - always one of my favorites, thanks to the many different ingredients inside providing both taste and texture.

Hairy crab xiaolongbao (蟹粉小籠包) - I just had to get this as it's in season, and I was pretty sure Big Tony's never had something like this. I think we were both pretty happy...

Too much food, as usual... but it was great to catch up with an old friend. Let's hope our next meeting won't take another 16 years...

French Chinese food

2011-10-21T23:46:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Dyson 2000 was on her eating spree and had the same dish at Caprice twice in one week (...or was it two days in a row?) The dish looked real good, and I decided that I wanted it, too. A table was promptly reserved and I asked a few friends to join me.

For one reason or another, ALL of my friends decided to drop off at the last minute... by dinner time last night. My Birdbrain Cousin shamelessly invited herself to keep me company, and later in the evening Mr. and Mrs. Tigger decided they, too, would join us. All of a sudden it became a family dinner of sorts.

The little nibbles tonight was a little different... Besides the usual spinach filling, the other filling was white beans and chorizo. Loved the smokiness that chorizo brings to the mix.

The amuse bouche was something similar to what I had seen on the menu: tourteau crab tiramisu, with salsa of mango, papaya and sweet pimento, Marscapone cream. Pretty interesting, I must say... The flavors of the crab were pretty intense, and slightly salty on its own. This, of course, was balanced by the sweet salsa. The creamy Marscapone brings another dimension into the mix.

Paté en croûte: wild game, foie gras, green leaves in black truffle dressing - this is exactly what I had last year during game season. Not gonna pass it up this year, either. Still as yummy as ever, this blend of foie gras, venison, pork and pheasant. I am happy.

Braised pork belly - this was on the lunch menu but not on the dinner menu, and I have been lusting after this hunk of pork ever since I saw the picture posted by Dyson 2000. It is almost like Dongpo pork in Shanghainese food... and it tasted just as good, if not better. Loved every little morsel of this. Served with sweet corn purée spiced with a little cumin.

It's been a while since I've had some good cheese, and the craving was all the more acute thanks to my disastrous experience a couple of days ago. I decided to share a cheese platter with my Birdbrain Cousin.

Comté - forgot to ask how long this was aged for, but certainly past 3 years... There was still some of that sweet grass flavor on the palate, so I'm guessing it's not the 4 or 4.5-year old.

Vacherin-Mont d'Or - this wasn't on the cheese platter originally, but I asked for it anyway. Well... it wasn't presented for a reason - this wasn't ripe and runny enough. Still yummy, though...

Colombier - this was so ripe that it collapsed on itself. Yum!

Chèvre affiné avec au marc de Bourgogne - this was so ripe that it literally ran down the side of the wooden platter! I took one look at it and knew that I wanted it. Very lovely. Perfect condition for tonight. And yes, I used my index finger to wipe the plate clean on this one.

Époisses - very, very ripe and runny... although surprisingly not as overpowering in terms of that ammonia.

The waitstaff very kindly brought over two brand new jars of confitures from Christine Ferber to go with our cheese:

Fraises et framboises d'Alsace

Mangues - possibly the best mango jam I have ever tasted... edging out the ones from Red On Tree (在欉紅).

Caramel ice cream with diced pear and mixed nuts - I honestly didn't have room for dessert, but this showed up in front of us... Even Tigger, who loves the caramel ice cream at his beloved Mandarin Oriental, admitted that this was pretty awesome.

2006 Kongsgaard VioRus - lots of toast and lots of minerals in the nose. Ripe and sweet on the palate. No longer any hint of fresh floral notes from the Viognier... Detected a little sulfur on the nose. A little alcoholic and slightly sharp on the nose. Later on toasty corn showed up.

Very, very full and extremely satisfied... The team at Caprice was impeccable tonight.

Golden truffles

2011-10-20T23:58:00.000+08:00

Back in Hong Kong on business for a couple of days, and quickly filled up my evenings with dinner plans to satisfy some of my recent cravings. Given some of my recent disastrous experiences in Taipei, it's not hard to guess what I'm looking for here...

The evening actually started with a wine tasting. My friend was celebrating the second anniversary of her retail wine shop in Central, and I stopped by after my conference to show her some support. On my way to the tasting, I was chastised by the Specialist over chat for not informing her that I was in town. She was at the wine tasting and learned of my presence from my friend...

1971 Nicolas Potel Pommard 1er Cru Pézerolles - my friend very generously gave me a pour from this bottle. What a lovely wine! Nose of plum and Asian spices... almost floral. Very elegant after 40 years. The lovely nose lingered in my glass, and I almost didn't want to move on to the next wine...

2007 Le Petit Lion de Marquis de Las Cases - the first vintage of the "second wine" from Las Cases. Typical of modern vintage Bordeaux... minty, ripe, very alcoholic on the nose, with cedar and other forest notes. A little too young.

I had a dinner date with my Birdbrain Cousin, who wanted to have some white truffles. I shamelessly asked Harlan for a table of two at Gold, since the plan materialized only a few days ago. The big man was kind enough to accommodate us.

Slow-cooked organic egg on toast of brioche, porcini mushroom and Masala foie gras sauce - I was gonna go for the scrambled eggs, but the minute I saw the words "egg on toast" I was done. The egg itself was cooked a little more than I had expected. It was still wobbly and soft, but the yolk wasn't as liquid and runny... which was just as well. The porcini mushrooms were delish, and the rich foie gras sauce worked really well with the mushroom and egg. Oh, and of course the white truffle shaved on top was lovely. What a simple-sounding yet decadent dish! Birdbrain complained that I got more truffle on my starter than her main course...

Alba's style truffle tagliollini pasta, Italian white butter and Parmigiano - a classic and simple dish that people somehow fail to execute properly, like what I had last week in Singapore. The execution was better tonight, but still a little off. I found the buttery sauce to be a little too wet and liquid, at least for my taste. No complaints about the flavors, though... nor the lovely perfume of the white truffles.

I brought a bottle of wine from Piedmont to match the white truffles from Alba...

2004 La Spinetta Barbaresco Vürsù Vigneto Starderi - pretty young and pretty alcoholic, with nose of black fruits, prunes and dried herbs. Later on the nose was more smoky. Fairly smooth.

The Specialist joined us after her dinner, as we were still finishing up our Barbaresco. She brought with her another bottle from Piedmont - a Barbera which I had deemed a little too young to drink. I did end up getting a taste...

2008 Domenico Clerico Barbera d'Alba Trevigne - very sweet nose with lots of vanilla and oak. Definitely alcoholic. Needs a few more years.

Another horrible excuse of a restaurant

2011-10-18T23:10:00.000+08:00

OK, I wasn't gonna blog about tonight's dinner. It was pretty bad, but at first I didn't feel the need to stomp and crush on a restaurant that obviously isn't doing good business. But... the more I thought about it, the more I felt the restaurant doesn't deserve to survive. If this is the kind of food you serve, you deserve to go out of business. Harsh? Sure. But that's the reality, isn't it?

I was meeting a couple of people for dinner, and my friend suggested to give Portofino a try. Apparently the place had been open for a few years just around the corner from the current location, and it used to be decent. Well, definitely wasn't the case tonight, and since we were one of only two tables this evening... I'm thinking that others feel the same way.

The menu's pretty simple, which isn't a problem. It's meant to be a casual restaurant anyway. The host decided to order for us all, and I left it in his good hands.

We started with a small platter of cold cuts and cheese, which I didn't even bother to take a picture of. I don't expect artisanal quality cheese at a place like this, but I also could not believe my eyes when I was served La vache qui rit! Yes, the spreadable wedges! In a restaurant! WTF?! I know that the average customer in Taipei isn't that sophisticated when it comes to cheese, but this isn't even cheese! It's a cheese product!

We then moved on to some sautéed button mushrooms, bell peppers and zucchini, which were OK and nicely seasoned with some minced garlic.

Then came two salads: the seafood salad with prawns and calamari was OK.

The seared tuna salad was OK, too.

We shared the main courses, too. The spaghetti with clams was OK.

The beef risotto was... not that good. The rice was overcooked and a little mushy, and the beef was overcooked and tough.

The baked chicken breast came with a layer of cheese on top, and was also overcooked. I chose not to complain, but the others were upset enough to send it back to the kitchen.

What we got as a replacement was osso bucco. This was even worse... a complete FAIL. Not only was the meat of the beef shank utterly tasteless, it was covered in a very strange sauce... would you believe... bolognese?! W-T-F... Who the hell puts minced beef together with beef shank?!

Fortunately, we had a couple of bottles of wine... so all was not lost.

2006 Bouchard Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières - sweet on the nose, with corn, lemon, a little toast. Initially a little light-bodied, but developed over time. Not bad at all.

1997 Saintsbury Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir - nose was very alcoholic, fruity, sweet... almost a little over-ripe and I thought it was a little cooked at first. A little minty with dried herbs.

P.S. I made a couple of trips to the toilet after I got home, if you know what I mean...

French, Cali or Scotch toast?

2011-10-07T23:37:00.000+08:00

I've got more visitors in town from Hong Kong, and I was struggling to find a place that served good Taiwanese food and had decent wine glasses. Turns out they don't exist, and the common solution was for people to bring their own glasses. Upon the recommendation from ScubaGolfer - who suggested a few other solutions to my problem but attached a disclaimer regarding the their tastiness - I booked a table at Mao Yuan (茂園餐廳), an old establishment just a couple of blocks from my office.

I arrived first with two bags full of stuff, and promptly got started on the wine (self)service. After taking the glasses out of the box, I proceeded to uncork two bottles of white. Although I was sure that others had done the same before me, I still got a few curious looks from the staff as well as other diners.

As is typical with many Taiwanese restaurants, the ordering is done at the icebox/counter where many of the ingredients were laid out. There was a wide selection of seafood, with types of fish I had never seen. We ordered a bunch of dishes and eagerly waited for the food.

Stir-fried white water snowflake (炒水蓮) - I love this type of crunchy green stems, and it's always an interesting dish to show visitors. There were round little fragrant manjack fruits (破布子) which had been pickled and tasted both salty and sour.

Steamed chicken (白斬雞) - most good Taiwanese restaurants are known for this dish. Here the chicken flavors were definitely pretty good, and the texture was certainly more chewy, but I felt it was a little too chewy... Would have preferred the meat to be slightly more succulent. My friend commented on the size of the dish, since we only ordered 1/4 of a bird. Yeah, we got some big free-range chickens around here...

Deep-fried fish - OK, so I can't remember what the fish is called, and I've never seen them before. These flat, grey things have giant red dots in the middle of their bodies... kinda like someone used a paint brush to mark them. Pretty fresh, juicy and tasty.

Braised pig trotters and intestines (豬腳拼大腸) - two of my favorite parts of the pig... how could I say no?

Deep-fried cuttlefish balls and shrimp rolls (花枝丸拼蝦卷) - honestly, I wasn't impressed by these supposed signature items. The use of cabbage in the middle of the shrimp rolls was interesting, but it was just OK.

Stir-fried rice vermicelli with pumpkin (黃金炒米粉) - made with pumpkin. Not particularly impressed. Just didn't have the fragrance I expected.

Stir-fried Manila clams with basil (九層塔炒海瓜子) - pretty yummy, and very Taiwanese.

Someone was still hungry, so a couple of more dishes were ordered...

Stir-fried leafy lettuce (炒A菜) - classic. Should have ordered the sweet potato leaves...

Deep-fried slender sprat (酥炸丁香魚) - actually these were soooo good... Very crunchy and tasty. I couldn't stop once I started...

I'm sure I'm sounding like a broken record, but why do restaurants insist on bringing all the dishes to you at once?! It's not like we inhale our food or something... All 7 of our dishes arrived within less than 30 minutes, even after I asked the waitress to hold the last couple.

Barley and mung bean soup (薏米綠豆糖) - complimentary dessert.

Knowing that we'd be having mostly seafood, I brought 2 bottles of Chardonnay to go with the food.

1997 Hospices de Beaune Corton-Charlemagne Cuvée François de Salins par Louis Max - picked up this bottle at a bin end sale. It was clearly pretty oxidized, but then again I happen to love oxidized white wines. Nose of cotton candy, sugar, a little straw and grassy, with notes of orange rind and sugar cane. Kinda acidic mid-palate with a ripe and bitter finish. Can't complain too much given the price I paid...

2004 Aubert Chardonnay Lauren - nose showed a lot more concentration, definitely felt the new oak, and the wine was kinda ripe. At the end the alcohol was very prominent, which is curious given that it usually shows up immediately...

We wanted to go for a drink after dinner, and I brought my visitors to MOD - a place I've known since I first moved back to Asia around 1995... It was one of the first whisky bars in Taipei, and the place was still heaving on a Friday night. We ended up taking the only available table as some people had just left as we were coming in.

My friend went to talk to the bartender, and ended up with a flight of 3 Ardbegs. I ended up tasting the Ardbeg Supernova, which, as the name implies, is simply explosive. At more than 100 PPM, the peat is extremely heavy - even for an Ardbeg. Nose was soooo medicinal, full-on hospital disinfectant. It was also at cask strength, or around 60% alcohol, and it definitely was burning the ends of my nose hairs... Maybe it's because I was already fairly drunk by this time, but each sip I took of the whisky actually induced a hiccup, and burned going down.

My alcohol tolerance has been coming down in the last couple of months, and I was very drunk by this time... falling asleep at the table. My friends decided that I had had enough, and we (or at least I) ended up calling it a night...

Apple, Steve Jobs and me

2011-10-06T11:49:00.001+08:00

A star has fallen. Steve Jobs is no longer with us. He has shone so brightly over the years, and illuminated the lives of many - including me. This post is my own little tribute to Steve - a great innovator and salesman who set out to change the world, and succeeded.

The first contact I had with Apple was back around 1981 or 1982... My cousin bought himself an Apple II - which I think was an Apple II Plus - and we were playing games on it. It was, I think, the first computer I ever laid hands on. I essentially saw it as a gaming console and not as something one can do productive work on. But hey, what the hell did I know? I was still in grade school and puberty hadn't hit.

A few years later, the Macintosh was born. It was radically different and much, much cooler than the Commodore 64s we were playing around with at school. I had no idea what GUI or WYSIWYG meant at the time, of course... I was a little envious of my friends, because it seemed so expensive to me at the time, and ownership just wasn't in the cards.

Once I hit college, I came into full contact with the Mac. Besides the Unix workstations - on which I spent many hours working and playing Netrek - most of my work was done on Macs. I started on the Mac II when I arrived, and there were also Mac Classic II and the Mac Quadra line. Macintosh was the way for me.

By this time, of course, Steve Jobs had been ousted from the company he co-founded. When I arrived at my geek college, big posters were hung up all around campus computer clusters announcing the launch of NeXT Computer. It was a very cool-looking black thing, instead of the usual white/beige boxes that we were so used to seeing. We were selected as one of the first colleges to launch the product because of the high concentration of geeks, who were naturally the target customers. I don't remember ever getting any use out of one...

I was actually a business major, so I followed the product launches and corporate development at Apple during the latter years in school. I remember reading up on John Sculley, the marketing guy from Pepsi who gave Jobs the boot. I also vaguely remember products like the Newton - Apple's first PDA which seemed innovative, but was ultimately too big and deemed inconvenient to carry around. My roommate and I talked about how we wanted one, but in the end neither of us bought one.

The one and only Macintosh I did buy was the PowerBook 170. When it was released alongside the PowerBook 100 and 140, they were the first "notebook" computers from Apple which were truly portable. The earlier Macintosh Portable had been dubbed the "luggable" because of its size and weight. My PowerBook featured a grey scale, active-matrix LCD screen that seemed so cool at the time. The idea that each pixel on the screen was controlled by its own individual transistor, and each screen had to have less than 5 failed pixels out of 256,000 before shipping, was just really cool.

In 1993 I entered the real world - meaning I got a job on Wall Street and became gainfully employed. The bank I worked for - like all financial institutions I know - was on the Wintel platform. I can't remember exactly whether it was Windows 3.0 or 3.1 that we used at the time, but I remember looking at those "windows" and thinking they were clumsy and crappy. I was forced to learn a new and inferior system. I got rid of my PowerBook, because it just wasn't very easy to swap files and communicate with the Wintel world. I left the fold completely.

I celebrated John Sculley's ouster and Steve Jobs' return to Apple. Steve was, after all, a real techie; and he actually did have his hand on the consumer's pulse. But it was still impractical for me to return to Mac world.

Fast-forward to 2005, and a few years after the first iPod was introduced, I finally got myself an iPod Photo. It had 60GB of memory and a color screen. I could upload photos and use it as a portable disk, which I found kinda helpful during long trips where I was taking a few hundred to a thousand photos at a time. This marked my first Apple product purchase for more than a decade. I still use this particular iPod because, as Steve said when he introduced the first iPod, this device contains my entire musical library.

Then I got myself a brush aluminum iPod Nano, the first version that was long and slim. That got wet in the rain and short-circuited. Its replacement was the short and stubby version with a bigger screen. I didn't like it as much, but didn't have a choice.

I avoided the iPhone like the plague. My biggest objection wasn't about all the typing errors I was prone to make on a touch screen. I objected to the fact that, like all other i-xx devices, this was a one-piece and I couldn't open it up. At the time of its release, I was a traveling salesman who was constantly on my mobile phone. I needed my spare battery because one was never enough. And I definitely didn't want to run the battery down even quicker by using my phone to listen to music. I stubbornly carried my mobile phone, my iPod and my PDA - all as separate devices - wherever I went. By the time I was assigned a crackberry from work, I had fortunately upgraded to a smartphone and gotten rid of the PDA, so I continued to carry 3 devices on a daily basis.

Last year I dipped my toes into iOS for the first time, with the launch of the first iPad. I had been thinking about reducing the clutter in my life by reading books and magazines electronically. I was looking at a Kindle when news broke about the iPad. It was a no-brainer. Why would I want to go with a monochrome display when I could get everything in color and zoom? I decided that I couldn't wait for the thing to be officially released in Hong Kong, and asked a friend in the US to buy me one. I couldn't get one with 3G, but it didn't matter. I had my color reader in hand.

The iPad was responsible for introducing me to the AppStore, and the myriad of useful (and useless) items out in the iOS universe. I soon found some of these apps indispensable.

A couple of months later playing with the iPad, I was a little too inebriated one night and dropped my crackberry in a cab. By that time it had become my sole smartphone, and my immediate reaction was to get myself a new one. (Un)fortunately, my mobile service provider didn't have the latest crackberry in stock, and I would have to wait a few weeks for stock to arrive. Coincidentally, the iPhone 4 was being launched in Hong Kong just a week later, so for the next few days I seriously contemplated the idea of switching. I went through my main objections regarding the iPhone in my head over and over, and managed to convince myself that I should give the thing a try.

A few days later, I managed to secure myself an iPhone 4 on the first day of its Hong Kong release. I was a good customer of my service provider, having paid handsome fees each month for my long-distance calls and data roaming charges over the previous 2 years. As a VIP, I got an allocation immediately. I fell in love with my iPhone instantly.

A month later, I bought my second iPhone 4. Yes, this one's for me, too, but carried my Taiwan number along with the ability to download data in Taiwan without paying roaming charges. I started carrying two iPhones whenever I was in Taiwan - something I still do daily.

Another month or so later, I bought dad an iPhone 4 for his birthday. He had been eyeing my new toys for the last couple of months, and I knew he wanted to play with one. I showed him the advantages of iPhone for the elderly - such as the ability to display in large font size and zooming - and he felt very cool and hip to carry one. Now we're a 3-iPhone family.

Lately my almost-four-year-old VAIO notebook has been a little cranky. It's been dropped a few times too many, is slow to load up, and I'm feeling the itch to do something about it. After much consideration, I finally ordered an 11" MacBook Air from the online Apple Store. I placed the order online because I wanted to customize it a little.

The SuperDrive was shipped from Singapore and arrived within a couple of days. The MacBook itself was being shipped from China, and got stuck at Pudong Airport over the last few days. I was getting antsy.

Ironically, I woke up this morning to find that my MacBook will be delivered to my home this morning. On the same day we learn of Steve's passing. I felt a little sad that he left us on the day that I finally returned to the fold in full, after almost 20 years.

From the time the first Apple computers hit the market more than 30 years ago, Steve Jobs had been an influential force that challenged the way we think about computers and technology. He has influenced the lives of millions of people around the world. I never knew Steve personally, but my life has certainly changed because of him and the people at Apple. Thank you, Steve.

Un nouveau palais

2011-10-01T22:38:00.000+08:00

I'm hanging out in the old part of Taipei today, which is a rare occurrence. After a couple of hours spent checking out a number of camera shops, I suddenly realized that my favorite ice cream joint was just a couple of blocks away. Yes, I realize that it is after Mid-Autumn Festival and the weather was no longer scorching hot, but one can always eat ice cream...

I sat down at Snow King (雪王冰淇淋) and browsed through the menu. A few flavors have been taken off, notably in the fruit section. The owner decided that there was very little point in producing flavors that everyone else was doing - such as strawberry. Quite frankly their prices are not cheap, so people wouldn't come here and pay a premium for what they can get elsewhere, anyway... They have enough unique flavors and I'm sure they can continue to do brisk business.

I decided to forgo my favorite custard apple (釋迦) and try something new instead. Mulberry (桑椹) has been on my mind in the last few months, so I got a scoop of that. Not exactly what I had expected, though... as this was preserved with a little salt like the way Chinese preserve plums. These weren't de-stemmed so I ended up chewing on a few. Hmmm... salty and sour ice cream...

A few hours later, I ended up at Le Palais (頤宮) at Palais de Chine Hotel (君品酒店). This is Taipei's newest hotel in this part of town - situated on top of the new bus terminus (台北轉運站) and across the street from Taipei Train Station. I've been meaning to come check this place out, but a few earlier phone calls to the "French" restaurant kinda dampened my interest in the place.

The place was nicely decked out, like the rest of the hotel. A chic and modern interpretation of Chinese elements. Private rooms with views of the city line one side of the restaurant, while the main dining has been divided up into booths to afford diners a good amount of privacy.

The menu is mainly Cantonese, although unsurprisingly there are dishes from Sichuan and Fujian. I ordered up a few simple dishes that struck my fancy...

Two little bowls of complimentary appetizers arrived. The first was a mix of tofu, agar (洋菜), coriander, Chinese cabbage...etc. Not bad.

The chunks of radish - both white and green varieties - were very nice and crunchy.

We were also served a shot of mulberry vinegar, which was lovely. I guess today's just the day for mulberries...

Honey glazed barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒) - FAIL. The restaurant offers 3 different versions of barbecued pork, although they did not have the crispy version that I wanted to try. Like many restaurants in Taipei, this place refers to pork from the collar region by the nonsensical/nonexistent name of 松坂豬肉, although I have to deduct more points from this particular restaurant because they can't even spell it correctly... Isn't "Matsuyama" written as 松山?!

In any case... the simplest version was the one we got, and it didn't work. Yes, the meat was tender and juicy... in fact it was almost too watery, and on the verge of being soggy - if that were possible. But like many local versions of barbecued pork, this one just didn't have enough flavor. It was too bland. You just don't see the traditional honey glaze on the outside, which would have imparted the pork with enough ooomph. Not until tonight did I realize how much I miss a good plate of char siu... Yet another thing I took for granted in all my years in Hong Kong.

Fried doughnut stuffing with minced shrimp in X.O. sauce (X.O.醬油條) - I was intrigued by this, and images of stuffed fried crullers from Singapore's seafood restaurants came to mind. While it was largely similar, this version was drenched in - surprise! - sweet and sour sauce. There wasn't much X.O. sauce... barely enough to register a tingling sensation on my tongue.

Stewed seafood with mixed vegetables (海味什菜煲) - one of my all time favorite dishes in Cantonese cuisine, and it doesn't get any simpler. Just throw in some chopped mixed veggies, a bunch of glass vermicelli, and dried seafood such as conpoy (干貝/瑤柱) and dried shrimps (蝦米). The version being served here is a little "upscale", with blanched calamari thrown in. In terms of flavor, this was much, much more to my liking than the ones I'm used to having at places such as Honolulu Cafe (檀島) - where they use chicken bouillon with lots of MSG for the soup. The soup base here is clear with subtle flavors of the ingredients you see in the pot. Slurp...

Chinese sausage rice clay pot (腊味煲仔飯) - the mistake that the waitress made here was to remove the lid of the clay pot immediately after serving. That - combined with what I'm sure was a medium heat with which the rice was cooked - meant there would be almost no rice crispies (鍋巴/飯焦) at the bottom.

Cantonese fried noodles with seafood (廣式海味炒麵) - a few days ago one of my friends was asking about places where they serve Cantonese fried noodles (廣州炒麵). I had to ask her what she was referring to, because I'd never heard of the dish after a decade and a half of being in Hong Kong... Turns out it's just the style of deep-fried crispy noodles commonly referred to as "fried noodles (炒麵)" in Hong Kong, or what the Shanghainese would call "double-sided yellow (兩面黃)". Since it was on the menu, we decided to give it a try.

The noodles themselves were pretty good - crispy, crunchy and yummy. But the mixed seafood topping could have been a little better. There was a little too much starch, and in general it was lacking in "wok hei (鑊氣)". Interesting use of the Japanese ark shell (赤貝)...

Sweetened cream of almond soup in papaya with Chinese doughnut (木瓜杏仁露) - surprisingly good. The almond flavors were very prominent, and I could taste the granular texture of the soup. The small papayas are apparently supplied by a contract farm which grows them organically. Love the green-colored skin. Not sure what the crullers are for, though...

A pretty decent meal overall. Now I know where I can grab some food in a comfortable setting in this part of town... and they've even got decent wine glasses!