No more WTF from me

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...

Lisboa tour: the Eight

Our last meal of the trip took place at the Eight in the Grand Lisboa, which has earned itself 2 Michelin stars.  We had finished lunch a mere 3½ hours ago, and I wasn't the least bit hungry.  Nevertheless, I sucked in my stomach and prepared for battle...

We were in one of the private rooms, which was pretty nicely decorated.  The decor of the entire restaurant was surprisingly subdued and not as bling-bling as I had imagined.  The hand-embroidered goldfish motif along the main wall was particularly impressive.

Lisboa tour: the best cellar I have ever seen

KC and I received a very special treat this afternoon as part of our tour of Hotel Lisboa.  Knowing that I am a big wine geek, the PR manager arranged for us to tour the underground wine cellars of the hotel.  I was very, very excited... as this would be another highlight of this trip.

It's no secret that Hotel Lisboa has one of the best wine collections - if not the best - in Asia.  The hard copy version of the wine list is as thick as 2-3 volumes of an encyclopedia, but fortunately there is now an iPad version that's much easier to use.  There are some 7,800 labels within the list, and I could easily spend half an hour or more browsing through it without putting it down.  In fact, in the past I have searched through the list as it is available online, chosen that I wanted to drink for my meal, and have the sommelier prepare the wines prior to my arrival.  Joël Robuchon described it as "one of the best collections in the world", one that has depth in addition to breadth when it comes to rare gems.

Lisboa tour: New Furusato

Day 2 of my Lisboa tour began with my stomach complaining to me that it was empty.  After all that food yesterday, I actually felt the hunger pangs sometime before 10am.  I grabbed a continental breakfast from the Round-The-Clock Coffee Shop to have some fresh fruit and fruit juice, and allowed myself one fluffy croissant.  I needed to save precious stomach space for lunch!

The PR team treated us to lunch at New Furusato (新故里) inside Hotel Lisboa, and happily for us, they were able to join us, too.  I was only aware of a couple of restaurants within the two Lisboa hotels - and this definitely wasn't one of them - so it was surprising to learn that this place has been around for quite a while.

Lisboa tour: the Kitchen

A mere 3½ hours after we finished lunch, KC and I were back at it again.  Dinner tonight was at the Kitchen inside the Grand Lisboa.  KC was pretty excited about this meal, as he loves steaks and hasn't tried this place before.  The menu has been preset for us.  I had no expectations for this meal, other than the steaks.

I didn't have any interest in the antipasti buffet, as I really wasn't that hungry.  Our amuse bouche was a small serving of escargot.  Not exactly filled to the brim with the garlic and parsley butter, but tasty enough nonetheless.

Lisboa tour: Robuchon a Galera

After our interview with Joël, KC and I were treated to lunch at Robuchon a Galera.  It's been a long, long time since I came for lunch... and back then the restaurant was mostly empty despite the bargain price of just around MOP 300 for a 3-course lunch...  My gala dinner experience last year was also a little underwhelming, so I was very curious to see how lunch would work out today.

There is no more proper way to start a meal than with some butter, and what can be more beautiful than the sight of two mounds of gorgeous Bordier butter?!  I, of course, asked for the salted variety... and watched the staff create rolls of it with a dinner spoon.  Like Pavlov's dog, I'm already salivating at this point...

Lisboa tour: Interview with Joël Robuchon

Fellow blogger KC was invited by the PR manager at Hotel Lisboa in Macau for a tour of the various restaurants inside the two Lisboa hotels.  He very kindly invited me to come along for the 2-day trip, where we would sample cuisine from 4 different outlets.

Immediately upon our arrival in Macau, we headed to Robuchon a Galera for an interview with the man himself.  As everyone knows, I am not a professional journalist... I just like to eat and write my experiences down to preserve my memories.  So I'm completely new at this and a total amateur.  It kinda hit me while I was on the ferry that maybe, just maybe, I should actually open my mouth and ask Joël a few questions.  After all, it would be awfully funny if I just sat around and nodded each time the man answered questions from KC...

I've kinda put together a summary of the interview below:

Bashing Michelin

Back in December I, along with a few fellow bloggers, journalists and chefs were interviewed for a TV program focused on the Michelin Guide for Hong Kong and Macau.  As some of you are aware, I do have a thing or two to say about this publication, and not all of them flattering. 

Over the last two weekends, Quest For Stars aired on LiTV, which is carried by nowTV here in Hong Kong.  Siren Films, the producer of the show, has now uploaded the two episodes in 6 segments.

A cold night in Macau

I needed to go to Macau tonight for an emergency board meeting, and decided to visit an old favorite for dinner.  I've been going to Estabelecimento de Comida Portuguesea Porto Exterior for the last few years, and found their Portuguese cuisine to be pretty yummy.  It's reasonably close to the ferry terminal and too short of a cab ride, so we braved the cold weather and trekked over on foot.

The chouriço assadas was a nice way to start the meal.

A very MNSC wedding banquet

Another one bites the dust.  Yesterday another member of MNSC got himself married, and Dayliao hosted a black-tie wedding banquet at the Four Seasons Macau tonight.  So I dusted off the ol' penguin suit and boarded the early evening ferry to Macau, looking like I was ready for some James Bond-ish action...

I must applaud Mr and Mrs Dayliao for their choice of menu.  There was a conspicuous absence of the perennial banquet staple - shark's fin.  Instead the item was replaced with bird's nest, which is far more environmentally friendly.  The banquet menu was as follows:

Whole barbecued suckling pig (大紅乳豬全體)

Baked stuffed sea whelk with diced abalone and minced pork (鮑粒焗釀響螺) - I could have sworn there were bits of chopped liver...  Pretty tasty.

Seafood soup with bird's nest (燕窩龍皇帶子羹)

Braised fish maw and goose web in abalone sauce (鮑汁花膠鵝掌)

Steamed star garoupa in soya broth (清蒸東星斑) - always found the ones at banquets to be overdone, but in all honestly it's tough to steam 30 of these perfectly simultaneously...

Deep-fried crispy chicken (脆皮龍崗雞)

Fried rice with diced abalone and ham (鮑魚煙肉粒炒飯) - didn't seem to have any abalone in mine, but the smoked bacon was pretty tasty.

Shrimp dumplings with noodles in superior soup (上湯鮮蝦水餃麵) - the dumpling was very tasty.

Red bean soup with glutinous rice dumplings (紅豆沙湯圓)

This being the wedding of an MNSC member, of course there would be an impressive list of wines being served at the wedding banquet.  Not surprisingly, the wines were supplied by Altaya Wines.  Knowing there'd be a lot of wines tonight, I decided to skip the 2000 Lenoble Cuvée Gentilhomme and started with the white wine.

2005 Marquis d'Angerville Meursault 1er Cru Santenots - I had tasted the fantastic 2009 vintage of this wine just two weeks ago at the domaine in Burgundy.  This was of course another lovely wine from a stellar vintage.  Nose of minerals, toast, a bit of sweet corn and a little ripeness.  Very well-balanced on the palate.

2003 Pichon-Lalande en magnum - another fantastic wine.  Very ripe, sweet fruit, jammy, forest, smoky, exotic, coconut butter and toffee notes.  Like many of its peers in the same vintage, one may well guess this to be a Californian Cab in a blind tasting...  Decanted 3 hours before cocktails started.

Pineapple has a penchant (or is it reputation?) for bringing his own wines to other people's wedding banquets, and tonight would be no exception.  The only difference was that he had organized for each of us at the "MNSC table" - which the groom had strategically placed at the back corner of the ball room, as far away from the head table as possible - to also bring a bottle.  The theme for the night was '82 Bordeaux, with an enviable line-up despite the absence of First Growths.  All the wines showed extremely well - not one of them was remotely off.  It became difficult to pick a favorite.

1982 Canon - this ex-château bottle drank beautifully.  Lovely and open nose with sweet grass, smoke, lead pencil, fruit and smoke duck notes.  Smooth and soft on the palate.  My contribution to the group.

1982 Le Gay - a tribute to Mr. Pineapple himself.  Sweeter nose with ripe fruit, a little smoky.  There are still some tannins here.

1982 Léoville Poyferré - sweet grass, fruit, smoke, caramel and a hint of green pepper.  Very soft on the palate.

1982 Léoville Barton - sweet fruit, smoke, sweet grass and smoked meats.  A lovely wine.

1982 Grand-Puy-Lacoste - a classic example of this wine.  Smoke, lead pencil and mineral nose.  Actually still got a good amount of tannins.

1982 Gruaud-Larose - sweet fruit and smoked meats.  Very smooth and silky.  A lovely wine.

1982 Ducru-Beaucaillou - we ended up with two bottles of this wine.  Beautiful, soft and elegant.  Sweet fruit, smoke, a hint of grass and leather.  Still some tannins here.  Absolutely beautiful, and my favorite wine of the evening since I'm partial to Ducru.

The souvenir from the bride and groom was a lovely touch.  A "cake" of Puer tea, freshly packed some 10 days before the banquet, was placed at each table setting.  I think the idea's pretty romantic - the tea will mature, age, and grow old along with the bride and groom.  I look forward to drinking it with them in 25 years' time!

P.S. Halfway through the banquet, we received news about an assassination attempt targeted at Sean Lien (連勝文), who is a friend of some of the members.  He was shot in the head at point blank range by someone who has known association with organized crime.  This distressed many of us and put a damper on the celebrations.  My best wishes to Sean and family, and may he have a speedy and full recovery.

Macau Tim

It's Dayliao's turn to host an MNSC dinner.  Since he's getting married in Macau about a month from now, he decided we should trek over to Macau for his last MNSC dinner as a single man.  We would revisit Tim's Kitchen (桃花源) and actually sit in the same room as the last time Dayliao hosted his dinner in Macau...

A series of starters were placed onto the lazy Susan as we started the meal:

Century eggs with pickled ginger (皮蛋伴酸薑) - not one of those things that goes well with wine, but delicious nonetheless.

Marinated sliced pork belly (涼拌爽肚片) - these thin slices of pork belly were blanched and a little chewy.  I really enjoyed the sensation as I bit down with my teeth and felt the spring of the meat.

Deep-fried duck tongue with garlic and pepper (椒鹽鴨舌) - I normally take the tongues marinated in soy sauce, but this was pretty nice, too.  Slightly spicy.

Marinated sea cucumber (涼拌遼參) - I liked the soft yet slightly chewy texture of the sea cucumber.

Deep-fried shredded mushrooms (酥炸菇絲) - very, very tasty... Reminds me of the deep-fried shredded burdock (牛蒡) I love so much.  Slightly spicy with chipped chilis.

Deep-fried tofu cubes (椒鹽豆腐粒) - ho-hum.  Batter is sprinkled with chili powder.

After a while, the other dishes started arriving one after another:

One should never miss the stir-fried giant glass prawn (玻璃明蝦球).  While the prawn was as good as always, the thin slice of ham tonight was the star.  Unlike what I'd get at Tim's Kitchen in Hong Kong, this sliver had a honey glaze and much sweeter.

Deep-fried whole crab claw (椒鹽原隻鮮蟹鉗) - I've never had the deep-fried version in all my visits to Tim's Kitchen, but this one wasn't bad either.  The crab meat was still fresh and sweet, although the batter was a little spicy.  It was gone in no time.

Stir-fried shark's fin with bean sprouts and egg (桂花炒魚翅) - a rather weak execution.  Not fried with high heat and we couldn't taste the wok hei (鑊氣).

Stir-fried tripe with mixed vegetables (七彩炒肚尖) - can't imagine coming here without having this dish...

Roasted baby pigeon (紅燒頂鴿皇) - O-M-G.  Even though I enjoyed the pigeon at lunch today, this pigeon just blew away anything I've had recently.  The meat had been marinated with spices and the wonderful fragrance of star anise came through.  I couldn't resist cleaning up the plate since no one else was grabbing any...

Braised pomelo skin with shrimp roe (蝦子炆柚皮) - just awesome.  I used my spoon to clean up the starchy sauce and tried to get every single grain of shrimp roe...

Fried rice with beef (生炒牛肉飯) - very, very good.  The rice grains had the right balance between being moist yet dry enough, with perfect bite.  A testament to the skills of the chef.

Rice flour rolls stir-fried with satay beef (沙爹牛肉炒腸粉) - pretty yummy, too.  The rolls were very soft, and the satay sauce definitely hit the spot.

Glutinous rice balls with black sesame center (擂沙香麻球) - these were sooooo good... The flavors of the black sesame filling were just really intense.  I must have had at least three of these.

Steamed lotus seed paste birthday buns (蓮蓉壽包) - pretty good, although the ones at Fook Lam Moon still come out tops.

The food was awesome, and I think it's at least on par with the main restaurant in Hong Kong.

The main event of the evening, served in pairs:

2002 Comte Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Goutte d'Or - muted nose with some oak, vegetal, chalky and minerally.

2002 Comte Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes - a bit ripe, oak, sweet on the palate, and also hot on the palate.

1991 Comte de Vogüé Bonnes-Mares - ripe and mature.  Suddenly oyster sauce notes emerged, along with a little salty plum (話梅).  Really silky smooth on the palate.  Later on the wine was much more acidic.  91 points.

1991 Dominus - brett and medicinal, smoky, lead pencil and some fruit.  93 points.

1994 Dominus - mint, smoky, brett, sweet and a bit of caramel.  Should have known from the caramel that this wasn't French...  93 points.

1994 Latour - initially closed, later some smoke.  Actually still a little tannic.  94 points.

1988 Dujac Clos de la Roche - very fruity, sweet and full of berries.  Vibrant and lively.  95 points.

1988 Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche - orange marmalade, a little farmy, nose seemed a little cooked.  A little grassy and vegetal, with some potpourri.  93 points.

1985 Margaux - very bretty and medicinal, green, vegetal, mint, and almost a little ripe on the finish.  94 points.

1985 Mouton-Rothschild - ripe with a little brett, and a little sweet on the nose.  94 points.

That was a lot of good wine for one evening...

A date with Joël

I've been looking forward to today for some time.  I went back to Macau and made a long-overdue visit to Robuchon a Galera.  The man himself was in town and in the kitchen, and I wanted to see what he would come up with for these gala dinners.

After barely catching the scheduled ferry, Froggie and I made our way to Henri's Galley for lunch.  At the launch party for WOM Guide Macau a couple of days ago, Fergus had recommended this as the place he goes to when in Macau, so we decided to check it out.  Actually Froggie flipped a coin, and the other side was Afonso III.

Not wanting to get the same dishes I'd always go for, I left the ordering to Froggie.  She started with caldo verde - which I didn't have coz I knew I didn't have the capacity for it.  Soon the ameijoas a portuguesa came and I dug in right away.  The clams were pretty tasty in the white wine sauce, and the cilantro added the fragrance while red chili peppers provided a little kick.  Yum.

Even though I wasn't responsible for the ordering, we ended up having bacalao à brás anyway! This was such an interesting version... The potato on top were in such thin shreds, then deep-fried in very high heat... making them very fluffy.  The bacalao came in larger chunks, making them extra chewy.  Very delicious.

We asked the waiter for recommendation on rice, and he pointed us to arroz chau chau.  I've always thought this was a hilarious name for fried rice...  Anyway, this was something that I wouldn't normally order, but it turned out to be pretty good.  The rice was fried with minced beef, tomato, smoky chouriço and ham.  Tomatoes in the fried rice... definitely ain't Chinese!

We were stuffed, so walked around a little in the old city center.  I picked up a few jars of shrimp roe at Loja Sopa da Fita Cheong Kei (祥記麵家), and eventually we made our way to Margaret's Cafe e Nata for their famous Portuguese egg tarts.  I managed to try out the "original" from Lord Stowe's earlier this year, and was curious to see what the ex-wife offered.  There were simply too many people around, so we grabbed a couple to go and had them back at the Mandarin Oriental Macau, where Froggie was staying.  The tarts were definitely pretty custard-y, more eggy than creamy - closer to the Cantonese egg tarts than the Portuguese pasteis.  Pretty yummy nontheless.

We met up with our friends for a quick drink at Bar Cristal at Encore - mocktail for me - before crossing the road to dinner.  We ran into SONFA and her hubby, who also had reservations for dinner.

While we waited for our last dinner guest, we started on the 1989 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste Hune Vendages Tardives.   Definitely petrol, and the nose was very ripe, round and sweet.  Notes of peaches, botrytis, orange marmalade, a little floral... and some butter in the end.  Definitely some residual sugar, something between kabinett and spätlese.  A very beautiful wine.

The bread trolley was rolled around and we chose from the wide selection.  Bread at Robuchon has always been a serious affair, and it was not different here.

But the real excitement tonight was the butter.  They finally got around to getting themselves some from Bordier!  Waiters came and used a dinner spoon to scrape butter from these two big lumps... very impressive indeed.  Robuchon bread + Bordier butter... heaven!

We started with tarte fine croustillante aux cèpes de sous-bois.  Cèpes are in season, and shrooms are always yummy when you sautée them.  Nice layer of finely chopped cèpes in between thin layers of crispy filo.

Le gazpacho de cerises avec un lacté de brebis givré aux éclats de pistaches à l'huile de basilic - interesting to see that this was made with some cherries, which gave it a deeper color and slightly higher acidity.  The goat's milk sorbet was really milky, and the interplay between savory and sour flavors was fun.  We also saw the first appearance of the gold foil...

We ran out of the white wine but weren't ready for the red, so we asked for the wine list to get ourselves another bottle.  We must have looked like tech retards, because they didn't give us their new, cool iPad-based wine list...which my friends at the other table got to play with.  We got the traditional big book instead.  Pout.  OK... so the wine list is impressive in its original form, too... It is, after all, pretty much the largest and best wine list in Asia!

The 1992 Henri Clerc Batard-Montrachet took a bit of time, but we had a fine bottle of wine in front of us when it finally opened up.  The nose was pretty funky at first, with a hint of straw, wheat and definitely camphor - smelling like some kind of Chinese medicinal tonic that one rubs on oneself to relieve muscle aches...  From the second pour, some toast emerged along with ripeness and sweetness, with corn and almost nutty nose.  Very perfurmed on the palate as well as the finish.  Not bad at all!

Le duo de foie gras d'oie et d'artichaut violet en salade mêlée aux copeaux de parmigiano reggiano - nice, but honestly I was disappointed in the quantity of foie.  For the first time that I can remember, I actually thought artichoke was delicious - which is kind of an achievement.

Le crémeux d'oursins tremblotant sous une émulsion mousseuse au wasabi - very interesting dish, exception for another appearance of the cursed gold foil.  The sea urchin was creamy and sweet, while I was surprised by the light flavors of the wasabi emulsion.  Underneath it all was a delicious lobster mousseline.  The most interesting dish of the evening.

Le homard des Iles Chausey Rôti au beurre salé et un bouillon épicé de riz nacré aux pistils de safran - a very yummy dish, flavor-wise.  Soooo full of lobster flavor... I couldn't help but lap up the bouillon.  The young peas were not peeled, and I found a couple of them with pretty thick skins.  The lobster was unevenly cooked, and I found a couple of pieces to be a little overdone.  Downright disappointing in this respect.  An opinion which SONFA expressed and I concurred.

Le poulet fermier ivre de Château Chalon mitonné doucement en cocotte, fricassée de craterelles et de girolles au jus - Froggie just about flew off the handle when we received the menu by email.  Initially it was "poulet de Loue", which is nothing special and one can buy in any Froggie supermarket...  It did turn out to be an interesting way to do chicken, broiled in a cocotte with fragrant shrooms like girolles and black trumpets.  The use of Château Chalon was pretty interesting, and the fragrance somehow reminded me of Taiwanese sesame oil chicken (麻油雞), where rice wine was used.  Chicken itself was pretty tender and juicy... The famous Robuchon mash was as divine as ever, but I was already too stuffed to be able to finish it...

1985 Dominique Laurent Latricieres-Chambertin - we pre-ordered this bottle, and the sommelier decided to open it as we were running out of our first bottle of white - without realizing that we would be ordering another bottle.  It was a while before we got to taste the bottle, and we were concerned that there would be too much aeration.  Nose of mushrooms and grilled meats.  Pretty muted at first but developed well after a while.  Light and elegant.

Les baies noires de Bourgogne glacées, lait d'amande douce, caramel Bourdaloue, paillettes de cassis - the kitchen redeemed itself somewhat with the first dessert.  Lots of cassis around, which I love dearly, and the sweet almond cream was pretty rich and yummy.  But the killer was the Bourdaloue - a mini version that was simply awesome... especially the caramel on top.  Wow!

Une symphonie chocolatée, compote de mendiants à la liqueur de mirabelles - the chocolate thingy was pretty good... nicely balanced by the slightly sour compote at the bottom.

These were pretty cute, but I just didn't have any room for them...  I was way too stuffed, and just a little buzzed from all the wine...

We were all given bags containing a very love lemon pound cake on the way out.  This moist, fragrant cake made for a great breakfast the next morning...

Joël and his team came out to greet the diners, as was expected.  Just when it was to be our turn, he and the team abruptly ran off somewhere else.  I thought it was gonna be a repeat of what happened to be at Arzak, where Juan Marie Arzak repeatedly dissed my friends and I by running off and not talking to us.  Fortunately Joël did return some time later, and Froggie totally became a groupie by yapping with the man in French.  She got her wish of hugging him and didn't even come close to be tackled by his team of security guards...

Honestly, the dinner was a little disappointing.  While there weren't any "bad" dishes, there were very few surprises - and not a whole lot of creativity.  I guess the premium I paid was for the opportunity to take a picture with Joël...

The wine service was... shall we say... "commercial".  Basically Mathieu Gaignon - the sommelier - and his staff just kept refilling our glasses quickly.  I guess they were trying to sell more bottles of wine... and I find this type of behavior really annoying.  What had me really fuming, though, took place before we even arrived in Macau.  We had asked Mathieu for the evening's menu since we wanted to choose the right wines to match our food.  Mathieu replied that the menu had yet to be finalized, then proceeded to suggest that we "start with some Champagne, have some white wines then a red wine."  OH REALLY.....?!  Is THAT how you're supposed to do it...?  What a revelation....

Anyway... I made the mistake of booking a late-night ferry as I didn't want to stay in Macau overnight.  It was definitely a painful journey back to Hong Kong...