Geruhage 2026 tour day 1: white wines with dim sum

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A few hours after sipping on some wines together into the wee hours at our place, I'm meeting up with Geruhage and Tomo-chan for lunch. DaRC had kind of overruled our friend's original wish to try dim sum at a place he hadn't visited before, and the bunch of us ended up at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店). One could never go wrong here, and I jokingly reminded Geruhage before coming here that we should pre-order the fish maw... which used to be priced at around HKD 30,000 but is now listed as "market price"...

DaRC comes here much more often than I do, so we are guaranteed to have a wonderful experience when we're with him. I left the ordering up to the expert.

Forum steamed premium shrimp dumpling with pork (富臨蝦餃皇) - they do this classic so, so well here. Very plump and full of flavor.

3-star lab rat

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It has been a long, loooong time since I had the opportunity to open a couple of bottles with the Hairy Chevalier. In fact, I've been trying to do that for most of this year without success... Well, he finally called me over tonight to Caprice Bar, with the aim of testing out a few dishes for the upcoming special game menu. So I brought along a bottle I've been meaning to drink with him for MONTHS, as well as a bottle I thought would go well with game.

1981 Taittinger Comte de Champagne Blanc de Blancs - the nose was really mature and lovely, with marmalade of course, but perhaps also a little apricot. Nice and soft on the palate now after 45 years, but certainly not weak or short. In fact, this had great acidity and very, very long on the finish. Fantastic.

Another home banquet

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A few years ago I had the honor of being a guest at what I called "the ultimate home banquet", and it was an incredibly memorable meal. Well, tonight I answered to another kind invitation from the hosts, and I was just so, so excited!

Before we started, Dashijie (大師姐) regaled us with one tale after another of how things have just not gone her way while putting this dinner together. Well, with everything that happened, I'm just grateful that we still have a delicious meal waiting for us. Given that some of the dishes were on the menu from my last dinner, I'm using the same poetic names for them stylized by our hosts' daughter.

Naturally, once again the serving china used were all from Ruyi Gastronomy and from the Home Banquet Collection (家宴逸品) range.

Anniversary in Taipei

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When we planned this trip to Taipei for dad's birthday, we knew that Foursheets' birthday and our anniversary would fall in the same week, so we made a conscious decision to spend more time with the Parental Units and, for the first time, celebrate our anniversary with them. This means we weren't going to be at our beloved Caprice on this special day, and would have to choose a place in Taipei instead.

I was busy planning my trip to France, and when I returned I dithered a little about where to go... It would appear that the fine dining scene in Taipei is doing pretty well, perhaps thanks to the booming stock market over the last few years, as a number of places I wanted to book were all unavailable. So in the end I chose Ephernité - a name that's been in the back of my mind for a few years.

Since it's our special day, I opted for the Chef's Tasting Menu for us, preferring to have ingredients that are meant to be more premium and interesting.

Salmon tart - made with diced smoked salmon and a fie roe sauce.

A grateful celebration

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I try to spend each birthday with the Parental Units, but this particular birthday has extra meaning for dad. Having started chemo right after mom's birthday this year, and having some through some tough times during the latter rounds, we have been told that the Big C is now in remission. So... in a sense, we are celebrating dad's re-birth at the ripe old age of 86. For this occasion, I decided to take us back to trusty Tutto Bello, whose cuisine has long been to mom's liking.

We are back in the familiar, dimly-lit dining room. One thing I am confident about this place is their wine service. I've opened a few old bottles here, and they've always done a good job. Meanwhile there was a group of wine lovers near us drinking up Henri Jayer and the like... and I thought I recognized one of them. They were a little loud, but that happens when you ply a group of people with lots of good wine...

The beauty of this place is the ability to order à la carte. However, one needs to read the menu a little more carefully than I did tonight... or end up getting more food than one would want.

One small annoyance was that our starters took about half an hour to arrive... leaving us with just a few pieces of bread to begin with. Oh well... I guess they were catering to the table of big spenders near us.

Cappe sante alla pancia / granchio / zuppetta d'aragosta bianca - I hadn't read the menu carefully enough, so I didn't realize there was also crab meat in the lobster bisque. Very nice.