Saved by the sticks

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It was a little more than 2 years ago that I last saw Egon Müller IV in Hong Kong, at an amazing tasting featuring wines from his family estate Weingut Egon Müller - Scharzhof as well as those from Domaine Trimbach. When DaRC asked whether I would be interested in joining a tasting of his wines that is being organized by ORD Fine Wines, I immediately said "Yes". I do recall, with much fondness, the previous time I attended such a tasting just before the pandemic. This time, though, there would be some red wines at the tasting so it won't be just riesling.

The three of us showed up at the new home of Palco inside Heritage 1881. I know the restaurant only by name, but I figured simple Italian food would be fine... I would be wrong.

We started with a glass of welcome drink while waiting for everyone to arrive. As I sat in my seat while others mingled, I received a message from the Zhongmeister that he was here, too, together with some mutual friends. So I, too, got up and mingled. That was when I realized that Egon was not here. Apparently he needed to be at the estate, so his daughter Isabelle came in his place.

2021 Château Belá Štúrovo Riesling - nice, classic nose of petrol and white truffle. A little sweetish on the palate but still got the acidity.

We finally sat down and started dinner more than 40 minutes late... and I was starving.

Aussie neighbors

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After I missed out what looked like a fantastic dinner hosted by my Aussie friend a few weeks ago, the host suggested that we meet up at Neighborhood over a few bottles. As it was a bunch of rare and old Aussies I had missed out on, I thought we should have the same wine theme. With that in mind, the Film Buff would be a perfect dining companion on account of his collection of Aussie wines. I also ended up roping in Fergie because, well, surely he is up for drinking just about anything.

I didn't tell the Kitchen Nazi that I was coming, figuring that Shirley would let him know if necessary. He was geuinely surprised to see me as I tapped him on the shoulder. I was kinda hoping that this meant we could do the ordering ourselves, but no such luck... So we prepared ourselves for an onslaught.

Strawberries / burrata / caviar - I was surprised to find that there were two types of strawberries here... I thought the white chunks were potatoes, but they were actually white strawberries - which were just as delicious as the red ones. The salinity of the caviar worked very well with both the creamy burrata as well as the sweetness of the fruit.  Pretty refreshing as a first dish.

Peace out

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At the start of the year, Hoper's Base (人人和平) announced that they will be closing their current flagship by the end of the year. I have enjoyed a few meals over the last few years, although our last casual lunch there left a very bad taste in Foursheets' mouth. When Bong Girl pinged me about doing a dinner there with g4gary - who is school mates with the bosses - I was more than happy to put my hand up.

The restaurant had proposed a menu for us, and since it may or may not be my last visit here, I figured I'd make two special requests. As if we didn't already have enough food.

It's been a while since I was last here, and since our friend is a VIP, we were led to the "private room" in the adjacent shop space. At least here we wouldn't have to be bothered by the unpleasant smell that I've encountered before...

Nostalgic "money chicken" (和平金錢雞) - right off the bat we have the first item I requested. "Gold coin chicken (金錢雞)" is one of my favorite items in Cantonese cuisine, and so there are increasingly few places which continue this tradition. I loved it when it was served on my very first visit here, on a bed of deep-fried rice crispies (鍋巴). Sadly, they discontinued that amazing version. Nowadays it comes on top of a slice of baguette, which doesn't come anywhere close to giving the satisfaction of the previous version.

The team Chairman

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It's been a few months since my last trip to The Chairman (大班樓), and this time around I brought along people from my team - who normally don't have the opportunity. As some of them are visiting for the first time, once again I proposed a menu suitable for first-timers...

Crispy taro cake with smoked duck (茘甫鴨盒) - this was pretty good today. The smokiness was nice, and the diced Chinese celery inside was very fragrant.

Deep fried crab meat and mushroom dumplings (金錢蟹盒) - Danny very kindly offered us an extra appetizer. This is old school, and very tasty. Unfortunately it was also a little greasy... but I know it's not easy to get this one just right.

Flaming sticks

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I don't normally get to eat much yakitori (焼き鳥), since Foursheets is very picky about where she will eat chicken. She also doesn't eat chicken offal, and serious yakitori joints pride themselves on their offerings of rare chicken parts. So while lots of people in Hong Kong have been going gaga over Torikaze (鳥かぜ) - the new, local outpost of famed Torishiki (鳥しき) - I've kinda just let the hype pass by. I wasn't too fussed, and happy to let people fight over these precious seats.

B Bestie finally decided that it was time for me to check the place out, and very kindly let me join a group of ladies tonight. We were seated in the middle of the U-shaped counter for the first seating, with a good view of both the grills sitting behind the glass wall.

It's a prix fixe menu but there were plenty of options for add-ons, with a choice of 14 chicken parts as well as 10 additional non-chicken alternatives - 9 of which are vegetarian. So potentially this could be a more balanced meal, except we were limited to just 3 additional items due to time constraints... or so B Bestie claimed.

It was interesting to me that, at least during the second half of the meal, head chef Matsui Ryo (松井亮) was focused on grilling the vegetables instead of chicken. I take that as a sign of the importance they place on the vegetarian options on their menu.

Chicken mousse, pickle red carrots and radish, konbu jelly (紅白なます) - this was definitely an upgraded version of the classic pickled carrots and radish, with some purple carrots included.