Geruhage 2026 tour day 1: Occupy Amber with gold

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One of the items on Geruhage's agenda this trip was to check off a three-star, as he does. Amber received a long-awaited third macaron after my friend was last in town, so I made arrangements for a visit. After all, we had skipped our annual vegetarian meal there this year, and I definitely needed to make it up to Richard, Terry, and the team.

This time around, we're finally not taking the vegetarian menu... for the first time in 3 years. OF COURSE Geruhage would want the Full Amber Experience, so we all went along.

Our dinner started with some seasonal amuse bouche:

We had some kombucha made with different green apples, which was very nice and fruity... and reminded me of passionfruit with the floral notes. This was actually more on the sweet side, and not acidic or yucky like some kombucha can be. There was a little bit of acidity at the end, but that's OK.

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.