A night with raw shellfish

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A well-known foodie who happens to be a compatriot of mine is eating her way through town, and DaRC had originally invited me to join them for dinner tomorrow at my favorite private dining facility. Unfortunately I had to schedule a team dinner for tomorrow, so DaRC very kindly made room for me at Yong Fu (甬府) tonight. I know that the restaurant is launching the spring banquet later this week, and I was secretly hoping that some of those dishes would show up tonight...

It's been some time since I last saw Ms. Yu, and when I arrived she was already in the room along with Chef Liu chatting with our guest of honor. I sneaked a peek at the menu, and it was obvious that I hadn't tasted most of these dishes. Yay!

I love these snacks! Mahua (麻花) is something I loved since childhood, and the other puffed rice cracker kinda reminds me of hineriage (ひねり揚げ), or kali-kali (卡哩卡哩) as they're called in Taiwan. I couldn't stop eating these throughout dinner, despite all the delicious dishes we had in front of us.

Chiuchow classics

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We have a visitor in town who wanted a meal that wasn't Cantonese, so The Great One asked RAW Yeah to pick a place for Chiuchow cuisine. I had never heard of Chiu Ka Banquet (潮家宴) before, but it's just walking distance from my office, so that worked out well.

As I approached the door of the building, I saw a light box out front advertising the name of the restaurant. As it turns out, the restaurant is inside the clubhouse of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers' and Exporters' Association (香港中華出入口商會). The powers that be had, probably years ago, decided to shorten this to 中出商會... so naturally the club is called 中出會所. Well... anyone who has remotely had any exposure to Japanese AV would know what 中出し means...

L'Ami du vin

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After a year of inactivity, MNSC is playing catch up this year. So for the second week in a row, the boys gathered over dinner to blind taste a few bottles. We haven't seen much of Dr. Poon since the onset of the pandemic, so it was good of him to be hosting tonight. Knowing his close connection to Sébastien Allano, it's not surprising that he chose Ami as the venue.

It is perhaps surprising to myself that I have yet to visit the restaurant despite it having opened some four years ago. I dined at Épure several times, and enjoyed Nicholas Boutin's cuisine. After handing over the reins of Épure and setting up Ami, though, he somehow fell off my radar... as friends I dine out with don't seem to mention the place. This would be a good time to redress the situation.

We were, naturally, seated in the private dining area. Unfortunately, the soundproofing was practically non-existent, so the diners outside were probably still subject to our conversations...

I was a little hungry, so the sourdough and buckwheat and genmai (玄米) smoked butter was a welcome relief.

Rayas does British

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I was a little bummed about missing the MNSC dinner that Pineapple hosted on Christmas Day. He is a perennial generous host and I was envious of my fellow MNSC members for being able to taste the fantastic wines he opened. But truth the told, these days my priority is to spend more time with the Parental Units, and Christmas is just family time for me. I made the same decision to miss the MNSC dinner for Pineapple's 30th birthday in order to travel to Japan with family.

As we hadn't been holding MNSC tastings for a whole 11 months last year, it was decided we needed to catch up this year... and Lord Rayas took responsibility for hosting one tonight at Roganic. I had forgotten that he likes Simon Rogan's cuisine, but I happy to come back after my second visit to 2.0 a few months ago. Tonight I would get to try some of the dishes I didn't choose from my last visit.

Raw Spanish mackerel, oyster emulsion, pickled kohlrabi and smoked roe - very refreshing, almost a little cheesy.

Beijing trip 2026 day 4: barbecue by the lake

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Our last morning in Beijing, and we still didn't have much of an appetite for breakfast. We did, however, need some caffeine this morning, so we walked around and stopped at CITIC Bookstore (中信书店) next to our hotel. It's a nice little space where one could have coffee and hang out, and there are even books I could read while chillin'.

We checked out of our hotel and brought our luggage to lunch. Our taxi didn't want to make the long loop to the restaurant entrance, so we dragged our suitcase a short distance along the shores of Houhai (后海) to Kaorouji (烤肉季). Having done traditional Pekinese lamb hotpot for our first meal, it is somewhat fitting that our last meal of the trip should be old school lamb barbecue.

A special room upstairs had been arranged for us, with an adjoining barbecue room affording us a lovely view of both the Drum Tower (钟楼) and Bell Tower (鼓楼).

The real attraction, though, was the big wood fire griddle (炙子) made by welding strips of iron together. The intention is for the fat to drip down the gaps between the iron strips, although I do wonder if that still happens with this particular griddle that reportedly has been in use for some 60 years.