Is it 53 or 54?

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It's the Parental Units' anniversary again, and it's a day worthy of celebrations because, as I like to tell people, I wouldn't exist if they hadn't gotten married all those years ago. So for the last 20-some years I have tried as much as possible to spend the day with them to commemorate that momentous occasion. After not being able to do this for the last 3 years since their Golden Anniversary, I was so, so happy to be able to fly back to resume the annual ritual.

After trying out a few other options over the last few trips, I decided to take us back to Tutto Bello. I wanted to be able to order à la carte to cut down the amount of food, and needed somewhere that could handle the precious bottle of old wine. This seemed like a good choice.

Even though we could choose the number of dishes to order, I was still greedy and wanted a primi piatto between antipasto and secondi piatto. Having a pasta course in the middle isn't too much, riiiight?

We started with some bread, and as both mom and dad were pretty hungry by now, we cleaned this out pretty quickly.

Putting the sommelier to work

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My final meal with the Compatriot is, once again, at a Cantonese restaurant. Seeing how much he enjoyed his last meal here, I chose to go back to Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店) with him and roped in a couple of others.

Since sommelier Jacky Luk had just won the Michelin Guide Sommelier Award two weeks ago, we decided to ask him for suggestions on which dishes to order that would pair well with the wines we brought.

Chilled chicken paw in Shaoxing wine (花雕醉鳳爪) - kinda surprised that Foursheets requested this. Very springy but nothing out of the ordinary other than the flavors of the wine.

A date with piglet

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One thing the Compatriot misses most after leaving Hong Kong is Cantonese cuisine, so I made sure that he would get some decent meals in. I was floored last year while making my first visit to Moon Bay Chinese Cuisine (灣悅 賞 • 中菜), as they served the best (non-stuffed) roast suckling pig I ever remember having in Hong Kong. I figured I could round up a few people to go in for that.

Unfortunately people started dropping like flies as it got closer to tonight, and in the end even My Birdbrain Cousin was a no-show because, well, she's a birdbrain. We ended up with fewer mouths for the same pig...

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Barbecued suckling pig (皇牌大紅乳豬全體) - of course the pig gets served first, before anything else.

No gold for Maradona

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The Compatriot wanted to try some new restaurants during his short stay, so I suggested that we go to Estro, which had just gotten themselves a little macaron. Much to Juve Fan's dismay, Napoli had also just won their first Seria A title in 33 years. Somewhere along the line, Juve Fan mentioned that the meal would be on the house if I showed up in a Maradona shirt together with Hairy Legs...

That's some challenge, given that I don't own any football jerseys, let alone one from Napoli or with Maradona's name. Juve Fan suggested I look on Taobao, so I enlisted the help of my friend the Taobao Queen, and amazingly enough, a shirt whose order was placed on Friday evening was received on Monday.

For some reason the Juve Fan was ecstatic at the sight of me wearing not just a Maradona jersey, but the one with his face printed on the front. The one that the club can no longer sell legally, after losing a challenge from the estate of Maradona over image rights. Strangely enough, my attire was met with scowls from Andrea and a few others... In any case, I got a complimentary negroni for my efforts...

Le French GourMay: Mitsuboshi

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The Compatriot was coming back to town so I decided to book a few meals together. Among his favorite places in Hong Kong is Ta Vie 旅, and we made sure that is our first stop together. Little did I know that they would be getting their coveted third Michelin star just days before. We are all very, very happy for the team. And it was almost the exact same time last year - during Le French GourMay - that I felt the restaurant had upped their game to a level deserving of three stars.

So it's only appropriate that we bring along a few gifts for them, one of which hopefully entails special meaning for Sato-san and Takano-san. They've been through a lot together, and we're glad to have gone along on their journey together.

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Sato-san very kindly started us off with something off-menu. This is, I guess, a celebration of their new achievement as it comes with blinis shaped like the 6-pointed star used by the Michelin Red Guide.