Six stars in Kowloon

Pin It

Chef Sung Anh (안성재) has become a global household name this year, thanks to his part in the Netflix series Culinary Class Wars. Although he was already well-known in the culinary world after opening Mosu in Seoul and receiving 3 Michelin stars, it was only after the airing of the Netflix show that those who don't regularly patronize fine dining establishments became familiar with his name.

Mosu Hong Kong opened in the first half of 2022 while Hong Kong's borders were still closed, and I've had the opportunity to dine there twice - although I've not been back in some time. When it was announced that Chef Sung would be in town for a collaboration with Jimmy Lim of JL Studio - making it "6 stars" in the kitchen - I was pretty excited to see how the menu would look like. I had thought about grabbing a table when booking opened, but hesitated as I was still unsure of my travel plans around this time. Thankfully an invitation came to join a tasting today with other media and "KOLs", and I happily crossed the harbor on a beautiful day for lunch.

I was a little apprehensive about the seating arrangements today, as things didn't work out so well the last time I accepted an invitation to join a tasting at one of restaurants from this group. Thankfully they seated me with the boss man, who got so tired of my company that he started to socialize with guests at other tables...

We started with a few small bites from both kitchen teams:

The welcome drink was a Korean rice wine, with grains of (glutinous?) rice, cinnamon, ginger, and interestingly lemongrass for a touch of Southeast Asia.

Lucky 14

Pin It

I haven't seen much of DaRC and Ro Ro this year due to their busy travel schedule, and as we met up for a casual dinner a few weeks ago, we realized there would be limited chances we could see each other for the rest of the year. So they very graciously added me to the guest list for tonight's dinner at my favorite private dining facility, and the group would eventually grow to a party of 14.

Our host arranged the menu with Chef Tak, which are full of the classics that I have become familiar over the years. The highlight, though, would undoubtedly be the snake soup, which is only offered when the reptiles are in season during this cooler part of the year. I was definitely very excited.

1996 Bruno Paillard Assemblage, dégorgée en Janvier 2006, en magnum - the acidity was quite nice on the palate. The wine was starting to show some maturity but still tasted youthful and lively. On the nose there was a little flint, a little sugar cane, and a hint of straw. Overall this was rather elegant.

Leisurely dim sum lunch

Pin It

I'm doing my small part in helping my friend eat her way around Hong Kong, and today we're at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店) for some dim sum. It's something that my friend has sorely missed while being away from Hong Kong, and she's finally getting her fix. The restaurant was surprisingly full at lunch today, with all tables occupied in the main dining room downstairs, and Jacky busy pouring wines for a big wine crowd in one of the private rooms, a few of which were also full.

Seeing there were just two of us and that we wanted to try as many dishes as possible, the staff informed the kitchen and for most of the dishes, we were served only one piece for each of us. This was very thoughtful.

Deep-fried radish cake stuffed with preserved meat (蘿蔔絲酥餅) - I love ordering this for visitors, as the crispy and delicate pastry shell can be fantastic. The shell wasn't as perfect today, but still a nice experience.

The shredded radish and diced ham inside were very, very flavorful. The radish was particularly sweet.

Latin with Spanish

Pin It

It was exactly 3 months ago that our Gang of Pfour washed down some Italian food with a few bottles of Italian wines, so we were now due for another meeting. I was surprised to learn that neither Ms. Hurricane nor Wai Gor had ever been to MONO, and it's been much too long since I last saw Ricardo - both of which definitely need rectifying.

I had a panic attack about an hour before dinner started. Foursheets is currently taking some Chinese meds, and doctor's orders are for her to avoid a whole slew of ingredients in her diet. I hurriedly messaged Ricardo, who very kindly promised to do what they can to accommodate her. And they certainly did.

Seeing how it was our friends' first visit, I suggested that they take the Journey instead of the Soul menu, as there was a course that no one should leave without trying.

Mexican infladita / corn / bafun uni / tonburi - I was here for an event last month so I've already had a taste. The purple corn infladita came topped with some summer cypress seeds (とんぶり).

The bar in the 'hood

Pin It

A friend is back in town for the first time in 5 years and is eating her way through some of the city's best restaurants. While I would love to join her for every meal, I have decided that I would only do one big meal per day these days, and agreed to accompany her to Neighborhood for her first meal.

The Kitchen Nazi has not let people (translation: me) sit at the bar counter for a while now, but as the restaurant was busy on a Thursday night, he decided to put us there as it also enabled him to have more of a conversation and interaction with our friend.

Of course, with the Kitchen Nazi being himself, he arranged everything for our friend and there was never any question of us ordering what we wanted to eat...

Boiled artichoke / liver mousse / truffle - having this for the second time in a row, and that liver mousse packs a real punch when it comes to richness and bitterness. I do like it, though.