Redemption, one week later

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I was less than impressed with my dining experience at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 (壹玖捌叁) last Friday, as the experimental tasting menu delivered a few head-scratchers. At the time, though, we already knew we would be coming back for lunch today. I had seen positive comments posted by friends about the dim sum here, which was why my dinner last week was so shockingly disappointing. Anyway, we got a different group today so we could try lots of stuff from their menu.

I was pretty excited looking at the dim sum section of the menu during my dinner last week, so I opened it up and started scanning for the goodies. That's when the staff came and told us not to order anything from the big menu... as the kitchen had come up with a new list of dim sum items, and those were presented on a totally different menu. So... one of the items I was most excited about trying is no longer available. Now I was disappointed even before we started ordering.

Someone was pretty excited about checking out as many dishes as we could with the five of us around the table, and it did turn out to be a big lunch...

Diced peppery Black Angus beef puff (胡椒安格斯牛肉餅) - I was a little surprised that this was the first item that arrived, but I suppose they had been pre-baked and could be heated up quickly?

Cinq années

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Five years ago today, our dear Bro Bro crossed the rainbow bridge. In the immediate aftermath of this devastating loss, Foursheets asked to have dinner at Nikushou because she couldn't be bothered cook, and couldn't think of anywhere to go eat. So we had a few cut of beef at our favorite yakiniku (焼肉) joint and washed it down with a bottle of wine.

We returned to Nikushou for the next 4 years and established the tradition of just having simple, delicious food with a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, Nikushou closed its doors days after Bro Bro's 4th anniversary. Tonight we needed fo find an alternative venue, and I defaulted to La Maison - another place whose food we enjoy without too much fuss. And they don't charge corkage.

I was late to dinner due to a work call, and when I stepped in to the restaurant, every single table was occupied. The space was very lively, unlike the few quiet evenings I have spent here in the past. There was even a singer on stage entertaining the guests.

I've always liked the bread they serve here. It's never anything fancy, but it comes out warm and generally tasty enough.

40-year-old Fortune

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We last saw DaRC and Ro Ro a few weeks ago before they jetted off, and they're about to do that again for a European tour, so we arranged to meet up for a couple of bottles. I asked for a place with decent glassware and decanters, where corkage wouldn't break the bank and, naturally, air conditioned. The decision was made to book us into the Fortune Room (幸運閣) at the Hong Kong Jockey Club, a place I haven't been back to in more than a decade.

This was a rare opportunity for me to completely step back from ordering. In fact, I didn't even look at the menu. At all. Members who know the menu well call the shots.

Crispy Bombay duck fish • fermented tofu (醬豆腐炸九肚魚) - thicker batter than expected, and the batter also had more flavor thanks to the fermented tofu.

Guest of Centurion

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Mr Birdiegolf is normally the silent one, so I was a little surprised when he pinged me... and not in our usual chat group, either. Would I be interested in attending an American Express Centurion gala dinner with him? Ahleeso, not surprisingly, has a date with sushi and would be unavailable. Well... I didn't know what this gala dinner was about, but hey... since I didn't have to pay for it, I was more than happy to be the 'plus one' for an evening.

As it turned out, this was to celebrate the 25th anniversary of American Express Centurion card in Hong Kong. The powers that be asked The Great One to 'curate' the dinner for the evening, but no one knew the details about dinner. So of course I checked with my friend, who mentioned to me that she asked Vicky Cheng (of VEA and Wing), Zaiyu Hasegawa (長谷川在佑, of DEN 傳), and "Pam" Pichaya Soontornyanakij (of Potong) to come and create a menu together. Well... that made things more interesting for me... and I thought it would be worthwhile to show up.

The event was held in the Grand Ballroom at the Rosewood Hong Kong. The dress code was "timeless elegance", and neither Mr Birdiegolf nor I had any clue what it meant. I knew that with this kind of crowd, many of the ladies would be dressed to the nines in cocktail dresses or something more formal, and many of the men would be in suits or black tie. I knew damn well that Mr Birdiefolf wasn't going in black tie, and not even in a boring suit... so I down-shifted on my outfit and wore something nice enough but not quite formal for the evening.

The two of us knew practically no one - and we had zero interest in having photos of ourselves taken with hired models in Roman centurion costumes - so after entering the event space we quickly found our way to the very back of the Centurion Bar like a couple of wallflowers, and just sipped on some Champagne. The one person we did know was The Great One, and I managed to coax her out of hiding to come talk to us for a while. We all felt a little easier in each others' company.

We took our seats at our table as dinner officially started. Guests were asked to scan a QR Code on the table, which initially revealed only the identities of the chefs cooking for us tonight. This had, apparently, been a secret that Amex staff either did not know or could not reveal to Centurion members - in what they called a "Black Box". In addition to the three chefs The Great One mentioned to me, Jonathan Soukdéo - the Executive Pastry Chef of the Rosewood Hong Kong - would be presenting two desserts. There was some fuss made about the "revelation" of the black box, after which the full menu became available after scanning the QR Code again.

Disappointment in the valley

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I find it hard to believe that it's been half a year since I last saw Ms. Hurricane, but such is her busy schedule traversing the globe. We managed to set up dinner for tonight, and she suggested we give Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 (壹玖捌叁) a try. I've tried the cuisine here a few times, but it's been quite a few years... and Chef Silas Li has since taken over the kitchen. I was very curious, then, to see what updates he would bring.

Ms. Hurricane suggested that we take the restaurant's tasting menu, and we thought it made sense to follow the recommendations of the person who knows the restaurant best. The staff then recommended we add the optional fish course, which we readily agreed to. My focus tonight was on the wines, so I was happy to just follow lah...

Right off the bat, we are getting some tableside service. It's been a few years since I last saw a restaurant dip stuff into liquid nitrogen in front of the diner, so this would be interesting...

Frozen salted kumquat parfait with sweet dried tangerine powder (冷凍鹹柑桔芭菲配香甜陳皮粉) - MEH. I was a big fan of molecular gastronomy, and still love it when it's done properly. This was not it.

Salmon roe celeriac purée tart with pickled Buddha's hand (三文魚子西芹頭蓉撻配老香櫞) - this was more interesting because, in the middle of all the cured salmon eggs that I love, we've got a few chunks of pickled Buddha's hand rind adding some sweetness. Quelle surprise!

Goose after wine

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We started drinking around 12ish, and continued past 7pm. Although we had a pretty big lunch, the skies were getting dark and it just felt like dinner time. Having mansplained to Champagne Diva and her daughters about how Cantonese typically chooses roast goose over Peking duck, it was time for us to show her. So we grabbed a couple of taxis and headed to my favorite Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝).

Boss lady is surprised to see Foursheets and I for the second night in a row, and we had a party of five. Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for everyone to arrive, and we got seated pretty quickly after that.

Half roast goose (燒鵝半隻) - many Europeans never gets the opportunity to eat goose, and this is one of the best places to do it. With this many mouths to feed, half a goose was just about perfect. After all these years, I still love the spices I taste on the skin... and of course the meat, too.

More Champagne with Champagne Diva

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After running an errand across the harbor this morning, I came back for a lunch date with Champagne Diva. Apparently the meeting with The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me went well, and our visitor wanted to experience the cuisine at Restaurant Petrus for herself. I had originally hoped to take a break from dining out, but knowing full well that someone keeps complaining about not getting love from me, I decided to accept the kind invitation.

The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me showed up to our table with a smile on his face that belies his true nefarious intent. Both Champagne Diva and I expressed our wish for a smaller menu, as I recounted that my last dining experience here left me feeling comfortable for the first time in years. I knew, though, that I wasn't gonna get my wish...

Champagne cork - a gougère is always a nice way to start, especially when filled with Comté cream inside.

Goose is it

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It's been MUCH, MUCH too long since Foursheets and I last stepped foot in Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝), and as she was in the 'hood this evening, we decided to pay a visit to the boss lady.

Lower quarter of roast goose (燒鵝下庄) - our usual order. Gotta get that leg in there... It's been far too many months since we tasted the spices in the skin.

Rice flour noodles in soup (瀨粉) - love me some MSG-laden soup. Bring it on.

The hunt for Peking duck

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While enjoying our lunch today, the visitors were asking me where they could go and have - you guessed it - Peking duck. I explained to them that duck - especially Peking duck - isn't classic Cantonese fare... and that the go-to item is actually roast goose. Nevertheless, the ladies had a hankering for this classic dish that seems to be at the top of every visitor to Hong Kong, so I scrambled to find one on a couple of hours' notice.

No, Peking duck isn't really difficult to find in Hong Kong. For one thing, just about every Chinese restaurant in a 5-star hotel would offer it. The trick was to avoid a few restaurants that I had little interest in going to... Unfortunately for us, the places which offered some of the best ducks in town were either fully-booked or would require us to start dinner fairly late. That wasn't gonna work when there's a baby in tow...

And that was how we ended up at Spring Moon (嘉麟樓) at the Peninsula Hong Kong. They were able to fit our big group in, and I was grateful that we didn't get stuck by the restaurant entrance. We were conveniently placed in a spot that could accommodate the baby stroller. Big plus.

Just after we managed to finish ordering - which turned out to be a collective effort of the table, and inevitably resulted in too much food - Executive Chef Xavier Boyer came over to say hello. Despite not having returned to the hotel is close to a year, and not alerted anyone about coming, the CRM system probably flagged my booking and alerted him. I'm pretty sure Sébastien is to blame for this...

Our amuse bouche was a deep-fried milk custard coated batter with bamboo charcoal, on a bed of rice crispies and some salmon roe.

Dim sum with Champagne Diva

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Geruhage pinged me a couple of days ago, asking if I could help out one of his friends. Champagne Diva is coming to town for a few days, and she would appreciate a few introductions to industry people who may have interest in taking a look at her bottles. When my good friend asks for help, I try my damndest to deliver. Thankfully I managed to line up a meeting for her with one of my favorite restaurants in town.

I felt it would make sense to actually meet up with our visitor over a meal, so I booked us a table for lunch at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店). It was a shame that Jacky was away this week studying for his MS exam, otherwise I could have introduced our visitor to him, too.

Due to a work commitment, I arrived a little late to lunch... much to my chagrin. By that time the ladies had already put in the first round of orders based on recommendations from the staff. As we found find out soon enough, some of those items were rather repetitive...

Pineapple bun with barbecued pork (菠蘿叉燒包) - this is something that is popular at many places around town, although I don't think I've ever ordered it here.

Shenzhen tour day 3: yellow croaker for lunch

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It's our last day in Shenzhen, and for breakfast I decided to stay in the hotel room and finish the fruit I bought yesterday. I figured that I'd already consumed enough calories over the last few days and could use a break...

My Favorite Cousin wanted to take her parents to Xinrongji (新荣记), and it's much better to do this in Shenzhen compared to Hong Kong. So for second day in a row, we walked over to the Ping An Financial Center Mall (平安金融中心商场) to one of the restaurants on a high floor. The only problem was that, once again, we had to get ourselves into a private dining room with a much higher minimum spending limit. As a result I pre-ordered a couple of things last night.

A meal at Xinrongji usually starts with some seasonal fruits, and today was no exception:

These big blueberries from Yunnan were as tasty as I have come to expect.

These Indian jujubes (牛奶棗) tasted a little less sweet and, dare I say, slightly "bland" than ones I'm used to buying in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I guess these particular ones did live up to their moniker of being "milky".

Shenzhen tour day 2: Fujian chic

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After napping for a few hours in my hotel room, it was time to head out and explore the area nearby a little more. Foursheets had recommended that we check out Freshippo (盒马鲜生) while in town as it's part of Alibaba, and there happened to be an outlet inside Wong Tree Plaza (皇庭广场) near Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen. We spent a decent amount of time strolling inside the shopping mall and checking out all the shops and stalls selling a wide variety of food, then eventually made our way to the supermarket and picked up some fresh fruits.

For dinner My Favorite Cousin had, for some reason, wanted to try a restaurant serving Hokkien cuisine. Unable to rely on recommendations from friends on this, she ended up choosing Chic 1699 (远洋私厨) inside Ping An Financial Center Mall (平安金融中心商场) after scrolling through Diaping. We ended up taking one of the smaller private dining rooms that came with a minimum spending limit.

Our tea tonight was loquat flower tea (枇杷花茶).

Shenzhen tour day 2: the tide is high

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I decided to do a little bit of work in my hotel room after getting up this morning, which was why I missed grabbing breakfast with the family. Funnily enough, I ended up going to the same shop they visited nearby to have some Cantonese-style steamed riceflour rolls (腸粉). My Favorite Cousin and I had done some research on breakfast joints near the hotel while we were sipping on our whiskies last night, and Hong Li Cun (红荔村肠粉) in Times Square Excellence (卓越时代广场) seemed like a good idea.

Steamed riceflour roll with mixed vegetables with egg (罗汉斋肠粉加蛋) - once in a while I enjoy having the classic dish of mixed vegetables and fungus known as 羅漢齋, and it's not common for me to see it as the filling of steamed riceflour rolls. This would have qualified as a vegan breakfast... until I decided to add some egg to it. Pretty big portion for breakfast, and I didn't have reason to complain.

Shenzhen tour day 1: third time is the charm

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I'm in Shenzhen for a couple of days, tagging along with My Favorite Cousin and her parents as they explore the city a little bit. Having gotten a tiny little taste of the city's dining scene in the last 2 years, I'm actually eager to expand my horizons.

Thanks to a prior engagement, I missed out on lunch at a restaurant I was curious about. I did make sure that I arrived at Futian Station (福田站) via the High Speed Rail by late afternoon, and from there it was just a short walk for me to check into the Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen minutes later.

We took a short stroll around the mall at UpperHills (深业上城), mainly for me to show the elders all the EV makers displaying their models at just one corner. There were lots of people strolling around at dinner time, but My Favorite Cousin noticed that there were very few people browsing inside the stores.

For dinner tonight, I took the family to a place I've become somewhat familiar with. I have dined at The Bay by Chef Fei (东湾 - 由辉师傅主理) at Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen on two previous occasions, and I'm happy to return any time for their refined Chiuchow cuisine. Given that the others had already dined at a Chiuchow restaurant for lunch, this would be their second Chiuchow meal today...

As usual, there was a welcome drink.

Family in the 'hood

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A mere 3 hours after my big, 9-course lunch, I found myself seated at the same table as My Favorite Cousin at Neighborhood. Her parents have come into town for a few days on their way to spend some time in Taipei, and she wanted to take them out to dinner. Knowing my aunt's bird-like appetite and accounting for the fact that Foursheets and I would still be full from lunch, I asked My Favorite Cousin not to pre-order anything. In fact, I didn't tell The Man in White T-shirt that I was coming... because the last thing we needed was extra dishes...

Boiled artichoke / liver mousse / truffle - not surprising that My Favorite Cousin asked for this given her fondness for artichokes. Always happy to have chicken liver mousse to go along.

Grilled piparra pepper / Hokkaido salt cod - the first pepper I picked was pretty spicy! The others were more manageable but there really was a big variation in terms of the heat.

The Man in White T-shirt walked in and did a double take when he saw me. So now the jig is up...

Sea snails - the first of the dishes that the boss decided we should have. These were much smaller than the ones I saw him prep later for other tables...

Grilled local baby squid - always a crowd favorite, and My Favorite Cousin was really happy. Of course, we had completely forgotten about my uncle's gout condition...

Always happy to put these on bread...

Bone marrow / potato / caviar - another staple on the menu that warrants ordering.

Another dish that's more delicious on bread. Love having the melted richness get soaked up by the bread. So delicious.

Buffalo wings / Roquefort salad - another dish that the boss decided we should have. Always happy to have chicken wings and have the "Chicken Wing Beat" pop into my head again...

White asparagus / morels / trotter - these spears were pretty damn big! It's wonderful they came with young sugarsnap peas and a couple of sunny side up eggs.

The morels were stuffed with diced pig trotters, which is always fantastic! So happy!

Brown-marbled grouper head - Shirley had recommended this to My Favorite Cousin, and given how much my aunt likes fish heads, obviously we took it.

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Thankfully The Man in White T-shirt offered to disassemble it for us, because I'm not sure we would have done it properly.

It was sent back into the kitchen and came back as a paella. Unfortunately they also roasted it a little more, and the skin and other bits got too chewy for the elderly folks.

Tarte tatin - nice to see it back on the menu. Very tasty.

Mille-feuille

Canelés

I'm glad My Favorite Cousin brought a bottle of bubbly, because I had just the perfect wine for this crowd...

Krug Grande Cuvée, 168éme édition, ID 319031 - nice and toasty nose as expected. Good acidity balance on the palate, and obviously another couple of years' of aging meant the wine developed some maturity, so the palate got a little softer and rounder.

2010 Lucia, en magnum - started drinking about 1½ hours after double-decanting. Still got the fruit on the nose, along with minty, woodsy, and cedar notes. Drinking well.

Very grateful to The Kitchen NaziMan in White T-shirt for letting us get away with a small menu, as we really did not have the appetite tonight.

A golden milestone in your journey

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I still find it amazing that it was about 10 years ago when I first walked through the doors of Ta Vie 旅 with a few friends. We were very excited about Chef Sato Hideaki (佐藤秀明)'s new French restaurant, which would be a big departure from the modern Japanese fare of Chef Yamamoto Seiji (山本征治) he oversaw at Tenku Ryugin (天空龍吟). Over the years I've been a big fan and continued supporter, watching the restaurant gain its first Michelin star in its first year of opening, followed by a second in its second year. I was so ecstatic when I witnessed the restaurant's promotion to 3 stars two years ago, and now they are celebrating their 10th anniversary.

I returned to the restaurant after a long absence for a special lunch today. Kang Mingoo (강민구) of Mingles in Seoul and Kawate Hiroyasu (川手寛康) of Florilège in Tokyo are joining Sato-san and their teams for a collaboration on this special occasion. Having missed out on many of Sato-san's previous collaborations, I decided that I wasn't going to miss this one.

My previous visit had been on the last day before the restaurant closed for renovations, so this was the first time walking into the space in quite a while. I'm grateful that our gift is still proudly displayed in a prominent spot. We took note of the slightly different look of the dining room, although the biggest change would have been inside the kitchen.

Besides his kitchen team, Kawate-san also brought along Takada Shinnosuke (髙田真之助), the mixologist behind Sodden Frog that is due to open just upstairs from Florilège. Takada-san created two cocktails for this collaboration, so Foursheets and I each ordered one:

Celery / rum / melon / grapefruit / irizake - with all the fruit elements in this cocktail, it wasn't surprising that I would find it to my liking. The presence of irizake (煎り酒) added a very Japanese touch.

Paprika / mezcal / tomato / guava / rhubarb - this was very smoky, as advertized. The guava made this sweeter than Foursheets had expected, so this wasn't really what she would have wanted. Pretty interesting nonetheless.