Three 3 stars in France day 5: dinner at granny's

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Tonight's dinner was at Geoélia, the (relatively) new restaurant opened last summer by Chef Camille Saint-M'leux - replacing the Parisien institution that was the Chinese restaurant Tang. The restaurant is, apparently, named after the boat owned by the chef's grandparents. Geruhage was already familiar with the chef, and I was just happy to tag along, once again.

Chef Camille very kindly offered us a glass of bubbly to start.

JM Sélèque Solessence, dégorgée en Decembre 2024 - as expected with this winemaker, the acidity was on the high side.

Gougéres - always happy to see these. Great to nibble on when you're hungry, and they go so well with Champagne.

Three 3 stars in France day 5: Asian flavors in Paris

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I didn't manage a lot of sleep on account of a late night last night, and I had to get up and do some work while I had the spare time. Seeing that I have a big lunch planned today, I skipped breakfast. One thing I liked about Novotel Paris Centre Gare Montparnasse is that they have a dispenser for filtered water out in the hall, so I don't have to go out and buy myself drinking water.

The Hairy Chevalier had recommended I try Plénitude at the Cheval Blanc Paris, but this happened to be the week that 50 Best Hotels was doing their annual shindig in town, and it became even more impossible than usual to get a seat. Thankfully he managed to get me a seat at Le Gabriel, Jérôme Banctel's restaurant in La Réserve. So that's where I was headed for lunch today.

I arrived much too early.

As one of the restaurants holding 3 macarons, it's natural that it would be a tourist destination. It became pretty obvious that half of the patrons today were visitors, with the majority of them being Asian. I was the only solo diner.

I needed to get back to my hotel room to join a board meeting, so I asked the staff to inform the kitchen so that I could finish the longer menu entitled Virée, which is Chef Jerome's expression of his Bretagne background. It also meant I couldn't really drink much, so I was looking for wine or Champagne by the glass. As luck would have it, they had exactly the Champagne I was looking for. It's a shame I couldn't open a whole bottle...

Romain Henin Le Gamin du Ter-Terre, dégorgée le 23 Fevrier 2024 - more than 2 years after dégorgement the nose has developed some maturity, definitely showing more oxidation with marmalade, and a little bit of metallic notes.

Three 3 stars in France day 4: dinner and a show

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I was fortunate to be in Paris around the same time as Geruhage and Tomo-chan, because I really didn't have much planned for the days after Bordeaux. I thought I would take things easy and just meet up with a friend for a meal, but a month ago this friend told me that our mutual friends were in town, so I immediately asked to piggyback on whatever their program is. For our first meal together, we would check out the new location of restaurant they already know.

Maison Ruggieri Palais Royale has already gotten back a star after moving to the current premises, and given Chef Martino Ruggieri's pedigree and the fact that the old location had two macarons, we definitely had expectations. But truth be told, I should have gone to buy myself aome short-sleeve T-shirts from Uniqlo before coming to dinner. I was still wearing the long-sleeve tee I'd been wearing since this morning, and Paris was still well in the 20s even at night. The folding glass walls were open so that we had direct access to the garden inside Palais Royale, but this meant we were left without much air conditioning...

There are poems to match the dishes and menus, and the long tasting menu is named Letter from a Correspondent. I doubt Geruhage ever entertained the idea of taking A Short letter from a Correspondent... The menu lists dishes by their main ingredient, followed by a short poem from the chef's wife.

Zucchini with flower and watermelon "ham" - the zucchini came with a tarragon sauce, the flower was covered in a sauce made with cumin and tomato. The strips of dehydrated watermelon "jambon" were chewy and sweet.

Three 3 stars in France day 4: Bordeaux to Paris

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It's my last morning in Bordeaux, and thankfully I've chosen a train that doesn't depart too early. That meant I could still sit and enjoy breakfast on the patio at La Maison d'Estournel.

As usual, I picked up the viennoiserie...

Today I also grabbed a crêpe from the stack on the table, and spread some caramel and chocolate on top.

My driver from yesterday came to drive me to Gare Bordeaux Saint-Jean, and we had a good conversation along the way. But before we get into the city, I asked him to make a couple of stops so I could take better pictures in the warm, morning light. First stop was, of course, where I had dinner last night - Château Lafite-Rothschild.

Three 3 stars in France day 3: 100 years of Lafite-Rothschild

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Enfin, la pièce de résistance!

The main reason I flew all the way to France and planned this trip was tonight's dinner, which came at the joint invitation of Château Lafite-Rothschild and Caprice. Three years ago the Hairy Chevalier invited me to dinner at Château d'Yquem, and that was an amazing experience. Tonight we are back in Bordeaux, but a little further north in Pauillac.

Upon arriving at the château, we were received jointly by Antoine Granger and Victor Petiot. We got to chill on the lawn just outside with Champagne and canapés while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Three 3 stars in France day 3: les forts de Vauban

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It's Sunday morning in Bordeaux, and I'm up early because I have a long day ahead of me. After admiring the sun rising over the vineyards from my room at La Maison d'Estournel, I went downstairs to grab some breakfast before my journey this morning.

Three 3 stars in France day 2: a day in Saint-Estephe

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I'm off to Bordeaux today for the highlight of this trip, and this is the reason I chose to stay next to Gare de Montparnasse. I checked out early in the morning, rolled my suitcase downhill, and got inside the station looking for breakfast. My first choice was actually McDonald's, as I love to try local offerings everywhere I travel. But I didn't see anything interesting that was "French" on their menu, and that was a little strange.

I spotted a Yann Couvreur Cafe and knew this would be my breakfast spot. It's a no-brainer. I got myself a couple of viennoiseries and a chocolat chaud.

Croissant - absolutely nothing to complain about here.

Kouign amann - very crunchy from the sugar coating. Love it.

Three 3-stars in France day 1: a painful arrival in Paris

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One of the details I missed while booking my flight on Qatar Airways was that my flight would be arriving in Terminal 1 at Paris Charles de Gaulle. This is the oldest terminal, and as we were parking at our gate, I could see that the other airlines using this terminal were the likes of Turkish Airways, Saudia, Egyptair... ALL from Muslim countries. This was a sign of things to come.

I had heard about the long lines at EU border checkpoints for months, ever since the new EU Entry/Exit System was introduced. As I exited the plane quickly on account of being in Business Class, I would have been ahead of many passengers from my flight.  I passed by the automatic kiosks set up for registration for EES, but saw that all of them - somewhere about 16, I would guess - were "out of order". So we would do the biometric registration manually, then...

Thanks to the delay on the tarmac in Doha, we landed close to 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Add to this that we were in the oldest terminal, with passengers flying mostly on Middle Eastern airlines, you can see that once you strip out the EU nationals and ones carrying passports from 4 special countries - U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Japan - who would have easy entry, I was surrounded by mostly brown people. It's Friday afternoon, the French immigration officers couldn't really care less about what happens to us, and I found myself standing in line with at least 150 people in front of me, and only 3 immigration counters open.

Those three counters subsequently became divided into two separate queues, with two counters serving families with children, and the rest of us - I'm guessing 100 people in front of me - waiting in line for ONE officer. As the afternoon went on, three working counters became two, and just before it was my turn to get processed, the single counter processing people without kids went dark. ONE counter left. By the time I cleared immigration, I had stood in line for TWO HOURS. My luggage had been waiting to be collected for a long, long time...

I had originally thought 4½ hours would be sufficient for me to clear immigration, get to my hotel for check-in, then walk to dinner. Now I wasn't sure. I grabbed a taxi and hoped for the best, but it was close to 5:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon when I left the airport. Traffic. The quickest way, apparently, was to loop over to the west side and come in through Porte Maillot, pass the Arc de Triomphe, cross the Pont de l'Alma to the left bank, and eventually arrive at Hotel Mercure Paris Gare Montparnasse TGV.

Check-in was quick, and I called the restaurant from my room to tell them - in my very broken French - that I was gonna be about 30 minutes late for my booking. I quickly changed out of the clothes I had been wearing, then walked as quickly as I could to my destination over 1 km away.

I know I looked very flustered when I arrived at Joséphine Chez Dumonet, but the staff recognized me instantly and led me to my table. How many single Asian diners were they expecting? Anyway, it was obvious that the majority of their patrons were tourists...

I munched on some bread and breakfast radishes while waiting for my food to arrive.

Three 3-stars in France day 1: transit through Doha

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I'm off to France for a week, and unlike previous trips, I've chosen to transit through the Middle East rather than fly direct. While look at airfares a few months ago, I realized that Business Class fares on Cathay Pacific were just shockingly expensive. All of the major Gulf carriers were charging fares which were 50-65% less, but of course it comes with a layover. And given what happened in March of this year, there is concern about flight disruptions resulting from the US-Iran war. Nevertheless, I chose to fly with Qatar Airways and transit through Doha. I figured the savings was worth the extra hours I would have to endure.

I finished checking in for my flight just before midnight, and since Qatar Airways is a member of the Oneworld Alliance, I was given access to the Cathay lounges at Hong Kong International Airport. There are A LOT of flights departing Hong Kong late at night, and The Bridge lounge was very, very packed. So as I headed waaay to the back of the lounge and settled there, I discovered that "The Nook" was not serving the usual noodles but a completely different menu.

They had scallion pancakes (蔥油餅) and even Shanghainese rice rolls with pork floss, fried dough stick and pickled vegetables (上海粢飯), but I was more curious about the spicy lamb pastry (香辣羊肉肉夾饃). Gotta say it was pretty good! The pastry was nice and flaky, and the filling was juicy with a nice kick. And yes, the lamb fat tasty goooood!

Dim sum for a short visit

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Mikacina's back in town for a short stopover, and The Great One organized a dim sum session for lunch. After rotating through some of the usual suspects over her last few trips, today it was Seventh Son (家全七福)'s turn. The quality of food here has had its ups and downs over the years, but my last visit here earlier this year yielded a good meal.

Even though we're here for dim sum, it's difficult to walk out without being tempted to order "the pig"... so RAW Yeah put in an order for half a piglet.

Barbecued whole suckling pig (大紅乳豬全體) - instead of the usual version where the crackling is separated from the meat, today the whole pig has been chopped up into pieces.

Clueless at the club, part 2

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We're having our third MNSC gathering in a month, and tonight it was Curry's turn to play host. After debating whether he could live with the poor stemware at his favorite Seventh Son (家全七福), our host ultimately opted for the more serene settings of the Derby Room at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. It's been nearly five years since I last dined here, when Francky Semblat first started his stint with the club. Word is that the menu has shifted back to a more old-school, "clubby" offering, without much semblance to the refined nibbles from Oncle Joël...

Corn fritters - these were pretty sweet.

Tomato sorbet with pickled cucumbers and crème fraîche - nice acidity to whet the appetite.

Party like it's 1990

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An invitation came to join a group for friends to dinner, ostensibly to help celebrate Giona's birthday. The chosen venue was somewhere the birthday girl has never been, and one that I have also never been. I had heard about SẾP when it first opened some time ago, but while I was somewhat intrigued, I had never heard friends rave about the place. I did join a dinner where Chef DoBee Lam collaborated with other chefs, but as it was a joint effort, I didn't feel it was indicative of what the "true" flavors would taste like.

We were in the large private dining room, so we were not in a position to watch the chefs work over wood fire in the open kitchen... which was supposed to be the attraction. Oh well...

123!! Dzo - there were three appetizers:

Bánh tráng: Phú Quõc dried shrimp, quail egg rice paper - the sakura shrimp here tasted pretty nice.

Mực ống: yobuko no ika basil tartlet - the tartlet came with diced spear squid (槍烏賊) from Yobukocho (呼子町) in Saga Prefecture (佐賀県). The squid flavors were pretty nice, with just a bit of heat and fish sauce, while the pomelo pulp provided a good contrast.

Hokkien in da haus

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We have known about Mr. Chichi's new project for some time now, and a number of us have been looking forward to having a fine dining Hokkien restaurant in town. We know he has high standards and doesn't compromise too much, so the cuisine offered should be fairly authentic. As a (fake) Taiwanese, I must admit that my understanding of Hokkien cuisine (閩菜/福建菜) isn't very deep... although, admittedly, it should still be better than your average Cantonese person. So I'm pretty interested to get myself educated.

We know he has been asking close friends to join him in multiple rounds of taste tests to get things right, so when the invitation came for dinner tonight, I knew they felt ready.

We were led to one of Hokkien House (福上)’s private dining rooms for what would undoubtedly be a feast. There’s no meal with Mr. Chichi that doesn’t involve my stomach being on the brink of explosion, but I was surprised to find ONLY 13 dishes on the menu before fruit and dessert.

Choking smoky sticks

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I had a pretty good first experience at Torikaze (鳥かぜ) - the local outpost of famed Tokyo joint Torishiki (鳥しき). That was, of course, by invitation from B Bestie. After that meal, I thought maybe, just maybe, there is finally a yakitori (焼き鳥) joint that Foursheets could enjoy. In addition to the 3 sticks of veggies - which were watched over by Chef Matsui Ryo (松井亮) himself - there were another 9 different vegetables offered as add-ons. It wouldn't have to be an all-chicken evening.

We managed to rope the Zhongmeister and Winnie the Chew, as they have been a few times and are fans. As our friends have always sat in the private rooms, I thought they should get a different experience by sitting at the counter - like a proper yakitori joint. This would turn out very badly for me tonight...

Appetizer : edamame egg tofu with shiso sauce (前菜：枝豆玉子豆腐、しそソース) - the perilla sauce was not bad, but it wasn't as strong and fragrant as hoped.

Detour to Hangzhou day 2: shrimp and tea leaves

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It's a new day and I need some breakfast. I had originally thought about grabbing some noodles like the Hangzhou specialty pian er chuan (片儿川), but the place Nicemo recommended would take 20 minutes by taxi - or 40 minutes round trip. That seemed like too much effort just to get breakfast on a workday, so I decided to walk around the hotel and see what I would come across.

Unfortunately, there were no shops nearby offering the noodles I wanted. Most were places offering simple takeout stuff and bakeries, which didn't offer any interesting local stuff. I actually considered getting brekkie at McDonald's... but eventually came across Longquan Shaobing (龙泉烧饼) which offered simple shaobing with preserved leafy mustard (梅干菜烧饼) - something I tasted for the first time two days ago. Actually, these also came with little bits of pork fat. So... totally up my alley! Happiness.

Visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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Since early 2007, I have been wanting to gear my future travels towards visiting more locations which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are so many amazing places around the world to see!

Here is the list that I have already visited so far. Click on the links to see pictures from my Google albums.

Total count: 80 sites in 21 countries

Australia
Greater Blue Mountains Area - 1976
Sydney Opera House - 1976

Belgium
The Architectural Works of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement - 2018
Belfries of Belgium and France - 2018
Historic Centre of Brugge - 2018
La Grand-Place, Brussels - 2018
Major Townhouses of the Architect Victor Horta - 2018
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex - 2018
Stoclet House - 2018

Cambodia 
Angkor - 2001

Detour to Hangzhou day 1: dinner by the lake

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On my trip to Hangzhou last month, I kept telling people that the first (and previous) time I was in Hangzhou had been in 1998. At that time, the only international hotel in existence was Shangri-La, and what was then Hyatt Regency Hangzhou hadn’t even opened. Well, tonight I’m staying on the shores of West Lake (西湖) for the first time, and using this opportunity to dine at what has become a Hangzhou institution - 28 Hubin Road (湖滨28).

Chef Fu Yueliang (傅月良) – who now helms the kitchen at the amazng Ruyuan (如院) - had been the executive chef here when this restaurant opened. He had modernized and made the pagoda-shaped braised pork belly into an iconic dish. Since he didn’t serve us the dish when we were at Ruyuan last month, I was determined to have it here.

The restaurant offered us two small dishes to nibble on: broad beans (蠶豆) and Chinese napa cabbage (白菜).

Detour to Hangzhou day 1: Liangzhu culture

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I’ve been spending time around Anji (安吉) over the last 2 days for our company offsite, and it was time to go home. Since Nicemo offered to drive a few of us back to Hangzhou, I requested a detour to Liangzhu (良渚) so that we could tour the ruins of the ancient city, which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The trip from Banyan Tree Anji to Liangzhu National Archeological Site Park (良渚国家考古遺址公园) took a little more than an hour. We rented a golf cart and Nicemo drove us around the park for our tour.

Caprice in August, part 2: Le Pin duo

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It's been exactly two days since some of the MNSC boys last saw each other, and here we are again tonight, sitting around a table blind tasting wines. It's my turn again to play host, and for the second time in two weeks I'm back at Caprice with the Hairy Chevalier. With a smaller group tonight compared to last week, we could comfortably fit into the Chef's Table and hang out near the cheese cellar.

With a bunch of old fogeys at the table who bitch about long menus, I asked my friend for a short service. I was serving Champagne to start plus 3 flights of reds, so 4 courses ought to do it for these guys. Focus on quality, not quantity.

As is the same with every meal, the amuses bouches arrive in la boîte à bijoux:

Foie gras tartlet

Lobster tartlet

Crispy anchovy roll

Beef and Bro Bro

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It's been six years since Bro Bro left us, and we continue to toast him on his birthday. Unfortunately I messed up by choosing to host an MNSC dinner on his birthday this year, so tonight we're doing this a day early. Since we had a pretty good meal a few months ago to remember his passing, I decided to go back to Gyu+bar by Miyoshi for more beef.

For our second visit we chose not to take the set dinner menu, and opted to pick and choose à la carte. This way we could get exactly what we wanted.

This bread has a distinctive shape that looks awfully familiar... Sadly the texture is a far cry from the original I'm thinking of.

Clueless at the club

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The MNSC boys are doing two dinners this week, two days apart. We almost made it three in a row, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The Ox played host tonight, and we found ourselves back in The Grill at the Hong Kong Country Club.

After a weekend of stuffing myself in Shantou, I was more than happy to take things easy tonight and order à la carte. Soup and salad for me, then... But our host ordered a few starters for us to share.

Jambon persillé - a classic dish I am always happy to see. So nostalgic to see aspic with ham, and the fragrance of parsley just works so well with the gribiche sauce.

Shantou hop day 3: beef hotpot brunch

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It's our last day in Shantou, and we didn't get out of bed as early as originally planned. BUT we learned our lesson yesterday so we went out for coffee before breakfast. We went back to my new favorite Pickles and Coffee (咸菜咖啡) for another hit, only this time I didn't order the namesake drink again.

Yashi cold brew with osmanthus (桂花鸭屎香冷萃) - with cold brew made with single origin coffee beans from Yunnan (雲南), Yashi (鴨屎香) tea, osmanthus syrup from Morin, dried osmanthus flowers, and garnished with a piece of osmanthus candy. This was, effectively, the Chiuchow version of yuenyeung (鴛鴦) - but an elegant, high-end version. I love osmanthus flowers and the fragrance they leave in one's mouth.

Shantou hop day 2: cooking the ocean

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Dinner tonight was probably my most-anticipated meal of this trip. I very much appreciate the casul aspect of Chaoshan cuisine, and I'm well aware of the traditional way of dining that we had at lunch today. But ever since I experienced high-end Chiuchow cuisine in Shenzhen back in 2023, I've been very curious about exactly how fine the top chefs in this area could take it. While spending minimal time doing on homework on where to eat in this town, we quickly came upon Taste of Chaoshan - Zhuhai Restaurant (潮汕味道•煮海餐厅) as THE fine dining establishment. As one of only two restaurants in the city to receive the diamonds from the Black Pearl Dining Guide, and the only one to receive two diamonds, this would seem to be the pinnacle of Chaoshan cuisine in town.

I traveled eastward for the fourth time today, this time to the banks of the Han River (韓江). The restaurant takes up two floors of a commercial building, with panoramic views of the eastern side of the city. Tables are placed far enough apart that one is aware of one's neighbors without feeling like part of the conversation, so the atmosphere is pretty tranquil.

The daily set menu is custom tailored for each table, after discussions on specific preferences. I requested a couple of their signature dishes while adding something additional on top for extra cost. Hell, it's our first time so I wanted to make sure we get as full of an experience as we reasonably could. Except, of course, the charcoal-grilled whelk that's priced at more than CNY 3,000 each...

There were two small plates of snacks on our table:

X.O sauce (XO酱) - with conpoy (干貝) and sardine fry. Kinda one-note.

String beans with preserved olive greens (榄菜豆角) - pretty tasty.

Shantou hop day 2: criss crossing the city

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We needed two things this morning: coffee and breakfast. We went downstairs to the café at WhyTime Hotel (怀棠府邸酒店) to see what the free breakfast was like, but they were pretty full with other guests... and besides, the food didn't look particularly local. So we ventured out across town to a place recommended by a friend.

It's raining a little this morning, and we got dropped off at the general area for our breakfast spot. Well, the street address listed on Dianping (大众点评) wasn't the correct one, so we wandered around a little to see if it's hidden in an alley somewhere. And indeed it was! This was LITERALLY A HOLE-IN-THE-WALL... The so-called signage was actually that of a defunct real estate agent, and that's where the open kitchen is. The dining room is accessed by duck around the corner through a doorway. OK, then...

Shantou hop day 1: seafood supper

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I had originally wanted to take a break from traveling this weekend. There was an invitation to an extremely hard to book restaurant in Yunnan, but with two big meals earlier in the week and a few more next week before traveling for work the following weekend, I politely declined... much to the shock of my friend.

But Foursheets was restless. I had been doing ALL of the traveling lately, and maybe she felt a little left out. It is true that other than our quick trip to Beijing at the start of the year, the only place she's been to outside Hong Kong has been Taipei. After weighing our options close to town, she decided that we should explore Shantou (汕頭). We had long heard about the amazing food scene in the Chaoshan (潮汕) region, so this would be our first peek.

There was lots of drama before our departure, as Friday night traffic almost prevented us from getting to the train station on time. In my rush to get to the train platform, I actually dropped my wallet as I went through the border checkpoint. Thankfully it was recovered just a minute later... and we made it onto the train with just a couple of minutes to spare.

The 2½ hour journey was relatively uneventful, and our taxi driver drove us across the city so that we could check in to WhyTime Hotel (怀棠府邸酒店). Foursheets chose this boutique hotel in the old town area that had been converted from a historic banquet hall. I must admit that it is very charming.

Mushrooms and peppers

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The Compatriot was back in town for a couple of days, and we agreed to catch up over dinner. Lately he hasn't been getting as much good Chinese food as he would like, so he requested for a visit to Xinrongji (新榮記). I've always had a good time here, and I do miss some of their seasonal specials - which can be pretty special. As there were only four of us tonight and I had my heart set on the Chinese mushrooms which were in season, I had to dispense with some of the perennial favorites when ordering tonight.

They always serve up some amuses bouches, which will have a seasonal fruit along with some baked cookies or crackers...

Almond crakers (杏仁脆片) - always very tasty, as the flavors of almonds and butter come through.

Caprice in August, part 1: magnum party

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I'm seeing the Hairy Chevalier two weeks in a row, as I play host to two different crowds. I had been wanting to treat Dashijie (大師姐) for dinner for some time now, and also repay the favor of some others who have very kindly included me among the lucky recipients of their generosity. The advice given to me when planning this meal was to choose a venue where I would have "home court advantage". Well... one of those places is definitely Caprice, so I roped in the Hairy Chevalier for this.

I chose this time to host this dinner because I knew that it would be tomato season, and Monsieur Tomate would be shipping their bountiful harvests from France into the arms of the Hairy Chevalier. I even saw the Hairy Chevalier post on social media with some of those beauties while he was on summer holiday. So I pinged my friend last week and requested that we have a few special dishes based on those tomatoes. Imagine my utter shock being told that it would be unlikely for us to have ANY of those tomatoes, because Monsieur Tomate had lost about 85% or more of the crop, due to the wildfires raging through France. I had been focusing on the events in Bordeaux in advance of my upcoming trip, so it came as a total surprise that the heat had also killed off produce in the Loire Valley.

My "home court advantage" suddenly took a blow...

Nevertheless, I have full faith in the Hairy Chevalier and his team. I also trust them implicitly to tailor a menu to match the wines I had prepared for tonight.

But first, la boîte à bijoux:

Foie gras tartlet

Champagne and dim sum

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We have been fans and supporters of Sato-san and Takano-san for years, and one of the things we admire about Sato-san as a chef is his curiosity, on top of his obvious creativity. During the pandemic years, he spent a lot of time testing recipes for roast Peking duck, and I've even had his "duck ramen" and "charsiu" once or twice. So... we've seen a glimpse of his "Chinese cuisine" before.

When I found out that Ta Vie 旅 was doing a special menu with Cantonese dim sum, I immediately messaged them and asked for a table. I needed to see what his interpretation of dim sum looked (and tasted) like. As it turned out, this was an event in conjunction with Champagne RSRV, for which Sato-san is chef ambassador. So we'll be sippin' on bubbly while nibblin' on dumplings.

Casual in the hood

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It's been about 10 years since someone last dined at Neighborhood, and a request was made to make a return visit on the back of the Chairman dinner. So I duly made a booking for tonight.

A couple of days ago The Kitchen Nazi pinged me to tell me that he won't be in town tonight, as he will be on vacation. No problem, I said. I've been to the restaurant plenty of times when he's not around. In fact, sometimes I prefer for him not to be around, since I could then order whatever dishes I felt like having. That's not really happening when he's in the kitchen...

I tried to get the group to order what they thought they wanted to eat, because I don't want to keep ordering the same dishes over and over again. I also kept the amount of food reasonable, as we had pre-ordered a large main course.

Fried escargot / basil / garlic - I've always loved this dish, as the combination of garlic and escargot is just so classic.

The watery Chairman

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This is the first of two nights out that I’m spending with the King. I had promised months ago that I would get a booking at The Chairman (大班樓) so that some of their friends from Taipei could get to try it, so here we are. I had asked the visitor to choose the dishes tonight, with a couple of inputs from me. Some of their choices were a little surprising, but as we would find out later during the meal, the regular customer isn’t always right.

Crispy taro cake with smoked duck (荔甫鴨盒) – flavors from the Chinese celery were pretty noticeable.

Where the mountain meets the sea

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I'm traveling to eat again. Only this time, I'm taking the train to Guangzhou for one dinner and a short, overnight stay. The reason? A collaboration between Jiang by Chef Fei (江 - 由辉师傅主理) - a restaurant run by Chef Huang Jinghui (黄景辉), whose cuisine I really enjoy - and Meet the Bund (遇外滩) - one of the most talked about restaurants in Shanghai which, curiously, serves Hokkien cuisine. I haven't had the pleasure of dining at Meet the Bund, but it receives near universal praise from friends around me. And Chef Yoda Chen (陈志平) is obviously very well-liked. So I figured I owed it to myself to join Mr. Chichi at the invitation of the Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou.

The special dinner tonight was by invitation, and the two of us were the last two to arrive for this event – having taken the train up from Hong Kong at the end of our workday. Everyone else had arrived earlier and started their 2-day program. We apologized to Chef Fei for making everyone wait…

The best biryani I've ever had

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It has been 6 years since Fishball passed, and for the last 5 years we have been visiting Amber and taken their vegetarian menu. While we have been amazed by Chef Richard Ekkebus’ creations, we had also heard about our friend Chef Suveg Kavatkar’s special vegetarian menu served by special order at my beloeved Caprice. So we asked him to do this for us tonight.

Except, of course, that it’s Monday and Caprice is closed. When his lovely wife The Bombay East Indian Girl heard about this, she very kindly offered to cook a vegetarian feast for us at home. I was, of course, incredibly moved by her offer… and accepted the invitation with gratitude.

Khakra, apple chundo – as the person who originally introduced khakra (ખાખરા) to us, of course she had these ready for us to snack on. She made sure to substitute apple for mango in the chundo (छुन्दो) given Foursheet’s allergy.

The sunny mountain

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Now that we're neighbors with the Zhongmeister and Winnie the Chew, I have tried to occasionally see if we could meet up over a bottle of three. I had recently acquired a batch of wines at very affordable prices - most of which were unfamiliar to me – so I was particularly eager to find excuses to pop some open. My original plan was to see if my new neighbors would be up for a casual drink after dinner, but they took this in a slightly different direction…

Dinner at Hiyama (日山) was proposed, and suddenly my friend offered to bring a bottle that cost 10 times the price of the bottle I had envisaged opening. Well, then… I needed to bring something to match! The casual bottle can wait until after dinner.

What we didn’t count on was a typhoon coming our way.

Even though I had never been, I had known about Hiyama in Tokyo being known for their beef. As we were drinking some nice bottles, it seemed only appropriate that we opt for the Hiyama premium dinner set (日山特撰).

Kuruma prawn, sea urchin, baby peach, ume somen, bonito sauce (先付：車海老、雲丹、若桃、梅そうめん、鰹だし) – it’s always so nice and refreshing to start dinner with cold somen (素麺) in warm weather. The green peach (若桃) was very sweet and nice.