Biryani biryani

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This was a dinner I had been looking forward to for more than 3 months. At a dinner 3 months ago, B Bestie was telling us about the upcoming collabs he was orchestrating, and he mentioned that one of them would involve Biryani Osawa (ビリヤニ小澤). I had heard about this Japanese chef in Tokyo serving up interesting biryani (बिरयानी) from a friend, and in fact I tried to squeeze a visit in on my last trip to Tokyo. Unfortunately I didn't make it there. So when I heard the name mentioned by B Bestie, my hand went up about 0.3 seconds after and I told him I wanted a table at the event.

I had roped in a few more friends for this, such was my excitement about this dinner. Unfortunately a couple of them had to cancel, and I duly informed B Bestie about downsizing my table. When I got to Leela tonight, I was surprised that we were still given a table of 6... so I apologized profusely to James, and let him know that he should have a word with B Bestie.

As I had confirmed with the restaurant about my dietary restrictions being "no beetroot and fish cum", the first of the starters was replaced with something Foursheets and I were familiar with...

Tuna papdi chaat Lucknowi tokri chaat - I usually see this come in the bigger size for a table of 4 or more. Tonight only two of us are getting this substitute course, and suddenly this thing looked so much cuter! Always love Manav's tokri chaat (टोकरी चाट) for the mix of acidity, cream, the crunch of the deep-fried potato, and all the herbs and spices.

Another trip to Spain... in Taipei

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It is, once again, time to commemorate the day when Mom suffered terrible tummy pains all those years ago. After staying in Hong Kong for the last couple of years, this year I've resumed the old habit of flying home and spending the day with the Parental Units. Choosing a venue became easier this time, as many restaurants are closed on Mondays, and I decided to return to Molino de Urdániz. Since my happy first visit more than 3 years ago, this Taipei outpost have gotten themselves a second macaron, so I was really looking forward to more modern Spanish cuisine.

The current menu is called "Clásicos y Evolución", which features classic dishes created by Chef David Yárnoz at the home based in Spain as well as creations using locally-sourced ingredients.

I was a little annoyed with the restaurant's service at the very beginning, as they seemed intent on having us start our meal right away after we sat down. It should have been obvious that I was setting up my cameras to take pictures at the beginning, before the mayhem was about to start, but the staff completely ignored this and insisted on putting food on the table before I was remotely ready...

Pine spring: mushroom consommé - poetically named "pine spring (松泉)" in Chinese, this was not officially on the menu but offered as an extra treat. We were asked to first taste the mushroom consommé - made with 4 different types of mushrooms - on its own. Then we were to mix in the paste on the cup's rim - made with ground, dried mushrooms that was infused with pine needles - and taste the mixture. This helped to warm up the stomach to prepare for the meal, and Mom loves mushroom soup so she was pretty happy.

Early birthday dinner

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It's been quite some time since Pinky Foursheets was last at Caprice, and I also wanted to have a taste of the seasonal dishes from the Hairy Chevalier, so I got us a table for dinner tonight - just the two of us. We told Hairy Chevalier that it's just a simple dinner, and while we didn't want a very short menu, we also didn't need a big, epic meal. Well...

Floriane very kindly started us off with a glass of Champagne. I don't recall seeing this producer on the list, but I'm always happy to sip on some Henri Giraud...

Henri Giraud Blanc de Craie - a nice blanc de blancs with good acidity, with some ripeness on the palate so that it wasn't completely lean. The nose was very toasty, flinty, mineral, and rather fragrant and almost floral. So nice.

As always, we get the boîte à bijoux with 3 little bites to start:

Tasty food while shopping

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I wanted to check out some camera gear today, which meant that it made sense if we had lunch in or around Hysan Place. After checking out a few alternatives which we've never explored before, we eventually settled on going back to our trusty Ho Hung Kee (何洪記)...

As I often do, instead of picking out a large noodle or rice dish, I ordered a few items of dim sum. I find they do a pretty good job here.

Barbecue pork bun with saucy filling (流汁叉燒包) - I'm always a fan of these. The bun is very fluffy on the outside and the filling is pretty delicious, and better than that found in many average restaurants.

Funky dim sum run

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I'm on a mission to reconfirm the quality of dim sum at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 (壹玖捌叁), and it was a bit more than a year ago that I found them to be interesting. I haven't had the opportunity to dine with The Great One in a while, and I managed to catch her in town and available. I also managed to rope in the lady with the Tiny Urban Kitchen, as we made plans for a future meal together just downstairs from her apartment.

I wasn't surprised to find that the dim sum menu had been overhauled, and some of the items we liked last year were no longer available today. So it was time to try out the kitchen's other creations!

Steamed Shanghainese pork dumplings, served with homemade young ginger vinegar (一口灌湯小籠包) - these looked reasonably decent...but turned out just OK.

Birthday with old friends

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We are joining a birthday celebration tonight. Ro Ro has organized a seemingly endless series of dinners for DaRC during his birthday month, and tonight it was our turn to join the party. Kiu's Kitchen (嬌姐小廚), an offshoot from the original Hop Sze (合時小廚) in Sai Wan Ho. I never understood the craze over Hop Sze as I always thought it was just a decent place for casual stir-fry (小炒), which was why I haven't bothered trying to book a table here. So it was fortuitous that this provided me a chance to check it out.

We had a big group of 19 people - most of whom were college buddies of DaRC - so we took the private room with the huge round table. This was gonna be fun...

The menu had already been preset, of course, and no surprise there would be a lot of food. In fact, because of the number of people we had, some of the dishes had to have 2 servings presented at opposite ends of the table.

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First up were the live prawns, which were doused in about a bottle and a half of Mei Kuei Lu Chiew (玫瑰露酒) so that they became "drunken". We waited for some time for the prawns to stop struggling and jumping around, and then Kiu Jie came to cook the prawns by first draining the liquid, putting the prawns into the pot, and then dousing them with ANOTHER 1½ bottles of Mei Kuei Lu! Then we have a flame show...

Prawns flambéed with Mei Kuei Lu (玫瑰露火焰蝦) - these prawns weren't gigantic, which is a plus in my book as I prefer them smaller. They also weren't full of poop, unlike this one I got served last year.

Journey to the mansion

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I felt like a lucky boy tonight. I had the privilege of being invited to a dinner where Ta Vie 旅 - one of my favorite restaurants - collaborated with Yong Fu (甬府), another one of my favorite restaurants in town. I know PR8 is constantly pushing his clients to put together these 4-, 6-, and whatever hands events. Often they feel contrived, and all you get is different chefs presenting their own dishes. Then there are some collaborations that truly live up to the name, where the chefs actually spend time creating dishes where each one adds their own input. Tonight ran a little different.

I have been looking forward to this meal ever since I found out about it. While I have had the privilege of attending a few collaborations involving chef Liu Zhen (刘震) of Yong Fu, sadly I can't say the same for Sato-san. I had no doubt, though, that any dish these chefs put together would be totally delicious.

We started with some appetizers, where the chefs chose two main ingredients, and each chef created their own expression with them.

Ningbo-style pickled and cooked winter melon with sea urchin, fermented crab, celtuce (雙味冬瓜咸蟹), by Yong Fu - the first main ingredient was chosen by Sato-san, and it's the "white winter melon (白冬瓜)" from Ningbo (寧波). These get covered with powdery wax that gives them names like "wax gourd" or "ash gourd" in English. Yong Fu's dish came with two squares of the winter melon cooked with different methods. The bottom layer was cooked by slowly feeding chicken stock, while the top layer was the traditional fermented winter melon (醃冬瓜) from Ningbo. Topped with sea urchin from Zhangzi Island (獐子島) off Dalian (大連), and some fennel flowers that came through with their anise-like scent. We were asked to make sure that we taste all the ingredients together, which led some of us to do it all in one bite. Well... if you do everything in one bite, then there will be a couple of flavors dominating and drowning out the others. In this case the winter melon won.

North, South, and something else

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It's been a while since I was last in the Hong Kong Room at the I Hate the Handover Club, since I haven't joined Pineapple for his annual birthday MNSC dinner for the last few years. I would be dining here tonight at the kind invitation of Christies and the Specialist, tasting through a line up of wonderful wines in advance of an upcoming auction. The consignor - an uncle with a colorful past who went from Shantou to Canada via Hong Kong, and eventually settling down in Bangkok - was in attendance.

Tonight the crowd was a little different from the usual, as there was not a single bottle of Burgundy around. The lineup was dominated by wines from the Rhône Valley, which was right up my alley. We started with some bubbly for the pre-dinner drinks:

Jacquesson Cuvée N°748, dégorgée en Mars 2025 - this was actually very floral and elegant, with a nice little yeasty nose.

Executive lunch for busy executives

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It's been a while since My Friendly Neighborhood Prime Broker and I had a catch-up session, and a kind invitation came for lunch at Duddell's (都爹利會館). I haven't been back here in YEARS, so it's always nice when someone gives you an opportunity to revisit a place like this.

Neither of us wanted to make decisions on what to order, so my host decided on the Executive Lunch set. There won't be any upside surprises, since these usually play it pretty safe.

We started with a steamer of the dim sum selection (點心拼盤):

Scallop siu mai (帶子燒賣) - nice to have the scallop on top, which added a nice jolt of seafood flavors.

Years of the Horse

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It was five years ago that the Gang of Pfour got together for dinner and brought out bottles from different Years of the Ox. That was a fun and successful tasting, so tonight we decided to bring out bottles from Years of the Horse. This dinner should have happened 2 months ago, but unfortunately I had to postpone. Thankfully Goldfinger was very understanding, so we reconvened at Andō tonight.

We had a choice of two welcome drinks, and I picked the one made with roselle and chocolate. Definitely different!

We started with the bocaditos:

Classic claret for classic dim sum

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I've been a terrible friend. I had promised to attend a gala dinner with my friend last year, but had to cancel on account of family obligations. We were trying to catch up again a couple of months ago, and again I had to postpone because of family. I'm very grateful for my friend for being so understanding, and really happy that we finally found the time to grab lunch together. It's been more than a year since I was last at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店), and I was thrilled when he suggested it for our catch up.

I'm a cheapskate when it comes to lunch, and usually just stick to dim sum at places like this. Service is always great here, and today they offered to serve just one piece of each item for each of us, so that we can taste a larger variety of items.

Forum steamed premium shrimp dumpling with pork (富臨蝦餃皇) - pretty much the standard for me.

6-nen buri

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We still can't believe it's been 6 years since we sent our Asshole across the rainbow bridge. Foursheets and I still go out for dinner each year in his memory, but unfortunately our regular place for this ritual is no longer around. We decided to look for another place where we could enjoy some beef over a bottle of red, and since Miyoshi (肉の匠 三芳) opened a more casual outlet in Hong Kong, we decided to check out Gyu+bar by miyoshi.

We were seated at the counter right in front of the charcoal grills, so we saw all the beef and the seafood being grilled over open flames. We were also not far away from this giant-ass charcoal oven, which was where the protein goes to get finished.

I took the 6-course menu so I could have two main dishes.

Three more pasta

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Tonight we are back in Estro after a long absence. I had to cancel our last booking nearly 2 months ago, and I knew I needed to make it up to Juve Fan. It's been much too long since I last came to see him, longer for Foursheets, and even longer for My Favorite Cousin.

I know it's been a long time since My Favorite Cousin was last here, because she was not aware that one can now order à la carte instead of taking a set tasting menu. And as I have preferred to do on the last few occasions, I wanted to focus on the beautiful pasta here. So I asked for three of them. In fact, I was really tempted to take all four that were on offer...

But I knew Juve Fan wanted me to take a starter, so I went with his suggestion. Would that be too much food for me?

We started with some sesame crisps and tarali, both of which were fragrant and full of flavor.

A wine emergency

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Mama Bear is in town for a short stay, and I managed to catch up with her for coffee a couple of days ago. She was apparently at her wine cellar today checking up on her collection when she sent me some pictures. A couple of bottles from her birth vintage were showing ullage that were on the low side, and she wondered whether the wines were still drinkable. I assured her that the wines were probably still fine, but it would be a good idea to drink them up sooner rather than later.

That was when she suggested that I help her open them up, and she wanted to do that TODAY. Well, I could open them up at home, but with this pair of wines... they should be given the proper respect by being drunk over a nice meal. So I asked for a last-minute table at Ta Vie 旅, along with a couple of menu changes, all the while apologizing profusely to Takano-san for the imposition.

It's been far too long since we were last here, and I was glad to come and taste Sato-san's new creations. Of course, I also love me some old favorites.

One always starts the meal here with the signature nukazuke (糠漬け) bread, which I have loved ever since my first visit back in 2015.

More cheese and more Japanese

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We've been meaning to catch up with Kutsuyama for a few weeks now, and we finally managed to catch each other tonight. As we didn't need a big, heavy meal... we thought we would catch up over a couple of bottles and nibble on some cheese. Roucou seemed like the perfect enue, and I really wanted another opportunity to check out the many other dishes I didn't get to try yet... especially ones with a Japanese touch.

Foie gras and poppyseed crème brûlée - I had this on my first impromptu visit after a gala dinner, and I was happy to have it again. Tough to resist a foie gras dish like this...

Manav's Hong Kong

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I have always enjoyed Chef Manav Tuli's cuisine since my first visit to Chaat, and over the years I've seen him work on a few dishes where he reinterprets Cantonese dishes with his "Indian" perspective. Tonight I was invited to return to Leela for a dinner where he put together a collection of his creations called "Flavours of Hong Kong".

I took a look at the menu for tonight, and realized that I had actually tasted some of them on my last visit 3 months ago. As they were pretty tasty, I was only too happy to try them again, along with whatever Manav has developed since then.

But first... I'm happy to that I still have the opportunity to enjoy some khakra (ખાખરા).

No MSG

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A couple of days ago mom mentioned that, on a radio program she tunes in to regularly, the host had interviewed the chef of the Golden Dragon Restaurant (金龍餐廳) in The Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店). The chef claimed on the program that they make their dim sum items fresh everyday (shouldn't all decent restaurants do this?!) and that they don't use MSG. The latter was what piqued mom's interest. As a long-time sufferer of adverse reactions to chemical additives in food, she doesn't visit Chinese restaurants often when dining out. So she wanted to see whether these guys really live up to their claim.

I made a booking for lunch, and of course Last Minute Uncles does what he does best... join us and insists he won't come unless he gets to pay. Well, he is a member at the hotel's club so he knows this place better than any of us.

It's the first time I stepped foot in this restaurant, and as I look at the dim sum section of the menu, I got a little ambitious and wanted to try as many items as possible. I did remember to order in rounds, though...

Steamed rice rolls with mixed sauce (混醬腸粉) - this is a street food staple in Hong Kong, and I've had it many, many times for breakfast. Unfortunately the sauces just tasted off... although neither Foursheets nor I could pintpoint why.

Beefy anniversary

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I'm back in Taipei for a few days as we celebrate the Parental Units' anniversary. The last time we were together for a celebratory meal, the mood was pretty different... there was a lot of trepidation about what was to come for our family. Seven weeks have passed, and while the future remains uncertain, we are more optimistic than where we were the last time out.

In a break with the past where I chose restaurants that would appeal to mom, this time around dad was the focus. A recommendation was needed for another restaurant with a sommelier capable of handling an old bottle, and A Cut was what came up. As famous as the restaurant has been over the years, I had simply overlooked this hotel steakhouse when searching for dining options in the past, and never got around to checking it out. Well, it was time to hit this steakhouse with a Michelin star.

My first impression upon entering was one of disappointment. I chose not to return to Tutto Bello tonight because I felt the dining room was too dimly lit, and that wasn't good for mom. Well... this dining room was practically like a dungeon, and we could barely read the menus even with the help of these tiny lamps on the table. I didn't evem bother taking out my 360 camera for the usual group shot. Sigh...

We decided to make it easy on ourselves and chose the set menu rather than trying to order à la carte. I took time to explain all the available options to mom, while making sure dad ordered enough beef for himself.

The bread selection was pretty decent.

Aus. wagyu beef tongues: kale • red wine sauce • piri piri • wasabi - I was pretty surprised by how thick cut the tongue came. Interesting that it came topped with a marinated kale condiment. We've got a nice dose of acidity thanks to pickled radish on the side.

No chicken in the 'hood

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It's been quite a few months since I last caught up with the Specialist, and it's been a couple of years since I last sat down with BFF and the others. I took the opportunity to take them to Neighborhood, as I happened to have booked a table, and it's somewhere they haven't been to in quite a few years.

The Kitchen Nazi is still MIA, which means once again, I get to order what I want to eat. As it is still 休漁期 where there's a moratorium on fishing in the South China Sea, we weren't likely to get any amazing seafood specials for the next 3 months. I guess that's why he's off galloping halfway around the world.

Escargot / ramps - I'm so happy to have this again. Love the classic flavor combinations of escargot with garlic, but in a different form.

Fish congee

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I'm still kinda in pain from indigestion, so for lunch today I chose to have congee. Now that we live relatively close, we should be hitting Ho Hung Kee (何洪記) more often for our noodle and congee fix.

Congee with pinspotted spinefish (泥鯭粥) - nice to see that they have a whole fish to go with the congee.

It was nice to see them put chiffonade of aged tangerine peel in the congee for the fragrance. Along with ginger and spring onions, these help balance out any "fishy" flavors.

House specialty wonton in soup (正斗鮮蝦淨雲吞)

The Chairman in pain

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Two days after we first met, I'm sitting down with my new friends from Europe again. They had visited The Chairman (大班樓) a few years ago, but that was before the menu format change and the move to the current digs. I seem to be always taking visitors and other friends to dine here, but the good news for me tonight was that for once, I didn't have to order the signature flower crab!

The bad news for me was that immediately after lunch, I suffered pain in my digestive system that prompted a visit to a clinic... where I was diagnosed with indigestion and prescribed meds to (hopefully) alleviate the symptoms. That meant I wouldn't be at full capacity tonight, and would be nibbling more than devouring.

I know that my guests have big appetites but I chose to stick with the "regular" or "basic" menu, without adding any extra dishes. I figured that since they are eating their way around town with two big meals a day, this should be enough in terms of calorie intake...

Ginger and vinegar pig trotter terrine (甜醋子薑豬手豬耳凍) - since being introduced in 2023, this has quickly become one of my favorite starters here. I made sure to give the download on the origins of this dish to the visitors, as those not familiar with local customs would never make the connection with birthing mothers. I do love the sweet and sour vinegar, and how the jelly reminds me of what the original dish looks like when I first take it out of the fridge. The signature pickled young ginger of the restaurant has been finely diced and used as garnish, alongside really finely chopped kaffir lime leaf for their beautiful fragrance.

The golden roll

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I'm entertaining a couple from Europe who are eating their way through town. I had been trading messages with one of them for a few years but we had never had the opportunity to meet until now. I did take the last-minute opportunity to check if was an axe murderer by following him on social media, and I felt reasonably sure that he is not.

So I showed up for our dinner at Wing (永). Vicky had very kindly let me book a table early to ensure we get the date my new friend had asked for, and I was initially somewhat surprised that no one had asked us which of the restaurant's two menus we preferred. Of course, I knew we would be in good hands with Vicky.

We started with the seasonal welcome drink, which is designed to work for each of the 24 seasons (節氣). As the start of summer (立夏) was just two days ago, we would be enjoying a cup of loquat, preserved apricot, and hawthorn drink (枇杷杏乾山楂飲). One of the benefits was meant to be coordinate between the intestines and the stomach, and I could only hope that it does that job well.

Before the start of our meal, we were shown a collection of special ingredients which would be used for our dinner tonight. The humpback grouper (老鼠斑) was still alive and breathing, although obviously not happy about being out of the water at this moment...

Double the pleasure, double the fun

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Our stay in Taipei was much longer than we had originally planned for, and this resulted in us having to cancel a few gatherings with friends. Now that we are back for a few weeks, we figured it was time to make it up to the chefs and restauranteurs who were incredibly understanding of our situation. I had checked the booking website for Godenya (ごでんや) and found plenty of open seats, so I grabbed 2 at the counter tonight to start off our long weekend.

It's been far too long since I was last here, and I was bummed about missing the special little flowers this season. Foursheets and I still looked forward to all the goodies coming our way, though...

Hotaru squid, udo, wasabi leave, sansyo-leaf (螢烏賊 独活 花山葵 木の芽) - I'm always so happy to see all the variations of this dish during this season, because it features all the elements of spring.

A night of restraint in the 'hood

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This has been some time in the making. I've tried to organize a few team meals since joining my current team, and this time we managed to get everyone at the same table. I didn't notify The Kitchen Nazi ahead of time that I was coming, although he did tell me a few days ago that he would be in Mexico. Well, as I told my team, there are pros and cons of him not being in da haus at Neighborhood... and I would at least be able to order the dishes that I wanted to have!

Smoked mackerel - smoked fish here is always a good idea, especially when mackerel is on the menu. Just look at the beautiful pattern on the fish! Taken with horseradish sauce tonight and not fish liver.

Moving sticks, 2026 edition

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We love our visits to Hidden (秀殿). Especially for Foursheets, as it's her happy place. We don't always remember to book our own seats when the booking system opens, but fortunately we have a few friends who do, and they sometimes need to offload their bookings. So it was that tonight we took over two seats from a friend, and it was absolutely perfect for the day after we move apartments. In fact, the last time we moved apartments two years ago, we came here for dinner just hours after all the boxes got dropped off.

Before we came, I had announced that I would need to put some effort into losing weight. And to that effect, I said I would try to restrain myself tonight and not order too much. Let's see how I did...

There were plenty of seasonal specials that I love, but unfortunately the spring mountain vegetables () are no longer on the menu...

Fried chicken wing (手羽唐揚げ) - I was so excited about the specials tonight that I actually forgot to start with these delicious wines! Fortunately our neighbors got theirs and we immediately added our own order. These are always so, so good. But I decided against ordering a second one, on account of being restrained and all...

One last feast

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We're back in Taipei again, this time primarily to celebrate - a few days belatedly - mom's birthday. It had been a more casual affair last year, but I was determined to take the Parental Units out for a nice meal this time. Coincidentally, this would also be the last fancy meal they would have before some major changes in their lives, so this meal would be more significant than usual. In retrospect, had I known earlier, I probably should have chosen a nice sushi restaurant for the occasion... but I already had my heart set on opening a bottle of red this year.

And I needed a competent sommelier to handle this delicate bottle - someone who could do a better job than the person who broke the cork from dad's wine last year. I immediately thought of Kevin Lu from logy, who is a Master Sommelier and received the Asia's Best Sommelier Award at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024 - after receiving the Sommelier Award from Michelin Guide Taiwan the previous year. I asked Little Rabbit to help pass a message about the bottle I was bringing, and booked us a table at the restaurant. Now that they have moved to new digs and done away with counter seating, the four of us would have a much easier time engaging in conversation while dining.

But there was a downside to the new location. The lighting now was much, much dimmer. Not only did it make it tough to take any decent pictures without jacking up the ISO, it also meant mom had a difficult time seeing her food. This was a real bummer.

As was the case on our first visit, there was no menu presented before service started. We didn't know how many courses were coming our way.

Soymilk / lactic acid / pine nut - this amuse bouche was apparently a signature, although it was new to me. We had a cold soymilk custard topped with a layer of tomato water and acid whey leftover from yogurt, garnished with pine nuts. The acidity from the whey helped to whet one's appetite.

Baked in Wanchai

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V is back in town for a few days, and since I happen to be free tonight, I decided to catch up with him over dinner. As our other friends were either out of town or deathly ill, it came down to just the two of us again. Wanting something casual but wanting to check out a place that was new to both of us, I suggested we hit Chouchou - the slightly more upscale sister restaurant from the people behind Babette.

While I really relish being pampered at fine dining restaurants, what Hong Kong really lacks is a collection of bistros and brasseries that serve straightforward French fare that taste good, without burning a hole in one's wallet. Unfortunately Jean May - a crowd favorites which rose to fame during the pandemic years - closed down recently. So I'm kinda on the hunt for more places where V and I can just bring a couple of bottles and chill.

The menu here offers a number of classics often featured at brasseries, and I was pretty happy to start ticking them off tonight.

Tarte fine aux champignons - 'tis the season for mushrooms, and I love having a pile of them in a puff pastry. Would have been even better if they did it as a vol-au-vent but I was still very happy.

Foie gras au torchon - doesn't get much more classic than this... and I could never say 'no' to toasted brioche. There was a condiment of pear and cocoa that was rather interesting.

Tourte - we were trying to see which dish to share, and felt this would be more interesting than côte de boeuf. When this arrived, I initially feared that it wasn't big enough and that we would need to order up more food. How wrong I was...

So this may not be the venison dartois from Hairy Legs, but it's still damn respectable with layers of Comté, jambon de Paris, potato, truffle sauce, and smoked pancetta (what? not lardons?) Very hearty and satisfying. And most important of all, went very, very well with our wines.

The tourte came with some sucrine lettuce on the side. Was that Marie Rose sauce on top?

Jardinière de légumes - always a good idea to have some veg for balance.

Île flottante - one does not often see this classic show up in Hong Kong, so I jumped at the chance. Fluffy meringue with a nice vanilla sauce. Happy.

V and I each brought a "casual" bottle, and as usual I was happy to pay the corkage. Originally we were meant to give up our table for the next seating, but seeing that we were paying HKD 1,000 for corkage that was pure profit for the restaurant, the manager told us we could take it easy and finish our wines.

2008 Gourt de Mautens Rasteau - popped and poured. Pretty nice and floral on the palate, and a little soapy. There was also a hint of funkiness, but pretty enjoyable.

2006 Jean-Michel Stephan Côte-Rôtie Côteaux de Tupin - started drinking more than 1½ hours after opening. This was definitely showing very well, with plenty of fragrant, woodsy notes. Drinking beautifully, and exactly how I was hoping it would be.

Well, we didn't finish the second bottle at the brasserie. We adjourned to V's Whiskey joint and hung out there. I was within 2 minutes' walking distance from a bunch of the afterparties for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, but tonight, I treasured time with an old friend a lot more.

Diamonds and stars

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A little over 3 hours after running into Chef Liu, I walked through the doors of Yong Fu (甬府) in Hong Kong for a collaboration dinner B Bestie invited me to. I'm cognizant of the fact that I was just slagging off some of these collaboration dinners with multiple chefs across different countries and cuisines, but this one seemed a little different. Yong Fu Hong Kong and Yong Fu Shanghai are from the same group and serves dishes from the same cuisine, while I felt there can be real synergies among Ningbo cuisine and the Cantonese cuisine featured in Jade Dragon (譽瓏軒) as well as the Chiuchow cuisine showcased at Selection by Du (菁禧薈). In spite of my misgivings about the kind of stuff B Bestie gets up to in terms of these "x-hands", I have supreme confidence in Chef Liu Zhen (刘震)'s and Ms. Yu's ability to put together a fantastic menu.

The real VIPs were in the private rooms upstairs, while the KOLs sat in the main dining room downstairs. It's been a few years since I last saw Natalie from the City of Dreams, and of course she was here accompanying Chef Kelvin Au Yeung (歐陽文彥). I also got a chance to greet some old acquaintances I haven't seen in a couple of years.

While the four head chefs have put together a 10-course menu - where most of the dishes were individual efforts and one course included input from all of the chefs - there was a wine pairing featuring solely wines from China. This is definitely more of the trend these days, as restaurants from China are eager to feature wines from up-and-coming producers from their own country.

Appetizers (頭盤):

Six sons for lunch

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It was more than 8 years ago that I brought Gaggan and Tara to Seventh Son (家全七福) and fed them their famous roast suckling pig. Gaggan wanted some dim sum today with the boys, and although my original intention was to bring them to Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店) - which I introduced to our mutual friend Champagne Diva last year - plans changed a few hours ago. And we ended back here, with a table of 8 hungry mouths.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I showed the boys a picture of my friend on his last visit here. He was proudly wearing a top from a famous Japanese designer, woven with a Chinese character (or kanji (漢字), if you prefer) that one does not use at a dining table. I'm not sure how much my friend has changed since that meal 8 years ago, but at least this time it's too warm for him to be wearing the same top.

As always, Mr. Tsui Wai Kwan (徐維均) - the seventh son himself - sat at a table in a corner enjoying his lunch as well as observing the crowd. It's been a few years since I last stepped foot in this restaurant, and he seems to have aged a little more than I had expected - not unlike what happened to my own parents. I'm happy he's still fit enough to come and keep an eye on things.

Barbecued whole suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬全體) - OF COURSE we started with the roast suckling pig again. The boys were all excited and took out their phones for pictures and videos, but some bongwater lover couldn't wait for everyone else and decided to snag a piece of the crackling first.