Big guns for big friends

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Hong Kong is hosting the awards ceremony of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for the very first time, and we are being flooded with chefs, restauranteurs, KOLs and wannabes. Naturally, our friend Gaggan would be coming into town with his crew for the festivities. So Fergie and I arranged to catch up with him on the day of his arrival.

We know our friend is seldom in Hong Kong, and has asked for Cantonese food for this visit, so Fergie and I decided to take him to Man Ho Chinese Restaurant (萬豪金殿). Both of us are fans of Chef Jayson Tang (鄧家濠)'s cuisine, and although he's no spring chicken, we feel that he's pretty underrated and "undiscovered" - especially when it comes to the KOL crowd. If the visiting horde were all rushing to the same handful (or less) of restaurants for their fix of "Cantonese" cuisine, then we would be better off somewhere else.

I made arrangements with Jayson for a special menu for tonight, and also made arrangements with Keith - the restaurant manager - regarding glassware for the wines I would be lugging to dinner. Everyone was incredibly helpful and accommodating.

Hours before dinner, Vlad sent me a link to verify the restaurant's location. Much to my horror, I discovered that there were TWO restaurants in Hong Kong named Man Ho Chinese Restaurant!!! The place I know at the JW Marriott Hong Kong is known as 萬豪金殿 in Chinese, but there is another - with the same name in English but known as 萬豪中餐廳 - at the Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott Hotel near the airport. I quickly let my friend know the correct location to make sure they don't take a long ride in the wrong direction.

Well... despite having been warned by his trusty partner, Gaggan still put in the wrong location into his ride-hailing app... Thankfully he discovered it halfway and turned around. We would start our dinner a little late, then...

Indian Hairy Legs did manage to make it to dinner, and I'm really happy to catch up with him again after missing a couple of opportunities over the last few months. Of course, it's nice to see Mr. Bongwater, too!

We started with the current amuse bouche, which was a little abalone with some slices of pickled cucumber, together with a sweet, spiced plum gelée. A nice and refreshing bite.

Signature barbecued pork with honey sauce (萬豪貴妃叉燒) - always good to kick off a meal with some char siu, and the Ibérico pork collar (脢頭) is so, sooo tender. Soooo tasty. I'm always happy to chew on this and taste the juices.

Marinated cuttlefish stuffed with preserved vegetables (鹵水墨魚仔) - this was nice, and I liked the crunchy shredded veg inside.

Roasted baby pigeon leg stuffed with chives, aged dried radish and mandarin peel (陳皮乳鴿腿) - I think I'm more used to seeing stuffed chicken wings rather than pigeon legs, and this looked pretty good.

This was so, so tasty! I loved the strong flavors of the aged mandarin peel as well as the aged dried radish. While taking the first bite, it was inevitable that the juices would squirt out. Maybe next time I should ask Jayson to serve up two of these.

Then we had a few chef's specialties (萬豪金殿獻萃), which were actually dim sum items - a rarity for restaurants in Hong Kong since most dim sum chefs only work the day shift.

Steamed assorted mushrooms and vegetables dumpling with preserved bean curd (南乳八珍水晶粿) - very crunchy and fragrant filling.

Steamed cuttlefish dumpling with diced fish maw, dried squid and dried whitebait (花姿銀魚花膠燒賣)

Deep-fried spring roll with shredded pork and mozzarella cheese (芝味鮮茄豬扒春卷) - I love that Jayson took a perennial cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) favorite and turned it into a spring roll. Having stretchy cheese inside made it pretty fun to eat. And of course this was very tasty.

Pan-fried crab claw with spring onions in ginger foam (薑蔥汁生煎鮮蟹鉗) - this is a dish I had last month, and I'm glad the others also enjoyed it tonight. The flavors are familiar to many of us, but the sauce comes in a different format. Gaggan did ask about the source of these crabs, and apparently these are from Vietnamese mud crabs.

Steamed fresh beef shank with red dates and black fungus (紅棗雲耳蒸金錢𦟌) - Jayson went shopping at the markets yesterday morning, and he was pretty excited about getting these "local" beef shank for us.

Not sure I've had beef shank with jujube before, and it was curious that he chose to steam them, but these had really crunchy textures, especially with the tendons. Also served with wood ear fungus from Yunnan. These were sooo tasty.

Double boiled duck soup with lemon, lemongrass and mandarin peel (香茅鹹檸檬陳皮鴨湯) - very nice. I love Chinese soups made with older female ducks, and this one had plenty of citrus flavors and acidity, but also saltiness thanks to the preserved lemon.

Braised 24-head South African abalone with conpoy, goose web rolled with softshell turtle and pork tendon, served with Yunnan ham and vegetarian shark fin (金殿燜燒佛跳牆) - I love me an old school "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall (佛跳牆)", and here Jayson was trying to be a little creative. I'm ever thankful that he served up vegetarian shark's fin, and this turned out to be really good texture.

He cut a hole in the braised 24-head South African abalone, and put the "abalone hole" - which was miles better than donut holes - on the side. I didn't realize what he had done at first, and was wondering why the round piece I was eating tasted like abalone... (because it was!)  Only when I cut into the abalone did I understand that a whole piece of braised conpoy had been stuffed inside the hole. Well... can't say I was a fan of this, as I don't find conpoy as exciting as abalone, but at least the abalone itself was really, really good.

The goose web on the side, however, was AMAZING. It had been deboned so only the skin was left, and then stuffed with shredded bits of pork tendons and softshell turtle skirt. So... lots of soft, gelatinous goodies inside. So, so... happy!

Oh and that sauce... was just incredibly luscious and rich. I really wanted just a spoonful of steamed rice so I could roll the rice grains around in the leftover sauce. Knowing we have both congee and noodles coming, I just spooned the sauce straight up into my mouth. And I relished licking my lips afterwards. A fucking good dish.

Roast goose with aged dried radish (老菜脯明爐燒鵝) - we're used to having roast goose here in Hong Kong, but this was something else!

This was so tasty that Mr. Bongwater kept reaching to grab more pieces from the plate. He probably had a third of the bird by himself. Maybe half. Beautiful, crispy skin.

This sauce on the side was another eye-opener. Made with aged preserved radish (老菜脯), which ends up with rich, smoky flavors.

Congee with fish maw, yellow croaker, chicken oil and Chinese yellow wine (雞油花雕黃魚花膠粥) - I thought I have known for years what Gaggan likes when it comes to Cantonese food, but I had no idea how much he loves congee. And this ain't your standard congee shop fare.

We've got both diced yellow croaker (黃魚) and fish maw (黃魚).

The result was pretty damn good. I don't think I've ever had congee made with Huadiao (花雕) before, and this combination definitely worked very well. Someone slurped down their bowl and immediately asked for a second serving...

Fried rice noodles with sliced local fresh beef (乾炒本地鮮吊龍牛肉陳村粉) - OF COURSE we would be having stir-fried noodles with beef! But instead of the usual hor fun (河粉), Jayson chooses to serve up flat rice rolls (陳村粉). And as part of his shopping yesterday, he also picked up some local beef tenderloin (吊龍). Love that wok hei (鑊氣) and that charring / caramelization. Naturally, we asked for chili sauce from Yu Kwen Yick (余均益) to be served on the side... and had it topped up a few times.

Sweetened chestnut cream with hemp seed (焦糖栗子露) - not what I expected... tasty enough but not deathly sweet and rich. The hemp seeds added nice texture to this.

Baked black sesame pastry with white sesame (手工芝麻酥)

Chilled pistachio glutinous rice dumpling (開心果糯米糍) - Jayson really does love pistachio...

I've been waiting to open some of these bottles with Gaggan for a long time, and I was happy to finally have the chance tonight. Mr. Bongwater was happy, too! It was easy to see by looking at how quickly he cleared his glasses.

2006 Jean-François Ganevat Les Vignes de Mon Père, en magnum - drank about 40 minutes after decanting. What a beautiful nose, with lots of toast and floral notes. The acidity was still crisp. Such an amazing wine!

1978 Antinori Solaia - drank about 40 minutes after decanting. Very big nose with lots of smoke, grilled meats, leather, and maybe a hint of green capsicum. Showed some sweetness on the nose after 1½ hours.

2010 Sine Qua Non Five Shooter Grenache, from magnum - decanted 50 minutes after opening, and started drinking more than 1½ hours after decanting. Initially the nose was a bit muted, but still got some sugary ripeness. This opened up and was soooo sweet and ripe on the palate.

2010 Sine Qua Non Five Shooter Syrah, from magnum - decanted 50 minutes after opening, and started drinking more than 1½ hours after decanting. Of course this was ripe and sweet as we would expect it to be. Some of the tannins have been shed after 15 years, so this was tasting fairly smooth on the palate, but clearly showing the concentration of the syrah and obviously a bigger wine compared to the grenache. Beautiful.

It so happens that today is not only Jayson's birthday but also Hairy Chevalier's birthday. Since I was opening magnums of wines that the Hairy Chevalier would love to taste, he decided to drop by together with Suveg after service. Keith very kindly arranged something to celebrate the occasion, and the poor chef had to stick around in the kitchen late until the birthday boy showed up...

So we had a few birthday buns (壽包) filled with lotus seed paste, and there were a couple more buns underneath the big one.

A very, very happy evening for us. Chefs are often too busy to meet and catch up, especially when they're based in different cities. I'm glad I was able to connect two of my best chef friends, and also really happy to share delicious food and wine together. I'm looking forward to spending more time with these guys in the next few days.