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.

Fassone beef tartare / pepper jack cheese - I had been so preconditioned to think of "pepper jack cheese" in a certain format that I was a little surprised to see this come with thin shavings of (presumably Monterey Jack) cheese and diced pickled peppers. Good combination with the Fassone.

Burrata cheese / fruit tomato / cherry / strawberry / pinenuts - Shirley very kindly sent us this plate of burrata, which also came with purple onions and pearl onions.

Porcini - the pan-fried porcini was a seasonal special, and tasted great along with thin slices of pan-fried garlic.

Cold bouillabaisse - usually this comes with a larger variety of seafood, but I guess since the boss is away and the fishing moratorium (休漁期) being effect, we were down to just razor clams and shrimp with the bouillabaisse sauce.

I never fail to make my own "shrimp toast" here... and I love it when red whiskered shrimp (赤米蝦) on top.

Grilled local baby squid - lately the kitchen has switched back to using baby squid caught in local waters, which are much bigger in size compared to the Italian import. Still love the pesto, whose fragrance fills the air around the table.

Unfortunately I was unlucky as the first piece I took was undercooked and, sadly for me, foul inside. YUCK. This would be the first time I had to spit out something from my mouth inside this establishment, and I hope it will also be the last.

Buchot mussels / curry / corn - requested by the King, and I think they were pleasantly surprised by the flavor combinations.

Salt baked chicken / griblets / morel mushrooms - another case of having to order what has become a signature dish. I do love this chicken, and I've had it many, many times. Since some of us haven't been here in a while - and some have never been here - I figured this was de rigueur. I do love the morels, and the cream sauce, and of course the giblets. Well... the chicken testicles - not so much. And yes, first timers always ask the same question: "how many testicles did this chicken have?!"

Chocolat palet - no tarte tatin tonight, so we had to make do with the signature dessert.

Canelés - MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSS!

We decided to take it easy tonight with wines:

1992 Domaine de Chevalier Blanc - nose of lemon with a hint of flint. Surprisingly not too oxidized despite the age, and still got very good acidity on the palate.

2010 Henri Bonneau Châteauneuf-du-Pape, en magnum - nice nose of leather with a bit of fruit. A bit farmy, though, and kinda bretty on the finish.

Back in March, The Man in White T-shirt announced that he was collaborating with Nongshim (농심) to create his own Shin ramyun (辛라면). Well, here's the final product! It's made for the China market, of course, and I can't wait to get my hands on some!

It was really good to get this group together again, and I hope our visitors enjoyed their dining experiences back in Hong Kong. It's a shame that the food tonight wasn't as good as when the Kitchen Nazi is in the kitchen, but I guess that's something we just have to live with.