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.

Dude, where's my carbonara?

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I got chewed out by Juve Fan. After the closure of Ramato, I (and many others, I'm sure) have been bugging him to re-open a more casual eatery. After all, if I just want a nice place of pasta with an appetizer or two, there has to be more viable options in town between Pici and Estro.

Well... Ninetta opened with great fanfare not long ago, which meant that it was still too early for me to visit. Besides the fact that lots of KOLs were fighting to get the earliest table they could snag, the restaurant itself sent out a marketing email asking people to book tables for August - a call that went out on the second of July. That means "Don't bother trying to come in July!" So imagine my surprise by Juve Fan pings me a week later and asked why I haven't visited Ninetta. HELLO?! You asked us to book for AUGUST then I am the bad guy for not having dined at your establishment by the second week of opening?!

Well, Juve Fan decided I should come sooner rather than later, and found us a table for tonight. So here we are.

Sure enough, we arrived on the same night as a table of KOLs... placed there by B Bestie. Well... Foursheets and I just want a casual dinner and enjoy the food. No need to mingle with KOLs, then...

Sourdough - I was hungry when we arrived, so this was much appreciated.

Brasserie in da 'hood

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It's Saturday, and we're looking to have a nice dinner out without breaking the bank. In Hong Kong, there's a dearth of bistros or brasseries where I would be happy with the cuisine, and feel that it's money well-spent at the same time. Fortunately, there's one not too far from our new home. After three months in the hood, I felt it was time I took Foursheets to check out Chouchou. I, of course, had already had a first taste back in March.

Since it was Foursheets' first visit, I decided to let her choose the dishes. Besides, it would be good for me to try out new items.

Tarte à la tomate - this was a FAIL. The puff pastry was too hard and firm, which made it hard to cut... and then proceeded to break into pieces in awkward shapes. In addition, the pastry was cold so the butter had congealed and just tasted gross in the mouth. Oh and they also added rosemary to the tomatoes, which was another point deduction for me.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 4: stinky finale

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For our last meal in Hangzhou, we are finally headed somewhere without a Michelin star - although the place was given a Bib Gourmand award by Michelin. Nanfeng Restaurant (南丰饭店) is a no-frills place that is highly-regarded for serving Xiaoshan (萧山) cuisine. We would be going "locaL" before leaving Hangzhou, and our host made sure to order up a storm so that we wouldn't be hungry for the rest of the day.

Local water caltrop (本地菱角) - it's been AGES since I had these back in Taiwan, and while I had this yesterday, I'm happy to get another taste before we leave.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 4: breakfast with a view

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It's our last morning in Hangzhou, and although I was totally stuffed from last night's dinner and absolutely did not need the calories, I dutifully made my way to Charm, the all-day dining venue at Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre. The kind people at the hotel had reserved a corner private room for us, and Chef Neal Zeng (曾东海) was in the kitchen to cook a few special dishes for us.

Before the special dishes arrived - and there would be four of them - of course we had other items from the kitchen as well as the buffet...

Lotus root with glutinous rice, honey, and osmanthus (桂花糖莲藕) - not as luxurious as the one I had yesterday, but I love it all the same. Would love to have it any chance I get.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 3: Taizhou in Hangzhou

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So… a couple of hours after our 20-course lunch, we once again headed out across the river for dinner. Wildyeast (暗香) is a name I have heard about for a couple of years now, although to be honest I didn’t have much of an idea of what cuisine they served. I had thought they were serving a menu that was more Western, but turns out they actually changed to serving Taizhou (台州) cuisine…

A 14-course menu had been set for us. Let’s see how it goes tonight… But first, the introduction of ingredients for the meal, something that seems obligatory by now.

Clay oven baked flatbread with ganba wild mushroom (干巴菌火烧饼) - "fire baked flatbread (火烧饼)" is a Taizhou snack made with cured pork (咸肉) and preserved leafy mustard (梅乾菜) inside layers of pastry. The flatbread is stuck on the inside of a clay oven and baked while exposed to heat from fire. Tonight's version also had some ganbajun (干巴菌), whose distinctive, pungent fragrance was front and center.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 3: lunch in the garden

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The night was uneventful, at least in the safety of my room at the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre. There were a few more cars on the road this morning compared to last night, but the city is pretty much shut down since 6 a.m. I was so, sooo full from last night and was in no condition to have breakfast. However, since the hotel left me a bowl of jasmine and lime water chestnut purée (茉莉花柠香马蹄沙) in the room last night, I decided I should give it a try. I love any water chestnut dessert, and this bowl also had the added fragrance of both lime and jasmine. Very nice.

Lunch today was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip. In fact, it was the reason why I joined this little excursion. I had missed out on visiting Ru Yuan (如院) with DaRC two years ago, and it's been an itch I really wanted to scratch. I'd been waiting to bite into the restaurant's signature fishball since then. Now it was finally my chance.

The restaurant occupies a multi-story structure inside the Hangzhou Botanical Garden (杭州植物园), and is actually a short walk away from the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake. One can immerse oneself in the tranquility and serenity of the place.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: Jay-Z cooked me dinner

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It was pissing down pretty hard by the time we arrived at Sense for our dinner. We would be the only customers on this rainy night.

Chef Jay Zhao - who stylizes himself as "Jay-Z" on his chef's whites - hosted us in the restaurant's private room, whose decoration tonight reflected the feminine touches of Chef Jay's Korean wife. We would also be able to see some Korean accents in Chef Jay's cuisine, along with influences from Chef Jay's past - given the time he spent the in kitchens such as Restaurant André and Eleven Madison Park.

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: 79 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

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: ode to mountains and seas

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For our lunch at Song (颂) inside the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre (杭州中心四季酒店), we were hosted inside one of the restaurant's private rooms. It wouldn't be a meal with Mr. Chichi without a long menu, and today the menu went all the way down the back of the menu card... The poetic title was Ode to Mountains and Seas, A Summer Feast of Ningbo (山海颂•甬浙夏宴), as the restaurant specializes in Ningbo (寧波) cuisine. This was a deliberate choice to avoid direct competition with Jin Sha (金沙厅) at the other Four Seasons in town. Chef Neil Zeng (曾东海) - who was previously the head chef at Jin Sha - would be taking good care of us today.

We were meant to have started with something else that served as the first stanza, but the kitchen had other ideas... So let's go with the second stanza, entitled Terroir (越溪风物):

Marinated crab | ginegar | vinegar | soy sauce | liquor (招牌宁式十八斩) - I tasted more ginger and less chili. I also think this was less savory, maybe because the soy sauce-based marinade had just been poured tableside.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: journey to the Centre

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It's Saturday morning, and despite waking up in the luxurious, tranquil surroundings of my room at Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake, my first order of business was to do some work. Thankfully there were still some berries left on my fruit platter from yesterday, so I nibbled on those while staring at the screen.

Given all the calories I took in last night, and am due to consume later today, I honestly didn't need any hotel breakfast. However, we were told to try the dim sum items coming from the kitchen at Jin Sha (金沙厅), so I went down to West Lake Bistro (西湖餐厅) to check out the spread.

Hangzhou is well known for two things - Longjing tea (龍井茶) and osmanthus flowers. I've long loved the combination of both into osmanthus Longjing (桂花龍井), and happy to see it on offer here.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 1: back at the lake

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A couple of months ago Mr. Chichi asked whether I would be interested in joining him on a trip to Hangzhou (杭州). Well, I had missed the opportunity to revisit the city 2 years ago during my self-imposed travel ban, and I've been wanting to tick a few restaurants off my list. Of course I said "Yes" immediately. Later on I discovered that beyond visiting a few restaurants represented by the local PR contact, the trip was also sponsored bythe two Four Seasons properties in the city, so we would be immersed in luxurious surroundings during our stay.

My morning started with meeting The Great One at the airport, where she waited for me to check-in for our flight together. Then it was a trip to the CX lounge for some breakfast. It's been a while since my last bowl of the dandan noodles (擔擔麵), and I swear they've diluted the sauce. I also took a bowl of biang-biang noodles (𰻞𰻞麵) for variety. After all, this would be better than anything I would get onboard during the flight.

We landed in Hangzhou and were whisked to Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake (杭州西子湖四季酒店) by hotel car. As I would tell everyone repeatedly over the next couple of days - including the Four Seasons team who welcomed us - Four Seasons didn't exist in Hangzhou when I last stepped foot in the city. In fact, the only international hotel brand operating in Hangzhou in 1998 was Shangri-La.

Seafood and bongwater

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I got a message a couple of days ago... my friend Vlad would be in town for a couple of days. I am always looking to spend more time with him, so we made plans to meet up for dinner tonight - just after he lands. We figured they would appreciate some casual, local Canto fare, so I booked us a table at our new favorite neighborhod joint Lucky Ship (船嘉•福).

The owner behind this joint also owns a seafood supply business, so this is one of their strengths. Foursheets and I love this place for a variety of reasons. Besides the fact that they are very pet-friendly with their outdoor seating, We also love the daipaidong (大排檔) atmosphere as well as the classic dishes.

Chaozhou cold threadfin with rice (潮式凍馬友魚飯) - one would think that with the majority of Chinese in Thailand descended from Chiuchow immigrants, the cold "fish rice (魚飯)" would be more familiar to our visitors. I was wrong. But happily this turned out to be well-received. I do love it when they do it the new style, cut into pretty, bite-size chunks instead of having the fish served whole.

Birthday in the summer

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It’s no secret that Mr. Chichi is a superfan of Chef Vicky Cheng’s, and he’s been to both VEA and Wing (永) countless time… although I’m pretty sure he actually does keep count. He recently asked me to join his dinner table at Wing, and since I was kinda curious about how much more food Vicky gives him on top of a “standard” menu, I said yes.

We started, as usual, with a seasonal drink to suit the 24 seasons. Currently we are in Summer Solstice (夏至).

Hongkie sushi

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The King is in town for a few days, and I was invited to join his dinner with our mutual friend. I know very well that our friend has a fairly short list of restaurants he frequents, so I was pretty surprised when Suzhi Zinc was chosen. I know a number of friends have been there, but since I don’t eat much sushi in Hong Kong (or in general), I just haven’t gotten the urge to check the place out. So tonight I finally had occasion to do so.

I was apologetic to my friends prior to arrival at the restaurant, as I thought I would run a few minutes late… and I know it’s customary to start service on time and start times are often simultaneous for all customers – so a late customer means EVERYONE at the counter waits for you. Well… I need not have worried. Not only was I not late, but the other customers all arrived later than I did.

After everyone has arrived, service began with a series of otsumami (おつまみ):

Sweetfish (鮎) – this was an interesting preparation inspired by the classic Chiuchow dish of “chilled fish (凍魚) / fish rice (魚飯)”, where the fillet was lightly seasoned with salt and served chilled. Served with crunchy lily bulb from Hokkaido and garnished with some local oxalis for a bit of acidity.

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.