Seafood itchy

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Foursheets couldn't wrap her head around it.

She couldn't understand why, for two guys who normally don't eat much spicy food and can't handle the heat, the two of us have chosen to go to Grand Majestic Sichuan for dinner tonight.

I had ended my years-long boycott of Black Sheep restaurants, so there was nothing to stop me from going. The concept of the restaurant was devloped together with Fuchsia Dunlop, who I've dined with a few times together with The Great One and Sweetheart. Here's a woman who knows a shit ton more about Sichuan cuisine - and probably Chinese cuisine in general - than I ever will. So I was naturally curious. DaRC felt the same. So here were are.

Seeing that the restaurant is under the purview of B Bestie, I asked him to book a table for us. The two of us went with an open mind, or at least tried to, but it was immediately apparent that the place is geared towards the non-Chinese community. Our table of two, together with the neighboring four-top, were the only all-Chinese tables I could see. My guess is that there were no more than a dozen Chinese patrons.

Steamed Ping Tung aubergine, scorched green chillies (燒椒屏東長茄子, 燒青辣椒) - not the usual eggplant dish I would normally order, but that's kinda the whole point of coming, innit?! The scorched chilli "salsa" was pretty nice, and while there was some heat here, it was more about the garlic. Very refreshing as a first dish, especially since it was served chilled.

DRC at Petrus

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Ms Hurricane Big Spender Cheapskate has been talking about this dinner for some time now, Ten years after throwing a big birthday bash with great food and lots of fantastic wines, she decided to do another big birthday bash. This time around, though, she upped the ante both in terms of food as well as wine - centered around a highly prestigious case of wine.

My friend needed help arranging a venue, which needed a private room large enough to accommodate her guests. The venue also needed to accommodate her wish to serve the case of wine she wanted to open. The combination proved to be difficult to realize, so she asked for my help. Well, I immediately sought out The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me, as Restaurant Petrus would be a perfect venue. I was grateful that he agreed to make the arrangements for this very important evening.

As this would be a very important dinner, Big Spender Cheapskate wanted to make sure that the cuisine being served would be able to measure up to the wines. So we even arranged to do a preview a few months ago... and I'm happy that my friend was satisfied and gave her approval.

But first, she convened a bigger group of friends for some Champagne and canapés in the Presidential Suite at the Island Shangri-La. We've got smoked salmon and, of course, some caviar.

Then there were the Alaskan king crab legs along with some kueh pie tee.

Since it's actually a Champagne and caviar party, we've also got some Kaviari Kristal caviar to go with our Champagne...

Nordic tempura

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I wasn't sure how I felt about Tempura Tenon (天ぷら 天穩) after my first visit earlier, so I wasn't in a hurry to book a return visit. However, Ugly Shoe Girl asked me if I was interested in going to a collab event between the restaurant and Chef Gabriel Chung, and that got me intrigued. I have a number of friends who are apparently fans of Gabriel, and have gone to his other events or even had him cater meals at home. I knew that Nordic flavors are his gig, and although that doesn't work for me every single time, curiosity got the best of me. I said 'yes'.

Then a few days ago, I realized to my horror that I had signed up for lunch, not dinner. Truth be told, I was pretty slammed at work... so the last thing I needed was a three hour lunch on a work day. But I felt bad about cancelling as I hate being one of those dicks who bail, so I sucked it up and showed up as promised.

Surf clam (北寄貝), fermented wampee juice, fig leaf oil, pickled pine needle, plum - well, the surf clam was that it was, and came with a mix of clarified juice from wampee (黃皮) harvested in July, fresh Nordic pine needle, oil from winter pine as well as autumn figs. There was fruity acidity as expected, and the pine flavors definitely stood out. Unfortunately the flavors of the clam was fairly strong, and all the juices and oils weren't enough to tame them.

Can someone please speak English?

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An invitation to dinner came from My Friendly Neighborhood Prime Broker, on account of their big boss passing through town. I was asked to recommend some places for the occasion, and after looking through a number of restaurants in Central offering menus within their official budget, I sent along a list of 5.

I was secretly hoping that they would choose one of the two places on the list that I've never been to, but we ended up at Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco. My last visit earlier this year was on the day before they received their Michelin star - with Mauro himself in the kitchen - and the food as well as execution was already much improved. I was hoping that they would at least maintain those standards, because we know Konishi Mitsuru (小西充) can cook. The question is whether his team would let him down.

Mindful of the expense budget, and wanting to cut down on my intake, I was more than happy with the four course menu offered.

Green apple and blood sausage macaroon - if you work at a restaurant bearing Mauro Colagreco's name, you should know that this is a macaron (with one 'o') and not a macaroon (with two 'o's) - as they are very different things. The ganache had something refreshing and crunchy inside, which I suppose was greeen apple... As I detected some cumin, I wonder if we had morcilla and not boudin noir.

2.0 of 2.0

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I had the good fortune (or was it misfortune?) of visiting the reincarnated Roganic on its second day of opening, and while that meal delivered some very tasty bites, I wasn't sold on the sharing concept for main courses... and it was also a heavier meal such that I felt stuffed for the first time. Well, they've apparently revamped the format, so I guess it's the 2.0 version of Roganic 2.0... or should it be version 2.1?

Once again, I was seated at a table with the ladies - and B Bestie didn't even show up himself and sent Giona instead. No peanuts tonight, then...

We began with three snacks, which were similar or identical to ones I had last time:

Oolong cured Himalayan trout, beetroot sand carrot and hawthorn - the cured trout came coated in smoked Oolong tea oil with some Oolong tea salt (WTF is THAT?!). The roll was made with dehydrated sand carrot, then stuffed with diced trout belly with salt-baked sand carrot with celeriac. Unfortunately the shell wasn't crispy anymore, but the filling was a little sweet thanks to the carrots.