Kiss Them For Me

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My iPhone was on shuffle mode today when it started playing Kiss Them For Me by Siouxsie and the Banshees.  For some reason this triggered a flood of memories from almost 20 years ago.

In the summer of 1991, my roommate Eric and I went to see the very first Lollapalooza on tour.  We were both into a good number of bands on the tour, such as Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction and of course Siouxsie.

I remember Siouxsie and the Banshees got on stage during late afternoon, after most of us have spent a good part of the day at the venue.  We've all spent a pretty penny or two on bottled water to rehydrate ourselves, and there were plenty of empty plastic bottles around.  For some reason, people near the front of the stage started throwing empty bottles up in the air as Siouxsie was singing this song.  There were literally hundreds of bottles flying around, with people catching them and tossing them back up.  From a distance it looked really interesting, like a swarm of insects buzzing around.  For some reason this image has been branded in my memory since then.



Remembrance of things past...

Putting up with poor service and bad attitude

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Over the weekend I had a couple of instances where I came face to face with very poor service as well as bad attitude at dining establishments.  It made me wonder why we diners sometimes continue to patronize those same establishments where the staff and/or owners have treated us poorly.

I attended a beautiful wedding on Saturday, held at the Repulse Bay.  The banquet was a buffet lunch at the Verandah.  Everyone knows that this is run by the Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels - the same owner as the Peninsula.  One would expect very high standards for food and service, but I was shocked by how poorly trained the staff were.  They looked like part-timers who were called in for a few hours just for the banquet...

There was a series of mistakes committed by several different waiters.  One was trying to serve us Champagne, announcing "ladies first" while putting down a flute on my right hand side - in front of my other wine glasses - instead of together with my neighbor's glasses.  Another tried to remove a duplicate flute of Champagne from a friend... is it forbidden to have 2 glasses of the same wine? 

Waiters in Hong Kong still do not understand that when a diner puts down his/her silverware in a cross pattern, it signifies that he/she isn't finished with the food on the plate.  I had to practically yell at someone so that he would put my plate back down with the last piece of lamb chop still sitting on it.  Then there was the clueless guy who was so eager to pour tea for a guest that the liquid escaped from under the teapot's lid and flooded the table.

A friend of mine joked that this was the training school for the hotel group... and I really did wonder whether all the clueless newbies come here and get trained before being sent off to the Peninsula...

Last night I grabbed a quick and casual dinner at Lotus Garden (蓮園) in my neighborhood.  The boss here is famous (or infamous?) for her attitude.  She has no patience for just about anybody, and if you don't like her hollerin' and her attitude, you know where the door is.  Last night was no different.  I saw customers who walked through the door, got a dose of her attitude, then turned around and walked out.  I know that the boss' bark is worse than her bite, and I just tune her out most of the time while I'm there.  And the place is always packed. 

Another place famous for poor service/attitude yet never short of customers is Da Domenico.  People either love or hate this place, and the hate definitely stems from the perception of overpaying for nonexistent service.  I had have some first hand experience with this.  So what keeps people coming back? 

Are we masochists?  Do we just love being abused, and go back begging for more?  If the food is good - in the case for Da Domenico - do we ignore the service part of the dining experience and keep going back, thereby condoning or even encouraging the bad service/attitude?  Surely we can find other places where the food is equally good but with better service?

Thanks a lot, Michelin!

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I've been blogging and recording my dining experiences over the last four years or so, and only started to be serious about it for the last three.  I've gone from writing about only the very top-end restaurants at the beginning, to these days discussing any dining experience I found worthy of an audience.  But my policy has always been not to write about ordinary meals - your quick bowl of noodles at lunch, a slice of pizza, or the sandwich I had for breakfast.  Most people who read this blog on a regular basis are looking for something else, and besides there are plenty of people who blog about those places regularly.

One rule that I had always stuck to was that no matter how many times I've blogged about dining at the same restaurant with the same menu, each dining experience at a Michelin-starred venue deserves a post.  These meals are going to be memorable, and regardless of how many times I've had the same soup at Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) it is still something worthy of some coverage here.

Now thanks to the wonderful team responsible for the HK/Macau Guide, I have given up on that rule.  With the inclusion of regular noodle shops, quickie dim sum joints and what not, I can't honestly say that each meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant will be a memorable affair.

I went shopping in Times Square on Monday, and needed to fill my empty and groaning tummy.  Ho Hung Kee (何洪記) is a place that's nearby and also happens to be one of my regular stops.  I've been going there for years, ducking in for a quick bowl of wonton noodles or stir-fried flat noodles with beef (干炒牛河).  Very good for what it is, but not meals I would remember.  I decided not to blog about my bowl of wonton noodles and the plate of veggies I had.  Millions of people have had the same thing that I had, and it would be like blogging about the PB and J sandwich that your mom made you for breakfast.

I was in the neighborhood again tonight, and the decision was made to have dinner at Mist.  This branch of Japanese rahmen (the restaurant's way of spelling) fine dining establishment has just earned themselves a little star.  It was meant to be a quick meal before doing some last-minute shopping, and I thought a bowl of noodles would do the trick.

I turned down the offer of a five-course dinner set, since this was meant to be a quick stop for me.  I did start with some cherry-smoked Japanese pork shoulder.  Two slices of pork shoulder - cut just like the pork belly "char siu" in the ramen - were served with a thin slice of melted cheese made with buffalo milk.  The pork was OK, although I found the smoky flavors a little on the heavy side.

For my noodles I took a bowl of spicy miso (カラ味噌).  As I already had pork to start with, I didn't order more char siu but added a very well-made soft-boiled egg with a liquid yolk.  Lots of spring onions in the bowl, and the slightly spicy miso made for an interesting broth.

My friends at the Wall Street Journal had just written a piece on whether Michelin stars bring additional business to local restaurants.  In Mist's case I think that was definitely the case.  I had passed by the restaurant on numerous occasions before, but had never seen it as full as it had been tonight.  The place was half full around 8pm but by 8:30 or so there was only 1 empty seat at the counter.

But this will probably be the last time I blog about this place...and others like it.

Conseillantes and Colgins

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I was invited by the Specialist to join a wine tasting tonight.  Hong Kong Wine Vault invited Jean-Michel Laporte, Director of Château La Conseillante, to host a vertical tasting.  I had met Jean-Michel on the trip to Bordeaux last year, and I introduced myself and chatted with him for a little while.

The line-up tonight was:

2009 Duo de Conseillante - very ripe and sweet, a bit of sandalwood, alcoholic, tangerine, a bit of toffee and a little tropical.

2009 La Conseillante - a lot more blackcurrant, minty, coffee, sweet and tropical, almost coconut, a bit of smoke and stewed dates.  

2008 La Conseillante - initially nose of rubber, relatively closed with some smoke.  Gradually opened up with some sweet fruit.  I had tasted this wine at the château last year and liked it a lot better.

2006 La Conseillante - very fruity, ripe and upfront, quite enjoyable.  Almost jammy with a little smoked meats.

2005 La Conseillante - so ripe and sweet, minty, tangerine, smoke, very concentrated but tannins are starting to soften.  Some blackcurrant jam.  Very lovely.

2001 La Conseillante - nose was a bit stewed, more smoky, and amazingly there was plenty of sweetness underneath the smoky cloak.  Smoked game meats, too.  Not bad at all.

1998 La Conseillante - a very pleasant wine.  Nose of spices and herbs, green bell peppers, and a little smoky.  Velvety and sweet on the palate.

1990 La Conseillante - a very lovely wine.  Elegant, sweet, fruity with pine needle.  Very complex and nicely woven together.  On palate it is obvious that the wine has aged.  Notes of black pepper and a hint of brett.  Palate was definitely tired, and the wine died horribly at the end.  It was like falling off a cliff...

Dinner time rolled around and we adjourned to the Hong Kong Golf Club in nearby Deep Water Bay.  The deal I struck with the Specialist was that I'd bring the wines and she'd buy dinner, and I had originally requested to have dinner at places like Caprice and Pierre.  Oh well...

Speaking of wines... I was pretty shocked when the Specialist requested that I bring out some of my Colgins, given her general abhorrence for Californian wines.  Apparently she had a chance to meet Ann Colgin and wanted to learn more about Ann's wines.  So I obliged, knowing full-well how the evening would end up...

I placed the two bottles on the table and took out my long-forgotten wine thermometer to check the temperature.  The Specialist and her friend joked that the wines were feverish and I was playing doctor.  Well, as Jeannie Cho Lee pointed out in an article in the South China Morning Post today - which I whole-heartedly agree with - red wines at room temperature in Asia is simply too warm.  Sure enough, the thermometer read 26 degrees Celsius - a whole 10 degrees warmer than the suggested serving temperature!  

I poured the first wine into our glasses, and lifted mine to take a whiff.  Whoa!  Nothing but bleach in the nose, like I was smelling Chlorox!  After smelling the other glasses I felt sure it wasn't the wine, but the detergent or whatever cleaning agent left in my glass.  I was pretty bummed about wasting that first pour as they gave me a new glass.

I still thought the wines were too warm, so I dunked the bottles into an ice bucket for a few minutes, and they drank a little better.  The Specialist agreed that the wines got better on the palate, but felt that the nose became more "restrained" at the lower temperature.  I respectfully disagreed but, hey, what do I know anyway... She's the one with the famous boss!

2001 Colgin Cabernet Sauvignon Herb Lamb Vineyard - alcoholic, smoky, almost like burnt candle wick and wax.  Pretty sweet on the palate, but burns as it goes down the back of the throat.  Also coffee grinds and toffee notes.  Drinking pretty nicely.

2003 Colgin IX Estate - really explosively sweet nose, full of strawberries.  Very typical Cali nose, with minerals and caramel notes.  Hot and burns the back of the throat.  Would be lovely after a few more years of cellaring.

Now for someone who normally can drink me under the table just by lifting her pinky, what happened tonight was completely out of the ordinary.  It's true that the Specialist drank a little more at the pre-dinner tasting than I did, but after about 2 sips of the Colgins she declared that she was getting drunk!  She declared herself defeated by the alcoholic Californians - which weighed in at 15.4% and 15.6% alcohol... She found the Herb Lamb a little more palatable, so we finished about 60% of the bottle.  The IX Estate didn't fare as well, as there was easily 2/3 of the bottle left...  Guess I'll try to finish the wines tomorrow.

Spaghetti carbonara - this was kinda eggy and less creamy than I expected.  The sauce wasn't too watery, which wasn't bad.  

The Spanish pork chop was a complete disaster.  I had thought about asking the kitchen to cook it a bit on the rare side, but bit my tongue.  As it turns out I should have, since the pork chop was soooo overdone.  My friends were amazed as the table shook violently each time I tried to cut the meat, and they ended up waiting for me to put down my knife before it became their turn to cut their steaks...  There were still some juices inside, but the texture was really hard.  They also gave me spinach instead of the broccoli I asked for, and the water from the spinach was all over the plate...  I didn't want to waste the piece of meat so I ate it as is, instead of sending it back and getting a new piece.

I opined that the club's members are mostly old fogies and they prefer their meats a little more well-done.  Pretty glad I'm not a member, as I'm not inclined to come back anytime soon...

I realized tonight that it didn't matter whether the Californian wine I brought cost $40 a bottle or $400 a bottle - the Specialist would end up drinking a few sips and I'd end up taking half the bottle home.  Guess I'll be bringing $40 bottles for her in the future...

Excruciatingly slow service

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I paid two visits to one of Hong Kong's classic restaurants in a matter of days, a move which surprised some of my friends.  I had been to Jimmy's Kitchen twice in all the time I've been in this town, and never felt compelled to go back.  I joined a couple of friends on Sunday who were in the mood for some beef.

I decided to balance out my meal by starting with a green salad, although the smell of French onion soup from my neighbors - with that delicious melted Gruyère on top - was killing me the whole time.

I picked the pig's knuckle baked with honey and cloves as it's been a long time since I last had some.  Knowing that it takes 30 minutes, I told the waiter not to have my friends wait for me.  He either didn't hear it or ignored my remark.  When my friends got a little too hungry, we chased the kitchen and asked them to serve the steaks first.  Chased again, with no feedback.  Finally the food arrived, and somehow my knuckle arrived before a couple of the steaks...  We were fuming by this point.

Honestly, the knuckle was pretty yummy.  Interesting that it was baked with cloves, adding a little extra fragrance.  The skin was nice and crispy, while the cured meat inside was nice and reasonably moist.  The only issue I had was with the sauerkraut, which I found a little bit mild.

I had originally planned on having a special dessert, but none of us wanted to stick around this place, so we adjourned to an alternate venue.

Fast-forward a couple of days and I met up with Froggie and Ninja for lunch today.  There was an itch I had to scratch, and it didn't take long for me to tell my friends to meet me at Jimmy's Kitchen.

I had heard about the famous beef stroganoff so I decided to order it, and chose not to have something to start with.  Once again, there was a long stretch while we waited for our food.  I realized that it had probably always been this way, and that the regulars had already gotten used to it.

The stroganoff wasn't what I expected.  The color was pretty light, which was a result of them mixing in a good amount of sour cream.  It also tasted of tomato, to the point I wondered if tomato paste - or worse, ketchup - had been used to make the sauce.  It didn't seem very authentic to me, as the versions I'm used to don't have tomato paste.  And I prefer to add my own sour cream to taste, anyway...  Not very happy.



Finally, it was time to have my baked Alaska!  My memory of this dessert here goes back around 10 years, and I wondered what it would be like to taste this again.  The waiter laid it on the table, lit the alcohol, poured it on top, and we sat around watching the meringue burn.  A fun thing to do, actually.  We dug in and the meringue was really yummy.  Of course, it was actually a little too big for the 3 of us at the end of the meal.

Well, I've scratched that itch, and in the process decided that the service was just too painfully slow for me.  It'll probably be another 10 years before I find my way back here again...