50+1

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So... it was finally time to hold my "birthday MNSC" for the boys. I had been planning a big one for my 50th last year, but of course just about everyone's plans got derailed by this thing called Covid-19... So I kept the bottles set aside in the cellar for another year, until the time when all of us - well, except for Dr Poon... who is still MIA - could find a date to sit down together.

There was never any question of where this dinner would take place. I trust Hairy Legs and his sommelier Victor to come up with the best selection of dishes to match whatever wines I bring.  So once again we convened in the private room at Caprice for what I hope would be a better lineup of wines than our dinner 3 years ago.

As usual, we started with a trio of amuses bouches which arrived in a jewel box. Some of us were more special than others and had their own individual boxes without having to share with someone else...

Tomato ravioli with Parmesan cookie - topped with black olives. Nice to get some seasonal flavors with this.

Balik salmon with Kristal caviar and crème fraîche

Pita with curry chicken mousse

Is it red or white?

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We haven't seen DaRC and Ro Ro for a few months, but they are finally back in town and can meet up for a meal or three.  They haven't been to Mian (紅棉), so we decided to meet up for some dim sum today.  Mindful of the unstable weather these days, we decided to dine indoors and not try to bring CC out today.  Our decision would be proven correct when we were hit with a severe thunderstorm during our meal.

As I've never tried their dim sum items, I suggested that we pick out a few of those, then supplement with some main dishes. We had about 2 hours for our early session before needing to vacate the table for the next seating, which should be good enough.

Baked taro puff with seafood and egg white (芙蓉海鮮芋角) - not a fan. The taste of ammonia from baking soda was too strong. Blegh!

All crows are black

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The Candidate has been wanting to visit Yong Fu (甬府) for the better part of last year, but somehow she had missed out on joining us for our last visit. When I felt it was time to return and try out their beautiful cuisine - following a break of a few months after a less-than-satisfying meal - I suggested that we meet here tonight for our little drinking session.

As usual, I asked the restaurant manager to get the kitchen to suggest a menu for us. Given what happened last time, I reminded myself to pay more attention to the dishes being proposed to make sure that they would be suitable for my palate. As it turns out, I still fell a liiiittle short on this.

We started dinner about a half-hour later than originally planned due to some late arrivals, but I figured we still had about 2½ hours until we had to vacate the premises. That should be plenty of time and we could still have a relaxing and enjoyable evening. I could not have been more wrong.

Sankala was munching on the snacks while we waited for the others to arrive. We were pretty hungry.

It is customary in Shanghainese/Jiangsu/Zhejiang cuisine to lay out the series of appetizers all in one go, or at least in quick succession. I'm used to that so no issues here.

Fresh walnuts with sun-dried shrimp (蝦皮拌鮮核桃) - this was surprisingly good. The sun-dried shrimps - about the size of sakura shrimp (桜海老) - were definitely tasty.

Impromptu goose

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Sankala pinged me and asked me to meet her in Central for dinner.  It's been a long time since she was last in the area on a weekday, and she figured we could just grab something quick before going home. I wasn't very surprised when she chose Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝). After all, it's been over 2 years since her last visit here.

Lower quarter of roast goose (燒鵝下庄) - our way to guarantee a drumstick. Unfortunately we arrived at the end of the day, so we couldn't expect the goose to still be fresh and have that crispy skin. Still tasty, though...

Where's the beef?

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Two days after my last visit, I'm back in Tatler Dining Kitchen at HAUS. This time I'm checking out UZA by Nikushou and lend some support to RAW Yeah. As it turns out, I actually knew about 1/3 of the people who were dining here tonight. Hong Kong is a very small town...

We decided to take the recommended beverage pairing instead of our usual BYO, as I wanted a taste of Nikushou's umeshu.

Summer seafood and vegetables moriawase with dashi vinegar and plum wine jelly - with grilled squid, scallop, Japanese tomato, cucumber, corn, watershield, Taiwanese bamboo shoots, myoga (茗荷)... etc.

Nice bit of charring on the seafood. The dashi vinegar was definitely savory and lightly smoky.  Myoga and perilla flowers provided lovely fragrance.  The whole dish was very refreshing, with plenty of acidity to whet one's appetite.