Supermarket wine with Four Sheets

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It's Four Sheets' big day today, and I promised to make it a day she would remember. We haven't been back to see our friend Uwe Opocensky for a few months, so I decided to get us a table at Restaurant Petrus. A few days ago I started getting messages from Uwe, asking me whether I have stopped eating (to make room for all the food he was sending our way). Of course I have not! But I did skip lunch after a big breakfast, and only nibbled on a couple of desserts mid-afternoon.

Uwe came over with this wry smile on his face, and let us know that while he has been "letting us off easy" for our last couple of visits, that would not be the case tonight. He didn't expect us to finish all the dishes but he very much wanted us to taste all of them. OK, BRING IT ON!

Grissini baguettes - these look new, and actually pretty tasty. We had been warned, though, not to indulge too much in terms of bread.

The butter is now made in-house with buttermilk shipped in from Brittany. This was lightly salted.

The best suckling pig gets better

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Here in Hong Kong, we are slowly emerging from the deep winter that is the Covid pandemic. One impact has been the reduction of gatherings with the MNSC boys, resulting from factors such as social distancing measures as well as quarantine requirements leading to prolonged absences by some of us. So it is that tonight would be only the second tasting of the current "MNSC year"... As I wasn't feeling very inspired to come up with a lineup, Curry very graciously offered to host.

I was pretty happy when I learned that dinner would be at Moon Bay Chinese Cuisine (灣悅 賞 • 中菜). I have heard some rave reviews from friends, especially regarding the roast suckling pig that used to be the centerpiece of many of my meals at Seventh Son (家全七福) and Fook Lam Moon (福臨門).

Barbecued suckling pig (皇牌大紅乳豬全體) - well, of course we would start with the pièce de résistance. One always does in a place like this.

Pierre Marcolini Grand Crus

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A very kind soul has recently returned from a trip to Brussels, and came bearing boxes of chocolate from Pierre Marcolini. Wanting to enjoy them while they're still fresh, I decided to do a tasting of the 6 different grand crus in the De Battre Mon Cœur box.

Pierre Marcolini Grand Cru - ganache made with beans from Cuba, Sao Tomé, and Madagascar. Mild bitterness, with good length on the finish.

Worship mountain lunch

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We're doing our usual ancestral worship today, and this puts us close to the border with Shenzhen. We didn't really have any interest in the vegetarian meal on offer, so once again we chose to head into Fanling and grab lunch at Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記). We missed out on an epic gathering here 2 weeks ago, so this kind of made up for that...

Sun Hon Kee special fried fish noodle (自家製手打一品鮮魚麵) - always happy to have these handmade fish noodles, but maybe next time we need to order them in the middle of our meal so that this doesn't show up at the start...

I'd like some wine with my fries, please

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I was informed this morning that Sankala had a hankering for French fries. As she wasn't cooking tonight, that meant finding a place which can satisfy that craving. And it can't be just ANY kind of French fries, since neither of us like fat chips or wedges. The fries have to be thin enough and stay relatively crunchy on the outside.

I suddenly remembered that Sankala really likes the fries at Bâtard. It wasn't that the fries are the best in town. No, that wasn't it. It was because they come with little jars of ketchup from Alain Millet, which really does taste amazing. Knowing there was no chance in hell I could bag us a table for 2 on the same day, I picked up the phone and called Fine Wine Experience and asked if I could order some simple bites from the restaurant menu - such as French fries - while sitting at one of the tables in the shop with a bottle of wine. I was told this could be done, so I booked us a table for tonight.

Alas, we were informed when we arrived that only ham and cheese are available in the wine shop. They did agree to my request for the French fries, because after all, that was the whole reason we were there.

52-month Iberian ham - pretty tasty for sure, and I love the melted pork fat. Sooo flavorful, which could only come from aging.