Back to la grande dame

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Mr and Mrs Birdiegolf felt that my birthday would be a good excuse to meet up and pop open a couple of bottles, and somehow I steered the conversation towards The Peninsula Hong Kong. It has been YEARS since I last had a proper meal in the hotel, and while I had been tempted to check out either Felix or Gaddi's after the arrival of the husband-and-wife duo - each of whom was at the helm of the two restaurants - but I just never made the move. Not even when Seb came back to Hong Kong for his new gig at The Pen.

That ends tonight. Knowing that none of us have been to Gaddi's in quite some time, it was high time we paid La Grande Dame a visit. I got in touch with Seb and made the arrangements. This was gonna be fun!

We stepped in to the dining room and were led to one of the tables at the back of the room. Not the usual table for the Birdiegolfs when they were coming regularly, but the room hasn't changed much... other than maybe the Baccarat Harcourt Our Fire candlesticks on our tables. We've still got the band sitting in the room, and the average age of the diners in the room was still above mine. But they did remove the requirement for gentlemen to come in a jacket, so I guess that's progress...

I honestly don't remember starting the meals here with gougères but my friends seem to be familiar with this.

89-year gap

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Although I enjoy an occasional light bullying of the Candidate - which usually involve forcing her to taste certain wines that are not to her refinedpicky palate - I do acquiesce to her demandsrequests from time to time. Today was such an occasion.

We saw a couple of weeks ago that Caprice had gotten themselves a few bottles of William Kelley's wines. These are very young, produced in minute quantities, and have been totally hyped up. The candidate had gotten her own allocation, but given the limited number of bottles around, she was reluctant to pop her own bottles when the wines are so young. At the same time, she wanted to have a taste of the wines now to see whether the wines live up to the hype.

While I was here three nights ago, I was informed that the restaurant was down to their last bottle of the Gevrey-Chambertin. So I immediately made a booking for lunch today, and hoped for my friend's sake that no one else was interested in the bottle before we came in.

Luckily for my friend, it seems that no one else was as interested in the wine as she was.

As usual we start with a trio of amuses bouches presented in the boîte à bijoux:

Lobster roll - this was pretty nice.

Closing day, part 2: per aspera ad astra

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For my "real" birthday meal, I chose to return to Ta Vie 旅 as it's one of my favorite restaurants in the world. I have followed Sato-san's career since the relatively early days at Tenku Ryugin (天空龍吟), during the previous Year of the Dragon. Since launching his "Pure, Simple, Seasonal" philosophy for his cuisine, I have been a very big fan - and rejoiced when the restaurant was promoted to the coveted Michelin 3-star status last year.

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It was pure coincidence that we arrived on the last night before the restaurant is scheduled to close for renovations. They have been in this space since 2015, and I guess they are due for a makeover. I felt very privileged to be here tonight, as there has been many memories created here.

Closing day, part 1: that Chiuchow place

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It's the day of the big reunion, so a number of old friends are back in town for the event tonight. But it happens to be my birthday, and I told the organizers long ago that I wasn't gonna spend my birthday with this lot... Meanwhile, I hadn't seen the King in a little while, so we took the opportunity to catch up while he's in town. As Sheung Hing Chiu Chow Restaurant (尚興潮州飯店) has decided to close their long-standing location next week before moving into new, more modern digs, my friend decided that he would like to come one last time.

The place has always been run down and didn't exactly look spanking clean, and the various adjoining shop spaces - which they all owned - weren't all that different in that respect. I guess that's one of the reasons why I never thought about going there much - especially when their dishes weren't significantly better than other Chiuchow restaurants in town.

As is their usual practice, we were offered small cups of gongfu tea (工夫茶) to start us off.

Cold crab Chiu-Chow style (潮州凍花蟹) - this was obviously a MUST for this meal, and coming in at HKD 1,600 it wasn't outrageously priced. Pretty nice.

The Hairy Chevalier

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It's a big day for Hairy LS. Foursheets and I were among a small group who received an invitation to the residence of the Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau. Besides the commanding view of the Hong Kong skyline, we were there to witness our friend being bestowed the distinction of Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole.

The ceremony was brief, and after the medal was pinned to the lapel of his jacket, we toasted the moment with some Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve and nibble on some canapés. We were very happy for our friend to have been bestowed this honor. Now he's a knight... but where was his horse and armor?!

We were still kinda hungry after the ceremony, but had no dinner plans, so a few of us went to - where else? - Caprice Bar for some simple food and drinks.

Royale tarte with duck and foie gras, raspberry and chocolate sauce - it's been too long since I last enjoyed one of these tartes from this kitchen, and although we are in the middle of summer, I still love them! Nope, not heavy at all... not in my book. Of course, the King of Sauce delivers with that combination of fruity acidity from raspberry vinegar and the chocolate richness.