Korea wedding trip day 2: Sung Si-kyung's favorite

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After a late night of working from our hotel room, I woke up to find the city wet from light rain. The first order of business was to recover my lost wallet, so we rode the same Airport Limousine back to Incheon, somehow letting the driver know that instead of getting off at either Terminal 1 or 2, we wanted to follow him all the way to the depot.

Neither Foursheets nor I got enough sleep, so coffee was more essential this morning than usual. Unfortunately this "cold brew" I picked up from the convenience store last night didn't cut it. It was pretty tasteless... just a little better than the water that is used to rinse a cup with some leftover coffee...

After being pointed in the right direction, we arrived at the office and mentioned Jay Essu's name to reference my case. Yes, they did find my wallet, and I took out my ID card from the wallet to show that I was, indeed, its rightful owner. The staff suggested that we ride the free shuttle bus that runs between airport terminals as the best way to leave the depot. We then managed to ride the same bus route back to the city to our hotel.

Korea wedding trip day 1: lost and found, again

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We're off to Seoul for a few days - the first trip for Foursheets in 8 years - so that we can attend Mikacina's wedding. Naturally, we are taking on a few extra days so that we could sample more Korean food. The two of us have barely scratched the surface in terms of discovering "real" Korean food, so we're pretty excited about this trip.

We budgeted some time to get breakfast at the airport, since we knew we wouldn't be eating on the flight. Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun Shop (正斗粥麵專家) has an outlet here, and we figured we should savor a bit more of Hong Kong before diving into our Korean food tour.

Stir-fried rice noodles with beef (干炒牛河) and rice noodle rolls filled with twisted cruller (香脆油條腸粉) are two of my favorite things to order, and they're famous for these dishes. The wok hei (鑊氣) on the noodles was pretty good, and the crullers weren't too shabby, either.

Sine Qua Non toast, part 10

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It's been more than 2 years since this gang sat around a table and guzzled bottles of a beloved cult wine. I guess we were just all busy with our own stuff and no one got around to organize something. Once again I became the instigator, and this time we managed to round up enough people for a proper dinner. I was pretty happy that H-man was around and could join this dinner, and we've shared a few bottles of Sine Qua Non over the years.

I didn't want to be the one picking a restaurant this time, so after a few rounds of suggestions, we settled on Jiangsu Club (江蘇銘悅). I was once a big fan in one of its former incarnations, but I haven't been back in almost 9 years. I was really looking forward to seeing how the food would be after all this time.

A couple of the guys seem to be regulars here, and we collectively put together a pretty big menu for this big night.

I can't resist these seaweed peanuts (苔菜花生), especially when I'm hungry.

Chilled chicken in chilli peppercorn sauce (江南麻辣口水雞) - this is... not exactly Jiangsu cuisine... and normally I would expect this to be pretty spicy. Not the case tonight.

When a billion people know your face

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H-man is back in town for a few days, his first trip here since 10 years ago. As Rice and I took him to Neighborhood on that visit, we figured it only made sense to do the same this time around. Little did I know that The Kitchen Nazi had become such a celebrity since the premiere of the popular Chinese TV show, that tables at Neighborhood are now difficult to come by.

Since I had booked my table with Shirley, The Kitchen Nazi had no idea that I was coming tonight... until I mentioned it to him yesterday. That would have an impact on the selection of dishes I would be getting tonight.

We started with a tea session at Rice's office, where he poured me some tea for my cold, as well as giving us a taste of some Taiwanese green tea harvested in the 1930s...

We arrived before our table was ready, so the three of us stood against the bar while trying to stay out of the way of the staff and other diners. Coincidentally, DaRC and Ro Ro are also here tonight - in the company of Dashijie. This would turn out to be kinda fun later, as we were seated at neighboring tables.

Pine nuts - the boss was also on the same mushroom foraging trip in Yunnan as the three chefs from last night, and once again we have roasted pine nuts to start our dinner with. These were very, very good.

Avant voyage

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I must admit to being a little surprised when I received an invitation to a "6-hands collaboration" in Shenzhen. Chef Alessio Durante of Opus 388 at the Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen and Chef Jerry Tian of Avant were taking turns hosting dinners at their respective restaurants, and they've invited Chef Paul Marcon - son of Regis and the latest winner of Bocus d'Or - to come all the way from Restaurant Marcon. I've never had the pleasure of visiting Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, and I thought this would be an opportunity to get a glimpse of what one could expect at the mothership. Similarly, I was also a little curious about Avant.

Everyone else was already in Shenzhen eating their way around town, so only two of us got picked up by the car at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. The trip across the border was quicker than expected, and we arrived at Avant with plenty of time before our dinner was due to start.

Well... the others did eventually show up, and I got to hear all about the drama from someone's trip to Yunnan with the three chefs...

We started with the sourdough bread from Avant and a tomato and rosemary focaccia from Opus 388.

Mushroom butter - made with a variety of mushrooms the chefs had brought back from their trip to Yunnan.