A free-flowing evening

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Last night I met up with a few friends for our long-awaited gathering to drink some good wine. As some of them work as wine merchants, we brought along wines which were a bit out of the mainstream for the new experience. The venue was the Legend Concept, a private kitchen which had just moved to its new location in Wanchai. I haven't visited Pian and Andy in a while, but the food quality remained high.

We started with 2 slices of toro, which were a bit more red than I'm used to.  We then had cream of mushroom soup, topped with a dollop of ground black truffles.

Things got more interesting with the pan-fried foie gras, topped with a slice of apple that was not caramelized.  Pink guava sorbet was served to cleanse our palates before the main course. This was a very nice touch.

For main course, Pian served us different plates - three different choices among the seven of us. I got the duck confit - which I remember having from my last visit. This was prefectly fine for me. The skin of the duck has been fried to a crisp in its own fat, which was so aromatic and delicious.

We finished with a slice of chocolate cake.

The main event of the evening of course was the wine.

Interestingly we started with sake - the Fuji Takasago Daiginjo (富士高砂大吟醸) - which was nice and smooth but a little sharper than my normal tastes. Obviously this worked well with the toro.

1997 Verget Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru La Romanee - minerally nose but a bit acidic on the palate for my taste. Not much ripe fruit here. I think I'm too used to new world whites these days...

1997 Sine Qua Non Twisted and Bent - brought this for Elen as she loves all these funky wines from SQN (this one is a blend of 60% Roussanne and 40% Chardonnay). Nose was a bit harsh at first, didn't show well when the wine was too cold. With a bit of warming up and breathing, the wonderful nose of flinty minerals combined with an explosion of rich, buttery taste on the palate. A full-bodied wine with a long finish.

1989 Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Heimbourg Selection de Grains Nobles - I initially brought along this half bottle of dessert wine to finish off dinner, but a suggestion was made to break it open for the foie gras. It was pure nectar, an explosion of lychee, pear and floral notes like rose. Everyone seemed to enjoy this wine and I regret having brought only a half bottle.

2000 Mount Mary Quinet - pretty disappointing. The wine was flat and there was no fruit left. This wine was famously panned by Robert Parker, who gave only 1 vintage a score higher than 80 points. I can see why. I don't remember liking the last vintage I tasted (1996) either...

L'Interdit de Badon Thunevin - here was a wine with an interesting story. During the 2000 vintage, Jean-Luc Thunevin laid plastic on part of the vineyard to prevent the vines from being soaked in rain. This was deemed an illegal practice by the authorities, and consequently wine from this part of the vineyard had to be declassified. Thunevin called it L'Interdit, and was not allowed to vintage date or to label the appellation. It comes with an interesting label. I bought the wine during the en primeur campaign out of pure curiosity, and drank it for the first time.

I had low expectations, but I think most of us were surprised on the upside. The nose was simply classic Bordeaux. The finish was a little short at first, but after the wine opened fully there was loads of smoke, grilled meats, leather and earth. A nice wine to drink considering how little I paid for it, which was 150 pounds for the case.

1997 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Cerretalto - this was a generous contribution, as James Suckling rated this very highly. I didn't like the wine much at first, as I felt the nose showed stewed prunes and generally a hint of having been subject to heat. With more aeration, the nose improved significantly and it was quite enjoyable at the end.

2000 BOND Matriarch - this one was a crowd pleaser, a wine that drank well after sitting in decanter for 2 1/2 hours. Classic Californian with nose of sweet cotton candy and vanilla. Sourced from the winery directly, I was not disappointed by this effort from Bill Harlan.

For the second night in a row I leave a restaurant past midnight. 7 1/2 bottles of wine for the 7 of us...not a bad way to spend Friday evening!

Investor dinner in Hong Kong

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Last night I took my HK-based investors to dinner at Caprice as a gesture of appreciation of their support. I had been wanting to do this for a while, and we were treated to A Taste of Caprice. Two of the guys were busy with work and we didn't get started until just before 9pm.

We had some wonderfully delicious bread to accompany the 1998 Kistler Chardonnay Cuvee Cathleen, which was a bit tight when it was first opened.

Started with lentils du puys and foie gras cocktail with Brittany oyster foam. I've never been a big fan of lentils, but the oyster foam was briny and yummy, but seemed to have overpowered the foie gras a bit.

I enjoyed the green asparagus with veal sweetbread fricassee, lemon confit and caper vinaigrtte. The sweetbread was nicely done, looking almost like a large piece of fried cuttlefish.

When the next course was served, one of the guys jokingly complained about the lack of food in his bowl. The morel mushroom consomme with virtual jelly of Chateau Chalon wine was first served with just a few tiny bits of jelly in the bowl. The consomme was poured in later with tiny, yummy bits of morel that were so full of forest mushroom flavor.

The 1995 Clinet was smooth on the palate, but the finish was a bit short after having been in the decanter for a couple of hours.

The wild turbot fillet with green peas, romaine salad and aromatic mint emulsion was delicious. The long and narrow piece of turbot was pan-fried and crispy, sitting on a bed of succulent peas and the tingling hint of mint adding just the right touch.

The Kistler is now fully open, full of toasty oak and minerals. Yummy.

I wasn't expecting to be served paella, but the langoustine a la plancha with shellfish and chorizo paella in lobster jus was just great. The aborio rice was cooked just rice, smooth and slippery against the tongue, and the chorizo balances the seafood.

The Pyreneen milk-fed lamb with fondant vegetables, ratte mashed potato and basil sauce was perfect. The pieces are small and bite-sized, with the lamb fat making the meat full of gamey flavor.

The 1995 Philip Togni was still full-bodied with tannins smoothed from years of aging, and was clearly the preferred wine over the Clinet.

The cheese selection from Bernard Antony was wonderful as usual. I asked for the 4-year Comté, 18-month Mimolette, Époisses, the soft and strong Munster, Pouligny Saint-Pierre...

Seeing how much I loved the Comté, the waiter brings me a glass of Château Chalon, an oxidized wine (hence a nose that is so similar to that of dry Fino Sherry) from the region of Jura, the source of Comté. And you know what, it does match the cheese perfectly!

And if this wasn't enough, we finished with two dessert courses - raspberry coque with tropical vnilla chiboust, rose ice cream and hibiscus coulis and snacking opera with coffee biscotti, pecan nut brownie and cappuccino ice cream. Both the rose and cappuccino ice creams were about the best I've ever had.

We finally finished before 12:30am, and I felt very bad for the restaurant staff who had to stay behind for us. But it was definitely a great meal, and I hope to do this again soon!

Finally, Sushi Qube

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Last night I finally had the chance to try out Sushi Qube with a couple of friends. I had read about this restaurant on the internet, as there were some discussions about this being a "branch" of Tokyo's famed Kyubey (久兵衛) - my favorite sushi restaurant. I was obviously eager to try, even though I had heard some lukewarm feedback.

The restaurant is wedged in a small space, with all of 10 seats at the sushi bar (and no tables). Apparently they seat 11 at lunch - must be really cramped! The have built in display fridges for their selection of premium sake and fine wine, and they do have a nice selection of very high end sake but prices are just too much... Fortunately I brought along a bottle of Rihaku Daijinjo Tobin Gakoi (李白大吟釀斗瓶囲い), a limited production sake that I really enjoy. This bottle was produced in June of 2004, so it's about time that I drank it up. It was pretty smooth, but a little bit more spicy on the after palate than I remember.

At a place like this, of course we would be asking for omakase - giving Chef Sato-san a free hand. Sato-san has been in Hong Kong for more than 30 years, and spoke excellent Cantonese. He explained that the restaurant is actually owned by a Mr. Yeung (did not get a clear explanation of which Mr. Yeung...) who has befriended Imada-san, owner of Kyubey. Imada-san has no stake in Sushi Qube, but there are two connections: There is a set menu called Kyubey Set whose ingredients are dictated by Kyubey, and Sushi Qube receives a shipment of fresh seafood from Kyubey each Friday.

We started with a large selection of sashimi that was clearly very fresh, which was evident starting from the amuse bouche. The chilled (not frozen) chu toro (中トロ) was very good, and the scallop was very sweet, but the surprise was the akagai (赤貝). I usually avoid akagai as I find it too crunchy, but the texture here was a nice balance - soft and supple with a touch of crunchiness.

The quartet of shrimps was also interesting - the usual suspects of ama ebi (甘えび), botan ebi (牡丹えび), kuruma ebi (車えび) plus something new called tenshi no ebi (天使のえび, Angel shrimp). All were very good, but the two which were not frozen - kuruma ebi and tenshi no ebi - were better, crunchier.

Then came the interesting experience of eating white baitfish (白飯魚). The tiny live fish were scooped out of a box and dropped into a champagne flute filled with vinegar. We were meant to have these live, by either swallowing them whole, or chew on them while having them in our mouths. After much deliberation, I decided to keep them in my mouth (and feel them wiggling on my tongue), then chew a bit before swallowing. Any taste of the fish was probably overpowered by the vinegar, but I'm glad that I finally had the chance to do this.

Moving on to sushi, we were presented with single pieces of nigiri. Initially I was a little unhappy with Sato-san's skills, as I prefer my rice to be a tad stickier so that the rice doesn't fall apart when I hold the sushi in my hand. But there was no question about the quality of the fish. I especially liked the medai (目鯛). The biggest surprise, however, was the uni (雲丹), which were from Hokkaido and gigantic. Unusual for an uni sushi, there was no seaweed wrapped around the rice, as Sato-san simply laid a large piece of uni over the rice. Delicious.

We finished with the usual egg, and here it's made with a recipe not unlike Kyubey - bearing some resemblance to Japanese castela cakes. The fruit course of tomato was also good although I found the skin a bit too thick and tough. Yuzu ice cream had nice big chunks of the rind - a good palate cleanser.

At a cost of HK$1,500 this is par for the course for this type of establishment in town. Was this an amazing meal? Not when I compare it to Kyubey. But there were enough highlights to give Imamura (今村) a run for its money in Hong Kong.

The Sound of Music

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The Sound of Music was on one of the movie channels today, and watching it brought back many, many memories. It is clear why this has been so many people's favorite movie - all the melodies are amazing. I was especially moved by the scene where the Von Trapp children sang to welcome Baroness Schraeder, as the sound of music melted the heart of Captain Von Trapp which has been frozen ever since his late wife's passing.

An evening cut short

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Last night I got together with some friends for dinner at a new venue for me. A few of my friends know the owner of Agura Creative Dining, so suggested that we dine there before moving on to karaoke in Causeway Bay. I was eager to try out a new restaurant and looked forward to the experience.

We were in a reasonably large group, and decided to ask the chef to bring out the specialties. We had also brought along a few bottles of wine that hopefully would match the food. These are the courses for the evening:

Raw oysters topped with garnish - I guess I should have asked what type of oysters were being served but couldn't be bothered. It was not too large, and more on the creamy side (not Belon 000 or Fine de Claire).

Not bad, but the pairing with the bottle of Perrier Jouet NV Grand Brut seemed a bit off...the after palate of mixing the two elements wasn't what I was expecting. I think Kami no Shizuku (神の雫) really hit it on the spot - raw oysters need to be paired with very dry, village level Chablis. Still, the Perrier Jouet is a good Champagne and I really enjoyed drinking it.

Shima aji (縞鯵) sashimi with some salad and light dressing - this was OK - the slices are larger than what you would find in a traditional Japanese place, but then again they'd never serve it with Romaine lettuce...

Steak tartare bruschetta - a few people didn't like the idea of eating raw beef, but I love steak tartare. The seasoning on this one was pretty good, with both raw and sauteed onions. The only fault here is that the beef isn't as finely chopped as one would find in a fine dining establishment. I devour two of these, and it goes reasonably well with the 1990 Jayer-Gilles Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Hauts Poirets, as the acidity of the wine works well with the Worcestershire sauce.

Softshell crab roll - topped with a sliver of avocado but nothing to write home about.

Fried fishcake - different from the standard Thai fishcakes, and somewhere between Thai prawn cakes and Japanese fishcakes. I like the consistency and the dip which is lighter than your boring tartar sauce.


Foie gras roll - I measure every foie gras sushi against the one at San San Trois, and this one fell short since it came in a maki and not a nigiri, and the piece of foie is tiny. This was also done inside out with seasame, so it's missing the nori that normally works so well.

Lobster linguine - now this one was a winner! The light cream sauce was very yummy, and everything just worked together. Paired so well with the bottle of Cloudy Bay that my friend Lai-man brought (uh...didn't check the vintage, or whether it was a chardonnay or sauvignon blanc - but it tasted like the SB...)

At this point something disastrous happened...the feeling of nausea started to build, and I realized that this was likely the onset of a reaction to food poisoning. I bid a quick farewell to my friends and rushed to get home. I just needed to rest on my couch. It didn't help that at the restaurant, we were sitting Japanese style and I had no way to lean back on anything.

I stumble into the elevator, getting weaker by the second. The door opens and in walks a colleague and his wife. I manage a feeble response to his greeting - no doubt he would have thought I was rude. I leave the elevator and stumble onto the street, feeling very dizzy at this stage and unable to keep to a straight line as I start breaking out into cold sweat. Thankfully the taxi rank isn't far away, and I manage to get home in one piece.

P.S. I managed to recover once I settled and fell asleep on my couch. Nothing ever happened afterwards, so was it really food poisoning? Perhaps. I have never had an experience like this, and can only think of the fact that I ate some raw food at the start of dinner. While it is unfair to pin the problem to the restaurant, I think I'll wait a while before going back to Agura...