Simple food in Geneva - Day 1

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I'm in Geneva for a few days on business, exploring the city in my free time and sampling the cuisine at this cosmopolitan city. While I was lucky enough to get reservations at some Michelin-starred restaurants, I was equally excited about the simple, hearty cuisine of the region.

My first meal in the city was lunching solo at Le Relais de l'Entrecote, a restaurant only steps from my hotel. This happen to have been rated highly in Zagat's in terms of food, and as I passed by around lunch time, I popped in and got myself a table. This place is ultra busy. Waitresses were dancing around tables like bees pollinating flowers, bringing customers their plates of food.

There is only one dish here, and that is steak frites. There is a simple plate of salad, and pieces of baguette to start. Then the main event: a warm plate with half a portion of entrecote - 5 slices or so - is served with loads of thin, crispy frites. The waitress makes sure that you get plenty of the sauce, which tastes like a cross between pesto and green curry. I asked for medium instead of bleu, thinking that in French-speaking Geneva, bleu would be really raw. Well, the meat was pink on the inside, but a tad on the dry side for my taste. Guess I should have tried bleu... Or was it because the meat was so lean, unlike what I am used to at Entrecote in Hong Kong? Anyway. The sauce, as has been written, was delicious. I finish the steak and gobble up most of the large portion of frites.

As I was debating whether it was advisable to finish all of the frites, the kind waitress comes over an dumps the other half of the entrecote in my plate. I'm in shock at this point. I was grateful for the small portion of meat when it first arrived, as it would allow me to eat lots of frites without overstuffing myself. Now I realized - quelle horreur! - that the restaurant wasn't skimping on the meat. I was just about full at this point, but couldn't very well toss the meat back. I decide to give it my best shot, and end up taking down another 4 out of 5 slices in the second serving... I am stuffed, on the verge of feeling a little sick from the large amount of rich food. But I'm happy. This simple and delicious lunch is just what I wanted.

I blew off my friend Nunu for dinner that evening, as work took a lot longer than I expected. We gave up our restaurant reservation and she stayed home with the kids. Past 10pm, I am left with relatively few choices for dining venues. Nunu suggest that I look around rue de Pâquis - the colorful red-light district where there would be interesting choices of ethnic food. I make my way on foot to the neighborhood, and pass by a number of Turkish joints selling doner kebabs as well as some Chinese places.

In the end I settled on Auberge de Savièse, a Swiss restaurant mentioned in the outdated copy of Lonely Planet that I borrowed from a friend. I'm in Switzerland, so what else should I order but raclette? I start with a simple green salad, then proceed to enjoy two portions of the melted cheese. I was very tempted to have more cheese, but I was getting very tired and decided not to stuff myself at such a late hour. Satisfied with myself for having enjoyed the local specialty, I make my way back to the hotel and call it a night.

The wines of Selbach-Oster

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Tonight I attended a tasting dinner for the wines of Selbach-Oster, hosted by Rare & Fine Wines and Montrose Wines, the supplier for the wines. The venue was Chiuchow Garden (潮庭), and I must say that I thought the food was very good, as was the pairing of the wines with the food.

The menu for the evening:

2007 Piersporter Michelsberg - mildly sweet on the palate, with some minerals in the nose.

Signature Combo of Chiu Chow Specialties - Sliced Soyed Goose, Deep-Fried Cuttlefish Rolls, Deep-Fried Crab Ball, Fried Scallops (潮庭四喜拼盤: 鹵水鴨片，炸花姿卷，酥炸蟹棗，油泡帶子)



2007 Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett halbtrocken - slightly sweet nose, with minerals, green apple notes. Pretty dry on the palate.

2006 Riesling Kabinett "fish" - this was a real interesting wine, which is a blend of different vineyards rather than the typical single-vineyard offering. Really powerful nose of petrol, lemon citrus, glycerin and urethane plastic. A full-bodied wine which tastes a bit "oily".

Double-boiled Soup with Sea Whelk, Fish Maw and Cordyceps (蟲草花角螺燉花膠湯)



2006 Weissburgunder Kabinett trocken - made from Pinot Blanc, pretty dry with a touch of sweetness on the after palate. Ripeness was evident on the palate and in the nose, with minerals and a bit of spice.

Soya Sauce with Chef's Sliced Weaver Fish (玫瑰燒雪魚)

2007 Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese trocken - made from ungrafted vines that are over 60 years' old. Steely minerals and osmanthus floral notes, with sweetness on the nose but not on the palate, and a ripe after palate. A complex and rich wine.

Braised Sea Cucumber with Mushroom (原條西非遼參扣花菰)

2007 Zeltnger Schlossberg Riesling Kabinett - powerful nose of minerals and flint, glycerin. Sweet on the palate with a finish of decent length.

Fried Chicken with Chinjew Sauce (碧綠川椒雞) - could do with a bit more spice

2007 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spätlese - a bit of plastic and minerals in the nose. Nice, smooth and sweet on the palate.

Braised Brisket with Red Wine Sauce (富貴牛腩) - nothing really special here.

1999 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese - this has to be the wine of the evening. An explosion of minerals and petrol, with a bit of rich butter and plastic. Very rich and smooth on the palate, with orange marmalade on the after palate. This is actually only medium sweet for an aisles.

2007 Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese halbtrocken - nose of minerals, green apple and a bit of honey. Slightly sweet on the palate.

Pan-fried E-Fu Noodles (黃金煎伊麵)

2007 Zeltinger Schlossberg Riesling trocken - muted nose with some minerals, a bit of almond marzipan. Very dry on the palate.

Sugar-frosted Taro Stripes (反沙芋條)

2006 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Auslese* - the wine that Mr. Selbach claims has a lot of aging potential. Nose of honey, minerals and even a touch of white pepper. The wine is already very sweet here, much more so than the 1999 tasted earlier, but right now it is far less complex. Hopefully this will develop after some aging.

This was a really good evening both in terms of food and wine. I got a chance to taste 11 wines from Selbach-Oster, and immediately put in my order for a few cases of my favorites from the evening...

A little bit of Germany

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Tonight I got together with a few friends at Schurrbart, a German pub in Lan Kwai Fong. It's been a while since I had a taste of German food, so I was happy with my German friend's suggestion for some of his comfort food.

German food is pretty hearty, so I dispensed with starters and went straight for the schweinshaxe - the famed roasted pork knuckle. It's been a long time since I last enjoyed this dish, and I was not disappointed. The meat was roasted so it was dry and crispy on the outside, while still retaining some moisture inside. The crispy, slightly hard skin was superb - crunchy in the mouth but worked perfectly with the soft layer of fat just underneath the skin. There is very little to complain about here. I didn't touch the big blob of mash on my plate, but did enjoy the sauerkraut very much.

I also had a taste of the currywurst, which is something I wanted to try for a long time after seeing it on TV. I didn't find the curry taste strong enough, and wish that they had sprinkled some curry powder on top to spice it up more...

The 2006 Selbach-Oster Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Spatlese was delicious, showing a big nose of petrol, minerals and sweet honey. It was slightly sweeter on the palate than I expected, and the girls definitely liked this wine.

I didn't have room for dessert, so I opted for a couple of schnapps - starting with winter spiced apple as a substitute for apple strudel. This wasn't a bad choice, and did actually taste like the strudel fillings . The blood orange that followed was also pretty nice, although the higher level of alcohol here was clearly detectable. It wasn't exactly fine dining, but I really enjoyed my evening.

Misia Live

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Tonight I went to see the first concert in Hong Kong by Misia - the Japanese artist, not the Portuguese Fado singer. One of my friends couldn't go and I ended up with his tickets, sitting in the center section, 6th row. Pretty good seats...

I've always liked Misia, and I was always impressed with her voice and vocal range. I haven't followed her career lately, so it was interesting to see if her style has changed over time.

I think Misia generally has three types of songs in her repertoire - the slow love ballads, which is her trademark and loved by her fans; then there are songs with slightly faster beat, making them a little easier to dance to; finally there are the energetic, pure discotheque songs.

Since the tour is called "Discotheque Asia", she started with some of those energetic numbers, and made good use of pyrotechnics. Towards the end of the show, lasers were used to get the crowd going.

However, I must say that these aren't the best songs for a live show. The loud, kicking bass do a good job of drowning out Misia's voice, which is a real shame.

I do love Misia's love ballads, especially "Everything", one of the early songs that made her famous. I'm really happy that she performed a great rendition tonight.

Overall, it was a pretty good show that lasted 2 hours. I'm hoping that Misia will return to Hong Kong soon.

The dramatic Singapore F1

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I just came back from a few days in Singapore, where I had my first experience with F1. I'm glad I finally got the chance to go see F1 live, as I had missed two previous opportunities to do so.

Funnily enough, those two chances were both in the same year - 2004. I missed the chance to go to Sepang with clients, as it was both the day of my housewarming party as well as the day of Taiwanese presidential elections. Later that year I missed the chance to go to the first Shanghai F1 - again on a free ticket - because I flew back to Singapore to pack up my household items for the move to Hong Kong.

Anyway. I had picked the seat that was right on the left edge of the Esplanade Waterfront Grandstand. I thought that I would have an unobstructed view of the cars coming toward me on Turn 16, plus a good view of the cars speeding away from me on Turn 17. It took me a while of being on the internet plus calling the ticketing office to get the seat I wanted.

When I walked around the track on Friday afternoon, I was horrified to find out that I couldn't see Turn 16 clearly. There was a steel structure that was part of the Esplanade that was in my way, and a tree next to it! So my strategy completely failed. So I decided to roam around looking for good shooting locations.

During the final practice session on Saturday, I stood on the stairs at the right edge of the Esplanade Waterfront Grandstand. This gave me a view of the cars coming into Turn 17, and speeding away in front of the Bay Grandstand and into Turn 18. I decided to put my 300mm f/2.8 on the monopod and practice my panning as the cars came by. Got some decent shots.

For the qualifying, I moved to the stairs at the left edge of the Bay Grandstand. This gave me a reasonable view of the cars coming into Turn 18 as they passed below the grandstand. I decided not to pan but simply freeze the action with a fast shutter speed.

I was definitely at the right place at the right time. Near the end of qualifying on Saturday, Alonso's engine failed and he came sputtering down the stretch, stopping right in front of where I stood. He got out of his car and held is head in his hands, as realization took over that he would be nowhere near the top for this race. In my rush to take pictures, I had unfortunately forgotten that I was on manual exposure, so most of my pictures didn't quite come out. Otherwise these would have been really priceless shots.

For the finals on Sunday, I went back to the right edge of the Esplanade Waterfront Grandstand. Once again this proved to be a great spot. Nelson Piquet's Renault spun out of control and crashed against the Bay Grandstand. I had a direct view of this, and added my 2X extender to get some close shots.

For some reason, a few drivers just can't seem to get control of their cars and insist on going straight past Turn 18. Later we would see Toyota's Timo Glock crash into Turn 18 and end his race here.

There was of course more drama elsewhere on the track. It just wasn't Ferrari's day (or night, actually). Who could ever forget the sight of Massa's Ferrari speeding off with the fuel hose still attached to his car? And the Ferrari pit crew chasing after the car, removing the hose and carrying it back to their station? I was laughing my head off when this happened, and wished that I had taken the hospitality package because I'd be sitting right in front of the Ferrari pit! Then with about 3 laps to go, Raikkonen lost control and crashed out. No points for Ferrari.

So who won the first Singapore GP in the end? No one would have guessed that it was going to be Alonso, not even himself. For someone starting at the back of the grid to win the race, it was simply unbelievable. But it happened, and I'm sure ING and Renault threw one hell of a party afterwards.