Excursion to Yuen Long

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I helped organize an excursion to Yuen Long today.  Seven of us (5 adults, 1 child and a puppy) took the long ride from the HK side to the boonies in a Volvo XC90.  It was past 12 noon by the time we got to Yuen Long, and needless to say there was a car-ful of hungry mouths to feed!

We started our food crawl at Ho To Tai Noodle Shop (好到底麵家), and immediately ordered a round of the house specialty - tossed egg noodles with shrimp roe (蝦籽撈麵) - plus a bowl of the special soup dumplings (特製水餃) to share.  The big plate of noodles was very, very yummy.  The consistency was perfect.  There was no alkaline taste in the noodles.  Plenty of shrimp roe sprinkled on top, and the dollop of creamy lard at the bottom was a godsend.  Not only did it coat the noodles so that they didn't stick together, the taste was just heavenly.  The dumplings were pretty good, too, having been pan-fried a little before being dunked in the soup.

Next stop was a local bakery next door called 大同老餅家.  I didn't get anything here, but apparently the "wife cookie" (老婆餅) is excellent, filled with - what else? - lard.  Ah well, maybe next time.

Man Kee Brisket (文記清湯腩.咖喱腩麵家) serves up some really yummy stuff.  The two plates we ordered included lots of goodies from different parts of the animal - regular beef brisket (坑腩), butterfly brisket (爽腩), honeycomb tripe (金錢肚) along with some radish.  The clear broth was pretty yummy, but the radish was a little too salty.  The regular brisket was nice and fatty...yum!

The butterfly brisket was pretty interesting.  For some reason I've never gotten around to asking for this particular cut whenever I've visited beef brisket specialists.  While the lean part of the beef was a little dry in some cases, the big pieces of collagen attached were nice and chewy.

The e-fu noodles (伊麵) were pretty nice.  One of my friends remarked that the noodle seemed endless, and wondered whether the bowl actually contained just one long strand...

I was getting pretty full by this point, but there was still dessert to come.  We stopped by Tai Wing Wah (大榮華酒家) to pick up some of their steamed Malay sponge cake (馬拉糕).  These were pretty light in color - not the brownish versions that I'm used to.  Pretty light and delicate in flavors.  Very nice indeed.

We made one last stop at a grocery store specializing in "Oriental" foods.  OK, OK... I know we're in Asia, so this might sound a little ridiculous.  We came to pick up some ice cream made by Arce Dairy in the Philippines.  We ended up picking up 3 small tins - ube, durian and sweet corn.  We ended up eating the ice cream in the car on the way to the border, and there were lots of memorable moments during this part of the ride...

The ice cream was rich and creamy, thanks to the water buffalo milk used in the production.  The ube was very good, and that's coming from someone who's normally not a big fan.  The durian was an utter failure - the ice cream was creamy, but there was ZERO durian flavor!!  Filipinos seem to like sweet corn ice cream, and that was pretty nice, too.

The primary reason - for me, at least - of today's trip was to try out my new toy.  My Canon 7D is a welcome complement to my Canon 1Ds Mark II, whose technology is now 5 years old.  I wanted to take out my 300mm, add the 2X converter and shoot some birds with an full-frame equivalent focal length of 960mm...

My not-so-trusty Google Map GPS on my crackberry plotted a route for us from Yuen Long town to Tsim Bei Tsui (尖鼻咀), which is just west of Mai Po bordering Deep Bay.  I had read that this was a good birding spot, so off we went in the SUV.  Interestingly, the GPS led us to a very bumpy dirt road which skirted the eastern boundary of the Hong Kong Wetland Park.  We soon ventured into the Restricted Zone, and the familiar border fence - with CCTV cameras mounted on some posts - ran all along one side of the road.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore...

We decided to park the car by the bridge and trek north on foot.  This was no small task for me, as I was carrying my camera bag, my 300mm in an extra bag, and a tripod bag with both a tripod and a monopod.  The three bags weighed a total of 16kg, and I soon wished that we hadn't parked the car so far away...

We spent about an hour and a half in the area, but it was a disappointing excursion as I didn't climb up to the vista point with a bird's eye view of the wetland area.  We did see some ducks and white egrets along the way, and I did have some fun playing with the new camera and lens combination.  But what I really wanted was to shoot towards the east, something not really possible with the forbidding border fence.

We reached the northern edge of Tsim Bei Tsui, looking across the bay at the southern end of Shenzhen.  While we were here, a police van drove up, and Ah Sir promptly chastised us for driving a vehicle into the Restricted Zone without a valid permit.  I pleaded innocence, as we had come in through the backdoor and there were no warning signs on the way.  Ah Sir seemed  surprised that we had found our way through the bumpy back roads, and urged us to leave the area ASAP.  As the weather wasn't exactly ideal today, we decided to cut our losses and head home.  I'll have to come back another weekend to visit either Mai Po Reserve or the Hong Kong Wetland Park, before the best birding season ends.

Why a restaurant deserves losing its Michelin star

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I met up with a couple of friends for dinner tonight.  One of them is in town from Taipei, and wanted some Cantonese food, so my other friend booked a table at Lei Garden (利苑) in IFC for us.  It's been more than half a year since I was last here, and things have gone downhill sooooo badly that I was livid and ready to leave the restaurant, even before we started eating!  I totally understand why they lost the Michelin macaron in the latest edition.

We were given 2 menus: the regular a la carte menu, as well as a plastic tube on the table seemingly listing the "greatest hits".  We looked both over and started to place our order with one of the captains.

"Can we have a roast barbeque combination with roast suckling pig (烤乳豬) and another item?"
"Sorry, no more suckling pig, but we can offer you roast pork belly (燒肉)."
"OK, can we have that with roast duck (燒鴨)?"
"Sorry, we don't have roast duck, either.  You have a choice of roast pork belly, char siu (叉燒) or chicken."
What?!  Awwww...forget it!

I was in serious disbelief that at 8pm on a Friday night, standard menu items that every Cantonese restaurant will stock in full were unavailable.  The captain proceeded to tell us that  they are in the middle of a menu change, so we shouldn't order off the a la carte menu but look at the plastic tube instead.  WTF?!  I asked the captain why we were given the a la carte menu at all if it's basically useless, and was told that it was necessary to show the a la carte menu to customers since it has the English and Japanese translations, while the plastic tube only listed dishes in Chinese...

OK, so we look at the tube and try to order something listed on it.  The table next door ordered a pan-fried giant grouper fillet (香煎龍躉扒), which one of my friends found interesting.  "Can we have that, please?"  "Sorry, the only giant grouper dish we have left (out of three preparations listed on the tube) is the braised fin (炆翅).  You should order that one."  What?!

There were a few other things we wanted which weren't available, and by now I was fuming and ready to get up to leave the restaurant.  But I didn't want to make it difficult for my friends, so I stayed and proceeded to order our food.

First to arrive was braised prawn in casserole (金榜題名生中蝦煲).  The Chinese name was kinda elegant, and the English description sounded innocuous enough.  What we actually got was prawns in laksa sauce.  Yes, as in the Malaysian/Singaporean dish with that curry/coconut milk/chili broth.  No wonder the waiter told us that it was a little spicy.  And here I was thinking that they were just gonna sprinkle a little black pepper or chili powder on top...  In all honestly the prawns were pretty tasty, and came with little steamed buns for us to dip into the sauce.  But they probably should have described the dish to us when we ordered it...so we knew that it wasn't exactly Cantonese.

Next came the braised conpoy and assorted vegetables (瑤柱海味雑菜煲). This is a simple dish but one of my favorites at classic Cantonese restaurants.  Lots of veggies mixed in with conpoy (瑤柱, dried scallops), dried shrimps, sea cucumbers and glass vermicelli (粉絲).

We did order fish in the end - a steamed green wrasse (蒸青衣).  I have to admit that they did an excellent job of steaming the fish - the texture of the flesh was just right.  Of course, the fish itself was very nice and fresh, too.  Perfect with some steamed rice.

The final dish was steamed lotus leaf wrapped chicken and Chinese preserved sausage in small steamer (籠仔荷葉臘腸蒸雞).  The combination of flavors is pretty classic - chicken, shiitake mushrooms, preserved sausage enhanced with the fragrance of lotus leaves.

I brought a bottle of 1995 Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Les Varonniers, which turned out not to match the food we ordered.  But it drank reasonably well, considering how little I paid for the wine years ago.  Classic Rhone nose and palate, with bacon fat, floral and Christmas potpourri notes.  Medium body.  Pretty enjoyable as a casual wine.

There was definitely enough food to feed the three of us, and I couldn't find fault with the quality of the food.  But this would probably be my last visit to Lei Garden in a long, long time.  Their attitude was just ridiculous.  To not offer more than half the items on the menu, and have the gall to blame it on menu change (isn't this the first week of January?) and expect customers to just accept it as something normal is just too much.  I'm not sure why the people at Michelin took away the star this year, but from where I'm sitting they definitely don't deserve any.

First long lunch of 2010

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It's the first Friday of 2010, and Lunch Club promptly organized a gathering at Amber to kick off the year.  While I have always had reservations about this place, the gang - including myself - was pretty happy about our experience here.

The two amuse bouches were the foie gras Chupa Chups-style and a shot glass with 3 layers of flavors - almond panna cotta at the bottom, herring roe jelly in the middle, and cauliflower cream on top.  While I detected the roasted nutty flavors of the bottom layer, it didn't taste anything like almonds.  The cauliflower was pretty rich and yummy.

My first course was fresh anchovies: marinated, over aubergine caviar, with fine Champagne.  I picked this because one rarely sees anchovies on the menu of fine dining restaurants.  The presentation was very interesting, like a puzzle with little garnishes that look like mini-M&Ms on top.  Beneath the anchovies was a layer of cucumber, with eggplant caviar sandwiched in-between.  The dollop of foam on top was flavored with Champagne and eggplant.

There was also some thinly-sliced eggplant tempura which were really nice and delicious.  The combination was great, but as the portion was a bit light this left me wanting...

I debated about which main course to take, and finally settled on the Iberian pork belly: lacquered with vintage Sherry vinegar-enhanced jus, kabocha pumpkin gnocchi and black trumpet mushrooms.  As it turns out, this was the choice for all of us today - no originality here!  The square block of pork belly arrived, looking very much like the braised versions in Chinese cuisine.  Of course the fat and the skin on top had been caramelized somewhat, so it was extra yummy.  The sweetness of the pumpkin gnocchi provided a strong contrast with the smoky and heavier flavors of the black trumpets - which were a good substitute to black truffles.  All four plates were wiped clean in no time.

We shared a couple of portions of the golden brown "ratte" potato confit.  Very nice.  The plate in front of me emptied in record time, as if someone had inhaled all the potatoes...

The kitchen sent out some lollipops made from coconut sorbet coated with chocolate.  Pretty nice and a good alternative to the "Oreos" they used to do.

For once I decided not to have something fruity and refreshing for dessert, choosing instead to go with the Jivara milk chocolate cream, condensed milk ice-cream and Gianduja foam.  I was in heaven...all the combination of chocolate, milk and hazelnut - each with a slightly different texture - came together as something divine. A perfect way to end the meal.

This was a great way to relax on Friday, and we didn't leave the restaurant until sometime past 3pm...  Hopefully we will have many more sessions like this!

The first 40th birthday of the year

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A few of us are turning 40 this year, and an old friend in particular hit the 4-handle on Jan 1.  It became an occasion for us to get together and celebrate the big event, belatedly.  Where else would this group gather except at Fook Lam Moon(福臨門)?

In true Cantonese fashion, we started with some conch soup (螺頭湯), which was double-boiled with chicken feet, wolfberries (枸杞), ham and Chinese yam (山藥).  Slight bittersweet aftertaste.  Very nice way to kick off the dinner.

By tradition we also had the roast suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬) to start, and even though they do a better job than just about anywhere else, somehow it didn't quite do it for me tonight.

Deep-fried crab claw (百花炸釀蟹拑) came next.  It's always a pleasure to chomp on a big crab claw, especially when it's really fresh and the meat is sweet.  But in all honesty, I always felt that it's a shame to deep-fry the claw with all that coating of starch...

One of my favorite dishes here is the stir-fried lobster with black beans and green peppers (豉椒炒龍蝦球), and tonight the execution was just about perfect.  The meat of the lobster was so fresh and sweet, and that chewy/bouncy texture (彈牙) was so enjoyable. The flavors of the black beans and peppers complemented the lobster well.

The fried giant pomfret (沙律煙鯧魚) was requested for the evening, and was as impressive as ever in terms of size.  Taste-wise it was far superior to what I had 2 nights ago at Palace Kitchen (廚藝).  The only shame is that the staff decided to break up the pieces before laying the plate on our table, so visually it was no longer stunning.

A plate of stir-fried canola (清炒菜遠) was a nice and refreshing break from the oily dishes.

The fried glutinous rice with preserved meats (生炒糯米飯) here is just about the best in town, and the big serving bowl was empty in no time as people chomped down 2 to 3 bowls... The individual rice grains were dry enough not to be mushed together, yet moist enough to provide that chewy texture that's not quite al dente, but equally enjoyable.

The claypot of baked chicken in Huadiao wine (花雕焗雞) was largely ignored, which is a shame.  It's not the best chicken they do here, but the fragrance of the Huadiao (花雕) was pretty nice.

As we were celebrating a birthday, the yolk and lotus paste birthday buns (蛋黃蓮蓉壽包) came at the end.  These were very good, but somehow not as good as I remembered.  We also had some glutinous rice balls steamed in apple leaves (蘋葉果).  This was very nice... delicate flavors from the red bean paste inside.  A large plate of fresh fruits wrapped up the evening for us.

In terms of wine I brought a bottle of 1996 Dom Pérignon to toast the birthday boy.  The nose was yeasty, and the wine was pretty ripe on the attack, with some minerals mid-palate  and a slightly dry finish.

To celebrate the birthday properly, I took out a magnum of 1970 Lynch-Bages, which I bought around 10 years ago.  I decanted it at home and, as I broke the cork and it dropped into the bottle, brought both the empty bottle and the decanter to the restaurant.  It was a classic claret, with the usual nose of smoke, grilled meats, mint, a hint of caramel and sweet fruit.  It was obviously an old vintage, but the body was still there. Finish was a little dry at times.

Spending time with old friends is always a pleasure, and there are many more birthdays to celebrate this year.  Looking forward to those...

Neighborhood private kitchen

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Some friends and I tried out a private kitchen in my neighborhood tonight.  The pedigree behind Palace Kitchen (廚藝) is very impressive, and it's interesting that they chose to open up around here.  The dining room is in an old apartment building.  My first impression upon arrival wasn't great.  I was greeted with that stale, funky smell that I dread whenever I go to restaurants in mainland China - a combination of humidity, alcohol and who knows what else...

Three plates of appetizers were laid out on the table when we arrived - pickled ginger, century eggs and marinated chicken gizzard and liver.  I didn't try the ginger, and each of us only got a small slice of the century egg.  The gizzard and liver were pretty nice, though... I could definitely taste the smokiness, especially in the liver.

The double-boiled stonefish soup (石頭魚湯) arrived without the usual plate of ingredients. The first spoonful showed that the flavors are delicate, with a sweet aftertaste. No doubt this is partly due to the Chinese yam (山藥).  Not bad, but not exactly mind-blowing.

The empress chicken (唐皇太后雞) arrived looking pretty good.  The chicken was lukewarm, and drizzled in a pretty sweet soy sauce.  Definitely tasted the smokiness.  In truth the chicken looked better than it tasted.  While the leg was OK, the breast was a little tough.

The fried pomfret (酥炸大英鯧) looked reasonably impressive, with some mayo on the side.  While the skin and the fins were nice and crispy, the flesh inside was a different story.  Honestly it was a little too soft and mushy.  I think my favorite is still the smoked version at Fook Lam Moon (福臨門), where the flesh is moist enough but not mushy, making the texture a little more "flaky".

The pig trotters in plum sauce (梅子豬手) was next.  Love the trotter tips, and the hell with cholesterol... The plum sauce was a little tart and spicy.  The pairing with taro was classic Canto.

Classic vegetarian (原始風味齋) was pretty nice, with string beans, broccoli, baby corn, carrot, fried tofu skin... A welcome change to the string of heavy dishes.

"Not greasy" fried rice vermicelli (不油炒米粉) was exactly that.  Probably my favorite dish of the evening.  This was stir-fried with high heat and you can definitely taste the 鑊氣. The rice vermicelli wasn't soggy - reasonably chewy, without the usual pool of oil at the bottom of the plate.

We were served some homemade wine made from raisins.  Tasted a lot like the homemade grape wine mom used to make when I was a kid, except that this was made with raisins and hence was pretty cloudy, and was served unfiltered.

The lemongrass and rose prawns (香茅紅玫焗中蝦) was OK.  I, of course, was only too eager to suck out anything inside the head.  The rose buds seemed more like decoration, though...

Dessert came in the form of steamed egg custard (古法西施嫩嫩).  This was more like the 水蒸蛋 in some Cantonese restaurants (such as Farm House 農圃飯店) rather than the Macanese style egg custard found in places like Yee Shun (義順牛奶公司).  Definitely a lot more watery and not the dense custard many people may be used to.

We definitely had too much food for our group - I was kinda stuffed.  The bill, as it turns out, wasn't so cheap for a private kitchen.  While the food was not bad, I wasn't wowed.  And there are certainly better deals in town.  But I was kinda glad to have discovered a new place within a few minutes' walking distance from home!