2010 edition: San Pellegrino Top 100

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Here we go again... The "World's 50 Best Restaurants" has been announced, and there are some notable changes this year.  My perennial #1 El Bulli has fallen to #2 after a few years at the top.

There's always some controversy whenever any of these lists are published, and there was an uproar this year when no restaurant in France made it into the top 10.  Spain continues to dominate with 4 of the top 10, reaffirming the country as one of the most exciting food destinations.

I'm not sure if the voting system evolved further this year, but the number and choices of the Asian restaurants continue to baffle me.  While I enjoyed Iggy's in Singapore years ago and have heard good things about the new Jaan under André Chiang, I can't imagine either of them to really deserve a spot in the top 50.  It also seems clear that they don't have enough people who really knows Japan on the panel...how else do you explain that there are only 3 restaurants from Japan among the top 100, when there are 4 from Singapore and 5 from Hong Kong?  You're not seriously telling me that Japan is less exciting as a foodie destination?!

Anyway, the restaurants I've been to among the top 100 are:

2.  El Bulli
8.  Daniel
9.  Arzak
10.  Per Se
13.  Pierre Gagnaire
14.  L'Hotel de Ville - Philippe Rochat
15.  Le Bernardin
24.  Les Creations de Narisawa
28.  Iggy's
29.  L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Paris
32.  The French Laundry
33.  Martin Berasategui
44.  La Maison Troisgros
48.  Nihonryori RyuGin
53.  L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Hong Kong
55.  Robuchon A Galera
59.  Lung King Heen
63.  Akelarre
65.  Bo Innovation
78.  Les Amis
90.  Amber
96.  Cepage by Les Amis

Gambero rosso

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I had Italian for lunch for a second day in a row, this time back at Tuscany by H.  No, I never get tired of this place, especially the pasta.  Harlan's pastas are awesome.  Period.

The set lunch didn't appeal, so I ended up just having a plate of pasta.  The Namdaemun ajumma was having her comfort food - the tagliatelle with wild boar ragout.  I could have had that, but one of the specials caught my eye.

Homemade spaghetti chitarra, Italian red prawns, garlic, snipped chives in baby shrimp sauce was something I just couldn't pass up.  Any prawn pasta here is bound to be really good, and I wasn't disappointed.  The pasta was soft but not mushy, with plenty of bite.  The red prawns were actually kinda like cooked sweet shrimp (甘エビ), with the shells removed but the heads attached.  I happily sucked whatever I could out of the heads, and what I got was heavenly.  The prawns were tender and delicious.  And the baby shrimp sauce - with dried baby shrimp like sakura shrimp (桜海老) - was divine.

I didn't have any dessert or coffee, just had some water with my pasta.  An hour later, the flavors of the shrimp sauce still lingered in my mouth...

I say again... Harlan's pastas are awesome.

The silent dinner

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Tonight's the first official scoring MNSC of the year, with a newer format where all guesses are not silent and blind.  Our host chose to go back to the French Window for this meal.  I must admit that I was looking forward to the wines more than the food.

We started with a trio of amuse bouche - a "sandwich" with liver paté filling, a small cup of mushroom soup, and some creation involving a cherry tomato.

Carpaccio de boeuf super prime rossigny, foie gras et truffle noire - basically the same dish as my last visit, except that the chef decided to remove the foie gras at the last minute as someone complained that he's already had the dish 5 times... Honestly the dish just isn't the same without the foie, in spite of the really tender beef.

Raviole de caille, foie gras, consommé de legumes - this was pretty nice.  The small raviolis were pretty tasty with foie, and the vegetable consommé was very light.

Saint Jacques de la Baie Saint Georges compote de choux vert, sauce truffle - very nice, and the presentation was very pretty.  The scallop was nice, but I really liked the bed of shredded cabbage as it's one of my favorite vegetables.  The truffle sauce on the side didn't really add much, though.

Filet d'agneau poele, pomme de terre fondante, pesto du Moyen Orient - the weakest dish of the evening.  The lamb was bland and uninteresting.  The rings of deep-fried potato were much more yummy and fun to play with.

Canard du Challans au sang de Chez Madame Burgos roti, sauce bigarade - very nice and tender duck...pink and juicy.  I was happily cutting away and feeding my hungry mouth.  The sandwiches were a nice touch...the toast was very yummy, with a spinach and black truffle(?) sauce filling.

Assiette de fromage selectionner par Philippe Olivier, l'un des meilleur ouvrier de France fromager - well, the restaurant may claim that Philippe Olivier is one of the best in France, but we only get a small selection of 3 types of cheese...  Saint-Philippe, which was very nutty with a slight bitter finish and heavy ammonia on the rind; nice Mimolette; and Bonde de Gâtine, which I also had on Friday.

The dessert consisted of two parts:

Piña colada sorbet with pineapple wafers - the strong coconut oil flavor came out on top of the pineapple, and it's no surprise given that the sorbet was made with Malibu.  Very tropical and refreshing.

Chocolate sensation - not bad, with something similar to Nestlé Crunch at the bottom with rice crispies.

But tonight's really all about the wines...and our generous host treated us to some truly old and interesting bottles.

1983 Dom Pérignon - nose of honey, caramelized apple, grass and straw...beautiful but died relatively quickly.
1945 Aldo Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino - color was so incredibly light...and the nose was very oxidized... like a brandy or Port, with preserved plum.  Completely flat on the palate.

1945 Seguin-Manuel Charmes-Chambertin (ex-domaine) - nose was really sweet, with tropical fruits and very light body.  93 points.

1945 Léoville-Las-Cases - nose was grassy, a little cooked, with forest, mint, a little sweetness.  Smooth on the palate with a short finish.  93 points.

1945 Pavie - much more concentrated, with a medicinal nose and notes of sous bois, smoke, cigar and mint...beautiful!  But it died completely after a while.  95 points.

1961 Pape Clément - a little bit of brett, chili pepper, ripe, sweet and alcoholic.

1961 Chapoutier Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Bernardine - very Rhone-like, with floral, violet notes and bacon fat, fruity, a little chemical / dishwashing detergent notes... very sweet with tropical fruits like lychee.  95 points.

1961 Talbot - obvious nose of manure with farmy and smoky notes.

The food was pretty decent, and needless to say the wines were excellent.  Unfortunately with our new format, there was a lot less discussion about the wines during tasting, which makes it less fun for me.  Hopefully it gets better with time...

La Nuit à Saint George

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At long last, I got my first chance to sample the cuisine at St. George, the upscale restaurant at Hullet House.  I'm a big fan of Philippe Orrico, who used to run the kitchen at Pierre, and have been wanting to see what he's been able to do outside the world of Pierre Gagnaire.  I've gotten very positive feedback from my friends, so expectations were high.

I browsed through the menu, delighted that many of the dishes can be ordered in smaller portions.  My friends weren't that hungry after their big meals, but surprisingly my stomach was growling a little... After some hesitation, I decided to order the 8-course tasting menu since there is no rule dictating that tasting menus have to be ordered by the entire table.

The amuse bouche was a cup of white asparagus cream soup with crispy orange and pistachio.  This was pretty nice, with additional ingredients providing a pick-up to the subtle flavors of the asparagus.

Gillardeau oyster, pink radish with horseradish and parsley water served with 2 wild caviar - Sevruga and Osetra - Gillardeau is my favorite oyster, and the flavors were so nicely balanced between the sweetness, creaminess and a little bit of brine.  The Osetra caviar packed so much flavor in such a small serving... Wow!

Duck foie gras, pan seared with ginger, Lebanese tabouleh & watermelon with Coleman's mustard - the foie was absolutely perfect.  Lightly seared on the outside and the entire block was so soft and wobbly as I tried to cut into it.  The tablouleh was an interesting touch, and the watermelon added an interesting sweet and refreshing element to the dish.  One of my favorite dishes of the evening.

Roasted langoustine with Colonnata, roasted almonds avocado and green asparagus - slightly disappointing.  The flavors here all worked together, from the nicely roasted almonds to the asparagus, avocado, pear and the thin slivers of lardo di Colonnata - one of my favorite things to buy at a deli counter.  But the problem was with the langoustine...it was juicy, a little mushy and almost liquid in some parts...leading me to wonder about the freshness.  Given that air shipments from Europe has only resumed in the last day or two, I guess this may be from an earlier shipment before the volcano eruption?

Atlantic scallops, creamy potato with sherry wine and seaweed, baby leek with mustard and smoked milk foam - very nicely done... lightly seared on the outside and still fresh on the inside.  The creamy potato was very yummy, and the crunchy seaweed was interesting.

Roasted veal sweetbread, with espelette pepper, red apple confit with reduce farm cider, crab meat, baby spinach and green olive - very creamy and nice.  Interesting pairing with the crab meat...and the apple confit was really nice.

Pink Champagne granite, tomato jelly and prawn Obsiblue served cold with a cocktail sauce - the granite was probably my least favorite part of the meal... The combination of the Champagne and savory tomato jelly just tasted a little bitter in the mouth...  Not a fan.

The Obsiblue prawn was pretty decent, but I'm not sure I appreciate it being served with cocktail sauce, even though it's served in similar fashion around the world...

Pigeon Mieral, couscous, piquillos, foie gras, sultana and crispy curry - this was very, very nice.  The pigeon was definitely very gamey, just the way I like it.  The foie was battered and deep-fried, which is kinda weird and interesting.  The white sticks are made with curry and sweet at the same time, which kinda screwed with my head.  But the combination worked, and I liked it a lot.  I also got a slice of goat cheese, which I ate after the pigeon.

Just like at Pierre, St. George's kitchen also sends out multiple desserts in waves.  There was a pre-dessert of citron sorbet, which was really interesting as they used chili powder to make it really spicy.  I think it went far beyond waking up my palate, it kinda killed it for a while...

Rose ice cream with wild berries and raspberries - this was pretty nice...the rose flavor wasn't overpowering, and I just loooove wild strawberries...

Pistachio custard with sago - now this was interesting...the roasted pistachios were really fragrant, and once you add in the pomelo pulp and candied pomelo rind, it almost feels like a pistachio flavored 楊枝甘露...

Vanilla cream with coffee granite - pretty tasty and reminds me of the taste of affogato.

Chocolate-covered pop rocks - what is it with people making desserts out of pop rocks these days?

Hot chocolate - nice and yummy with orange and cinnamon.

Finally, the petits-fours which included a nice little marzipan and white truffle macaron.

I brought two bottles of wine tonight, expecting to be charged HKD 350 per bottle for corkage.  I was informed that it had been raised to HKD 500 a few months ago.  Huh?  Raising the corkage and you've only been open for a few months?  WTF...

I handed the two bottles to a waitress, instructing her to open both, chill the white and decant the red.  Twenty minutes later, the head waiter approached me and asked whether it would be time to open the bottle of white.  Huh?  Shouldn't it have been opened when I arrived?

2000 Bouchard Corton-Charlemagne - elegant nose of flint, toast, white flowers, tangerine and sweet corn, with the sweetness dominating after a while.  Medium to high acidity on the palate.  Very nice.

2005 Mugnier Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos e la Marechale - I was a little playful and wanted to drink a NSG at night in a place called St. George... unfortunately this wine really disappointed, and was nothing like what I had last year with the winemaker.  Nose was very muted, with a little sous bois but basically it never opened up.  Very smooth on the palate, almost a little flat.

I thought the food here was excellent.  My friends were right - Philippe has only gotten better after leaving Pierre.  But months after opening, the service still needs a lot of work. 10 minutes after sitting down, no one had come to ask if we wanted any water.  The local staff really don't speak English well, and couldn't distinguish between citron/Sichuan and pistachio/prosciutto.  And what's with dimming the lights after 10pm?  I could barely see my food...and the freezing air conditioning... were they trying to kick us out?

Regardless of how good the food is, a restaurant needs to provide good and friendly service so that customers would think about going back.  For the price that I was paying, I expected 5-star hotel service but definitely didn't get it.  I hope the people at Aqua can fix that, or it's back to hotel dining for me again...

Delicious, but too rich for my blood

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Following a long lunch and a few more bottles of wine in the office, I rolled into Café Gray Deluxe for my first dinner here.  Gray Kunz's reputation precedes him, and this place marks his return to Hong Kong after along absence.

I was happy about our table arrangement, as the structure of the building created a number of private dining areas each housing a single table.  However, the downside was that we sat directly across from the elongated open kitchen, and we were bombarded with the different smells throughout dinner.  This was really distracting, and detracted from our dining experience.

I started with saffron pasta fiore, tomatoes and lemon thyme.  What came in the plate in front of me wasn't what I expected at all...I was expected something relatively light, but what I got was creamier and heavier than just tomato sauce.  It wasn't bad, but I had wanted a lighter starter.

We ordered the 2007 Robert Weil Riesling Kabinett Halbtrocken from the wine list in order to waive the corkage charge on the other bottle.  Classic nose of minerals and a little plastic, with a hint of white flowers and oak.  Being a halbtrocken, it was reasonably dry on the palate.

I took the glazed iberico pork chop, morels, spring onions and baby greens as my main course as it was the only thing that jumped out at me from the small menu.  It tasted pretty damn good.  You can't go wrong with pork fat, and parts of the pork chop were definitely very tasty and succulent.  But I felt that it was a little overcooked, and the parts without fat came out a little tough.  It wasn't totally dry, but just could have been juicier.  The exterior was nice and crispy.  The bed of veggies at the bottom was absolutely delicious, but why did they have to use so much cream?!  Putting creamed vegetables with a fatty pork chop was just overkill.  In terms of taste the dish was a winner, but it felt like I shoved a brick into my stomach...

I brought along a bottle of 1997 Etude Heirloom Pinot Noir, which actually drank pretty well.  The nose was pretty sweet, with medium body and a slightly acidic finish.  The Etude Pinot was always gonna be a little lighter than some of the other Californian offerings, but there's nothing wrong with being elegant!

I was kinda full but loathed the thought of leaving without having tasted dessert, since I'd been told that the pastry chef was pretty talented.  I ended up taking the Oreo crusted key lime tart, whipped cream.  Visually it wasn't what I expected at all... The thin Oreo crust was at the bottom, topped by a layer of key lime cream and a thin disc of caramelized sugar on top.  Texture-wise it felt more like crème brûlée.  Thankfully the portion was small, and there wasn't too much whipped cream on top.  The lime-flavored sauce was also very nice, and the acidity of the whole thing helped balance out the rather heavy meal.

So I finally came to taste Gray Kunz's creations, but I walked away from a strange feeling. I had expected heavy use of Asian ingredients and light touches, but found the meal to be heavier than most of the high-end French meals I have had in town.  I did not taste these, but my friends complained about how heavy the vegetable sides were.  The heavy use of cream just screamed "American", and not the modern, contemporary American that I'd grown accustomed to, either.  This will probably end up being another one of those places where I won't find myself returning to...not because anything was horribly wrong, but because it just isn't my cup of tea.