OTT VIP BBQ

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Today was just like yesterday.  Except it was worse.  I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because of the alcohol in my system.  After spending some time putting together the post about Friday, I went back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep.  I felt tired and beat the entire day, and once again faced the same decision I had yesterday:  should I show up at dinner?

But just like last night, it would have been bad form to cancel.  A bunch of us were invited to a barbecue, and in attendance would be chefs from some of Hong Kong's best-known restaurants.  Knowing our host, he would have gone all out to feature the best ingredients - and in large quantities, no doubt.  It's best not to decline such generous hospitality.  So once again, I dragged my progressively heavier (especially in the last week) ass across the harbor…

The spread on the table was already pretty impressive when I stepped in through the door, and since a few others hadn't arrived yet, it was only gonna get more amazing… and I was right.  Together with the food that some of the guests brought along to this potluck, there was probably enough food to feed us three times over, maybe four!  There were entire dishes that did not get cooked, and of those ingredients that were cooked, there were a number of them that I didn't manage to touch, as I exercised restraint and kept my intake in check.

Alcoholics + alcoholic Italian wines = toast

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History has shown time and again that an evening out with the Alcoholics inevitably ends badly for me.   The bottle count at any of the gatherings with them will typically run above 1¼ bottles per person, which is above my tolerance level.  Not once have I woken up after one of these evenings without a hangover, and on occasion when the surroundings permit, I have fallen asleep during these dinners.  To sum it up: toast.

A couple of hours before dinner started tonight, I was in a mini-depression.  I had been dining out for 5 straight nights, and had consumed wine or alcohol on 4 of those nights.  Thursday and Friday had been particularly long evenings, and I woke up today feeling tired and with a slight hangover.  By this afternoon, my energy had not been recharged back to its normal level.  I really did not look forward to yet another evening out with lots of wine.  I had reached total palate fatigue, which is something that only happens once in a blue moon.

It would be bad form for me to cancel at the last minute, so I reluctantly dragged my ass out of the apartment, crossed the harbor to the Island side for the second time today, and joined the Alcoholics at Domani Ristorante.  This was an Italian wine dinner organized by Bordeaux Index, and while it was a BYO event, a number of bottles had been contributed by several Italian wineries.  I arrived to find bottles already on our table, and as we reached a full complement of 7, the bottle count got to 11.  Ohhhh boy…

Zigzaging across Victoria Harbor

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This was always gonna be a busy evening, but it actually went on for much longer than I expected… and I also got a little more drunk than I expected, even though my mind was crystal clear the whole evening.  Let me try to remember the details…

I started the evening at Hong Kong Wine Vault, attending a tasting of wines from Domaine Clarence Dillon.  Jean-Philippe Delmas was in attendance, showcasing wines from both Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion.

85 on 101

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A dear friend of mine was kind enough to invite me to dinner tonight.  A group of us were gathering to open a few bottles with Neal Martin, the man behind the Wine Journal on eRobertParker.com.  It's always interesting to meet people who have so much experience with different wines, and not surprisingly many of us try to offer up some choice wines from our cellars during these encounters.  I sometimes wonder if these critics ever just want to have a simple meal with a simple bottle of wine?

The venue of the gathering was RyuGin (天空 龍吟) on the 101th floor of the International Commerce Centre.  I was pretty excited about this evening, both because of the wines we would be drinking and also because this would be my first visit to the restaurant.  I had a wonderful experience at the honten in Tokyo on my last trip, although reviews on this place from my contacts had been rather mixed.  Now I would be able to find out for myself.

We took a menu featuring fall ingredients, made even more luxurious with the addition of white truffles from Alba…

Just say roe

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In this age where we get live feeds from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like, it's not unusual to get a flood of images coming from friends who have just dined at a particular restaurant together.  Not long ago I kept seeing pictures of certain dishes come across my various social media accounts, and decided that they looked good enough for me to try.  A quick call to Mrs. Tigger and we had ourselves a table at Man Wah (文華廳) in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

The restaurant is running a joint promotion with Shing Lung Hong (成隆行), a long-time distributor of hairy crabs (大閘蟹) in Hong Kong.  A number of dishes have been created to highlight the seasonal crabs and their delicious roe.  I was naturally drawn in by the beautiful pictures taken by my friends.

I was late to dinner due to a misunderstanding, and arrived to a half a plate of Cantonese roast meats.  The char siu (叉燒) was actually very good, with just the right amount of marbling inside.  I should have checked with the restaurant to see if this was pork shoulder (脢頭肉)…  The crackling of the roast suckling pig (烤乳豬) was pretty good, too.