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I'm having the first of my three "cheat meals" this week, and for most of the afternoon all people could talk about was whether the typhoon was coming close enough to Hong Kong to warrant the raising of the No. 8 Signal. While most people in the city were hoping for a unscheduled holiday, I for one did not want the typhoon to hit us too soon. When I got a call in the afternoon to reconfirm my dinner reservation, the tone at the other end of the line seemed to be: "With the typhoon coming, are you sure you still want to come to dinner? Can y'all please cancel so we can all go home early?"
Well, there was NO WAY I was gonna give up this dinner…
As I arrived at Island Tang (港島廳), I was relieved to find that there were others already seated in the main dining room. In fact over the course of the evening, the restaurant would be about 2/3 full - not bad for a rainy, windy night when I was checking for weather updates with my phone on an hourly basis. But what was meant to be a party of five ended up being a foursome for most of the evening, as one of us had a little trouble flying in from Taipei and arrived 3 hours late…
August 13, 2013
August 9, 2013
A lunch worth cheating for
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A few weeks ago I heard from my contact at Fruit Media again, and the reason for the call was a little surprising. Apparently the PR person responsible for a restaurant had wanted to invite me for a tasting, but as not many PRs in town know me personally - and this lady realized that I had been profiled by Fruit Media last year - she decided it may be best to reach out to me in this roundabout way.
No, I had not been to the trio of new restaurants which had recently been opened. However, I have invariably enjoyed myself at ALL of the restaurants under the same group, and that includes some very high-profile outlets with macarons. Yes, I would be interested in trying out whichever new place they chose… but I was starting to develop a cough, and it's never good manners to cough on our dining companions - especially your hostess. I asked for a rain check.
Having recovered only recently, I accepted to invitation to lunch at Rozan (魯山). It's day 6 of my new nutritional plan and I'm doing my first cheat. As there will be a few more cheat meals next week, I am ever so grateful that this meal could be scheduled for this week and not crammed into the next… I had warned my lovely nutritionist about this meal, and she tried in vain to convince me to stay within the strict bounds of the meal plan she had prescribed for me. No way, Jose! Not with this meal.
A few weeks ago I heard from my contact at Fruit Media again, and the reason for the call was a little surprising. Apparently the PR person responsible for a restaurant had wanted to invite me for a tasting, but as not many PRs in town know me personally - and this lady realized that I had been profiled by Fruit Media last year - she decided it may be best to reach out to me in this roundabout way.
No, I had not been to the trio of new restaurants which had recently been opened. However, I have invariably enjoyed myself at ALL of the restaurants under the same group, and that includes some very high-profile outlets with macarons. Yes, I would be interested in trying out whichever new place they chose… but I was starting to develop a cough, and it's never good manners to cough on our dining companions - especially your hostess. I asked for a rain check.
Having recovered only recently, I accepted to invitation to lunch at Rozan (魯山). It's day 6 of my new nutritional plan and I'm doing my first cheat. As there will be a few more cheat meals next week, I am ever so grateful that this meal could be scheduled for this week and not crammed into the next… I had warned my lovely nutritionist about this meal, and she tried in vain to convince me to stay within the strict bounds of the meal plan she had prescribed for me. No way, Jose! Not with this meal.
August 4, 2013
Shrinking Boy, day 1
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I woke up a little earlier than planned on the first day of my nutritional program, and tossed in bed a little before deciding that I should kick start my metabolism earlier. I had shopped for the ingredients for today's meals last night, so it would be a snap to put together my breakfast.
I'm meant to consume 1 portion of dairy, 3 portions of grains, 1 portion of meat and 1 portion of fat for my brekkie, and during and after my "orientation" yesterday, I began learning how to translate those portions into real food. The end result?
I brought my brekkie out on the patio and took in the beautiful view. This is my third weekend housesitting for the Tiggers, and it's tough to get tired of this view!
I woke up a little earlier than planned on the first day of my nutritional program, and tossed in bed a little before deciding that I should kick start my metabolism earlier. I had shopped for the ingredients for today's meals last night, so it would be a snap to put together my breakfast.
I'm meant to consume 1 portion of dairy, 3 portions of grains, 1 portion of meat and 1 portion of fat for my brekkie, and during and after my "orientation" yesterday, I began learning how to translate those portions into real food. The end result?
I brought my brekkie out on the patio and took in the beautiful view. This is my third weekend housesitting for the Tiggers, and it's tough to get tired of this view!
August 2, 2013
Another smoky evening
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It's no secret I'm a big fan of David Lai and his restaurants, but one outlet which I've never been to has been Kushiyaki Beco (串焼 べこ), the JV between David and Satoru Mukogawa of Sushi Kuu (寿司喰). So three years after it opened (the anniversary party was held earlier in the week), I finally got a chance to go when the Specialist requested kushiyaki/yakitori for dinner.
I arrived and was led upstairs to a table by the stairs, which placed us pretty much directly above the cooking area. This would be really interesting, as I couldn't for the life of me focus on the nose of the wines we had brought... I seem to recall a somewhat similar experience just two weeks ago...
Knowing that we didn't want our dishes coming at once, I cautioned the Specialist and we ended up ordering in rounds. We do have two bottles of wine, so the food had better come staggered so that we can stretch out the evening!
It's no secret I'm a big fan of David Lai and his restaurants, but one outlet which I've never been to has been Kushiyaki Beco (串焼 べこ), the JV between David and Satoru Mukogawa of Sushi Kuu (寿司喰). So three years after it opened (the anniversary party was held earlier in the week), I finally got a chance to go when the Specialist requested kushiyaki/yakitori for dinner.
I arrived and was led upstairs to a table by the stairs, which placed us pretty much directly above the cooking area. This would be really interesting, as I couldn't for the life of me focus on the nose of the wines we had brought... I seem to recall a somewhat similar experience just two weeks ago...
Knowing that we didn't want our dishes coming at once, I cautioned the Specialist and we ended up ordering in rounds. We do have two bottles of wine, so the food had better come staggered so that we can stretch out the evening!
Don't wanna grow no mo'
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When I first started this blog, I called myself a "growing boy" in reference to a line from Die Hard which listed out all the ingredients of a Twinkie and called it "everything a growing boy needs". I'd always joked that I was still growing horizontally, even though it wasn't quite true...until the last couple of years.
In the months leading up to my (second) failed attempt to escape Hong Kong, I was doing a whole series of birthday and farewell dinners - and my weight hit an all-time high. After 6 months of living in Taipei, owing to a combination of fewer big meals with friends (thanks to having no friends and also nowhere to eat in Taipei) as well as eating mom's kick-ass yet healthy cooking at home, I found myself about 5 kg lighter than my peak weight. The Growing Boy had shrunk - while doing less exercise - and I was pretty happy about it.
The latter half of last year saw a reversal of fortunes. As I was preparing for a move back in Hong Kong, I started to put on a little weight while still in Taipei. Needless to say things got a lot worse after I physically moved back to Hong Kong, and a couple of binge weeks in particular were responsible for dialing my weight back up. 7 months after coming back to Hong Kong, I got on a scale and almost had a heart attack. Not only did I gain back all 5 kgs that I lost, but I had put on an additional 3 kg! I'd hit a new high, and this ain't the kind of new high you'd wanna be hitting more than once...
When I first started this blog, I called myself a "growing boy" in reference to a line from Die Hard which listed out all the ingredients of a Twinkie and called it "everything a growing boy needs". I'd always joked that I was still growing horizontally, even though it wasn't quite true...until the last couple of years.
In the months leading up to my (second) failed attempt to escape Hong Kong, I was doing a whole series of birthday and farewell dinners - and my weight hit an all-time high. After 6 months of living in Taipei, owing to a combination of fewer big meals with friends (thanks to having no friends and also nowhere to eat in Taipei) as well as eating mom's kick-ass yet healthy cooking at home, I found myself about 5 kg lighter than my peak weight. The Growing Boy had shrunk - while doing less exercise - and I was pretty happy about it.
The latter half of last year saw a reversal of fortunes. As I was preparing for a move back in Hong Kong, I started to put on a little weight while still in Taipei. Needless to say things got a lot worse after I physically moved back to Hong Kong, and a couple of binge weeks in particular were responsible for dialing my weight back up. 7 months after coming back to Hong Kong, I got on a scale and almost had a heart attack. Not only did I gain back all 5 kgs that I lost, but I had put on an additional 3 kg! I'd hit a new high, and this ain't the kind of new high you'd wanna be hitting more than once...
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