A quick pick me up

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I'm watching the opening film of the Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival 2015 - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (侯孝賢)'s The Assassin (刺客 聶隱娘) - tonight.  Since the movie theater is in the Elements mall, I decided to use this opportunity to check out a restaurant for the first time.

I've never been to Tosca at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong.  When the restaurant first opened, the feedback I heard was mostly negative, so I pretty much wrote off the restaurant.  I watched as the restaurant garnered a macaron from the Rubberman, but still I was unmoved.  None of my regular eating accomplices talk about going there for a meal, so I stayed away.

But I needed a venue for the pre-movie dinner, which ruled out places like Tenku RyuGin (天空龍吟) with their 10-course menu.  Chinese food was also not a viable option as there were only two of us, so Tosca seemed to fit my requirements...

I had thought about maybe taking four courses from their Estate Menu, but they didn't seem to appeal to Hello Kitty.  So à la carte it was, then...

We started with our amuse bouche, which was an arancino along with a ball of couscous, as well as a couple of salmon roe on the side.

Tiramisù di mare: barretta di cereali su gamberi rossi, capasanta e cremino soffice di prezzemolo - the idea of a "sea tiramisù" sounded interesting, so we both decided to try it out.  The actual "tiramisù" - which looked like a piece of white fish at first glance - was made from Mascarpone with squid ink-flavored puffed cereal at the bottom, sitting on a bed of red prawn carpaccio. The fluffy, creamy cheese worked well with raw prawn and the scallop.  The ring of parsley and basil cream, however, was completely bland.  The best part, though, was the piece of flattened, dehydrated prawn "cracker".  It was kinda like one of them Japanese prawn senbei (煎餅), and I loved the intense, concentrated flavors.

Good but not great

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There was an impromptu meet-up at lunch today, and since it was just a stone's throw from my office, I decided to join a couple of friends at Sun Tung Lok Chinese Cuisine (新同樂魚翅海鮮酒家).  I haven't been to the Central branch in about a year, so I took the opportunity to refresh my memory on their dim sum items.

Deep-fried taro dumpling with diced chicken (蜂巢五香雞粒竽角) - one of my favorite dim sum items, and the shell here was nice and flaky.  I thought the filling wasn't bad, although there were critics at the table...

A very good follow-up

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While having a drink at ON Dining Kitchen and Lounge last month, Jeremy told me that he had taken on a consulting assignment with the people before Épure, and that he would be spending a few days in the first week of August at the restaurant.  While I enjoyed my first meal at Épure very much, I did think there were areas which could use some improvement.  I was very curious to see what changes Jeremy would make, so I made a reservation for tonight.

One of the changes Jeremy had mentioned was a shorter menu in addition to the 6- or 8-courses options previously available.  This was certainly a good thing, since not everyone wants to spend 2-3 years at dinner.  However, they continued with the "for her" and "for him" menus... which are just really stupid.  Who the hell decides which dishes are "feminine" and which are "masculine"?!

Anyway, once again I chose the menu "for him", and took 8 courses.

We were served some snacks, but this time around no one bothered to tell us what they were.  Maybe they thought we'd had them before, so there was no need to explain.  Well, I can see that we had the foie gras bon bon again, with the cherry coating providing nice acidity.  Likewise there was the cheese croquette, although we thought there might have been a hint of truffle in the liquid center.  The tart, though, was different from my last visit.  I thought this might have been carrot purée, but there was a little bit of acidity here.  The little mint leaf on top was nice.

Amuse bouche tonight was cauliflower velouté with hazelnut foam on top.  I love cauliflower, and also love the flavors of the toasted hazelnuts, but I was a little surprised by the sharp acidity of the hazelnut foam.

Swatting flies in a frozen basement

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After my trip to the Hello Kitty restaurant a couple of months ago, a friend who is a real Kitty fan tried to organize a dinner there... but failed to secure a table on the desired date.  As a consolation prize, I suggested that we go back to Guo Fu Lou (國福樓) so that some of us can give it another chance...

My friend wanted to order a few dishes which are also available at her preferred venue - Seventh Son (家全七福) - so that she can do a "head-to-head" comparison.  I tried as much as possible to oblige...

Barbecued suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬) - we were short by a couple of people, so we only took half a pig.  Nothing at all to complain about here...  Yum.

A sweet evening

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It's been a while since I last saw the Great One for dinner, and she suggested that we go back to ON Dining Kitchen and Lounge - one of our favorite places in town.  It was obvious that she had only one thing on her mind... the pigeon!

We knew that Jeremy wasn't gonna be around, as he's busy training up the staff at Épure this week.  It turns out that Philippe wasn't in the kitchen tonight, either.  But fear not, Nicolas was around to take good care of us.

Parmesan crackers - the usual snack.  Always nice to start with this.

Tourteau crab, lobster, oyster dressing, chilled potato sauce - a dish I loved on my very first visit, and this being the middle of summer, I really wanted to have it again.  Such a refreshing and delicious dish!  Loved the sweetness of both the crab and the lobster.  The combination of chilled potato soup and finely diced chives just conjured up memories of Vichyssoises in my mind...