Birthday season, again

Pin It

Another dinner for the gang to get together and celebrate two birthdays, and I'll be seeing the birthday girl three times in the next 4 days.  Apparently she requested Seasons by Olivier E. as the venue, so I guess she must have liked the food when we first went there in January...

Our VIP friend told Olivier that it was Winnie the Chew's birthday (conveniently ignoring that we were also belatedly celebrating his), so Olivier very generously sent us Champagne.  The Gosset Brut Grande Réserve was a little pungent, chalky, and dusty.  Perhaps it was a problem with the glass?  Slightly high acidity on the finish.

As usual we started with a series of nibbles, and I was glad that these were different from the ones I tried out in January.

French spicy chorizo "La Maison Louis Ospital"

No School tonight

Pin It

Another day, and another birthday celebration... this one rather belatedly.  We trekked over to Neighborhood on short notice for a casual dinner, knowing full well that the spotlight of attention is currently on Fish School, David Lai's new venture with Yenn Wong which has just opened its doors to customers 2 nights ago.

It was 6:30 p.m. and I was surprised to see David here at Neighborhood.  When I asked him why he wasn't at the new place during its 3-day soft-opening period, he said that everything was "on track" over there and he wasn't worried.  I love it when a chef is well-prepared and has confidence in his team!

We're still just getting into the white truffle season, and the quality is on an uptrend.  We were shown 2 pieces which were fragrant, and opted for the smaller piece weighing around 18 grams.

Wagyu skirt steak tartare / Cantabrian anchovy - very nice, with good bite to the chunks of beef.  Well-seasoned with little bits of peppercorn.  Also tasty with the Cantabrian anchovies.

A Great birthday

Pin It

A few of us got together and celebrated the Great One's birthday tonight.  Instead of the usual suspects, someone suggested we do Chiuchow cuisine for a change.  None of us had been to Chiu Chow Chuen (潮州邨), but it seemed promising with the Worm Supplier stopped by a couple of days ago to check the place out.  I left the ordering to the experts...

Black mullet in Chiu Chow style served cold (潮式凍魚飯 - 烏魚) - apparently this black mullet was wild-caught and even came with a little gift in its belly.  Very tender flesh.

Château Margaux dinner

Pin It

I was very fortunate to have been invited to a dinner tonight featuring the wines of Château Margaux.  Sotheby's is holding an auction in New York this week entitled "A Celebration of the Mentzelopoulos Era" featuring vintages from 1900 to 2010 - where all the wines come directly from the château - and the auction house decided to host a dinner here in Hong Kong featuring a few of the wines.

I had the privilege of visiting the château a few years ago and was warmly received by winemaker Paul Pontallier and his lovely wife Béatrice.  It helps that Thibault Pontallier, Paul's son, has been stationed in Hong Kong for the last few years to represent the château.  He arranged for a shipment of wines direct from the château, so that the wines we tasted tonight would have the same provenance as the ones in the auction.  We are, of course, very grateful for this kind arrangement.

The food tonight was catered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which usually does a pretty good job.  Tonight the food was the best I've ever had at one of Sotheby's catered events, as just about every single dish was well-executed.

We started with some bubbly before dinner. R and L Legras Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru has been the Sotheby's house Champagne for a while, and it's always a nice drink, with good acidity balance.

Blue lobster, lemon curd, romaine foam, Parmesan - beautifully poached and flawless execution.  The flavors of the lobster were so pure, and the flavors so sweet.  The romaine foam was pretty tasty, and the use of lemon curd was pretty interesting.  Those bits of Parmesan crackers sure were tasty!

Cheese for dessert

Pin It

I found out this afternoon that My Very Very Very Very Single Engaged Friend was in town on a quick trip, and he asked me to join him for dinner.  We ended up at Shanghai Fraternity Association (上海總會) where the food is always good.

One of the best dishes of the evening was stir-fried sugar snap peas with ham (火丁甜豆).  This is a Shanghainese classic using very young sugar snap peas, which are very tender, sweet, and deliver a very satisfying pop in the mouth under pressure.  The diced ham add just the right amount of savory flavors here.