A Japanese feast in Hong Kong

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I'm slow at trying out new restaurants.  I generally don't go to a new restaurant within the first 3 or even 6 months of opening, as I'm not a news reporter and don't need to brag about being first.  I also have zero desire to 'step on landmines' - spending my hard-earned money on a meal that may turn out disastrous.  After all, many new restaurant openings are so hyped up by the PR machine - helped by so-called "KOLs" (what the fuck are those, anyway?) who readily spread the word (more likely images these days) after being invited by the restaurant.  So I wait for the hype to die down, and if people are still talking about the place, and if my friends have given me enough positive feedback, I may be curious enough to try it out for myself.

The Great One had raved about La Bombance after dining there a few months ago.  In fact, it was chosen as one of the five best (new) restaurants the South China Morning Post tried in 2016.  The fact that the original restaurant in Tokyo has itself a macaron, and the local partner has already backed Tenku RyuGin (天空龍吟) and Ta Vie旅 - both restaurants I love - also gave me confidence that this place could deliver.  So I rounded up a couple of friends to check it out together.

I had already told the restaurant at the time I made the reservation that two of us won't eat tuna.  This morning I was shocked to find out that one of the friends we invited was in pain from gout.  This meant that there were a whole host of ingredients he couldn't touch.  I called the restaurant about 3 hours before dinner, and read out the list of ingredients that were off limits.  It was a pretty last-minute notice, so we weren't expecting them to be able to do much about changing the menu.

The assistant manager recognized me from my visits to Tenku RyuGin, which was a nice surprise.  I always knew that I could be a real pain-in-the-ass customer who would be remembered by restaurant staff... After all, I don't go to Tenku RyuGin that frequently...  Anyway, we were also told that the kitchen had managed to change out every single ingredient I had listed as being off-limits for my friend - and even taken care to remove another ingredient that they believed would be bad for gout.  How's that for service?!

First came the hassun (八寸), which was beautifully presented.  These looked like they still had the Japanese new year theme of red and white, and consisted of:

Fatty roast meats for lunch

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Mrs. Tigger is back in town for a couple of days, and I badly wanted to catch up after not having seen her for a couple of months.  I asked what food she missed most, and the surprising answer I got was "goose".  I'm guessing quality Cantonese roast meats must be in short supply over there... Anyway, I was thinking we should go somewhere a little more comfortable than Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝), so I thought about either Duddell's (都爹利會館) or Mott 32 (三二公館).  Unfortunately the former doesn't seem to serve roast goose, so Mott 32 it is...

It's been a while since my first and only visit, and this time I wanted to check out a few things from Chef Lee Man Sing (李文星), who used to head the kitchen at Man Wah (文華廳) - a restaurant Mrs. Tigger is all too familiar with.  Too bad there were only two of us...

Barbecue pluma Iberico pork, Yellow Mountain honey (蜜汁頂級西班牙黑毛豬叉燒) - this right here... this is the signature dish of the restaurant.  It was in the press release sent out to all the media outlets, and when the place first opened, it was in every freaking blogger and social media influencer's (nowadays known as "KOL") post.  I got so tired of the hype that it turned me off from wanting to go to the restaurant.

Droning Boy: Chung Hom Kok

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This is the last weekend before my upcoming weekend in Bali, and I need all the practice I can get with my drone before the trip.  So I packed my DJI Mavic Pro in my small LowePro camera bag and headed out to the southside of Hong Kong Island.

I met up with Kung Fu Panda who suggested Cheshire Home as a good vantage point.  We parked at the end of Chung Hom Kok Road, and launched the drone from a platform at the barbecue pits in Chung Hom Kok Park.  With unobstructed views of the ocean, it was indeed a good place for this purpose.

I had taken plenty of pictures of Chung Hom Wan - during the day and also at sunset - and always had Round Island in those pictures.  So I started by sending the drone out by having it face Round Island, then using the TapFly mode and sending it heading straight for the island.  One problem with this mode is that when the target has a height which is lower than the cruising altitude of the drone, at some point the drone will automatically start descending.  For a newbie like myself, this was somewhat disconcerting... so I turned back to flying manually.

Yo' mama

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The Peanut Crew missed our scheduled gathering at the start of the year, so we ended up getting together tonight to try out the food at Lee Lo Mei (李好味) at the restaurant's invitation.  We had been watching this place come together for the last couple of months, and waiting for the chance to dine at a restaurant with such a cheeky name.  In Cantonese, "lee lo mei" sounds like the way someone would greet your mother - only not exactly in a polite way...  The owner, though, chickened out and decided on a more civilized Chinese name for the place.

The place is meant to evoke the street-side daipaidong (大排檔) eateries of bygone days.  The government has been trying to kill off the daipaidong culture for the last couple of decades, by offering to buy back existing licenses and prohibiting their transfer until a few years ago.  The end result is that there are only a small number of daipaidong stalls still in operation.  But the food that used to be served by these hawkers remain popular with the people, so it made sense that these dishes would show up on the menus of proper restaurants.

Chef Joe Lee was Harlan Goldstein's right hand for many years, so we know the guy can cook.  This would be the first time for us tasting anything Chinese from him, and I was definitely curious.

The menu was pre-arranged for us, and I ordered a couple of cocktails to go along with the food.  The names of the dishes here often involve some sort of pun, which makes things a little interesting.

Droning Boy: first flights in Taipei

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I'm back in Taiwan for the Lunar New Year holidays so I could spend some quality time with the Parental Units, after having been banished for the last 6 months or so.  Since I took delivery of my new drone just 10 days before my trip, this would be a great opportunity for me to get some good flying experience with the new toy.

Traveling with a drone requires some homework to be done in advance of the trip.  First, I had to check with the airline about their rules regarding bringing drones onboard.  In this case, Cathay Pacific informed me that as long as I took the propellers off the drone and made sure the rechargeable batteries were in my carry-on bags, I was more than welcome to bring my drone with me.  That was easy.