The Locusts are in town on a brief stopover, and requested that I take them to Sushi Saito (鮨 さいとう) Hong Kong. Being the good and loyal friend that I am, I promptly called and made a reservation for lunch today.
September 6, 2018
More wonderful sushi
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The Locusts are in town on a brief stopover, and requested that I take them to Sushi Saito (鮨 さいとう) Hong Kong. Being the good and loyal friend that I am, I promptly called and made a reservation for lunch today.
Salmon roe (イクラ) - absolutely delicious way to start lunch. So light and delicate. So much umami. Wonderful with a touch of fragrance from the yuzu zest shavings.
The Locusts are in town on a brief stopover, and requested that I take them to Sushi Saito (鮨 さいとう) Hong Kong. Being the good and loyal friend that I am, I promptly called and made a reservation for lunch today.
September 3, 2018
Peru in Hong Kong
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Tonight a few of us had the pleasure of being given a preview of ICHU - Virgilio Martinez' first outpost in Asia. Virgilio had flown in for the restaurant's soft-opening, but apparently that will be delayed a bit longer. Nevertheless, the team is in place and seems ready.
I had actually been monitoring the progress from my office over the last few months, and I knew they weren't gonna be ready by the end of June as initially announced. Well... they're almost ready... if only they would get some tables in the space. As of tonight they only had one table that seats 10, and it was installed inside the private dining room. So that's where the 10 of us got seated.
Virgilio had long ago made it known that ICHU isn't another Central. It's meant to be much more casual, although more sophisticated than a regular cevicheria. Chef Sang Jeong has been in Hong Kong since early this year to prep for the opening and develop the menu, and I look forward to seeing the full range of dishes.
We started the evening with - what else? - a pisco sour.
After we were seated, loaves of cornbread arrived along with a chimichurri and goat cheese dip. These were very tasty, but I restrained myself and took only one slice of cornbread... knowing there was plenty of food coming.
Tonight a few of us had the pleasure of being given a preview of ICHU - Virgilio Martinez' first outpost in Asia. Virgilio had flown in for the restaurant's soft-opening, but apparently that will be delayed a bit longer. Nevertheless, the team is in place and seems ready.
I had actually been monitoring the progress from my office over the last few months, and I knew they weren't gonna be ready by the end of June as initially announced. Well... they're almost ready... if only they would get some tables in the space. As of tonight they only had one table that seats 10, and it was installed inside the private dining room. So that's where the 10 of us got seated.
Virgilio had long ago made it known that ICHU isn't another Central. It's meant to be much more casual, although more sophisticated than a regular cevicheria. Chef Sang Jeong has been in Hong Kong since early this year to prep for the opening and develop the menu, and I look forward to seeing the full range of dishes.
We started the evening with - what else? - a pisco sour.
After we were seated, loaves of cornbread arrived along with a chimichurri and goat cheese dip. These were very tasty, but I restrained myself and took only one slice of cornbread... knowing there was plenty of food coming.September 2, 2018
From East China Sea with love
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Three hours after I finished a long lunch, I'm back at the dinner table with The Man in White T-shirt and a group of friends. Earlier this year I had thoroughly enjoyed my first dinner at Xin Rong Ji (新榮記), although that was with special arrangements by the owner and ultimately the whole thing was comped - including 2 bottles of expensive Burgundy. To get a sense of what the cuisine is really like for ordinary diners, I decided to round up a few of the usual suspects and booked us a table in the main dining room.
Because we did not go through any special arrangements or pre-order anything, a few dishes we had wanted were sold out. That was slightly disappointing but to be expected...
Almond wafers (杏仁酥片) - this was one of the amuse bouches. The other was a big bunch of grapes.
Crispy fried silver ribbon fish (黃金脆帶魚) - not as good as what we had last time. Soft and mushy tonight on the inside.
Honey glazed sweet potatoes (蜜汁紅薯) - as we did not pre-order dishes, we didn't get the beautiful potatoes which I enjoyed so much last time. These were pretty decent, though.
Three hours after I finished a long lunch, I'm back at the dinner table with The Man in White T-shirt and a group of friends. Earlier this year I had thoroughly enjoyed my first dinner at Xin Rong Ji (新榮記), although that was with special arrangements by the owner and ultimately the whole thing was comped - including 2 bottles of expensive Burgundy. To get a sense of what the cuisine is really like for ordinary diners, I decided to round up a few of the usual suspects and booked us a table in the main dining room.
Because we did not go through any special arrangements or pre-order anything, a few dishes we had wanted were sold out. That was slightly disappointing but to be expected...
Eating with chefs: Peruvian Chairman
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I woke up uncharacteristically early for a Sunday morning, checked my phone and found a message from Virgilio Martinez. Besides confirming the invitation to a preview at his new place tomorrow, he also expressed his wish to have lunch at The Chairman (大班樓). Today.
That was gonna be a tall order...
I waited till a respectable hour before thickening my skin and calling Danny. I knew that he would be very happy to have Virgilio at his restaurant, but they were obviously fully booked today. After checking the available ingredients and the booking situation, we were seated at a late hour.
Pickled mid-summer ginger root (大班樓子薑) - these are always good to whet our appetites with. Only the hearts of the young ginger is used to ensure a tender texture that's not too fibrous. Virgilio remarked that people in Peru are very familiar with ginger as it was brought over by Chinese immigrants long ago. In fact, the Peruvian word for ginger is kión - as it was adapted from the Cantonese pronunciation.
I woke up uncharacteristically early for a Sunday morning, checked my phone and found a message from Virgilio Martinez. Besides confirming the invitation to a preview at his new place tomorrow, he also expressed his wish to have lunch at The Chairman (大班樓). Today.
That was gonna be a tall order...
I waited till a respectable hour before thickening my skin and calling Danny. I knew that he would be very happy to have Virgilio at his restaurant, but they were obviously fully booked today. After checking the available ingredients and the booking situation, we were seated at a late hour.
September 1, 2018
Beef and big cabs
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We were meant to lend out our fur jerk for an afternoon with our friend's kid, but the incessant rain made us shelves those plans for another day. That didn't stop the adults getting together for some good food and nice wines, and we met up at Beefbar tonight.
I've always enjoyed the beef here, and tonight we simply got ourselves some starters and shared a few cuts of beef. Plus some desserts. Simple.
Our amuse bouche was diced cuttlefish with cucumber and tosazu (土佐酢) jelly. Texture of the cuttlefish was kinda mushy.
Cuttlefish, spicy pepper sauce - the cuttlefish had been sliced into fettucine-like noodles. Not bad.
We were meant to lend out our fur jerk for an afternoon with our friend's kid, but the incessant rain made us shelves those plans for another day. That didn't stop the adults getting together for some good food and nice wines, and we met up at Beefbar tonight.
I've always enjoyed the beef here, and tonight we simply got ourselves some starters and shared a few cuts of beef. Plus some desserts. Simple.
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