Le dîner de cons

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It was a few years ago that I got to celebrate Fergie and Chocoball's birthdays with them, and this year the boys decided to do it in style.  After months of hearing me bitch about it, Fergie finally decided to invite me for a meal at Derby Restaurant in the Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley Clubhouse, so that I could get a taste of the new dishes from Chef Francky Semblat.

I haven't been here in a couple of years, and certainly not since Francky landed here after leaving le monde de Joël Robuchon. The first dishes I saw on social media looked like they came from Oncle Joël, and then there was talk that the menu didn't change very much in the beginning. Tonight, though, we were getting something entirely different. This was a menu that was meant to go with white truffle... all of 12 grams.

Our amuse bouche was a French onion soup tart, with white truffle on top.

The first cut is the deepest

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There's a group of friends I haven't seen for a few years, and tonight I had a rare opportunity to join them for a meal. This would be Winnie the Chew's last year before her age changes the big figure, so we gathered to help her celebrate before she flies off for a few weeks. Our organizer chose Kamcentre Roast Goose (甘棠燒鵝) - which is right next to the bowling alley inside the South China Athletic Association (南華會) - as the venue.

The restaurant only has a short history, having been backed by Mr. Jacky Kam (甘焯霖) - a cousin of the late Kinsen Kam (甘健成) - who recruited chef Ho-tong Fung (馮浩棠) when he retired from Yung Kee Restaurant (鏞記酒家). This was yet another offshoot from the roast goose dynasty of the Kan family, and it"s been getting a lot of attention since it opened.

Tonight's menu included some old school roast meat dishes, a couple of which have become increasingly difficult to find in Hong Kong. These are dishes which require a lot of time and effort, which are not appreciated by many diners and don't make restaurants a lot of money. It is, therefore, a real blessing that a place like Kamcentre still insists on delivering them.

Kam's fatty and burnt barbecued pork (甘一刀肥燶叉燒) - it makes total sense to start our meal with the signature char siu (叉燒), which is served in these big chunks with extra thick cut.

Another four-month wait

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I'm back at one of the most difficult restaurants to book in Hong Kong, with a reservation I made more than 4 months ago. Hidden (秀殿) has seen their business explode in 2021 - which is a position I am happy they're in. This would be my last visit this year, and I invited Winnie the Chew and the Zhongmeister along for lunch - not knowing that they have never been here before.

I tried to take it easy today, since it's lunch, but I think I still had a little too much...

Fried chicken wing (手羽唐揚げ) - just gotta start off with this signature item... still love the acidity in the sauce.

The forgotten dinner

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I received a strange message this morning from the Great One, about bringing wines for dinner tonight. I was scratching my head about it, because I did not have anything entered into my calendar for tonight. I was expecting a break in dining out in between last night's shindig and a work-related dinner tomorrow.

But apparently the Great One had put me down for dinner at The Chairman (大班樓) tonight. She had invited us to join her tonight, at the same time that she had invited us for another meal. While I readily agreed to the second meal, I jokingly told her that I didn't want to have the same dishes that I always end up eating whenever we join her at The Chairman... and that we'd come "if she agreed not to order the usual flower crab and stuff." Yes, as blasphemous as that sounds, I really don't need to have the signature flowery crab every single time I'm there. I'd be happy to eat another type of crab, or even do without crab! What an idea!

Anyway, in my mind I had declined the invitation to The Chairman, so imagine my surprise when I received those messages this morning... Well, as much as I loathed having another big meal out - making it 3 in a row - I also didn't want to bail on a good friend and leave her scrambling to find replacements. Especially since she had agreed to order a different crab dish tonight. So I told my friend that I was gonna "suck it up and come" - which left her distinctively unimpressed. After all, there are thousands of people who would jump at the chance to have dinner at a restaurant which was voted the Best Restaurant in Asia and No. 10 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants. But... some of us do have these "first world problems"...

While most of the dishes tonight were familiar to me, at least they weren't the same set of the usual suspects. A good start, then... and grateful for the Great One for being accommodating.

Pickled mid-summer ginger root (大班樓子薑) - a good appetizer and palate-cleanser. Now served in thin slices instead of little chunks.

Babylon shell in XO wine sauce (XO花螺) - these were OK, and not very spicy. There was just enough flavor to make these interesting.

Latin evening

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Despite what Ms. French Rocket may believe, I have been a long-time fan of Ricardo Chaneton's. I love that he cooks up dishes where humble ingredients get to shine, and my dining experiences at MONO have introduced to many ingredients which are new to me. I was a little bummed to have missed the first edition of MONO Unplugged due to a conflict, so I was pretty happy to be invited to the second round.

I figured I would run into friends tonight, but it turns out I was practically surrounded by them. Ricardo chose to seat me next to Ms. French Rocket who, upon seeing me, recounted the first time she encountered me. Naturally, it was an episode where I was being the Arrogant Prick, so she told me something along the lines of "I will always remember you". Well... I could have told her that... Everyone knows that I AM UNFORGETTABLE!

The menu tonight was meant to be different from the restaurant's usual offerings - hence the term "unplugged". It would be an education (for those of us who aren't already familiar) into the varied cuisines across the Latin American world.

Avocado and erizo infladita - this was very creamy, of course, since both ingredients of the filling inside - avocado and sea urchin - have creamy textures. A little acidity in the "guacamole".