Geruhage HK tour day 5: same same but different

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We're counting down to the end of Geruhage's tour as we are now on the final day, and it's yet another all-Chinese day. For lunch, though, it would not be Cantonese cuisine... I have chosen to take him to the Hong Kong outpost of Xin Rong Ji (新榮記), the formidable restaurant group from Taizhou (台州) in Zhejiang Province (浙江省) which now boasts six restaurants in China with Michelin stars, including one with three stars in Beijing. Taizhou is less than 150 km from Ningbo, and while it's still broadly speaking Zhejiang cuisine, in recent years more people have been referring to this specifically as Taizhou cuisine (台州菜) - separately from other sub-categories.

I'm not exactly sure why a restaurant serving Zhejiang cuisine became famous for their Peking duck, but apparently everyone raves about it. I myself have never had the pleasure, as there are only a very limited number of ducks served per day so it must be reserved far in advance. Alas, even though I had booked this table quite a few weeks ago, the allotted number of ducks for the day have already been reserved by others. So... no cigar.

I don't know anyone at the restaurant and didn't pre-book any dishes, so I thought I'd just see what's on the menu today and pick out a few items. With just the three of us at the table, ordering at a Chinese restaurant is always a challenge.

A meal here often starts with some almond cookies (杏仁餅)...

Geruhage HK tour day 4: spring roll two

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When it comes to where overseas visitors would like to dine when they come to Hong Kong, 永 WING is probably the second-most requested restaurant after The Chairman (大班樓). For a long time since their opening, the restaurant was neigh impossible to reserve through their website, and only slightly easier when one contacted the restaurant to book one of the private dining rooms. I've been lucky enough to dine there on a few occasions, and I do find it interesting that Chef Vicky Cheng (鄭永麒) has flipped things around to cook Chinese cuisine by applying what he has learned through years of cooking French cuisine.

I found out a few weeks after booking the restaurant that Vicky would not be in town tonight, as he is in Taipei along with a few other chefs from Hong Kong for a series of 4-hands events there. I had thought about cancelling the booking and switch to another venue, but eventually I realized there were not going to be many other appealing alternatives. So despite the headcount dropping to just 3 people, I kept our table and apologized to Vicky.

We stepped into the restaurant to find that we have been provided one of the private dining rooms with a balcony. The evening was getting a tad cooler, and it was actually pretty nice to step out and enjoy a little breeze. We were also left in the care of the very capable Swiss Sung.

Our seasonal welcome drink was chuan bei, lily bulb, and pear tea (川貝百合雪梨茶).

Geoduck • Yunnan chili • bull kelp (象拔蚌配雲南皺皮椒及海茸) - I realized later than I translated geoduck wrong... The one being used is likely 浪貝 (as Geruhage correctly identified) or 白ミル instead of 海松貝. Regardless, this was pretty good.

Geruhage HK tour day 4: spring roll one

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While it seems like having Cantonese food would be de rigueur when visiting Hong Kong, I generally make sure that I take visitors to experience other types of cuisine when they're in town - time permitting. The last few years have seen two of China's high-end restaurant groups plant the flag in Hong Kong, and they're interesting enough to warrant taking Geruhage for a taste. The first stop would be Yong Fu (甬府) for lunch today.

By way of unfortunate circumstances, we did not manage to pre-arrange the menu, so we made do by trying to order up a few old favorites, and took some of the recommendations coming from the restaurant manager. I had to put my foot on the brakes during the ordering process so that DaRC does not do his usual thing of ordering half the menu. In the end, though, we had just a liiiittle bit too much.

Stir-fried baby broccoli balls (熗炒芥蘭球) - DaRC and I absolutely wanted to have this again. It's amazing how much care is taken by this restaurant on humble ingredients like vegetables. The stem of local kailan (芥蘭) is peeled, fermented in brine, tenderizes by cutting to break the fibers. The end result is a aesthetically pleasing presentation of a common ingredient, where the slightly acidic and spicy flavors and the tender texture are incongruous with what we normally associate with this green vegetable - thereby delivering a whole new experience for something we normally take for granted.

Geruhage HK tour day 3: a golden journey

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Many of my friends know that I am a big, big fan of Chef Sato Hideaki (佐藤秀明). I was only introduced to his cuisine when he first helmed the kitchen at the now-shuttered Tenku Ryugin (天空龍吟), and I got more excited when he opened Ta Vie 旅 in 2015. In its eighth appearance in the Michelin Guide, the restaurant was promoted to the coveted three-star status, which necessitated a visit by Geruhage on this trip.

On his last trip to Hong Kong, Geruhage had paid a visit to the restaurant on his own. He said that he was "more or less forced" to go by yours truly, but reported that he was happily surprised to have had good, "maybe even great" food. He rated the experience highly, so when the promotion happened a few months ago, it became the impetus of making this journey. I was only too happy to come back with my friend this time so he wouldn't have to dine alone.

It's China's National Day today, but we are having dinner in a restaurant with absolutely no view whatsoever, so we were not able to take in the first fireworks display in quite a few years. Oh well... it's the food that matters.

30 months aged Parma ham, and "aori" lardo squid, on deep-fried focaccia - a really interesting dish, as the fried focaccia came with chunks of radish as well as butter and rosemary. The real surprise, though, were the thin strips of bigfin reef squid (アオリイカ) placed on the two edges of the Parma ham. If one closes one's eyes, one could easily be fooled into thinking there were two strips of fat attached to the pork, because the texture was really, really similar to lardo di Colonnata. A really nice way to kick off our meal.

Geruhage HK tour day 3: 3-star dim sum

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A tour of Hong Kong and of Cantonese cuisine mandates at least one meal where dim sum is served up, and I figured we could fulfill this requirement over lunch at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店). I have always enjoyed having dim sum here, and although we had to include this place on our itinerary, it was also a good opportunity to take a break from heavy eating and have something a little more casual. That's the great thing about dining at a Chinese restaurant with 3 Michelin stars - it's totally possible to come and just have a simple meal.

Not surprisingly, I was tasked with ordering for us, although I did get some input from Tomo-chan.

Steamed curry chicken bun (咖哩雞包仔) - I had never had this before, and in fact had probably never seen it. Quite an interesting first experience, actually.