When generosity turns painful

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Goh-san is back in town for a few days doing a 4-hands with Goldfinger.  On his last night in Hong Kong, he wanted to check out VEA.  So I got drafted invited by The Great One to join them since, you know, I kinda speak a little Japanese and can help translate.  Honestly, I hesitated for a while before agreeing... because my last visit left me with the conclusion that I am not the target audience.  In the end, though, curiosity got the best of me... and I wanted to see whether things have evolved.

And we started with a series of snacks, as usual, with the first one being a familiar sight:

Quail egg - marinated in Japanese vinegar and soy sauce, and smoked with apple wood.  Served, of course, under a glass dome which releases the smoke when lifted.

Wagyu and sea urchin taco - aaaaaand here we go.  Luxe and attention-grabbing ingredients.  A scallion pancake bearing a layer of minced wagyu from Kagoshima (鹿児島), topped with a few tongues of sea urchin from Hokkaido.  We were told to treat it like a taco...

Happy to meat you in Hong Kong

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I've kinda been itching to try a new place, but a couple of the prime suspects were either a little too new, or too hot to score a reservation on short notice.  Somehow I ended up calling Wagyu Vanne, and was pretty happy that they didn't seem to have a problem fitting us in on the same evening.

I'm a big fan of Yoroniku (よろにく) in Tokyo, although I've only been to their location in Aoyama and not the more upscale location 蕃 YORONIKU in Ebisu.  I heard that owner Kuwahara "Vanne" Hideyuki (桑原秀幸) chose to open an outlet here, following in the footsteps of Yakiniku Jumbo (焼肉ジャンボ) and Wagyumafia.  I wasn't in a hurry to go, but I figured enough time has passed by now.

There were a few choices of set menus, but other than a couple of items, they didn't seem particularly appealing.  So we decided to order à la carte instead.

Wagyu sushi "3 ways" (和牛握り三種類) - Hello Kitty regrets ordering this, and it's probably the only thing we had tonight that we didn't enjoy.

Maki (巻き) - my first reaction to this was simply W-T-F... Why the fuck was gold foil needed here???!!!  The freeze-dried powder made from beef fat was interesting as it added flavors and richness, but even the gold couldn't save this crappy roll with the dry and overcooked pieces of beef inside.

No gold for me, again

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Farmer Chris is back in town after his months-long stint in the Big Apple, and was making his rounds catching up with people.  We had initially tried to get into a couple of restaurants I haven't been to, but much to my surprise, these places were actually busy on a Saturday night.  Maybe the F and B industry isn't hit as badly as we've heard...

We ended up at HAKU, of all places.  For a guy who was initially pretty critical of the kind of dishes seemingly created primarily to be Instagrammable, I have certainly come around and nowadays willingly step through the doors without much coercion.  The flavors of the food are strong enough to speak for themselves, and there are now fewer things on offer that I consider "form over substance".

Caviar / somen - well, speaking of "Instagrammable dishes"... we actually kicked off with one.  This has been all over social media over the last couple of months ever since it was introduced in the restaurant's summer menu.  A nice dollop of Kaviari Kristal caviar on a pinch of somen (素麺), which has been flavored with plankton powder and Spanish olive oil.  Of course, we can't forget those pretty perilla flowers to get an extra few "likes" on IG...

We were instructed to mix it all together before tasting.  I, on the other hand, seriously contemplated either bending down to the plate, or lifting the plate up to my mouth so that I could just suck it all up in one big bite...  But obviously I didn't end up doing it...

No inspiration

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Another month has passed from our last gathering, and we were finally doing our third MNSC tasting of the year.  With three of the boys perennially outside Hong Kong and in Shanghai, it is increasingly difficult to get enough of us together to pop a few bottles.  Given the low turnout tonight, our host Curry decided to serve us some steaks at the American Club.

The butcher platter - I only tasted the mortadella.

The bread was a little bitter thanks to the grilling...

Night out with Koreans

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I've been pretty damn busy at work this year, so I've had to pass up a few opportunities to travel.  I was pretty crushed about not being able to join a group of friends in Seoul last week, because I was really, really looking forward to going to the new Born and Bred.  A few of us had a fantastic dinner at the original location two years ago, when I almost died from the massive amount of food we were fed that evening.  Going back with a few more friends would have been totally awesome.

When The Man in White T-shirt messaged me from Seoul the next day, telling me that owner 30K was coming to Hong Kong for a few days and asking me to join them at Neighborhood, I was naturally excited at the prospect of meeting up with the boss again.

Just about the first thing I noticed after stepping foot in the restaurant was this giant tray of porcini.

Hello Kitty couldn't resist picking up a big one.  Being the clumsy one, of course she ended up breaking it...