Delicate dishes for a Sunday night

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It has been much, much too long since my first visit to Yong Fu (甬府), so when it was suggested that we visit another restaurant with a somewhat repertoire, I figured we should come here instead.  After all, my meal here was filled with so many highlights I should have returned earlier.

Once again, we asked the manager to help put together a menu with the fresh and seasonal ingredients for the 4 of us.

Hello Kitty and I nibbled on the amuses bouches while we waited for Mr and Mrs Film Buff to arrive.  The marinated wood ear fungus was pretty nice.

A strong lunch game

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It's a rare occurrence when one of my friendly neighborhood broker wants to take me to lunch, but as it is getting close to year end, I guess it seemed like a good opportunity to do this kind of thing.  I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the venue would be Écriture, as it's a restaurant I've always been happy to visit.

I walked past the open kitchen and waved to Maxime, who was surprised to see me.  He remarked that it has been so long since I was here and he no longer remembered when my last visit was.  I, of course, remember very well.  It was exactly a week before we said goodbye to Kuma.

I've only been here for lunch once, and that was when I took a full menu.  So I was a little surprised that the "short" lunch consisted of 5 courses.  That's a lot of food for people who are on the clock.  The restaurant has changed to their game menu, so I decided to choose all the game dishes whenever I could.

It has been much, much too long since I last held this knife with my hand...

Japanese steamed bun, hay panna cotta, lemon gel, quail egg, black truffle - very creamy indeed.

Crispy dough with buckwheat, cauliflower bavarois, nori seaweed, crispy white bait

Crispy potato curl, coriander hummus, edible flowers 

Peanuts for everyone

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The Peanut Gang needed one more gathering before the end of this shit year, and this time we finally made it to our original scheduled venue for our last dinner together.  Ren Ren Heping Restaurant (人人和平小飯店) is, surprisingly, within walking distance of my apartment.  Somehow I never got around to visiting this neighborhood restaurant after 10 months of living in the area.  

Since we came with two VIPs - one of whom actually had a VIP discount card for the restaurant - I knew we were in good hands.  They know exactly what to order.

Award-winning honey char siu (本地蜂蜜叉燒) - wow, this was pretty damn good!  The exterior was relatively dry and not at all like many of the caramelized, honey-glazed versions around, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that the center would be tough and dry.  But the middle was surprisingly tender, although it was by no means succulent.  The candied mung beans on the side were nice.

Dog day afternoon

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We're in Sai Kung today to visit a shelter for rescue dogs, and for one reason or another didn't have time to grab lunch at a more reasonable hour.  I was starving by the time we were free to eat around 4 p.m., and I was determined to make up for it by getting a decent meal.  Since we're in an area famous for their seafood, I figured we should make our way to Loaf On (六福菜館). We were the only table in the restaurant, and the staff had to turn the lights back on for us. As we were only two, we couldn't order a lot of dishes.

Baked abalone with chili and garlic (椒鹽焗鮑魚) - difficult to come here and not order this.  These were pretty decent in size. although not as thick as the ones we had last time.  Still very tasty.

Memories of Spain

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Following the footsteps of his bromance twin, Goldfinger has also decided to open up a new restaurant with the same restaurant group as financial backers.  I am, as usual, in no hurry to check out Andō.  Plenty of others who are itching to go can report back, and I'd just sit back and see if it's the same ol' shit from HAKU, or if it's going in a different direction.

Well, it's been about 4 months, so I guess it was time to go see Goldfinger.  I rounded up Mr. and Mrs. Birdiegolf as we were overdue for a meal together, and chalked it down as part of the month-long birthday celebrations.

We decided to take the 8-course menu because, well, we came to try out some dishes.  

Beef tartare with Kristal caviar - the Argentinian Angus was aged for 21 days and seasoned with orange, lime, and lemon zest.  Topped with crispy shallots, Kaviari Kristal caviar, and perilla flowers.  Good combination of textures, and the flavors were lighter than expected.