525,600 minutes

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A year ago today, we lost our beloved asshole Kuma.  He should have had a few more years on this earth, but it wasn't meant to be... and he crossed the rainbow bridge to join other beloved members of our family.  We were devastated, and on the night after he left, we chose to have a simple dinner at Nikushou, and toasted him with a relatively simple bottle of red Bordeaux.  It was a depressing evening.

We still miss asshole a lot.  What I wouldn't give to have him back on the bed, sticking his asshole in my face to wake me up in the morning.  But we now have our dogcow CC, who is not quite Asshole 2.0.  She is the sweetest girl, and doing a good job of having us focus on love and attention upon her.

I figured we should remember Bro Bro by going back to Nikushou, so I brought a bottle to go with our simple dinner on a Sunday night.

Purple sea urchin (紫雲丹) - I guess we could have a little something before hitting the beef.  This had a tiny hint of bitterness without the salt, which brought out the richness and depth on the palate.  A little more sophisticated than the usual "ice cream"...

21 months

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I last visited the joint serving my favorite Cantonese roast goose some 21 months ago.  Back in the last few months of 2019 I was pretty busy traveling around... globetrotting for work as well as taking short trips to eat around Asia.  So it wasn't surprising that I didn't get around to grab that goose.  

Then the pandemic started, and since the end of January 2020, I stopped going to any establishment where I would have to share tables with complete strangers - regardless of whether there were panes of plexiglass between me and others.  So I haven't given Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝) a dollar in about 21 months.

That ends today. Now that I'm fully vaccinated, I feel a lot more safe about being out there with strangers. It also helps that the situation in Hong Kong has improved drastically, with low single-digit cases of local infections - and most of them traceable. So... before getting on a call tonight, a colleague and I walked through the door and sat down for dinner.

Deep-fried Friyay

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Big Mac pinged me 2 days ago.  He managed to snag a booking at a (relatively) new restaurant where booking were (supposedly) difficult to come by, was feeling generous, and wanted to see if I would join him for dinner.

Well, I already had two cheat meals this week, and really shouldn't push it with a third. But my friend IS taking me to Tempura Uchitsu (広尾 うち津), which has generated mixed feedback from my friends but operated by a local group whose outlets are among my favorite restaurants in town. And I do want to spend more time with my compatriot. So I agreed to the cheat meal, and roped in My Favorite Birdbrain Cousin for the evening.

We were presented with a tray bearing three starters:

But this is where things go wrong, and actually before I even took my first bite. We haven't even begun to touch these starter bites when one of the chefs laid down the first piece of tempura in front of us. WHAT.THE.FUCK?! This would have never happened at the honten in Hiroo (広尾).  Clearly a communication and service FAIL.

Corn soup (とうもろこしのすり流し) - basically a purée of raw corn, with a few kernels inside.  Very sweet thanks to the high sugar content of the corn.

Foie gras monaka (フォアグラ   最中) - the monaka shells were pretty toasty, and the flavors from the foie gras were pretty good, balanced out by the fruit acidity from the strawberry.

There were also slices of lean tuna (赤身), but of course I chose to let the others have my portion.

70s disco boogie night

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Sankala had an itch she needed to scratch. Having left in the middle of our lunch to attend a work meeting on a Saturday, she felt she hadn't gotten a full taste of what Mono has to offer. We finally decided to pay Ricardo another visit after more than 4 months.

Hokkaido sea urchin / tree tomato / causa - in addition to the tamarillos, we've also got dicd potatoes from the causa delivering some grainy textures, and slightly bitter flavors.  The creamy sea urchin worked very well with the acidity of tamarillos.  Razor clams added some sweetness, and some kiwicha on top provided a little crunch.

Three stars, zero gold

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It's been a while since the Landlord and I caught up over a meal, and much longer since we last had some wine together.  For us there is no better venue to dine out than at Caprice, so I asked Hairy Legs to take care of us at the Chef's Table, and proceeded to work out the wines my friends and I would bring.  I then happened to run into Mir and figured we could make it into a bigger party.

Yesterday, though, Hairy Legs messaged me to tell me about his injury, and proceeded to send me pictures of his (very) hairy foot...  Naturally the team is capable of taking care of us without him being around, so I wasn't the least bit worried. I expected to be served dishes from the new, spring menu, and I wasn't disappointed.

We started with the usual trio of amuses bouches:

Button mushroom and foie gras gelée tart - always tasty with those mushroom flavors.

Balik salmon with Kristal caviar

Pita with curry chicken mousse - curry, curry.