The new bastard in town

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The Birdiegolfs have been away on a long trip, and now that they have returned, wanted to meet up to belatedly celebrate Foursheets' birthday. When another restaurant that Foursheets thought we should try didn't have any openings until we hit November, Ahleeso suggested that we do it at Club Bâtard. They've obviously ponied up the membership fee as an early bird, so now we get to piggyback on them.

Now that the restaurant has moved to Central and expanded their operations, it's no surprise that we would run into friends while we were here, but I wasn't expecting to run into the Specialist and BFF.

With Foursheets' new dietary restrictions, we forced everyone to go à la carte instead of following a tasting menu. I think that worked out well for me...

Bâtard's burger - I had been seeing people post about this "duck burger" so I just had to try for myself. It's small and gone in just a couple of bites. The minced duck patty came with slices of duck foie gras, barbecue sauce, and julienned bell pepper. Very tasty for sure.

Pasta! Pasta! Pasta!

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Mr. Ho is back in town after an absence of nearly 2 years, and was in the mood for more Italian food. Unfortunately I no longer patronize a certain dining group's restaurants so we are not going back to the restaurant where we last dined together, but I proposed Estro as a substitute. They have introduced a new menu where diners can order à la carte and no longer need to choose their tasting menus, so Foursheets and I were pretty eager to try it out.

For me, Juve Fan's best dishes have often been his pastas. This is not to say that the appetizers and main courses are not delicious, but for me the hit rate on the pastas have pretty much been 100%. Tonight I was determined to just do three different pastas and nothing else.

We started with some aperitivos and bread, and the offering has been lightened a little.

Tarali - I still really love this as it's just soooo fragrant and tasty thanks to crunchy bits of almonds along with black pepper. That anchovy buffalo milk butter is still available on the side and as sinful as ever.

The Chairman in transit

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DaRC pinged me 2 days ago and asked if I could join a dinner tonight with a couple of visitors from Paris transiting through town. I had missed doing lunch with the visitors a few weeks ago as they were transiting on their way to Japan, and now that they are on their return journey home, I figured I should take the opportunity to catch up with them at The Chairman (大班樓). After all, they took time out to show me around some of their favorite spots in Paris during my trip last year, and it was only right that I return the favor somehow.

I was glad to see that the menu for tonight could still fit on the front page, although we did have more courses than the "standard" menu.

Cold squid noodle and lily bulbs with pine nut gazpacho (魷魚涼麵百合配松子凍湯) - this was obviously a dish created after The Chairman did their collaboration with Onjium (온지음) and Seroja in Seoul earlier this year. The lily bulb petals were, of course, crispy, starchy, and sweet, while the pine nut "gazpacho" was velvety and refreshingly chilled. A really good dish to start with.

Sticks and Burgs

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The Great One needed to bail on her booking at Hidden (秀殿) due to her babysitting duties on behalf of the tourism board, so Foursheets and I were only too happy to take it over. As this was a foursome, I asked a couple of other friends to join us. As it turned out, one of them was making his first visit after years of reading about my visits.

The boys were pretty happy to follow our lead and just raise their hands when we were doing the ordering. As I knew they don't visit as often as I do, this meant I was ordering a bunch of stuff just so they could try more items. Methinks I ordered a tad too much...

Awa-odiri fried chicken wing (阿波雄鶏手羽唐揚げ) - we always, always start with the chicken wing. One of my favorite chicken wings in town, with the wonderful acidity in the sauce being the perfect complement to the delicious deep-fried chicken skin.

Guess who's coming to dinner, 2024 edition

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Gaggan is on a short trip to Hong Kong and only staying 2 nights, but he very kindly reserved tonight so we could eat out together. Just as I was starting to think of which Cantonese or Chinese restaurant to take him to, he mentioned that he would like to go to Neighborhood. I was, of course, overjoyed at his choice, since it is the one restaurant where I have visited more than any other restaurant in Hong Kong. I wasted no time in getting us a table, but I didn't want to tell The Man in White T-shirt who I was bringing tonight.

I kept being told that the boss' new lounge was "just around the corner" but no one ever told me exactly where it is. So I asked Shirley to take me there, and it really was as described... Paragon was a chill place to hang out.

Blue Note - any time I see a cocktail with Blue Curaçao as an ingredient, I MUST order.