Detour to Hangzhou day 1: Liangzhu culture

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I’ve been spending time around Anji (安吉) over the last 2 days for our company offsite, and it was time to go home. Since Nicemo offered to drive a few of us back to Hangzhou, I requested a detour to Liangzhu (良渚) so that we could tour the ruins of the ancient city, which are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The trip from Banyan Tree Anji to Liangzhu National Archeological Site Park (良渚国家考古遺址公园) took a little more than an hour. We rented a golf cart and Nicemo drove us around the park for our tour.

Caprice in August, part 2: Le Pin duo

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It's been exactly two days since some of the MNSC boys last saw each other, and here we are again tonight, sitting around a table blind tasting wines. It's my turn again to play host, and for the second time in two weeks I'm back at Caprice with the Hairy Chevalier. With a smaller group tonight compared to last week, we could comfortably fit into the Chef's Table and hang out near the cheese cellar.

With a bunch of old fogeys at the table who bitch about long menus, I asked my friend for a short service. I was serving Champagne to start plus 3 flights of reds, so 4 courses ought to do it for these guys. Focus on quality, not quantity.

As is the same with every meal, the amuses bouches arrive in la boîte à bijoux:

Foie gras tartlet

Lobster tartlet

Crispy anchovy roll

Beef and Bro Bro

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It's been six years since Bro Bro left us, and we continue to toast him on his birthday. Unfortunately I messed up by choosing to host an MNSC dinner on his birthday this year, so tonight we're doing this a day early. Since we had a pretty good meal a few months ago to remember his passing, I decided to go back to Gyu+bar by Miyoshi for more beef.

For our second visit we chose not to take the set dinner menu, and opted to pick and choose à la carte. This way we could get exactly what we wanted.

This bread has a distinctive shape that looks awfully familiar... Sadly the texture is a far cry from the original I'm thinking of.

Clueless at the club

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The MNSC boys are doing two dinners this week, two days apart. We almost made it three in a row, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The Ox played host tonight, and we found ourselves back in The Grill at the Hong Kong Country Club.

After a weekend of stuffing myself in Shantou, I was more than happy to take things easy tonight and order à la carte. Soup and salad for me, then... But our host ordered a few starters for us to share.

Jambon persillé - a classic dish I am always happy to see. So nostalgic to see aspic with ham, and the fragrance of parsley just works so well with the gribiche sauce.

Shantou hop day 3: beef hotpot brunch

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It's our last day in Shantou, and we didn't get out of bed as early as originally planned. BUT we learned our lesson yesterday so we went out for coffee before breakfast. We went back to my new favorite Pickles and Coffee (咸菜咖啡) for another hit, only this time I didn't order the namesake drink again.

Yashi cold brew with osmanthus (桂花鸭屎香冷萃) - with cold brew made with single origin coffee beans from Yunnan (雲南), Yashi (鴨屎香) tea, osmanthus syrup from Morin, dried osmanthus flowers, and garnished with a piece of osmanthus candy. This was, effectively, the Chiuchow version of yuenyeung (鴛鴦) - but an elegant, high-end version. I love osmanthus flowers and the fragrance they leave in one's mouth.