The best dishes I had in 2024

Pin It

2024 was a strange year for me. While the borders had been fully-open since late 2022, I went on a self-imposed travel ban for 6 months in the middle of this year, thereby missing out on a few amazing culinary trips my friends undertook. I told everyone that I was staying in town to support Hong Kong's economy, and I hope my chef and restauranteur friends appreciated that...

As I have done each year since 2018, I have compiled a list of dishes I've enjoyed during the year which were the most emotional experiences for me. There have been no shortage of delicious dishes over hundreds of meals, and making a concise list of the best of them remains a difficult task. So here they are in chronological order:

Sweet and sour pig tails (菠蘿咕嚕豬尾), from The Chairman (大班樓) in Hong Kong - as someone who loves pig tails and who also enjoys a good sweet and sour pork this combination proved insanely delicious. The light and airy batter was especially bewitching.

27 Michelin star chef x 7-Eleven

Pin It

Pretty much the first thing I do after I get back to my apartment in New Taipei, after dropping off my luggage, is head to the 7-Eleven downstairs to pickup some supplies. This would usually be drinks, junk food, and maybe breakfast for the next morning. This time around Foursheets noticed a big poster in the window of our local 7-Eleven with the face of Olivier Elzer in a prominent position, along with smaller pictures of a bunch of products.

Apparently Olivier - who opened Seasons by olivier e. at the W Taipei last year, has created a series of ready-to-eat meals exclusively with 7-Eleven Taiwan. Olivier is being introduced as a "27 Michelin star chef", and now you can get a taste of his "star rated cuisine (星級饗宴)" at an estimated 7,000 outlets on the island.

Girlie drinks in a girlie izakaya

Pin It

We are back in Taiwan to spend the holiday season with the Parental Units, but have alternating days off when we are on our own. I had planned exactly zero meals out for this trip, so as tonight was our first night off, we didn't have any idea of where to eat. Foursheets asked to go to an izakaya (居酒屋), and after doing brief research online, I decided we should try a place literally just across the river from our apartment. In fact, I could hypothetically hit it with a Stinger from my living room window if I could get one...

As my research was very brief, I thought Tokyo Skewer (東京串燒。酒場) would just be some old school izakaya since the words I remembered were "old mansion (老宅)". The key words I missed were actually "hipster (文青)"... And while we entered through the door of Tokyo Skewer, we were actually led to seats inside the connecting space next door at Old Town West (老城西。酒食製作所), with a feminine, farmhouse charm.

We were seated at the bar lined with potted plants and flowers, and watched the two mixologists work their magic all night. The drinks here were pretty elaborate, which took us completely by surprise. Since the house rules impose a minimum spend with the added condition that customers must order at least one drink, we started with an alcohol order...

Rose in lychee garden - as Foursheets exclaimed... "IT DOESN'T GET MORE GIRLIE THAN THIS!" With Glendalough Wild Rose Irish Gin as the base together with lime juice, garnished with both canned lychees and dried rosebuds... and finally finished with a blooming red rose plus baby's breath on the stem of the martini glass.

Closing out the cycle

Pin It

There hasn't been an official MNSC dinner in over 11 months. I had tried to close out our current cycle - which began in the middle of 2022 - unsuccessfully several times earlier in the year. But busy travel schedules and force majeur made it impossible to get at least 5 of the boys together for a scheduled meal. Seeing that we were reaching the end of 2024, I reached out to the boys for one last try to host a dinner. Much to my surprise, EVERYONE raised their hands and we ended up with a full house tonight!

Since I had to cancel the original dinner scheduled at Andō earlier this year, I figured it was only right that I host the dinner there. Most of the boys have, in fact, never been to the restaurant, so it was a good opportunity to introduce them to Goldfinger. I asked for a custom menu to match the lineup of reds I was bringing, and worked out the opening/decanting schedule to Carlito Gorgor to try to catch the optimum windows of the wines.

Roasted piquillos, onion, sardines, caviar tart - this was nice, and the sardine didn't feel too heavy with the combination.

3-star Chave

Pin It

This is a dinner I waited more than 10 months for.

Not long after the epic dinner with Domaine Trimbach and Weingut Egon Müller, Hairy Legs told me that they were arranging a dinner with Domaine Jean-Louis Chave. I was very, very excited to hear the news, and I would get periodic updates on the progress from both Hairy Legs and Victor over the following months.

I was a little surprised that I had some difficulty in finding friends to share my table for this event. After all, this dinner at Caprice featured a tailored menu which Saffron Bae and Victor had worked on with Jean-Louis, with each course specifically paired with a specific vintage. We would also be tasting an older vintage of Cuvée Cathelin - a bottling I have had the privilege of tasting several occasions, and whose price has skyrocketed in the last few years. Finally, we would finish with the domaine's Vin de Paille - a wine I have neither seen nor tasted in person, and which I have only seen on offer once the last 2 decades or so.

Thankfully I found a couple of friends looking for a taste of Cathelin, so the four of us sat down pretty much as soon as the restaurant opened tonight. I also got a chance to catch up with Jean-Louis before dinner started.

It's very rare that I choose not to have anything from the bread basket when I'm here, but knowing how much food was coming our way - and considering how I'd been stuffing my face for the last week - I decided to forgo those little delicious buttery lumps.

Mushroom tart - on top of a little Parmesan sablé.