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.

I Want It That Way

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I'm still biased against most "four hands" or so-called collaborations among chefs, as many of them simply showcase signature dishes from the participating chefs. Since many of these events have been hosted by restaurants where I know the chef, the reality is that I'm probably already familiar with at least half the dishes... so these meals become less of a discovery for me. There are exceptions, of course, and over the last couple of years we have seen more and more events feature dishes where all the chefs contribute to each and every dish - resulting in a "true" collaboration.

Historically the collabs I looked forward to the most were ones with Gaggan Anand. As long as I have been going to collaborations like GohGan and others involving him, they have generally insisted that all the chefs work together on all the dishes so that each chef contributes to every dish. I was, however, left a little disappointed at the second GohGaDen pop-up in Singapore last year, where I thought the chefs got a little lazy and a few dishes were simply lifted from the menu at their respective restaurants... but that was an outlier.

Gaggan was coming back to Hong Kong for the second leg of his collab with Vicky Cheng, and this time it was at VEA. My last visit to VEA was some 4 years ago, and this seemed like the perfect occasion to revisit the top floor of the building instead of the floor just below. I quickly messaged both Gaggan and Vicky asking for seats, insisting to both of them that we would gladly pay for our meals. I was glad to be told that seats had been reserved for our usual quintet.

We arrived a little early so I had time to drop off goodies with the boys and do a proper greeting before things started to go crazy. It worked out well that our little gang was seated in the middle of the counter area so it was easy to watch the action going on.

First, a little sip of Champagne. As Vicky is one of the Krug Ambassade, this was naturally a glass of Grande Cuvée.

Krug Grande Cuvée, 172ème Édition, ID 123005 - initially this was served too cold, but after warming up a little using my hands, the nose opened up to show the classic toasty brioche notes that I love so much from Grande Cuvée. The acidity was fairly high, and we had a little tartness and tannins on the finish.

As is often the case, there was no menu given upfront so we didn't know what was coming our way. I did receive word that changes had been made for me when it came to the first bite...

Yogurt explosion 💥 shirako, Champagne - these days the dish comes with pop rocks which, if you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said was "so last decade"... So we now have to pop the yogurt ball on the "lotus leaf" cone immediately before eating. But wait! This version came with a Champagne beurre blanc with salmon roe, but apparently the instruction to hold off on eating came too late for some people, and they popped it into their mouths before the sauce was spooned on top...

Krug x Flower

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This is the tenth anniversary of Champagne Krug's single ingredient program, and as Olivier Krug likes to recount, it all started in Hong Kong with chefs like Uwe Opocensky at the Krug Room. I knew that the theme this year would be Krug x Flower as Hairy Chevalier Saffron Bae had traveled to France earlier this year for a special event. I was looking forward to tasting his creation this year, but didn't get to do so when I paid him a visit last week.

I had already received an invitation to join a tasting event today, so I knew it was just a matter of time until I found out what Saffron Bae had come up with. The itinerary today included just two stops, with the first one being Caprice. A small group of us sat around a couple of tables at Caprice Bar, where Anyss and Floriane made sure our glasses were always filled - if not with Krug, at least our water glasses were never empty!

Once again Olivier Krug presided over the day's events, on what would be his last day in town during a short stopver. A few of the ladies were obviously thrilled to meet him, and why shouldn't they?

Pumpkin, corn and saffron - I didn't realize that Saffron Bae's contribution this year would be the replacement to their long-standing pita. The new version is filled with a pumpkin-based purée which also includes some saffron. Then it's garnished with a single grilled kernel of corn along with one thread of saffron.

Still no ocean view

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It's been some time since we last had a proper catch up with The Bombay East Indian Girl, and days after stepping away from the kitchen at my favorite opening of the year, we agreed to meet up for an early lunch today near her former workplace. Hoi King Heen (海景軒) is a place we used to enjoy visiting, albeit infrequently, and it's been quite a few years since our last family gathering there.

Imagine my surprise that, after not having been here for a few years, we were directed to go upstairs instead of down to the basement level. Apparently there is some renovation work being done, and the dining room is now temporarily located in one of the function rooms at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. We were the first people to arrive in the empty room.

It's a weekend morning, so that's dim sum in my book. We refrained from over-ordering in the first round...

Shrimp dumplings "har gau" (海景蝦餃皇) - this came with a whole shrimp and without any diced bamboo shoots. The shrimp was fairly crunchy, and the flavors were pretty pronounced compared to other har gau. I was left wondering if it was given a boost...