Peace out

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At the start of the year, Hoper's Base (人人和平) announced that they will be closing their current flagship by the end of the year. I have enjoyed a few meals over the last few years, although our last casual lunch there left a very bad taste in Foursheets' mouth. When Bong Girl pinged me about doing a dinner there with g4gary - who is school mates with the bosses - I was more than happy to put my hand up.

The restaurant had proposed a menu for us, and since it may or may not be my last visit here, I figured I'd make two special requests. As if we didn't already have enough food.

It's been a while since I was last here, and since our friend is a VIP, we were led to the "private room" in the adjacent shop space. At least here we wouldn't have to be bothered by the unpleasant smell that I've encountered before...

Nostalgic "money chicken" (和平金錢雞) - right off the bat we have the first item I requested. "Gold coin chicken (金錢雞)" is one of my favorite items in Cantonese cuisine, and so there are increasingly few places which continue this tradition. I loved it when it was served on my very first visit here, on a bed of deep-fried rice crispies (鍋巴). Sadly, they discontinued that amazing version. Nowadays it comes on top of a slice of baguette, which doesn't come anywhere close to giving the satisfaction of the previous version.

The team Chairman

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It's been a few months since my last trip to The Chairman (大班樓), and this time around I brought along people from my team - who normally don't have the opportunity. As some of them are visiting for the first time, once again I proposed a menu suitable for first-timers...

Crispy taro cake with smoked duck (茘甫鴨盒) - this was pretty good today. The smokiness was nice, and the diced Chinese celery inside was very fragrant.

Deep fried crab meat and mushroom dumplings (金錢蟹盒) - Danny very kindly offered us an extra appetizer. This is old school, and very tasty. Unfortunately it was also a little greasy... but I know it's not easy to get this one just right.

Flaming sticks

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I don't normally get to eat much yakitori (焼き鳥), since Foursheets is very picky about where she will eat chicken. She also doesn't eat chicken offal, and serious yakitori joints pride themselves on their offerings of rare chicken parts. So while lots of people in Hong Kong have been going gaga over Torikaze (鳥かぜ) - the new, local outpost of famed Torishiki (鳥しき) - I've kinda just let the hype pass by. I wasn't too fussed, and happy to let people fight over these precious seats.

B Bestie finally decided that it was time for me to check the place out, and very kindly let me join a group of ladies tonight. We were seated in the middle of the U-shaped counter for the first seating, with a good view of both the grills sitting behind the glass wall.

It's a prix fixe menu but there were plenty of options for add-ons, with a choice of 14 chicken parts as well as 10 additional non-chicken alternatives - 9 of which are vegetarian. So potentially this could be a more balanced meal, except we were limited to just 3 additional items due to time constraints... or so B Bestie claimed.

It was interesting to me that, at least during the second half of the meal, head chef Matsui Ryo (松井亮) was focused on grilling the vegetables instead of chicken. I take that as a sign of the importance they place on the vegetarian options on their menu.

Chicken mousse, pickle red carrots and radish, konbu jelly (紅白なます) - this was definitely an upgraded version of the classic pickled carrots and radish, with some purple carrots included.

Scratching a rare sushi itch

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I have only been to Sushi Kumogaku (寿し雲隠) once, at Mr. Chichi's invitation. After enjoying the delicious osechi (おせち) from the restaurant on New Year's Day, Foursheets decided that she would like to check the place out. And when she developed a hankering for sushi over Chinese New Year, I decided we would take care of her itch sooner rather than later.

I arrived more than 15 minutes prior to the start time, as one does for Japanese restaurants where the itamae (板前) service to all customers is done at the same time. We were seated before the appointed time of 7 pm - which is the same for everyone - and found ourselves to be the only ones. We didn't see anyone else until 10 minutes AFTER service was supposed to start, and finally at 7:15 pm Chef Kin finally started serving the first otsumami (おつまみ) to those who were already seated... Then a few Kong girls strolled in just before the cut-off time of 7:30. These people are lucky they're dining in Hong Kong, because they'd be fucking banned from booking again in Japan.

Japanese snow crab chawanmushi (松葉蟹茶碗蒸し) - the fragrance from yuzu was lovely.

Tandoori, tandoori, tandoori

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My friend's sister, who I haven't seen in more than a decade, is spending Lunar New Year in Hong Kong. We decided to catch up over dinner, and after she expressed interest in Indian cuisine, I made a booking at Leela. It's been some time since I last went to see what Chef Manav Tuli, and one always leaves his restaurant happy and full...

I was hoping to fly under the radar - even though I knew that B Bestie scans the booking logs - so I wasn't surprised when James greeted me... as I strolled in through the doors while on a work call. We placed our orders, and my friend and I proceeded to take turns ducking out for more work calls.

First up was a serving of khakra (ખાખરા). Always a nice snack to tingle one's palate.