Sichuan jasmine

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For the last couple of years, Mr. Chichi has been hell bent on getting me to eat spicy food with him, despite having been told that my tolerance level for heat is not very high. I've flat out turned down invitations to Hunanese cuisine, even though they were invitations from restaurants and I wouldn't have to pay. I kinda pushed my limits last month at Chef 1996 Restaurant (1996川菜•主厨餐厅) in Beijing, and I know that meal made Foursheets pretty happy. So when Mr. Chichi extended an invitation to Deng G (鄧記), I relayed it to wifey... who promptly said 'Yes'. Having tasted Chef Deng's cuisine a few times over the years, I know that his style isn't all about red chili oil, so I figured I could do it.

The only problem is that the original location in Wanchai closed, and we now have to cross the harbor to the remaining outlet in K11 MUSEA. Travel distance aside, I really hate dining inside this mall - because the whole place reeks of that fake vanilla scent that's pumped throught the entire complex. Not only does it interfere with the food, it also kills any decent wine I bring to my meals. So I very, very rarely willingly go and dine in any establishments there. But I now have to do it for Foursheets.

Well... these digs are certainly a lot more grand than the old shop, and since our host is a VIP, we got ourselves a private room with harbor views. Foursheets even thought that the fake vanilla scent in the mall wasn't as bad as she remembered...

...but unfortunately, vanilla has been replaced with jasmine, which was pumped into our room mere moments after I sat down. Is that better? Perhaps, since jasmine tea is at least part of Chinese cuisine while vanilla isn't really used much. But the periodic spray into the room did annoy me, especially since there were a couple of bottles of wine on the table.

As always, Chef Deng Huadong (邓华东) put together a special menu for the VIP, and unfortunately it included one of my dietary restrictions. Sigh.

Once again, we started with Deng G six appetizer combination (鄧記六小碟):

Spicy seafood medley (鮮椒海鮮匯)

No snake no problem

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It's our annual team dinner tonight, and for a number of reasons I decided that Man Ho (萬豪金殿) would be the most suitable location. I've always enjoyed Jayson Tang (鄧家濠)'s creations, and truth be told, it's been too long since I last showed him some love. So I was pretty happy to ask him to put together a menu based on our budget.

I was pretty happy to see that we would be served mostly dishes I've never has before, which involves Jayson pushing the boundaries of Cantonese cuisine as he adds flavors which aren't considered "traditional" or "classic". I'm always happy to see chefs doing this, as long as they're not being flippant - or "taking a piss", as the Brits would say.

We had an amuse bouche to start, featuring a little abalone with pickled cucumber, and a sweet gelée that tasted of five-spice (五香).

Next came a trio of chef's specialties (萬豪金殿獻萃):

A night with raw shellfish

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A well-known foodie who happens to be a compatriot of mine is eating her way through town, and DaRC had originally invited me to join them for dinner tomorrow at my favorite private dining facility. Unfortunately I had to schedule a team dinner for tomorrow, so DaRC very kindly made room for me at Yong Fu (甬府) tonight. I know that the restaurant is launching the spring banquet later this week, and I was secretly hoping that some of those dishes would show up tonight...

It's been some time since I last saw Ms. Yu, and when I arrived she was already in the room along with Chef Liu chatting with our guest of honor. I sneaked a peek at the menu, and it was obvious that I hadn't tasted most of these dishes. Yay!

I love these snacks! Mahua (麻花) is something I loved since childhood, and the other puffed rice cracker kinda reminds me of hineriage (ひねり揚げ), or kali-kali (卡哩卡哩) as they're called in Taiwan. I couldn't stop eating these throughout dinner, despite all the delicious dishes we had in front of us.

Chiuchow classics

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We have a visitor in town who wanted a meal that wasn't Cantonese, so The Great One asked RAW Yeah to pick a place for Chiuchow cuisine. I had never heard of Chiu Ka Banquet (潮家宴) before, but it's just walking distance from my office, so that worked out well.

As I approached the door of the building, I saw a light box out front advertising the name of the restaurant. As it turns out, the restaurant is inside the clubhouse of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers' and Exporters' Association (香港中華出入口商會). The powers that be had, probably years ago, decided to shorten this to 中出商會... so naturally the club is called 中出會所. Well... anyone who has remotely had any exposure to Japanese AV would know what 中出し means...

L'Ami du vin

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After a year of inactivity, MNSC is playing catch up this year. So for the second week in a row, the boys gathered over dinner to blind taste a few bottles. We haven't seen much of Dr. Poon since the onset of the pandemic, so it was good of him to be hosting tonight. Knowing his close connection to Sébastien Allano, it's not surprising that he chose Ami as the venue.

It is perhaps surprising to myself that I have yet to visit the restaurant despite it having opened some four years ago. I dined at Épure several times, and enjoyed Nicholas Boutin's cuisine. After handing over the reins of Épure and setting up Ami, though, he somehow fell off my radar... as friends I dine out with don't seem to mention the place. This would be a good time to redress the situation.

We were, naturally, seated in the private dining area. Unfortunately, the soundproofing was practically non-existent, so the diners outside were probably still subject to our conversations...

I was a little hungry, so the sourdough and buckwheat and genmai (玄米) smoked butter was a welcome relief.