Biryani biryani

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This was a dinner I had been looking forward to for more than 3 months. At a dinner 3 months ago, B Bestie was telling us about the upcoming collabs he was orchestrating, and he mentioned that one of them would involve Biryani Osawa (ビリヤニ小澤). I had heard about this Japanese chef in Tokyo serving up interesting biryani (बिरयानी) from a friend, and in fact I tried to squeeze a visit in on my last trip to Tokyo. Unfortunately I didn't make it there. So when I heard the name mentioned by B Bestie, my hand went up about 0.3 seconds after and I told him I wanted a table at the event.

I had roped in a few more friends for this, such was my excitement about this dinner. Unfortunately a couple of them had to cancel, and I duly informed B Bestie about downsizing my table. When I got to Leela tonight, I was surprised that we were still given a table of 6... so I apologized profusely to James, and let him know that he should have a word with B Bestie.

As I had confirmed with the restaurant about my dietary restrictions being "no beetroot and fish cum", the first of the starters was replaced with something Foursheets and I were familiar with...

Tuna papdi chaat Lucknowi tokri chaat - I usually see this come in the bigger size for a table of 4 or more. Tonight only two of us are getting this substitute course, and suddenly this thing looked so much cuter! Always love Manav's tokri chaat (टोकरी चाट) for the mix of acidity, cream, the crunch of the deep-fried potato, and all the herbs and spices.

Another trip to Spain... in Taipei

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It is, once again, time to commemorate the day when Mom suffered terrible tummy pains all those years ago. After staying in Hong Kong for the last couple of years, this year I've resumed the old habit of flying home and spending the day with the Parental Units. Choosing a venue became easier this time, as many restaurants are closed on Mondays, and I decided to return to Molino de Urdániz. Since my happy first visit more than 3 years ago, this Taipei outpost have gotten themselves a second macaron, so I was really looking forward to more modern Spanish cuisine.

The current menu is called "Clásicos y Evolución", which features classic dishes created by Chef David Yárnoz at the home based in Spain as well as creations using locally-sourced ingredients.

I was a little annoyed with the restaurant's service at the very beginning, as they seemed intent on having us start our meal right away after we sat down. It should have been obvious that I was setting up my cameras to take pictures at the beginning, before the mayhem was about to start, but the staff completely ignored this and insisted on putting food on the table before I was remotely ready...

Pine spring: mushroom consommé - poetically named "pine spring (松泉)" in Chinese, this was not officially on the menu but offered as an extra treat. We were asked to first taste the mushroom consommé - made with 4 different types of mushrooms - on its own. Then we were to mix in the paste on the cup's rim - made with ground, dried mushrooms that was infused with pine needles - and taste the mixture. This helped to warm up the stomach to prepare for the meal, and Mom loves mushroom soup so she was pretty happy.

Early birthday dinner

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It's been quite some time since Pinky Foursheets was last at Caprice, and I also wanted to have a taste of the seasonal dishes from the Hairy Chevalier, so I got us a table for dinner tonight - just the two of us. We told Hairy Chevalier that it's just a simple dinner, and while we didn't want a very short menu, we also didn't need a big, epic meal. Well...

Floriane very kindly started us off with a glass of Champagne. I don't recall seeing this producer on the list, but I'm always happy to sip on some Henri Giraud...

Henri Giraud Blanc de Craie - a nice blanc de blancs with good acidity, with some ripeness on the palate so that it wasn't completely lean. The nose was very toasty, flinty, mineral, and rather fragrant and almost floral. So nice.

As always, we get the boîte à bijoux with 3 little bites to start:

Tasty food while shopping

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I wanted to check out some camera gear today, which meant that it made sense if we had lunch in or around Hysan Place. After checking out a few alternatives which we've never explored before, we eventually settled on going back to our trusty Ho Hung Kee (何洪記)...

As I often do, instead of picking out a large noodle or rice dish, I ordered a few items of dim sum. I find they do a pretty good job here.

Barbecue pork bun with saucy filling (流汁叉燒包) - I'm always a fan of these. The bun is very fluffy on the outside and the filling is pretty delicious, and better than that found in many average restaurants.

Funky dim sum run

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I'm on a mission to reconfirm the quality of dim sum at Hong Kong Cuisine 1983 (壹玖捌叁), and it was a bit more than a year ago that I found them to be interesting. I haven't had the opportunity to dine with The Great One in a while, and I managed to catch her in town and available. I also managed to rope in the lady with the Tiny Urban Kitchen, as we made plans for a future meal together just downstairs from her apartment.

I wasn't surprised to find that the dim sum menu had been overhauled, and some of the items we liked last year were no longer available today. So it was time to try out the kitchen's other creations!

Steamed Shanghainese pork dumplings, served with homemade young ginger vinegar (一口灌湯小籠包) - these looked reasonably decent...but turned out just OK.