An evening with fellow bloggers

A local publication organized a gathering of local food bloggers tonight, and we convened at Marouche Grill for some Lebanese fare. It was a good chance for me to meet fellow bloggers whose work I follow from time to time.

The restaurant brought out a whole slew of mezzes for us, which would be more than enough food for the group. This included 4 types of dip and a bunch of salads.

Hommos - well...nothing special here but they did leave a few whole chickpeas in the bowl.

Baba Ghanouj - lots of nice flavors from the grilled eggplants.

Mouhamara - very interesting. Made from mixed nuts and sprinkled with chilli powder and toasted pine nuts. I really liked this one.

Falafel - these were very nicely done...deep-fried so that they are crunchy on the outside. The only drawback was that they were a bit too dry for me, and the tahine sauce on top wasn't enough. I realized afterwards that I should have scooped up some of the labneh as the yogurt would have worked perfectly with the falafel.

Tabbouleh - I've always found this dish a little too strong...I like parsley but not when you put that much onto the plate. They also didn't chop it finely enough so the texture was pretty rough.

Fattoush - this was somewhat saltier than the ones I had in the Middle East...and needs a lot more toasted bread.

Grilled Halloumi with watermelon - very interesting combination. The Halloumi is slightly salty, and the sweetness of the watermelon made for quite a contrast in taste.

Moussaka - I've always had this dish in Greek restaurants so I'm used to the version with minced lamb. But the vegetarian version - apparently the norm in Lebanese joints - is nice, too.

I thought the food was OK, not great, but that's not the point. I had a lot of fun meeting my fellow bloggers, especially people who are veterans on OpenRice with a few thousand posts... Some of these people meet up a few times a week to dine out together, and they are so much more knowledgeable about what's happening with the local restaurant scene. I'm struck by their humility - these people are as knowledgeable as they come, but there's no attitude here. Simply the love of good food and drink.

We recounted our experiences (both good and bad) and exchanged opinions on the HK dining scene. I'm now eagerly waiting for the publication of the article at the end of the month, and see which parts of our conversations have been deemed worthy for the pages. Meanwhile I'm glad to have met new friends, and I'll be calling them to organize a few outings together.