Taking down big bird

Being a self-confessed "foodie" - or maybe that's too presumptuous of me - I must admit that I'd never heard of the term "turducken" until earlier this year.  I thought it was some foreign, exotic dish at first, until it was explained to be that this was the combination of turkey, duck and chicken.  I was mortified as the image of three birds, one stuffed into another, surfaced in my mind.  Surely this is something created by the same dumb Americans that dreamed up shows like "Man vs. Food", who enjoy watching others - or taking part in - gorging themselves on ridiculous amounts of food.

Casual French

I wanted to do a casual, alcohol-free dinner tonight, and decided to give Pastis a try.  I've heard that the simple fare is popular with many diners, especially froggies looking for a taste of home.  This seemed to be just what I was looking for.

I started with rillettes de canard, which came in a glass jar along with a few slices of bread.  Not bad at all... lots of ducky flavor with - what else? - duck fat!  One of my favorite things to order.  Very satisfying.

10 years on

I attended a dinner tonight organized by Christie's, which brought me back to Tim's Kitchen (桃花源) for the second time in three days.  I use the expression "organized by" because this is a BYO dinner, where the diners paid for their food, brought their own wine, and were invited to taste some bottles provided by Christie's wine specialists.

The dinner was hosted by Charles Curtis, MW, the Head of Wine Sales for the Americas and Asia.  Paul Pontallier, Director of Château Margaux, stopped by briefly with his son Thibault before boarding his flight.  I took the opportunity to thank Paul for graciously hosting us for lunch on our trip two years ago.

The last bowl of snake soup

After a couple of months, I'm back at Tim's Kitchen (桃花源) for some good Canto fare.  This place has become my favorite Cantonese restaurant, judging by the number of visits I've paid them during the last year.

Steamed whole fresh crab claw with egg white (蛋白蒸原隻鮮蟹鉗) - mmm mmm good.  Loads of yummy, steamed egg white flavored with ham broth.  The sweetness of the crab meat is just wonderful.

Porto and more

I was invited by a friend to attend a dinner tonight featuring the wines of Dow's Port.  I have always thought of Port as an after-dinner drink, so I was curious to find out how they would pair with food.  The venue was George's at Parkview Hong Kong.  It's been more than a decade since I last stepped foot in Parkview, and I looked forward to my first dining experience there.

Jorges Nunes, the winemaker at Dow's, was on hand to lead us through the tasting. 

Burgundies and black truffles

I was fortunate enough to be invited for some home cooking this evening.  My hosts are passionate about food and wine, and having missed an earlier meal last month I wasn't about to turn down their second invitation!  This would turn out to be a fantastic evening.

We started with some delicious spring rolls.  These looked beautiful and tasted good, too.  I stopped myself after having two of these, knowing there was plenty of food to come.

Decent, but no excitement

After my ho-hum meal last year, I didn't think I would be returning to Nadaman (なだ万) at the Island Shangri-La so soon.  However, I'm still looking for somewhere to have kaiseki (懐石料理) in Hong Kong, and this place has got to be one of the few higher-end options.  So I dragged my friend along, with thoughts of using my discount card to make the price a little more palatable.

While my friend went for the sushi, I stuck with my guns and ordered the seasonal kiri kaiseki (桐懐石).  I had thought about getting the choricho omakase (調理長おまかせ) as it would be more comparable to what Wagyu Kaiseki Den offers, but decided against it.

All that glitters

I finally had a chance to try the food at Gold today.  We're no strangers to Harlan Goldstein's magic, as a few of us actually had lunch at Tuscany by H on its last day of operations.  Now that this place has been running for around 3 months, I figured it was time that we came and checked it out.

I had gathered a bunch of foodies for this lunch, and Harlan very kindly put us in a private room, next to the wine treasures whose glass doors needed the right fingerprint to open.  I could only stare and drool at the jero of 1945 Mouton which was purchased for a pretty penny at the Acker auction last November.

Slaughtering fat sheep

I finally had a chance to meet up with Tigger's family to wish them happy new year, on the 8th day of the year of the rabbit.  I had expected a dinner at home, but as it turned out we went to Tenzen (天膳).  This family keeps coming here for dinner, for reasons that are completely foreign to me.  I have always found the food to be mediocre at best, and never found any reason to choose them over any of a dozen other places in town.