Stars and celebrities

I got together with a few friends for lunch today in advance of an event in the afternoon.  As the event itself would be held in the Miramar Shopping Centre, we figured it would only make sense to have a late lunch at Sun Tung Lok Chinese Cuisine (新同樂魚翅酒家), just a few floors above the stage that had already been set up.  It's been more than 2 years since my last lunch here, and I relished the opportunity to see if the quality was still the same.

I was surprised how many people were still at the restaurant even at this late hour.  We sat down about a quarter before 2pm, and it looked like some of the others had arrived not along before we did.  As a consequence, the kitchen was pretty busy and it took a while to get our food to the table…

Ox tongue in XO chili sauce (XO醬鹵牛脷) - more chili sauce than XO, but at least the tongue was very tender.

Steamed shrimp dumpling (水晶鮮蝦餃) - looks like nothing's changed from my last visit.  The skin STILL stuck to my chopsticks, my plate, and just about everything else.  Why can't they get this right?!  Well, at least no one found a bug inside their dumpling this time…

Roast suckling pig with minced shrimp (百花脆皮乳豬件) - can't remember why I didn't have this last time, but O-M-G these were really delicious.  The fatty flavors of the crispy suckling pig crackling combined beautifully with the shrimp paste encased underneath.  Maybe next time I'll just have half a plate for myself…

Steamed rice flour rolls with shredded turnip, enoki and Yunnan ham (金包銀絲腸粉) - I remember liking these from last time, and it was still pretty tasty today, but…

…enoki (えのき)? Yunnan ham (雲腿)?  Where the hell were they?

Steamed pork dumpling topped with minced Yunnan ham (腿茸燒賣皇) - pretty decent, and the shredded ham on top helped make it a little more interesting.

Steamed preserved vegetable and pork bun (梅菜皇扣肉包) - a little on the sweet side thanks to the preserved leafy mustard (梅菜).  Interesting to find a chunk of fatty pork belly inside, but then again this is the classic combination, innit?!  Not bad.

Steamed pork sparerib with vermicelli (豉汁排骨蒸津絲) - how interesting for them to put glass vermicelli at the bottom of the dish, so that it soaks up all the sauce and is just absolutely yummy…

Rice with diced fresh abalone and diced chicken wrapped in lotus leaf (鮑魚雞粒荷葉飯) - actually pretty tasty, with plenty of flavor from the fresh abalone.

Baked ham and spring onion cake (火腿焗燒餅) - the fragrance of the spring onions was so strong that I could smell it when my friend was eating one next to me…

Personally I would have preferred a little more ham, and for it not to be so soaked in lard that the interior became so mushy.  Still yummy enough, though…

Since they didn't have any cold desserts, and my memory of their desserts from last time isn't exactly inspiring, so we quickly adjourned downstairs in time for the event…

I've never been to an event where a celebrity was launching something… and I'm a little too old to chase after idols and stars… so it may be a little surprising that I showed up at the launch event of a magazine issue with Shiga Lin (連詩雅).  The reality is that I didn't come to cheer for Shiga.  I came to cheer for my friend Jimmy, who was the photographer behind the shoot.  He's a very talented photog who works with many different celebrities all over Asia, from Hong Kong (Angelababy), Korea (2PM), Japan (Go Hiromi, 郷ひろみ) to Taiwan.  I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this issue of Gekkan NEO (月刊NEO) and see more of Jimmy's fantastic work!