Meat no fish

It's Restaurant Week in Hong Kong, and that means many places in town are offering prix fixe menus for standardized, attractive prices.  For some reason, I was never interested when the promotion was put on during the last few years, and kinda ignored all the publicity around it again this year.  When the Wommer invited me to join him for dinner with a booking at Fish and Meat, I was happy to accept the invitation for the opportunity to check out the resto.

I arrived to find the space very dimly lit.  There was no light above our table, and our main light source was a little candle on our table.  I had to read the menu - printed in tiny font that was probably no bigger than 6-point - by the dim candle light.  And I must admit, these days my eyesight ain't what it used to be - especially in dim light.  At this moment, I can fully appreciate what my fellow speaker Kim Walker was talking about at TEDxVictoriaHarbour in 2012.  Why do restos find it necessary to do this?!  Does their food really looks so bad that they resort to keeping it in the shadows?!

For HKD 438 we are offered 3 courses, but the Wommer was worried that we wouldn't have enough to eat...

Soft duck egg raviolo, ricotta cream, burnt sage butter, Pecorino - this was absolutely delicious, and a great start to dinner.

Breaking the raviolo open released the liquid egg yolk, along with delicious ricotta.  The sage butter was very, very fragrant.  Yum!

Roasted bone marrow crostini, lemon zest, garlic, parsley - the Wommer ordered this as an extra course for us to share, but like last Friday, I ended up blinking at my food in disbelief.  This was it?!  The other problem with this dish - besides the size - was that it came to the table lukewarm.  By the time the slivers of marrow hit my tongue, it had gotten cold so that the fat was no longer liquid... it had congealed and the sensation of cold fat smearing against my taste buds just wasn't appealing at all.

"Diavola" style free range yellow chicken, caramelized onions, jus - WOW! We were so wrong about leaving the table hungry, because this half-chicken was BIG!  The best part?  The meat was juicy.  And tender.  Very nicely done.  The drawback?  The spicy diavola sauce was too watery, and I ended up splattering it all over my brand new, crisp white dress shirt that I was wearing for the very first time.  But that could just be because I'm a klutz.

But there was still dessert!  Since there were 3 of us and 3 desserts to choose from, we just asked for one of each.

Whipped mascarpone "cheesecake", raspberry, shortbread crumble - this was delightfully yummy.  The cheese had been whipped into this light, airy foam, and when you mix in the raspberry sorbet and crumble... the result was pretty spectacular.  All the familiar flavors were here but the texture was just a little different...

Sicilian lemon tart, country clotted cream - I love lemon tart, and this was very good.

Chocolate pot - very good, too... and tasted like Maltesers with a little hazelnut.

The Wommer and I never get together without vino, and we each brought a bottle tonight...

2003 Chapoutier Ermitage L'Orée - should have had this decanted, as it took a long time to open up.  Initially this was muted and just didn't show.  Oxidized, a little copper and metallic, light body and short finish.  With time it gathered more body, with a longer finish as it warmed up.  Also was a little alcoholic at the end.

1996 Valandraud - fruity, a little spicy with the diavola sauce for the chicken.  Smooth on the palate.  A little smoky, grilled meat and earthy.

I have to say that the food turned out to be pretty enjoyable tonight, although if I ever come back, it's gonna be during daylight hours...

We were delighted to see our friend Jeremy Evrard at the resto, as I thought I'd missed the chance to catch him after he left Caprice.  He seemed to be doing well, and we look forward to hearing his future plans as they firm up.

The Wommer had his mind set on checking out Stockton, the sister bar/restaurant run by the same group.  So we exit the restaurant, went around the corner and found ourselves in the speakeasy...

...which was when we ran into Jeremy, again.  I guess he also wanted to check out Stockton...

Kill Devil - pretty nice, lots of different flavors here, with absinthe making its mark in addition to the four types of rum.  Also tasted the distinct flavors of ginger beer.  In spite of the name - and the fact it it came with a warning that one could not order more than 2 of these - this was deceptively mild and pleasant on the palate.  No doubt it packed a big punch in a velvet glove.

But the real issue was that this cocktail was ridiculously big.  Just look at the size of it compared to the other "normal" cocktails...

And it seemed like lots of people were checking out this new hotspot in town, since we ran into Harlan Goldstein...

Oh, and one Kill Devil did get me pretty buzzed after the wine I had at dinner.  I don't think I could have managed to have a second one...