Bouchon Lyonnais à Hong Kong

One of my biggest regrets from my last trip to France was that I didn't spend nearly enough time in Lyon.  I only had half a day - enough to squeeze in a lunch and a dinner.  But at least I got to lunch at an authentique bouchon lyonnais, and the food was simple yet fantastic.  So when I saw people posting pictures and found that Cafe Causette was doing bouchon-style dishes for Le French May, I knew I needed to go and scratch that itch...

I made a pit stop for lunch on Saturday, but found that the selections were very limited during the day.  Needless to say I was disappointed, but I picked something simple and vowed to return for dinner before the end of the month.

Boudin blanc - the sausage was supposedly made with chicken and foie gras, but I really didn't get much (if any) foie gras at all.  Nevertheless, it was simple and satisfying.  Loved the caramelized apple and calvados sauce.

So tonight, I came back for dinner with My Favorite Cousin.  We wanted to catch up over a simple meal, and of course she was nice enough to let me choose the venue...

Rillettes de Poulet et Champignon Sauvage - I would always want to start the meal with rillettes, and this was just perfect.  Loved the finely chopped chives and chervil on top.  I can eat this all day.

Andouillette - the reason for coming.  It's not everyday that you see this on the menu of a restaurant in Hong Kong, and I'd go far and wide to get myself some of this.  I just loooove that stinky aroma and pungent flavors.  Gimme intestines any day!  Of course, this just reminded My Favorite Cousin of the rice flour noodles with intestines (大腸麵線) in Taiwan... The choucroutte was OK, but I loved the shoestring fries.

Gratin de macaronis - this was OK.

2000 Fisher Lamb Vineyard - a little alcoholic, minty, oaky, smoky, sweet with blueberries.

A couple of days ago, I received a kind invitation from the Specialist to join an exclusive dinner featuring the wines of Cheval Blanc.  As this was with Pierre Lurton just before the ex-château auction, there was never any doubt that the wines would be fantastic.  I turned it down without any hesitation.  I needed to spend some quality time with My Favorite Cousin tonight, and we had a barrel of laughs over some simple food.  I would not have traded tonight for all the Cheval Blancs I could carry.