Sweeping the Neighborhood

Tonight was a real exciting evening for us, as we were paying our first visit to a brand-new restaurant during its very short soft-opening period.  It's no secret that David Lai from On Lot 10 is my favorite chef in town, and we've become friends over the last few years.  So when his long-awaited new project was finally ready to receive customers, we waited no time in getting ourselves a table.

Much like the other restaurant I visited last week during their soft-opening period, Neighborhood also charges only 50% of normal food prices during its very short soft-opening.  It's a practice we whole-heartedly agree with, and we can only hope that it's adopted by more restos in town in the future.

The Worm Supplier had scoped out the menu, and it was already decided that we would "sweep the menu (掃餐牌)" - the local expression of ordering every single item on a menu (or a page of the menu).  Given that there were at least 6 of us and only about 20 dishes on the entire menu, this wasn't really a challenge.  And we called ahead to let the restaurant know that we would be ordering every single dish, so that we wouldn't be faced with the unpleasant surprise of having them run out of something.  Unfortunately, there was still one item on the menu which wasn't available...

So here goes...

Rocket salad / fresh cheese - pretty simple... just arugula, slices of goat cheese and olives with a sprinkle of finely chopped chives.

Charcuterie - prosciutto, salami and lardo di colonnata.  The lardo was a little more salty than I expected, and also flavored with rosemary and paprika (?)  I was the last to dig in, and when I expressed my dismay that there was no more lardo left for me, two of my generous friends offered up part of their lardo to me.  And the phrase "and I don't give lardo to just anyone" was uttered in the process.  My eyes instantly became a little moist...

Marinated amberjack / ginger - with cucumber chunks and dill.  Definitely tasted the ginger.

Artichoke "barigoule" - with carrots, mushrooms and other goodies.  Very nice and classic.

Frog legs fritter - certainly one of the best dishes on the menu, if not the single best dish.  Just.so.yummy. With a nice, soil-boiled egg to dip into.

Quail "escabeche" - very nice, tender and succulent.  Served on a bed of puy lentils and carrot mash.  The mash was more acidic with spices.

Chicken broth / egg / chanterelle - nice fragrance and subtle flavors, but could use a little more oomph in the seasoning.

Tripe gratin - well, there was no gratin here but... we forgive them.  Tripe is one of my favorite things to eat, and I love this spicy tomato sauce...

Grilled baby squid / coco beans - the baby squid was incredibly flavorful... and I absolutely loved this.  The Coco de Paimpol beans were a little too crunchy and could have been cooked a little bit more.

Beef daube ravioli - very nice shredded stewed beef inside, although it was a little bit dry for my taste and could have been a bit more tender.  The sauce/glaze on the outside was very delish.  Interesting use of Tonkin jasmine (夜香花).

Spicy tomato garganelli - very nice and simple.  Perfectly al dente.

Ragu tagliarini - this had a nice fragrance, but honestly pretty bland.  More seasoning in the chicken and pork, please...

Spaghetti alla bottarga - normally this would easily be my favorite dish, given how much I just looooooove bottarga.  I did love the wonderful flavors, but I always wish for a little bit more of the bottarga and more oil.  I make this pasta at home and I've kinda gotten used adding a ton of it into my bowl.

Daily fish in "bouillabaisse" - tonight we had mullet, which I found a little muddy.  Still loved the flavors of the bouillabaisse, though...

Daily meat / roast - ah yes, the chicken that everyone raved about.  Very good indeed, and I was fortunate enough to have gotten the drumstick.  Served with potato mash, cabbage, spinach and petits pois.

Housemade sorbet / icecream - today's selections were raspberry and pear.  Both were very nice, but the pear sorbet was simply out of this world!  Soooo intense.

Chocolate palette - something else that other people raved about. This palet d'or was pretty good, but we ended up ordering only one of these instead of the original plan to get two (or three)...

Cheese selection "alleosse" - a selection from Alléosse in Paris.  Comté, Brie de Meaux and a blue cheese I didn't feel like nibbling on...

Canelés - a special treat.  Kung Fu Panda asked David for something off-menu, and this was what we got.  Very, very well done.

These were crunchy on the outside and perfect on the bottom, which was amazing considering that these came out of silicone and not copper molds...

This wasn't a drinking crowd, so I only brought along two bottles of easy-drinking wine...

1998 von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Abstberg Spätlese-trocken - big nose of petrol and polyurethane.  Acidity quite high, especially on the finish.

2006 Il Pino di Biserno - still pretty tannic.  A little bit of forest on the nose at first, then more mint and more sweet fruit later once it opened up more.

A pretty happy evening.  One never expects to like every single dish on a restaurant's menu, but there were clearly no "FAIL"s tonight and the hit rate was pretty high.  As the menu is meant to change monthly, I look forward to coming back for casual meals.  Maybe I'll even drop by for a quick lunch...