Your crab, my beef

Pin It

DaRC pinged me a couple of days ago, asking whether Hello Kitty and I were free for dinner.  He was bringing back some beef from California and generously chose to share it with us.  At first I thought he might be playing home chef again, but as it turns out, he struck a deal with Spam Raw Bro to do it at Nikushou.  This would be the second BYOBeef dinner I've had with him...

Raw Bro generously offered to serve up dishes to accompany the steaks, and we were particularly looking forward to the Echizen Japanese snow crab.  But first, a few bites to nibble on:

Glass shrimp (白海老) - pretty fresh and texture was still a little crunchy.

Yellowtail (鰤)

Beef sushi (牛寿司) - apparently this was made with thin slices of the tip of tenderloin of Hida beef (飛騨牛), and according to Raw Bro this cannot be cooked and must be eaten raw.  Well... he must know what he's talking about, since he is, after all, Raw Bro...

The struggle with reducing waste

Pin It

It all started with wanting to buy bread.  It was lunchtime, and I figured I'd buy some bread for the weekend and grab something to eat at the same time.  So I headed towards my neighborhood Eric Kayser, wanting to switch things up a little from my usual visits to Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon.

On my way I passed by one of the numerous Starsucks outlets, and I remembered that I've got a gift certificate on me that I've been meaning to use.  I hadn't had my dose of caffeine today and really could use a little pick-me-up.  And I know Starsucks has mugs for dine-in customers, which is great if you are environmentally conscious and want to reduce waste.

But as much as I wanted a cup of coffee and use up my gift certificate, I didn't really care to sit down and order up something to eat there.  So I kept walking and entered Eric Kayser for the bread I wanted.

More cherry-popping

Pin It

It seems like only 2 weeks ago that I was sitting at the same table.  Oh, wait, I was!  The Great One has a house guest she needed to bring to The Chairman (大班樓), and naturally she was looking for additional mouths to help put away the mountain of food she was ordering.  So Hello Kitty and I dutifully joined the feast - which made Hello Kitty very happy because she's been complaining about me dining at The Chairman without her. 

I've had a few of these dishes recently, but I'm guessing that The Great One ordered up a little something extra for old time's sake.  I had stupidly ruined my dinner by stuffing myself with some goodies in the afternoon, so I wasn't particularly hungry when I arrived...

Pickled mid-summer ginger root (大班樓子薑) - our visitor was visibly impressed with this first nibble.

Baby squid in soya marinate and Szechuan pepper (滷水花椒吊桶仔) - just as it was two weeks ago, the baby squid was incredibly soft and tender.  And the master stock included a hint of Sichuan peppercorns.

Peruvian import

Pin It

I received a message a couple of months ago from Virgilio Martinez - whose cuisine I love but whose restaurants Central Restaurante and MIL I have yet to visit - asking me to block out today on my calendar.  He was coming back to Hong Kong with Pia León - who now runs her own restaurant Kjolle - to do a collaboration with Goldfinger at HAKU.  I was, of course, only too happy to have been included for this special event.

Once again, the hyperactive PR for the restaurant very kindly stuck me in Siberia, although I was in good company, being sandwiched by The Great One and Da Jam... not to mention that I was seated right in front of the action.

Bulles de Comptoir #6 La Benjamine 2.0, dégorgée le Janvier 2018 - very ripe.

Shrimp, annatto and red cactus, by Central - we have some raw langoustines together with a pink foam made with annatto seeds as well as the red flowers of the cactus - the latter having a very short season of about 20 days.  The foam was very acidic.  The quinoa on top added a nice crunch,

The best of Penfolds

Pin It

Tonight I was lucky enough to be invited to a dinner hosted by Sotheby's just ahead of their wine auction tomorrow.  Part of the auction includes a consignment of wines made by Penfolds, including many old vintages and even rarer bottlings.  The consignor had very kindly offered up some of his collection to Sotheby's for a very special dinner tonight.  The Specialist knows I am a fan of Aussie wines, and asked me to bring along a date.  I knew that among my wino friends, the one person who probably would enjoy this most would be the Film Buff - who was, of course, only too happy to tag along.

We also had the privilege of having Peter Gago with us.  He is, of course, the current Chief Winemaker at Penfolds - and the fourth person to occupy that position.  Apparently he took time out from his holiday to join us for the event, as a favor to the consignor.  It certainly made a huge difference for me, listening to him discuss the history behind some of these wines.

The dinner tonight was catered by AMMO - a restaurant nearby which I have not had the pleasure of dining in.

2006 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs - nice and toasty nose, lovely, with flinty, mineral, and lemon notes.  Nice and ripe on the palate with some acidity upfront.

Crabby birthday

Pin It

Mrs. White T-shirt is celebrating her 18th birthday, and very kindly invited Hello Kitty and I to dinner. Unfortunately Hello Kitty was having some trouble with chewing food, but I nevertheless agreed to keep The Man in White T-shirt company.

When I saw the menu for the evening at The Sports Club (五陵會), I knew we were in for a feast.

Apparently one of the guests brought these green radish, which were so sweet and crunchy!

Shrimp paste encased in string beans (百花煎釀豆角) - this was very good, and I love that they "braided" the string beans and used them as the base.

The first of many in 2019

Pin It

We are doing a long-awaited catch-up with Diva at Neighborhood, and someone was craving for some ro ro.  Spanish ro ro, in fact... so we obviously have come to the right place as Rubia Galega is one of the staples on the menu.

Fried padron peppers / Raclette cheese - surprised to see Raclette make an appearance.  I did think, though, that the peppers were a little too charred.

Unexpected cherry-popping

Pin It

Haokoufu and the Hungry Girl in Taipei were swinging through town for a few days, and they invited me to join them for lunch at The Chairman (大班樓).   I've been here a few times over the years, but this would be the first meal where Danny actually sat down with us.

Qiang wei petals and lotus roots (薔薇藕片)

Pickled mid-summer ginger root (大班樓子薑)

Baby squid (魷魚) - served cold, in a soy sauce marinade with a hint of fragrance from some Sichuan peppercorns.  Very delicious.

Old favorites in Taipei

Pin It

It's the last day of our trip, and I promised to take Mama Kitty for some more breakfast as long as she was game.  So the two of us dragged our butts out of bed before sunrise and left the apartment shortly after 6 a.m... as I was set on getting in line at Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿) by 6:30 a.m. or so.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Diary of a Growing Boy (@growing_boy) on Jan 14, 2019 at 4:25am PST

I was thankful that we only had to wait about 20 minutes or so... and Mama Kitty tried out a couple of items she normally doesn't get in Hong Kong.  It's certainly hearty and filling for breakfast!

Golden new year

Pin It

It's the start of a new year, and just like last year, I went on an excursion away from the concrete jungle.  The difference, though, was that I'm spending it in Taiwan... and it's a very wet day.

We started the day by visiting the New Taipei City Government Gold Museum (新北市立黃金博物館) out in Jinguashi (金瓜石).  This area used to be a place where people mined for gold, so there is a whole complex of buildings showing different aspects of the industry - including dormitories where the miners used to live.  We walked through the grounds of the Jinguashi Crown Prince Chalet (太子賓館), where Emperor Hirohito (裕仁天皇) stayed in 1922 before his ascension to the chrysanthemum throne.

The main attraction here, of course, was the Gold Building (黃金館).  This building has an exhibit on the history of the industry, and includes a section on the Allied WWII POWs who were forced to work in the mines by the Japanese.  But the pièce de résistance would be that huge block of solid gold weighing in at 220.3kg, and visitors lined up to take their pictures with this baby.

Before we left the complex on this very wet day, I stopped by Alchemy Cafe (煉金文創咖啡) for a cup of coffee.  Given my love of anything gold, I really couldn't resist ordering up a cup of real gold coffee (真的999黃金咖啡).