Mitsuboshi-mae

DaRC pinged and asked if I wanted to join them at The Araki.  Apparently they had booked out the entire counter, so there wouldn't be none of those weirdos and fuckwits that I seem to run into every.single.fucking.time I go to Sushi Saito (鮨  さいとう) in Hong Kong.  I thought about it for a little, and figured that this was an itch I kinda wanted to scratch.

Araki Mitsuhiro (荒木水都弘) needs no introduction.  Having picked up 3 stars for Araki (あら輝) in Tokyo, he closed shop and moved to London, where he opened The Araki and plucked another 3 stars.  His decision to leave London resulted in the restaurant being demoted from 3 stars to none - something that would never happen to a 3-star French restaurant anywhere in the world.  Some of us thought that he would be going back to Tokyo, but somehow he ended up in our little corner of the globe...

The reviews have been pretty mixed - some think it's the best sushi in town since the master himself is here, while others bitched about paying an arm and a leg but getting local ingredients.  I went with no pre-conceptions and a very open mind.  I did find it disappointing, though, that although we were asked about our dietary preferences, I was told that my request not to have any tuna was denied because, well, Araki-san's specialty is tuna.  This was kinda the argument I had with Sushi Tokami (鮨とかみ) that resulted in me never stepping foot inside that place again.  But this wasn't my booking, and I didn't want to be a dick, so I let it go.

We started with the otsumami (おつまみ):

The first ingredient to come out was a pair of abalone from Australia which have been steamed with sake for 6 hours.

Triple birthday dinner, Ningbo edition

Three of us had a dinner last year when we kinda celebrated our birthdays together, although the dates were as much as three weeks apart.  We had a very fun evening at Ta Vie 旅 and opened up bottles from the birth vintage of two of us.  I figured we could do the same this year.  When Hello Kitty asked what I wanted to do for my birthday, it took me a while to figure out that I wanted to check out Yong Fu (甬府).

I know that they opened here in Hong Kong a couple of months ago, and somehow I've never managed to pay them a visit in Shanghai in all these years.  Some friends have been raving about their cuisine, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to check them out.  Besides, I figured the Zhongmeister would love this place.

We were the first to arrive in our private room upstairs, so we were seated on the sofa while tea was poured for us.  In front of us were two plates of mahua (麻花) - fried dough twists which I grew up eating.  Besides the "regular" flavor, we've also got some flavored with seaweed.

Soon everyone arrived, and we sat down to dinner and waited for the series of starters to arrive.

Red day lunch

It's DaRC's birthday, and a few of us gathered to help him celebrate the occasion.   It's been ages since I last had dim sum at Seventh Son (家全七福), and I was glad to be back.

Puff pastry with barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒酥)

Honey glazed barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒) - OK la...