Mom's HK Michelin tour day 1: a very fishy dinner

After a night's sleep, we awoke to the sound of CC's barking as she protested the Parental Units' presence in our home. After feeding CC her brekkie, it was our turn. While the parental units stick to their habit of eating a ton of fruits for breakfast, I had something else in mind.

Months ago mom had mentioned her interest in trying out my collection of canned sardines. Now that she's actually here, it was the perfect opportunity to open up a tin or two for her. I took out a tin of sardines from Porthos' Vintage Collection and served in on some Melba toast. I've been aging a bunch of tins in the cupboard, and this was probably at least 3 years' old...

For lunch, Four Sheets went over to Hung Master Goose Special Shop (熊師傅滷水鵝專門店) to buy some takeout. This is one of our favorite neighborhood shops, and specializes in Chiuchow-style marinated goose and other goodies marinated in master stock (滷水). We got ourselves a hind quarter (下庄), some pig trotters, stuffed pig intestines, and cuttlefish.

Mom wanted some pigeon, so she also got a soy-marinated pigeon (滷乳鴿) from 有運燒味鹵味店. Not what I would have chosen but that's what she wanted.

For our afternoon coffee today, we moved on to the butter egg rolls (牛油蛋捲) from Duck Shing Ho (德成號), which are Four Sheets' favorite. Definitely more sinful than the "original" flavor.

Dinner tonight was a big affair. Four Sheets went to a fishmonger frequented by many of our friends - including the Man in White T-shirt and Fergass. She got some goodies to make a fantastic seafood dinner for the Parental Units.

First up was bouillabaisse, which she makes once every few years based on a Paul Bocuse recipe. A ton of cheap, local fish went into the pot, which was later turned into a purée with a blender before being strained. The final product included a bunch of Japanese tiger prawns, monkfish, and big venus clams (花蛤). We have a ton of very old saffron which we never use so I asked Four Sheets to dump a bunch in.

I was very, very happy with this. More importantly, mom was very happy with it. It was possibly the first time she's had bouillabaisse, and I'm glad it was a good homemade version.

Dad's focus was squarely on the humpback grouper (老鼠斑) head, which was steamed then lightly pan-fried. When the head of the fish cost HKD 600 from the fishmonger, you can imagine how big the fish would have been! One very, very happy dad in da haus!

Four Sheets deserved a little reward for all the hard work she put in today, so we popped open a bottle of her favorite rosé Champagne:

Laherte Rosé de Meunier, dégorgée en juillet 2021 - the usual strawberries and red fruits. Easy drinking and tasty.

It was a very happy evening for the Parental Units. Looking forward to more days like this!