Geruhage HK tour day 1: goose landing

Geruhage is finally coming back to Hong Kong, and I've arranged a full dining schedule for him for the next 5 days. Some of my friends have looked at that itinerary and immediately remarked that it is a "suicide mission", and I do think that it's the type of eating I haven't done in quite a few years... so I wasn't quite sure myself whether I could still handle it.

Having checked into their hotel just before lunch time, I chose to start the itinerary with the easiest, most casual meal - lunch at my favorite Yat Lok (一樂燒鵝). Whether or not it is the "best" roast goose in Hong Kong is irrelevant, because I've been lovin' it for close to 20 years and the boss lady treats me well.

The tourists are back in full force, especially since this is the big, week-long holiday in China. We get squeezed in like everyone else, although for a while the three of us were moved to a table of four and had an empty seat next to us... but only for a few minutes.

Lower quarter of roast goose (燒鵝下庄) - I suggested we take just a quarter of the bird, in case we wanted to have room for a snack after lunch.

Rice flour noodles in soup (瀨粉) - I introduced my friend to this very local type of noodles, and it was no surprise that he splashed the soup all over his shirt...

Blanched iceberg lettuce with oyster sauce (蠔油唐生菜)

Blanched morning glory with fermented tofu sauce (腐乳通菜)

We strolled around for a short while and I steered my friends towards Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel. The weather's pretty hot and I could use something nice and cold.

What-A-Melon - I was happy that they're still serving this. Watermelon sorbet served up inside a wedge of real watermelon. Very refreshing. Very good.

My friend was obviously still hungry from his light lunch, so he ordered up an egg katsu sando. He seemed to have enjoyed that.

We next moved to NOI so that Geruhage could catch up with Paulo Airaudo before the chef flew back to Spain. As we were rounding the corner within IFC Mall, who should we run into but Christian Bau, who had just finished a four-hands event with Paulo the night before? Geruhage was happy to see his old friend in an expected location.

After chewing the fat with Paulo for a while, I took my friends up to the rooftop of IFC Mall for views of Victoria Harbour which, truth be told, is just stunning. We got a closer look of the harbor on the terraces of Watermark, the restaurant at Pier 7, and got to see the Star Ferry boats come in.

On our walk back to IFC, Geruhage ran into a friend living in London. That's TWO random encounters in a matter of hours. We went for a drink at The Aubrey, and managed to score a table by the window. This allowed Tomo-chan and I to catch the moonrise over the hills. It was quite a magical experience, as the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) was tonight!

I got myself a muscat grape-based cocktail, which I thought was named the Nagano. I love fruity cocktails.

We bid goodbye to my friend's friend so that we could go back and freshen up and change. Big dinner coming up...