Seventeen going on eighteen

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Ahleeso is busy going through her birthday month at full speed, being wined and dined just about nightly. Since they were kind enough to take time to help me celebrate my birthday earlier this year, it was only right that we return the favor. Foursheets has been telling Ahleeso about her new favorite Chiuchow place, and taking a Chiuchow girl for a birthday meal out at a Chiuchow restaurant just seemed perfect... so we rounded up a couple of more people for a night out at Noble Imperial (尚御潮滷居). This was, actually, my second visit this month.

Our focus last time out was on the lo shui (滷水) dishes marinated in masterstock, but we had heard that the hot dishes coming out of the kitchen were not to be missed. The task of pre-ordering dishes then went to RAW Yeah, and within minutes of us sitting down, the first dishes started to arrive in rapid fire fashion...

There was a bowl of pickled radish, and I liked the citrus notes coming from the orange.

Chilled razor clams Chiuchow-style (潮式凍蟶子) - very nice and refreshing. Just a little touch of kick from the chili.

Bongwater and old school Canto

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Bong Girl and I wanted to get together for dinner along with her friend who was escaping Paris for the summer, and we had originally planned to introduce a few people to a restaurant I used to love. When I discovered that, for some inexplicable reason, the owner of said restaurant chose to block me on social media, I decided to no longer patronize them and introduce more of my friends. I asked Bong Girl to suggest an alternate venue, and as it turns out, Yung Kee Restaurant (鏞記酒家) is just down the street.

I haven't been back to Yung Kee since the last year of the dragon, as I wasn't too impressed on my last visit. And I certainly don't need to go there for roast goose or anything. But tonight I'm going with a regular, so maybe that makes a difference - as it does in many, many restaurants the world over.

The menu had already been set by restaurant management, so we didn't have to do too much in that department. I did, however, ask for a last-minute addition when I was shown a picture of the dish.

Deep-fried bean curd with special sauce (金鑲脆皮嫩豆腐) - the skin on that tofu looks beautifully golden brown, and I don't think I've ever had this here.

Nippon Italian

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Our foursome has been busy traveling over the last few months, so it's taken us more than half a year to meet up after our last gathering. Ms. Hurricane had enjoyed her meal at Citrino da Yoshinaga Jinbo and suggested the rest of us check it out. I'm always happy trying out recommendations on Italian restaurants in town, as there really aren't too many that I would return to, so I showed up with an open mind and managed my expectations after having spoken to someone else about their experience.

We started with a slight hiccup in service. I brought a bottle of white wine that I placed on our table. For some reason no one came to inquire about this bottle and what should be done with it, while the bottles brought by the others had already been dealt with before I arrived. Of course, by the time someone finally realized that we intended to open this bottle - which, thankfully, wasn't an eternity like what happened here - the wine had warmed up a little too much.

These days it's wonderful to find restaurants above a certain price point that doesn't force diners to take a tasting menu. Not only do we get to choose exactly what we want to eat, we are also able to decide on how much food we take in. I was happy to enjoy this freedome tonight, and we decided to share all the dishes.

Marinated yellow tail carpaccio: avocado and wasabi, lemon mustard - this was pretty nice. Each portion (we added an extra portion on top of the three that came standard) consisted of three slices of yellowtail, including from the belly and the back. While we were told about the wasabi with avocado, the more obvious kick came from the yuzukosho (柚子胡椒) on top. Pretty nice, and pretty, too.

Pizza with birthday wine

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When our Asshole left us 4 years ago, we started the tradition of celebrating his birthday with a bottle of wine from his birth vintage, and we also started to dine out for the occasion during the last couple of years. This year we decided to take our CCDogcow out with us, and Foursheets decided that we should book ourselves an outdoor table at Fiata Pizza. CCDogcow has visited Fiata before, and definitely loved the pizza crust that we fed her.

It rained tonight, but thankfully it wasn't a downpour. We arrived more than 20 minutes before our booking, so we strolled around a little and waited for our table to free up. It wasn't too bad, and CCDogcow was a very good girl - she just sat quietly on the sidewalk while we waited.

We knew we couldn't finish all the food tonight, but we really wanted to have two different pizzas plus a starter:

Caprese - made with mozzarella di bufala Campana DOP, which was pretty decent.

Hikki in Hong Kong

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After seeing Nakashima Mika (中島美嘉) in concert earlier this year and missing Misia later, we were pretty excited to find out that Utada Hikaru (宇多田ヒカル) was coming to Hong Kong. While Foursheets was initially unable to get us tickets in the mad rush, we eventually found another avenue to get ourselves seats tonight, and I have to say that the seating wasn't half bad!

For me, Utada Hikaru is an artist I paid attention to during a period when Japanese pop culture featured a little more heavily in my life, back around the turn of the millenium. She got very famous pretty quickly because First Love was used as the theme song for Terms for a Witch (魔女の条件), a J-drama I was very fond of at the time. Then everything kinda exploded from there. But my enthuasiam for her music kinda faded after Deep River, and I was barely aware of her music after that - other than occasional songs like Goodbye Happiness with the fun video and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI - the latter because the piece from Ryuichi Sakamoto is one of my all-time favorites.

So I showed up at the concert on her Science Fiction Tour tonight - her very first tour involving a stop in Hong Kong - expecting not to know at least half the songs she was going to sing. But that's OK. It was enough just to be here and enjoy some of the classics.

The Olympics we sorely needed

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So the Olympic Games are finally over. Paris 2024 has provided us with more than 2 weeks' of excitement as well as a fair share of controversy. I think the overwhelming sense from many people is that Paris put on a really good show, and the athletes were genuinely excited about being in Paris and competing at many of the venues with iconic backdrops.

This time around the TV rights in Hong Kong were bought by the government, who granted the four broadcasters rights to show whatever they wanted. So we had, at times, up to 7 different channels with live coverage of the games. However, the channels prioritized events where Hong Kong or Chinese athletes were participating, and since each broadcaster wanted to attract viewers, there were many instances where I would see 4 different channels - one from each broadcaster - showing the exact same event. Yes, there were times when I could only watch two different events out of 6 channels broadcasting the games.

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Nevertheless, I got to see plenty of action in beautiful Paris. Shots of fencing competition in Grand Palais, where Hong Kong's Vivian Kong Man Wai (江旻憓) took the gold in the Women's Individual Épée under that gorgeous glass ceiling on the first day of competition after the Opening Ceremony. Triathlon athletes bicycling and running, as marathoners did, on Pont Alexandre III and past the Tour Eiffel, and shots of them on Champs-Élysées with the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. Skateboarders jumping over obstacles with the Obelisk of Luxor as the backdrop. All memories I will cherish.

A double cross evening

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Our friend from the Big Apple is back in town, fresh off his wedding bash in Bali with his wife in tow. It's her first visit to Hong Kong so we kinda wanted to show her around a little. Our evening started with some pre-sunset cocktails at Sugar on top of East, which was easy for me to get to. I think they got some pretty good pics of Victor Harbour at sunset.

For dinner, our friend decided he wanted some Chiuchow cuisine, and Foursheets booked us a table at Noble Imperial (尚御潮滷居) on the recommendations of a few people. We crossed the harbor to an area I don't visit often, but the minute we arrived and saw the marinated goose hanging in the windows we knew this place was legit. I only wish we had come with more mouths so I could try more dishes!

Goose liver marinated in Chinese wine (極品酒香鵝肝) - this was very, very soft and silky... getting to be like tofu in terms of texture. Definitely melt-in-your-mouth, and the marinade was really, really fragrant.

A bony and sandy dinner

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It was an itch that was begging to be scratched.

This place opened with such fanfare, with one of the most famous chefs in the world - whose flagship restaurant holds 3 Michelin stars and had taken the No. 1 spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants - joining forces with one of my favorite restaurant groups in Hong Kong. It was supposed to be one of the premier fine dining destinations in town - literally a stone's throw away from the heart of Central - boasting 3 floors with a lounge and a private club in addition to the main dining room. We would all come worship at the temple of haut cuisine from the Côte d'Azur.

Except that wasn't at all what happened. As I stepped foot tonight in the space that was Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco - after months of wrangling about whether or not to do it, and having been turned down by many friends including my own wife - the lounge on the ground floor had exactly zero customers. My friend V and I were the second party of two in the dining room upstairs, which would eventually grow to a total of 8 covers for the night. I'm not worthy to be a member of the private club, but word is that it's not exactly heaving, either.

Chefs have come and gone, including Heloïse Fischbach who came onboard after Écriture folded suddenly last year. She literally left a few days ago, which was why two chefs from Mirazur were spending their first day in the kitchen here, supposedly passing on "the Mauro way" to Konishi Mitsuru (小西充) - whose restaurant ZEST by Konishi is part of the same group. I counted 10 in the kitchen against the 8 covers.

We have long heard tales of empty dining rooms from friends who have been here, but it's not for lack of trying by the restaurant. V and I were here to take advantage of two current promotions that the restaurant is running - 50% off on the second set menu, and free corkage on Saturdays and public holidays. Maybe that's why we only saw tables of two... We did have another friend who couldn't find a fourth to get the discount, so she decided it wasn't worthwhile to join us.

For a restaurant that only had one other table filled when we arrived, it was strange that they chose to seat us at the table by the entrance. Thankfully the aircon was starting to drip on my friend, which gave us an excuse to move to a more comfy setting.

We chose the 6-course menu for the discount, even though I knew we would miss out on some of the most Instagrammable dishes only available à la carte. But first we started out with some canapés.

Barbajuan - with ricotta and lemon confit filling.