Not exactly star worthy

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While in Taipei two days ago, I found out that Uncle Last Minute was going to be in Hong Kong with Sporty Cousin this weekend. Since Sporty Cousin had mentioned some time ago that he really wanted to dine at The Chairman (大班樓), I figured I would grow some thick skin and ask Danny if there was any possibility of fitting us in. Well... the answer was, not surprisingly, no.

Since Uncle Last Minute was already expecting dinner with me, I had to find another restaurant quickly... and it had to be in Tsim Sha Tsui as they were staying in the neighborhood. After getting no joy with my top choices, I settled on Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (御寶軒). I'd gone to their restaurant in Causeway Bay a couple of times for dim sum in the last couple of years, but I haven't been back to TST since before the pandemic. This seems like the perfect opportunity for a refresher.

We got ourselves a table by the window, with views overlooking the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and, of course, Victoria Harbour. I tried to get Sporty Cousin and Uncle Last Minute to do the honors of ordering, but somehow the menu came back my way.

Marinated beef shank with five spices (五香滷牛腱) - I ordered this to start because Uncle Last Minute used to make it at home himself. This was pretty good and worked well with the reds I brought, and I noted that the flavors of 5 spices were present, and this was a tad on the sweet side.

Hisashiburi Taiwan sushi

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It's the day after mom's birthday, and she decided that she wanted to relax and dine out for dinner. Japanese is her preferred cuisine, so I scrambled to find a place for sushi that doesn't break the bank. I seem to remember hearing people mention Yo Sushi (游壽司), and a quick check shows that the pricing seems "reasonable", so I quickly booked seats at their Zhongshan branch (中山店) this afternoon while meeting up with a friend for coffee late (second) lunch...

We arrived and waited a few minutes before being seated at the 12-seat main counter for the second seating. Our chef quickly explained how things worked, but I turns out I didn't understand what he was telling me. I did tell him, though, that I didn't want any tuna.

Our appetizer was a small bowl with bigfin reef squid and wakame (アオリイカ 若布), with cucumber and topped with some chiffonade of breakfast radish.

Boring dishes I sorely need

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My Favorite Cousin's birthday is coming up, and as I'll be home with mom celebrating her birthday falling on the same day, and seeing that Birdbrain's girlfriends have planned an excursion with her for the following weekend, we figured we'd get together tonight and pop open a bottle. The wine snob in me flat-out refused to bring the special bottle to the Chiuchow place requested by the birthday girl, so eventually we settled on trying out LALA, the new restaurant with Chef Franckelie Laloum. I knew the place was new and normally I don't pay much attention to new openings, but we needed a place open on Sundays that doesn't force us to take a multi-course tasting menu, so this seems to fit the bill.

I was chatting about this place a few weeks ago, and someone who I shall not name had dissed the food as "boring" and "stuff you can find at Louise 3 years ago". Well... I don't always need the latest and the most fancy dishes. In fact, what is very much lacking in Hong Kong is a good selection of places serving decent, classic bistro fare that actually tastes good, and where I can bring a bottle or two. Unfortunately the few places fitting that requirement are all closed on Sundays. So I'm grateful that I can come and order just a couple of dishes à la carte.

I know I shouldn't expect every restaurant to have impeccable wine service, but for a place that charges me HKD 500 for corkage, I do have some expectations. Yes, we all know I brought an old bottle of wine, so the person opening it knew he should be careful with the cork. Yes, broken corks happen all the time, but I would expect the restaurant to have the proper tools to extract older, fragile corks from the bottle and not need to run out and borrow it from somewhere else... And I would also expect care to be taken during decanting - especially when you already that the cork is no longer in one piece - so that we don't end up with bits of broken cork in multiple glasses.

So... not off to a good start.

Dude, where's my abalone?

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It's been a while since I last had the chance to grab a drink with Saffron Bae, with him globetrotting for events and visiting the new restaurants in his fast-expanding empire. He finally managed to find an open slot, and it seemed like the right time to bring out a certain bottle to share with him.

It's Saturday night and, of course, Caprice is reasonably busy... especially when the Chef's Table gets booked out by a big brand for a few days straight. I took my seat at the Caprice Bar, and soon Victor came over and noticed that I had brought along an interesting bottle. As I said, it's a terrible vintage for a terrible chef...

But first things first... Anyss came over and poured me a BIG glass of Champagne...

R. Pouillon Grande Vallée, dégorgée 2e trimestre - very fresh on the nose, floral and fragrant. Nice with good complexity on the palate, and I thought I tasted the meunier. With time the nose became more caramelized, and the wine became more alluring.

Tonight wasn't meant to be a tasting of new dishes like our last session so I was offered a "small starter" before taking the main course, which I had preferred over a burger.

Hungry in Ningbo

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Nine days after my scouting mission, I'm back at Yong Fu (甬府) sitting with The Hungry Tourist and his crew of, well, hungry tourists. This is only my friend's second time organizing a food tour of Hong Kong, and the first since 7 years ago. While they are clearly focusing on the "local" cuisine, we both thought that Yong Fu should be on the itinerary, since it represents the best that Hong Kong has to offer.

The menu tonight included a few seasonal dishes I had tried out last week, as well as some old favorites which have become quintessential. Some of the dishes were also chosen with the consideration that all the diners (except moi, of course) were non-Chinese guests from overseas.

Mud crab with mashed ginger and coriander (招牌十八斬) - this turned out to be more popular than I had expected. As usual, I did not partake when it came to raw crab.

Another northern expedition

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Someone thought it would be a good idea to take S all the way up north for some local flavor, and got us a booking for one of the private rooms at Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記). Foursheets and I love the place, but it's kinda far even for us locals, nevermind someone who is visiting. Well... somehow I ended up taking over as organizer, and invited The Great One as well as a couple of friends who were checking the place out for the first time.

As it was drizzling a little, we decided to make the long journey in a taxi. Funny that it was also a rainy night the last time we came...

Brother Hon seemed pretty happy to see Foursheets, even know I doubt he remembers our names. Nevertheless, we knew we were in good hands and there would be lots of food coming our way. Sure enough, there was a flurry of "small(ler)" dishes which arrived at our table in rapid-fire style...

Foie gras in 5 spice marinade sauce (鹵鵝肝) - never had this here before. Tasty, but the texture was a little on the dry and firm side. Still very smooth, though.

Pork tendon with shallot oil and soy dipping sauce (白烚豬前腿筋) - one of my perennial favorites here. I just can't resist tender, jiggly pork. That dipping sauce is just so tasty.

Old favorites get better

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I was casually chatting with one of My Favorite Cousin's friends a few weeks ago when she mentioned that she's never been able to dine at The Chairman (大班樓). This isn't particularly surprising, since a booking is difficult to come by unless you're a regular customer. I happened to have booked a table for tonight, and hadn't asked anyone else to join me, so I extended an invitation, and also reached out to other friends of My Favorite Cousin's to fill our little table of 4.

As I am, once again, taking someone here for the very first time, I had to overrule someone's wish to have an off-menu crab so that our newbie could have THAT crab. It's just one of those things.

Ginger and vinegar pig trotter terrine (甜醋子薑豬手豬耳凍) - I really, really love this starter. It's got the acidity from the vinegar and the slight kick from pickled ginger to help whet the appetite. It's also got the rich flavors from the diced pig trotter and pig's ears. I wonder if some of my dining companions realize this is based on the Cantonese dish of 豬腳薑？

Scouting mission

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I have the distinct misfortune of dining with B Bestie for the second in three nights, as I accepted an invitation to taste the new, seasonal spring dishes Chef Liu Zhen (刘震) has been developing at Yong Fu (甬府). As I am accompanying The Hungry Tourist on his visit next week and also responsible for helping to set the menu, I figured I should come on a scouting mission.

As I took a look around the table tonight, I realized that all but one of the Peanut Gang was here. We did have a couple of ladies with us, so we had to behave ourselves.

It must have been a while since I last had some mahua (麻花), and tonight I just couldn't stop eating this! I even ladled some of the house chopped chili sauce (主廚青椒醬) on top at one point...

No bluefin no beetroot

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Tonight I accepted an invitation from B Bestie to join a tasting at the brand-spanking-new Roganic, which opened for business yesterday after relocating to a posh new spot. I've paid infrequent visits since Simon Rogan first opened his outpost here in Hong Kong, and always held a favorable impression of their cuisine. So I didn't hesitate when B Bestie came calling.

Some of the VIPs had already tested things out last night, and hopefully provided their feedback. As for me, I was a little surprised at the new format, which no longer provides the option for the diner to have a lighter meal.

Drappier Carte d'Or, en magnum - I could smell the acidity on the nose. The palate was rather soft.

We started with a fixed selection of four snacks:

The sun rises from the west

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It was in September of 2014 that I last walked down the steps to the dining room of Ho Lee Fook (口利福). By that time I had already decided not to patronize outlets run by Black Sheep Restaurants, but made an exception to join The Great One on her review of the then-newly-opened restaurant. I managed to walk out alive and did not require any trips to the hospital, and since then have chosen not to tempt fate any further. My long-running boycott of Black Sheep continued for the next 10 years, and all my friends knew not to invite me when they chose to give them business.

My stance softened after a meeting with the restaurant group's founder in the middle of last year, and I did pay a visit to one of their restaurants for a casual lunch not long after. But I was otherwise in no rush to explore the restaurants in their portfolio, as I mostly stuck to places I am comfortable going to. There had to be a good reason for me to want to patronize one of their outlets.

That reason arrived on a flight from London today. S is back in town and wanted to check off more places on her hit list, and the first one was Ho Lee Fook. I did tell her that I was no longer averse to patronize Black Sheep Restaurants, and I would be willing to join her if she made the arrangements. So here I am... and I even roped in a couple of guys to come with us.

My friend had been in touch with Gabe about menu arrangements, and since I hadn't been here for 10 years, I left the choice entirely up to her. I knew that we would be getting some seafood from the market, the preparations of which sounded surprisingly traditional for a restaurant with a reputation for serving what Foursheets calls "gweilo-friendly Chinese food".

“Prawn Toast x Okonomiyaki”, Kewpie mayonnaise, Bull-Dog Sauce, shaved cabbage, aonori (「蝦多士 x 大阪燒」配丘比蛋黃醬、日式喼汁、椰菜絲及紫菜) - we were told that this has been "on the menu for 10 years", although I didn't manage to taste it the last time I was here.

Wine and goose

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We're back in Hong Kong and Foursheets decided to have a small dinner to welcome in the new year of the snake. We took our house guest to our current favorite Chiuchow restaurant Noble Imperial (尚御潮滷居), as authentic Chiuchow cuisine isn't easily available in Toronto

An order had been placed for flower crab when the booking was made, but the boss notified us upon arrival that they didn't have any decent ones to serve us, so a substitution was made.

Chilled razor clams Chiuchow-style (潮式凍蟶子) - this was something we always enjoyed on previous visits, and tonight the soy-and-chili sauce - with the Sichuan peppercorn oil numbing and tingling the tongue - managed to highlight the sweetness of the razor clams. Really fresh and delicious.

More girlie drinks in Taipei

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We're back in Taiwan again to spend more time with the Parental Units, and after running around shopping for ingredients and some cooking prep, Foursheets needed a place to unwind and meet up with Little Rabbit. During our last trip home, Foursheets took a liking to the girlie izakaya we discovered, so she decided that's where we should have our first dinner on this trip, before most of Taiwan shuts down for the Chinese New Year break.

We were once again seated in the Old Town West (老城西。酒食製作所) part of the space, but not at the bar counter this time. With an additional mouth to feed, Foursheets's secret plan was to order up a storm so that we could try more dishes. Alas, someone had already stuffed down a bowl of Taiwanese shaved ice and a softserve ice cream just before meeting up with us, so... not at full capacity, then.

But before we get started with the food, girlie drinks are in order. I asked for something that caught my eye on our last visit, and it turned out just as girlie as what I ordered before.

The nocturnal scent of riesling (麗絲玲的夜香氛) - with late-harvest riesling and vodka as the base, this had the scent of morning-harvest jasmine tea, along with white champaca (玉蘭花) essence and the sweetness of white grapes. Very fruity and refreshing. Of course, it's the decor on the stem that caught my attention when the drink arrived...

A catty lunch

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A mere 45 minutes or so after I finished devouring my breakfast sandwich, I sat down for lunch at Trattoria Felino for the very first time. Well... I booked our table days before I decided to go out for breakfast this morning, and I hadn't expected that my breakfast would arrive so late... so here I am, not really hungry at all, but nevertheless ready to chow down.

I had heard about this place from a few chef friends, including Juve Fan - someone who wouldn't hesitate to promote his compatriots. It seemed kinda difficult to book, and I never had any success for my first few tries... at least not on a few days' notice. So when I managed to get a booking for today, I felt pretty happy about it.

Knowing this is "just a trattoria", I wasn't expecting lots of fancy dishes. What I wanted first and foremost is a place with good pasta at a price point that won't burn a hole in my wallet. I needed somewhere that's kinda between Estro - which currently makes my absolute favorite pastas in Hong Kong - and Pici, whose offerings are OK but leave much to be desired. In any case, I wasn't really hungry today so we kept it simple and short.

Cannolo di tonno - interesting presentation. Why does the guy on the box look like Maradona?

The 68-month wait

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I had hoped, nay, dreamed of this happening for YEARS. The day finally came.

It was 68 months ago that I last sat down at Yue Hing (裕興) and had my last sandwich prepared by Dan (福哥). At the time Dan was already undergoing chemo for his cancer, and with the onset of the pandemic and Hong Kong shutting down dining, that would turn out to be my last visit. They served a sandwich that was BY FAR my favorite in the world, so much so that I wrote about having a last bite just days before I temporarily moved away from Hong Kong back in 2011.

Sadly, Dan lost his battle with cancer in 2021. At the time I wrote about my loving memories with this daipaidong (大排檔), fully knowing that this chapter of my life was over. While Elaine sporadically mentioned plans of re-opening, fans like myself felt our hopes fading with each passing year. The stall at the end of Stanley Street remained empty, and there were no signs of it coming back.

That changed 4 days ago. I woke up to discover a post on Yue Hing's Facebook page, announcing that they were doing a "trial run" this week, starting Tuesday. I immediately made plans to visit my beloved stall, but not on the first day. I figured they would be too rusty and needed some practice.

After some unexpected delay, I finally arrived a little after noon yesterday. For the first time in more than 5 years, I sat down at one of the tables and took in this view. I AM BACK!!!

Lunchtime peanuts

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After MONTHS of delay during which plans were changed multiple times, the Peanut Gang finally got our act together and met up for a meal. This was our first lunch gathering, and after many attempts to set Medora as the venue, we ended up at Zhejiang Heen (浙江軒) today.

I haven't been back here since my first visit in 2016 - when I witnessed the person next to me bite into a shard of broken wine glass that was left in his food. Well... I was also less-than-impressed with some of the dishes that night, as things like imitation crab legs, fish fingers showed up on my plate. So, yeah... I put this place on my "no go" list for years.

But Fergie made the booking and obviously enjoys coming, so I was happy to leave everything in his hands.

First things first at a Peanut Gang gathering: PEANUTS!

A few splendid sticks

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It's been around 3 months since we were last at Foursheets' favorite restaurant, so she was really looking forward to another visit. This time around we were joined by My Favorite Birdbrain Cousin and Chili Shrimp Girl Big Head Shrimp, and I was surrounded by four ladies at the counter...

We did a reasonable sweet of the daily specials, including something I had never seen offered here. That made me very, very happy.

Fried chicken wing (手羽唐揚げ) - they were no longer offering the giant wings from Awaodori (阿波尾鶏) chicken, so the regular wings now come in pairs. Still very, very tasty as always... and I had two.

The saffron club

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The new MNSC cycle actually started at the end of last year, but I had to skip Pineapple's customary Christmas dinner so I could be with the Parental Units. While it definitely was a bummer to have missed out on some fantastic wines, these days I wouldn't miss spending Christmas with mom for the world.

We needed to get another session done early in the new year, so a few of us gathered for a quiet tasting hosted by Juliano. I'd never had the chance to check out the Hong Kong Golf and Tennis Academy Town Club right in the middle of Central, so I was kinda looking forward to dinner tonight at Saffron.

Hokkaido scallop tartare, uni, avocado - this was probably my first time coming across avocado balls, and we've got a few tongues of creamy sea urchin, what seemed to be crème fraîche at the bottom together with the scallop, along with some crunchy cucumber and ice plant. The chilled soup delivered a healthy dose of fruity acidity, which made this a very refreshing dish and helped stimulate our appetites.