A disappointing Table

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V's back in town for a few days, and we decided to catch up over a few bottles. I didn't have any ideas of where we should go, and I didn't think there were any places that I had wanted to check out, so we were all set to get ourselves a table at a familiar Italian spot... until I suddenly remembered Table by Sandy Keung. They have recently moved to their posh new digs, so I figured it gives me a good excuse to visit.

I've only tasted Sandy's cuisine once, more than 8 years ago. While not everything was to my liking back then, I remember being impressed by their Hanwoo - at the time, they were one of the few places in town to offer that breed - and that crab roe and garlic rice. Somehow I've never been back, although I've thought about it a few times. Well, I got my chance tonight.

What was to be a romantic date between V and I turned into a threesome when Monsieur Jamin decided that he'd like to come join the fun. While I had made the booking online, I had to call the restaurant to change it to a table of 3. No big deal. As there were initially just the two of us, I figured we'd do everything à la carte and not take a tasting menu. I also didn't think we needed to pre-order anything, even if I remembered the garlic rice with fondness.

Our welcome drink was a warm cup of chamomile and fig leaf tea.

We had some foccacia and grissini, both of which were oily to the touch...

Dim sum Sunday

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Mikacina is swinging through town for a couple of days, and I finally found the chance to catch up with her very briefly. Since dim sum was on the wishlist, I decided to book us a table at Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店). It's really become our go-to place for dim sum, or even just when we are looking for some solid Cantonese fare. For our visitor, it's a chance to check a 3-star restaurant off her list.

Steamed vegetarian dumpling with mixed mushroom (雲南野菌餃) - I'm not sure why I don't order this more often, because they really do a fantastic job with their vegetarian dumplings. These were filled with mushrooms from Yunnan Province that were just packed with punchy flavors.

Les fleurs printanières

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"I didn't think I would come back."

That's what I said to my dining companions tonight, including the nice ladies from Lai Sun Dining who had invited me to dinner. Before accepting their invitation, I made sure they knew that my one and only experience at Plaisance by Mauro Colagreco was not a good one. I was, unfortunately, dining on a night when Heloïse Fischbach had just left the kitchen and they parachuted in Konishi Mitsuru (小西充) from within the group. Two guys flew in from Mirazur and had arrived just hours before.  There were mistakes that night which were unacceptable in a fine dining restaurant.

But the PR team was undeterred, and reassured me that things have gotten better. Besides, Mauro was gonna be in town - since the award ceremonies for Michelin would be happening tomorrow. So I figured... if they still can't get it right when Mauro's around, then the place would never achieve redemption. So I said "YES" to the invitation.

I was relieved to find myself amongst friends. I haven't seen Your Highness in quite a while, and G-Girl's always pretty good company. I was also dining with a compatriot for the first time, having met her briefly last year. Good that there no bitches here tonight... well, except Your Highness.

The restaurant was offering a special Tribute to Blossoms menu while Mauro was in town, so that was what we came to taste. I was really looking forward to this.

First up was a series of amuse bouche...

The round cup-like bread carried roasted trout, roasted pepper, and rose petals. This definitely tasted like smoked fish.

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.