A real ducking surprise

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Juve Fan has, apparently, been developing a new dish that he wanted me to try. It wasn't quite ready when he first told me about it a month ago, but he was confident that he would get it right soon enough. So this is how Foursheets and I came to dine at Estro tonight during the long Easter weekend while many of our friends traveled outside Hong Kong.

But besides the new dish, I was actually more excited about something else. I recently discovered that Juve Fan is, in fact, kind of an ex-tifosi. As I was ordering some funny stuff from Taobao, I decided to add to my order so I could give him something that is perfectly suited for him. Tonight I would have the opportunity to give him the gift and also grab a photo op for this gag gift that only current F1 fans would understand...

Another rainy May night

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We haven't had a night out with DaRC and Ro Ro in some time, and decided to catch up during the short window that they were both in town. I suggested Jean May for a casual night out, and as it turned out, our friends have never had the chance to go. So we took the early seating tonight, as I have done in the past.

This was a rainy night just like my last visit, but thankfully it was already getting better as we arrived at the restaurant.

Chicken liver parfait, red onion compote - this is always a reliable choice, and the onion compote is a nice touch and helps lighten things up.

Hanwoo on the Darkside

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Having decided to skip the festivities for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in Seoul this year, I missed out on the big 10th anniversary party put on by Born and Bred. Thankfully, I got an invitation for dinner tonight at Henry in the Rosewood Hong Kong, where 30K brought together chefs from both Born and Bred Seoul and Busan to showcase their dishes based on Hanwoo - in collaboration with the in-house team at Henry.

I had a very quick catch-up with 30K, and remarked to him that I noticed a marked improvement during my recent visit to Moo-lah. It was also good to see Chef Min again.

Chef Min introduced the six different cuts of beef that would be used for our dinner tonight.

Dry aged beef tallow, Kristal caviar, grilled sourdough - tallow on bread seemed like an upgrade from butter on bread... The garnish of Kaviari Kristal caviar with diced chives added salinity, but the shavings of green lime zest added a wonderful fragrance that instantly lightened things up.

Yukhoe: Korean style beef tartare with green chili bugak - this was something that I had in Seoul last year. The yukhoe (육회) was made with chuck tender and mixed with oi gochu (오이고추) peppers, which added flavor without much heat. The touch of soy sauce was nice, too.

Glazed pork belly: Kurobuta pork, trout roe, butter lettuce wrap, mint, coriander - the pork belly was VERY fatty and jiggly, and that melted fat was so nice. There was heat here but on the mild side, and the mint turned out to be a nice touch.

Gamja jeon: potato pancake stuffed oxtail with chamnamul salad - it's a good idea to balance the heavy dish with a topping of chamnamul (참나물) salad.

I don't remember ever having Korean gamja jeon (감자전) before, but it's not dissimilar to the potato rösti I love. Well, what's not to like about shredded potato that's been fried till crispy and golden brown?! This version came stuffed with some shredded oxtail, which were delicious. However, I felt that the flavors of the oxtail weren't strong enough, and it wasn't all that easy for it to stand out against the delicious potatoes.

Mandu guk, mussel mandoo with seaweed 'gamtae' oil, bone marrow and mussel broth - at the bottom of the bowl we find julienned carrots, zucchini, and egg, along with gamtae (감태) oil that reminded me of aonori (青海苔).　The bone marrow broth was nice and definitely added some beefy flavors here, but the flavors from the seaweed oil were just a little more powerful. Pretty interesting combination, though.

The little mussel was stuffed with beef short plate, but retained its natural flavors.

Grilled Norwegian scallop, bacon and smoked cabbage broth, sea asparagus - the scallop tasted very sweet, perhaps more so because it contrasted with the salty, thick broth.

The scallop came on a bed of cabbage and smoky diced bacon, some of which were just cubes of pure fat (YES!). We also had some skinny sticks of salicornia, but as there was already enough salt here, it was difficult to taste the salinity in the plant.

Hanwoo short rib agnolotti, ragout reduction, Parmigiano Reggiano - the ragout reduction was viscous and pretty heavily-seasoned.

I love agnolotti, and the short rib stuffing was very lovely and tender, and also tasted sweet compared to the ragout.

Next came 4 different cuts of beef, which were served on the same plate. While this looked impressive, it also meant that the cuts which were thinner - which turned out to be the ones we tasted last - got cold quickly...

Tenderloin - good charring on the outside. Meant to be paired with some gochujang.

This was very tender, indeed.

Striploin - paired with a sauce made with onions and soy sauce.

The texture was, of course, on the firmer side compared with the tenderloin, but the strip of fat down the side was nice.

[Outside] Skirt steak - paired with ssamjang (쌈장), which was very tasty and made it better.

Nice and bouncy texture with more bite, but the fat congealed as it got cold, so in the end the experience wasn't as good.

Oyster blade / Flat iron steak - this was my favorite cut from Born and Bred in Seoul, and in fact one of the best dishes I had in all of 2024, so I was really happy that I got to have it again tonight.

I really love it with the marinade, and it was pretty tender but also got some crunch. I didn't think we needed the pickled mustard seeds as condiment.

Perfect potato - dunno whether these were "perfect", but they were definitely very tasty.

Crispy baby corn - surprised at the spicy kick, and also surprised at how much sugar was in the sauce. But hey... pretty tasty.

Ssiat hoeddeok, muscovado sugar, cinnamon, toasted seeds and nuts with vanilla ice cream - we have the warm ssiathoeddeok (씨앗호떡) at the bottom made of sticky rice and flavored with cinnamon, topped with lots of seeds like sunflower seeds, pine nuts... etc. There was a ball of vanilla ice cream, then a very fragrant sesame tuile at the top.

B Bestie made sure that our glass was rarely empty tonight...

2022 Felettig Bourgogne Pinot Noir - initially the nose wasn't very open. The palate was still kinda tannic since the wine was young. Later there were notes of leather and blueberries, then a bit of dried herbs and eucalyptus with more aeration.

Very happy to have made it to dinner tonight, and always good to have the chance to enjoy the beautiful Hanwoo from Born and Bred. Hopefully I can make another visit with Foursheets later this year!

Fatty pork and more

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I felt I needed to catch up with The Great One, as a lot has happened since Mikacina was last in town. A scheduling conflict prevented me from joining her at dinner last night, so we agreed to meet up for lunch today at a place neither of us had been to before. Fat J Char Siu (發達叉燒) had opened with great fanfare and has become immensely popular. The owners have built quite a reputation with Flower Drum (鋒膳) - especially when it comes to charsiu (叉燒) - so it made sense to open up an outlet focusing on Cantonese barbecued meats (燒味).

As it happened E was also here for lunch, and decided to order up a storm for the two of us. I guess we'd be taking a good amount of this home with us!

Our daily soup (例湯) was ching bo leung (清補涼) with lean pork.

A different Chindian, part 2

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I was fortunate to have been invited to an enjoyable meal last year that was a collaboration between Yong Fu (甬府) and Leela. It was a true collaboration between the two kitchen teams, melding the flavors of the two (OK, the reality was more than two, as there's no singular "Indian" cuisine the way there's not just one "Chinese") cuisines. There were quite a few dishes which exceeded expectations, and two of those ended up on my annual list of "best dishes of the year".

So when B Bestie came with an invitation for "round 2" and promised all new dishes, I happily accepted and showed up at Leela tonight with high expectations. A friend had tasted the dishes last night at Yong Fu, but didn't give me much feedback afterwards other than saying he really liking the dumplings...

Khakra - interesting to see khakra here... as I've never seen them anywhere except when I was at Nine One with Samaira. Served with a smoked chili and garlic chutney.

My worst meal of 2025

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Yes, I'm well aware that only 3 months of the year has passed... but I very much doubt that any meal I will have during the rest of 2025 will be as bad as my dinner tonight.

Sporty Cousin has been working in Foshan (佛山) for a few years now, and used to visit 102 House (壹零貳小館) during the initial pandemic years when they still operated solely out of Foshan. As he was a frequent guest of the restaurant, I was planning to go and visit him 2 years ago, just after the borders reopened between Hong Kong and the rest of Mainland China. But before I had the chance to do so, it was announced that the original restaurant would cease operations - apparently due to the village house being scheduled for demolition.

I first heard about the restaurant in January 2018, when they did their first collaboration with The Chairman (大班樓). I remember being so impressed with the passion shown by Chef Xu Jingye (徐泾业)  as we were told stories about their research into classic Cantonese recipes. Everything at that meal was new and tasty, so I had a really good impression of the team.

While a number of friends subsequently took the trip to Foshan during the following 2 years - before China's borders closed in January 2020 - I never made the effort. I also missed some opportunities to check out their Shanghai location, which by now has 2 Michelin stars and had just taken the No.29 spot on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. So when Sporty Cousin messaged me a few days ago and asked whether I'd be up for dinner in Foshan tonight, during the week-long "private kitchen" stint when Xu Jingye and manager Yao Min are back in town, I didn't hesitate. I immediately booked my train tickets, and even arranged to buy a few bottles from a wine shop in Guangdong to be shipped to Foshan for this dinner - given that Foursheets and I could only carry 2 bottles of wine across the border without paying duty.

But... I did had some reservations in the back of my mind. V has been a regular over the last few years in Shanghai, and told me that the cooking has gotten significantly worse in recent days. Apparently it has been so poor that he was bitching out Chef Xu during his visits, and then stopped going altogether. Another fellow foodie has also warned me that the kitchen in Shanghai is on a downward trajectory, has also bitched out Chef Xu during their visits, but didn't think that I would have a bad meal in Foshan.

Unfortunately for the six of us, we all left the restaurant fuming. I had heard from my friends that Chef Xu no longer cooks in the kitchen - which isn't a problem if the kitchen team can deliver. Saffron Bae a.k.a. Hairy LS is often galloping around the world taking after his idol Monsieur LS, but the kitchen team at Caprice still delivers impeccable dishes without him. Well... I saw Chef Xu out and about in the courtyard, so it's doubtful he spent much time in the kitchen tonight.

Pan-fried Chinese white shrimp (干煎大明蝦) - we were all a little surprised that there were no "starters" and the meal began with these giant shrimp. The use of tomato ketchup in the preparation is a familiar one, if not quite traditional Cantonese.

Sushi in Macau

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It's been just over a year since I was last in Macau, which is a far cry from the days before the pandemic, when I made 10 trips in one particular year. Tonight I boarded the ferry for a sushi dinner in Macau - only the second time for me to have sushi in the other SAR. The invitation came from B Bestie on behalf of Sushi Kissho by Miyakawa (鮨 吉祥 宮川), which had just received their first Michelin star a few weeks ago. Chef Miyakawa Masaaki (宮川政明) is spending a few days in Macau to celebrate this occasion, so I happily accepted the invitation.

I'd never stepped foot in the Raffles at Galaxy Macau before, and in fact have only had one experience dining within Galaxy Macau before tonight. So... country bumpkin gets to see some serious bling!

Our first stop was at The Long Bar (but, of course...) for a quick drink before dinner. I was suitably impressed with the lineup of vinyl album sleeves on the wall just inside the entrance, with classic all-time favorites. And the playlist was a lot of classic rock, which was kinda surprising for the clientele in this city.

I should have waited until after the ladies had received recommendations from the staff, or at least until I had a look at the menu. That way I would have ended up ordering one of those girlie drinks I love so much. Instead, I acted like Pavlov's dog and raised my hand when the word "negroni" was mentioned. To be fair, this was a very good and smooth one, but still... I wish I had taken a signature girlie drink!

Beefy and porky

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It's the last day of my trip to spend some time with the Parental Units in Taipei, and I've pretty much eaten every meal at home so far. I would never complain about eating too much of mom's cooking, but I still want to have an occasional nibble outside. So I decided I should visit somewhere I haven't been for way, waaaay too long.

Fu Ba Wang (富霸王) is one of my favorite places in town for braised pork trotters, but it's been more than 12 years since my last bite. I knew that in the old days, they used to sell out of the choice part of the trotter pretty early, so I told myself I needed to get there soon after they open at 11 a.m. Well... I left home late, took the MRT, and arrived at noon. There was already a line of people waiting outside, so I dutifully waited my turn.

Thankfully everything was still available. Since it's been much too long since I was last here, I got a little greedy and ordered more than I should have.

Top section of trotter (霸王腿扣) - I'm really happy to have been able to get this. There is actually plenty of meat here, and they've cut it away from the bone and into slices, but still surrounded by a thick layer of fat and skin. You get the whole experience, which is how I like to eat trotters... thanks to growing up with mom's braised trotters at home. They don't braise it as much as mom does, so the skin and the fat still have a little more springiness.