Dragon Air

Day 8. Never took pictures of airline food before but I thought I would write about the meal which concluded the Hong Kong Food Odyssey. The flights back to Shanghai were all pretty full and we somehow ended up being on standby (don't ask). The good news is we managed to get on and I even got bumped up to first class.

I picked the western menu, by JW's California at the Marriott. The starter was seared scallops with honey mustard vinaigrette. It didn't look bad but I thought the scallops might be fake? Is there such a thing as imitation scallop (like those orange Japanese "crab sticks") I wonder?

My main course came swimming in the soy and balsamic butter, thank god it wasn't bumpy. The smoked beef fillet was dry as expected, and the kipfler potato and roasted endive were the tastier options on the plate.

I don't think I'll be paying to fly Dragon Air first class now that I've tried it. I guess you can say the food is marginally better. Here's the business lunch I had on my way out:
There was veal salad and some cooked-to-death prawns and broccoli with beans from tin. Once again the Haagen Dazs ice cream saved the day.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab 橋底辣蟹

Day 7. Our Hong Kong Food Odyssey was almost coming to an end. Instead of Pierre we decided to come to Under Bridge Spicy Crab instead with our dear friends K and N.

Under Bridge specialises in typhoon-shelter styled seafood - which a lot of chili and garlic are used. Like a lot of the seafood joints in town the front of this small place was lined up with fish tanks. On the floor near the entrance were boxes of live mud crab - apparently from Vietnam. Some of them were almost as big as the size of a dinner plate!

We ordered 2 medium-size crabs and they were $HK580 each. We were asked our preference on the chili scale and we thought we'd be conservative and picked medium. It was still rather spicy, and we are not wimps when it comes to chili (we ARE the vindaloo connoisseurs). Next time we will go with the low level because we the spiciness could overpower the crab. The crab meat was sweet and succulent and unusually fleshy. Even my husband was impressive and he doesn't like crab normally. He said when he saw the pile of chili he thought it was a bit OTT. Then he tried some and it was very very tasty and he even mixed it with his fried rice. Cunning but trots inducing. (!)
We all know how annoyingly chunky a Blackberry is - and our medium-size crab claw won the competition hands down in this case! Can't imagine how large a big crab would get.

We also ordered deep fried salt and pepper mantis shrimps (ugly as sin but quite meaty), clams with chili and black bean sauce, stir-fried scallops and broccoli, and fried rice. The crabs were so good I actually FORGOT to take pics of the other dishes. Sorry. :)

The bill came to HK$1500 for 4, with quite a few beers. At first glance it seemed expensive but then considering the quantity of crab and seafood we had it was pretty good value. I think if we go often enough the prices for the crab would drop a little too.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab (4 locations in Causeway Bay)

G/F, 405 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2893-1289

Sportful Garden Restaurant 陶源酒家

Day 7. I wasn't going to write about Sportful Garden as I thought it was just going to be another typical dim sum lunch. What made this visit extraordinary was unfortunately not because of the food but the appalling service. More on that later.

To be fair the dim sum quality was above average. I got to try new things also, as supposed to my regular favourite dishes because of my friends E and S. It's good to go to dim sum with more people for sure.

The pan-fried dumplings with crab meat and pork was freshly made and crispy. They weren't half as greasy as I thought they would be. I didn't really taste anything remotely like crab meat, though according to the menu hand-picked crab meat was used? In any case they were rather delicious.

The rice flour rolls with beef was mediocre. They suffered from the too-much-pastry-too-little-filling syndrome. And the lack of sauce (why just 2 drops?) didn't help neither.

The steamed prawn dumplings, on the other hand, were tasty and dainty looking.

E ordered the steamed shrimp meat and inkfish (??) rolls with seaweed, thinking that they would be like maki rolls. How wrong. She said she overlooked the keyword 'steamed'. We all thought the dish looked absolutely hideous. We sampled some anyway and they really didn't have a distinct taste, and to our surprise they didn't taste nearly as dreadful as they looked.

Luckily the steamed pea shoot and pork dumplings looked a lot more appetizing. They were truly enjoyable too.

The taro spring rolls were tasty - again they were freshly made and crispy.

To satisfy E's sweet tooth we got the glutinous rice dumplings with sesame paste stuffing. I didn't try any but she gave her approving verdict.

We also ordered a few other classic dim sum such as siu mai, beef balls and some steamed veg. They all came with above-average standards.

We spotted a BBQ-meat platter on the next table and decided to order one as well and that's when the saga began. The waitress came to us 30 mins after we placed the order to tell us that the meat platter on the next table was big and expensive (HK$200), and that we should consider ordering a smaller version (HK$88). We then asked her whether the cheaper version would come with the same combination of meat as the big one, and her answer was yes. We were glad that she was being helpful, until we saw the platter when it arrived. It had two unidentifiable items and 2 meats - not really what we were after. We inquired about the discrepancy but the waitress flipped right away. She said loudly that it was the 88-dollar version and we should have known. And she kept going on about the prices of the two different dishes. We tried to tell her that it wasn't the price we were worried about and hence we purposely asked her about the content of the dish. She didn't explain why she gave us the conflicting information earlier and instead she said flatly that she couldn't help us on that. Our chins dropped and before we had time to recover she snatched the plate off our table and mumbled something like she would cancel the order.

I think the bill came to around HK$300, including 10% service and 90% attitude.

Sportful Garden Restaurant

2/F, 188 Des Voeux Rd Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: 2851-3381

Nobu

Day 6. A recent addition to the Hong Kong dining scene. We booked a week in advance and managed to get a table. The woman on the phone got on my nerves though when she went on about the dress code. Who would wear tank tops and shorts in February?

The restaurant is black and sleek and not very Japanese looking. The tables are way to close to each other though and again, kind of like seating in McDonald's if you get a table of two.

OK back to the food. We ordered a couple of starters to share and this is the sashimi salad with Matsuhisa dressing (HK$240). We got 7 pieces of tuna sashimi, which was rather generous if you ask me. They were exceedingly fresh and they were seared slightly. The dressing composed of sesame oil, soy and some other secret ingredients and it was very zingy and refreshing - it brought out the taste of the fish. Two thumbs up Mr. Matsuhisa!
Our other starter: tuna tataki with tosazu (HK$180). Why did it come in 7 pieces again? Made it very awkward to share between the 2 of us (and there were mostly couples there). The tuna was really juicy and the tosazu sauce added a delicate vinegar taste. I prefered the sashimi salad if I had to pick one between the two.

The Nobu style Wagyu dumpling (HK$195) was the only hot dish we ordered. They were OK but nothing to shout about. I guess at least you know it had Wagyu beef in them as supposed to some mystery meat. The pastry was nice and thin though.

The toro and spring onion maki (HK$180) and the spicy tuna maki (HK$85). Both were excellent! I never tasted seaweed so crisp before in my life. The rice and the fish were in top form and we polished them off in no time. I also 'accidentally' ate 4 of the toro rolls - sorry B! ;-)

We decided to order more rolls and picked the yellow tail and spring onion maki (HK$80). I think my marginal utility curve was starting to diminish and therefore they were not as satisfying as the other rolls. My sister B gorged them down pretty quickly though so I am sure they were good.
B also insisted on the sweet potato tempura and it was sadly a little disappointing. The potato was so hard it was difficult to eat. The tempura batter was very thin and actually stuck to the potato and not sloppy! How'd they do that?

We didn't have room for dessert. The damage for two came to HK$1200 - we were about to feel good on the fact that it was less than we thought. Then we spotted the bottle of Fiji water we got served at the beginning of the meal and that was HK$95!!! WTF?

Nobu

2/F, Intercontinental Hong Kong

18 Salisbury Road, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: 2313-2340

Fat Man Hot Pot

More on day 5. We decided to go to our friends K and N's pad to see their cats - rescued from Singapore a couple of months ago! This one is Jeega - he's permanently active and bouncy.

And this is the gentle and adorable Rabbell. He let me stroke him for an hour at least!

After 2 bottles of wine we all got a bit peckish and decided to go to the neighbourhood hotpot place. We liked the al fresco sitting and the friendly patrons. Oh and the $10 bottled beers as well of course. We ordered the Sichuan spicy soup base, and the clear broth as an insurance policy. It was a good call because the spicy one got spicier the more we had.

We ordered the usual dishes like beef, chicken, meat balls, and etc. The mushroom+pork balls were a hit. We were also particularly impressed with the vegetable combo.

The bill came to HK$295 and we must have had about 8 or 9 beers (large bottles!)all together? No wonder the food was so good!

Fat Man Hot Pot (The owner's name is "Man")

Cooked Food Market, Yue Wan Estate, Chai Wan, Hong Kong

India Palace

Day 5. India Palace was special because it served vegetarian food and it had an extensive dosa menu. On this visit we found out that it is now under new management and while dosas are still available there's a full curry menu too.

We ended up ordering three of these masala dosa. It's difficult to explain the texture of the dosa - made out of ground lentils and rice flour, it was not crunchy but more like a thin stiff (but soft) bread. There was a dollop of potato masala inside the dosa to go with it.

Without the big dosa menu and the different dosas to choose from, we thought we might as well order from the regular menu (the manager was also getting a little puxhy too). We got the fish tikka to start. The big chunks of boneless white fish was cooked just right the the spices were delicious. I love tandoori - just the smell of it makes my mouth water.

Lamb rogan josh. Pretty average with no distinctive flavours.

Our veg dish dal makhani. Again pretty average.

We were feeling healthy for the day and therefore another veg dish - aloo chana masala. It wasn't bad and was probably the best amongst the other dishes we ordered that day.

Chicken tikka masala. Again, pretty nondescript.

The nan bread was good. But then it's difficult to screw that up.

The food overall was mediocre. Don't think we will bother making a special trip to the dark side again next time. The meal for 4 with two or three beers each came to HK$760.

The places serves Carlsberg on tap but make sure you make it clear that you want draft otherwise you will get Carlsberg in cans.

India Palace

1/F, 19-21 Hankow Rd, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: 2736-6617

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Day 4. Finally all the CNY meals were over and done with and we decided to spoil ourselves with some haute cuisine. Since we loved the Robuchon a Galera in Macau we were happy to find his new addition of his restaurant empire in HK.

The first part of the restaurant consists of a very large square "bar". According to Geoffrey Eu on The Business Times the concept apparently is "to have patrons seated, diner-style, around a lacquered countertop, facing a high-gloss show kitchen in which staff clad in black designer outfits create and serve tasting portions of culinary art". To me it was just a little odd and there was no body sitting there. We were led through a long corridor with a few private rooms before we got to the main dining area.

There were around 7 tables in the area and we got a small table. I meant small like a McDonald's table for two. The place was dark and romantic enough though with fresh lilies on the table. Not bad.

Here's the complimentary cream of champignon and it was cooked to perfection. So rich and creamy and so much better than the other salty varieties I had (mostly from Chef Campbell). :)

My king crab legs with avocado, basil, rocket, tomato, Parmesan, and truffle (HK$320). The king crab was as fresh and sweet as it can be, and in perfect temperature - the best I've had. There were quite a lot of crab too.

My husband had the crispy langoustine on papillote (HK$280). He said one had basil and it was definitely better than the one without. The langoustine was jet-fresh and the crispy paper provided a good contrasting texture to the dish.

I ordered one of the signature dishes - the Le Caille - free-range quail with foie gras stuffing(HK$420). The meat was not as gamey as I had expected, which was a good thing as I find gamey overbearing. I really liked the texture and the taste of this particular quail- why doesn't chicken taste like that? The breast meat was stuffed with foie gras - I am not a big foie gras connoisseur and therefore won't comment on it. I would say the dish would be just as nice without it.

Our other main course: the crispy Amadai fish (HK$560). Some say Amadai = sea bream, some say it's tile fish. I don't even know the difference between the two. In any case it's a popular fish you find in many Japanese restaurant. In this case the fillet was pan-fried WITH the scale to get the crispiness. Very interesting and innovative but we were a little concerned about eating scales. It was kind of scratchy in the mouth when we chewed and didn't have a lot of taste. The fillet was firm and meaty but the price tag is a little steep however good it was.

My hot green chartreuse souffle with pistachio ice cream. Made to perfection. The souffle was nice and featherlike. Didn't really taste too much of chertreuse though, but then I never had the stuff on its own to know what it *actually* tastes like. The pistachio ice cream was not overly sweet and it was just the perfect match.

Hubby's le chocalat sensation was impression (albeit girlie) looking! Basically it was creamy Guanaja chocolate, cacao sorbet on Oreo biscuit. We love the regular dark Valrhona chocolate and we figured we would like Guanaja as well. He said the flavours were nice but confused and overly complicated. I guess it was the different texture and temperature, i.e. sorbet and warm chocolate mousse and it was all too much for him. I guess I like a man with simple taste. :-)

We really liked the food as everything was cooked to perfection with very delicate tastes. What we didn't like was the small tables, and the fact that the courses were served too quickly. I also didn't understand why almost everything on the menu had either truffle or foie gras in it - makes the menu look very predictably swanky in a pretentious kind of way.

P.S. The wine list is good but expensive. A glass of champagne was HK$200! Ouch!

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

4/F, The Landmark, Central Hong Kong. Tel: 2166-9000

Uncle's Poon Choi

The definition of Poon Choi from Wikipedia:

Poon Choi, also known as Big Bowl Feast. It was said that Poon Choi was invented during the late Song Dynasty. When Mongol troops invaded Song China, the young Emperor fled to the area around Guangdong and Hong Kong. To serve the Emperor as well as his army, the locals collected all their best food available, cooked it, and put it in wooden washing basins. By doing so Poon Choi was invented.

And this was my uncle's proud creation: (I should add that the pot was at least 20 inches big in diameter!)

It honestly had everything you could ever imagine in it. There were chicken, goose, dried scallops, king prawns, Chinese mushrooms, abalone, dried oysters, black moss, fish balls, meat balls, squid, sea cucumbers, fish maw, pig skin, dried tofu, Chinese radish, and extra vegetables. I am sure the list is still incomplete. It was served like a hot pot and the brown broth was left simmering the whole time. Everything was tasty but after a while they all taste the same (as they would since they were all simmered in the same sauce). There was more than enough food for all 12 of us!

Some ingredients were more adventurous than others and it's like a treasure hunt when we dug in to the pot. The secret is to sit next to someone whom you can pass your unwanted items to. :) In this case my cousin's boyfriend L was lucky enough to have all my hand downs. Thanks for helping!

My cousins have the cutest dog! Look at him!

The Clipper Lounge

Day 3. New Year Day #2. After one full day of new year food yesterday we decided to indulge a little, before yet another Chinese dinner that evening.

It was our first visit to the Clipper Lounge since the re-opening. The place is as spacious as before but with less couches? At least the tables were big and comfortable, unlike the set-up at the MO Bar in the Landmark Mandarin. Anyhow we got one of the 2 couches at the corner and ordered the tea set for two (HK$368).

The presentation was noticeably more "wanky" than the previous version. I guess it's nouvelle high tea. We didn't think much of the sandwiches to begin with. One had chicken, and one with grilled eggplant. Don't even remember what the other two were - all a bit blah to be honest.

I dived into the scones before I even touched the mini quiche. The good old Mandarin scones did not disappoint. The one with sultanas were to die for. There was of course the rose pedal jam and the clotted cream on the side. Hmmmm.....

The small scone on the left came with the set (there were four). We decided for extra ones and were surprised to see the difference in size. Both were extremely soft and doughy and not crumbly at all. Good for piling on that cream and jam!

We were so full we didn't have room for the sweets - they didn't look too impressive at that point anyway. Next time I think we would just order the scones and the tea on their own.

The Clipper Lounge

M/F, Mandarin Oriental
5 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2825-4007

Grandma's Chinese New Year Repertoire

Day 2. Chinese New Year Day. Each and every year we go to my grandma's place for our new year's lunch (and collect our red-pockets). Each and every year she would cook all these dishes, enough to feed at least 25 people for 2 days!! I don't know how she does it. I have to say I don't like home-cooked Chinese meals but I love her stuff. A big THANK YOU for grandma!

B - will you please correct my speculations on the ingredients.

One of her specials: stir-fried fish (carp?) slices with choi sum. A simple dish but with lots of flavours and I don't know where they came from. As I understand it the choi sum was blanched first then stir-fried with the fish. Where did the sauce and the taste come from though? There seemed to be some kind of sauce.

I don't even know what this one is called - grandma's own creation perhaps. It had a variety of ingredients - 2 types of minced fish balls, prawns, broccoli, and enoki mushrooms. I hadn't noticed it at the time but she garnished the dish with coriander! This is the thing with grandma's cooking - she seems to throw randon stuff together but it always has taste. Stange.

And no New Year meal is completed without the bottomless veg stew. It always seemed to last for days: either she cooked a ton of the stuff, or nobody liked vegetables. Could be a bit of both I guess. The stew had sugar snap beans, Chinese cabbage, tofu, bean sprouts, and my favourite glass noodles. It was as good as vegetables go I guess. :-)

Kid's favourite: Grandma's Signature Wings®. They are a pain in the butt to eat (with chopsticks!!) but always taste reliably good. We tried to find out the recipe but it sounded way too complicated. From what we gathered the seasonings include oyster sauce, Chinese (rice?) wine, chicken seasoning, water, salt. I don't think it is the complete list so don't try this at home. The wings were braised for a while and the skin came off easily. Good for us picky eaters!

There were a few more dishes like pan fried pomfret, and something with Chinese radish - but I was too busy eating then. :-) She also made some slow-cooked soup - again her own creation with pork, sweet corn, carrots, and all bunch of other stuff in it. I guess I would never grasp the essence of Chinese cooking as everything seems so random.

Chesa

Day 1. We decided to go to our favourite restaurant Chesa for our CNY's Eve dinner.The place was renovated a while ago but they made sure everything looks the same as before. We felt right at home as soon as we walked into the cosy dining room.

We were greeted with a basket of freshly baked bread after we ordered. We find it welcoming as a basket of bread is hard to come by these days. Instead we find we often get asked to pick from the waiter's basket and end up just pointing at whatever. Call me old-school but I think it's a crime to do that unless you're on an airplane.

My starter: salade de cervelas à l'Appenzelloise (HK$160) - very poncey sounding but I assume it's comfort food. If they make salad like this I will be having salad everyday! I love the pickled carrots and cucumber. The sausages were similar to Vienna sausage and the Appenzeller cheese was very rich and sharp.

My husband had the Raclette du Valais (HK$115), with gerkins and pickled onions on the side. He said it was simple but nice. The cheese smelled rightly like feet. :-)

I had the filet de bœuf américan poêlé, ravioli aux champignons et deux sauces(HK$330). The texture of the beef was tender and juicy but lacked taste. It just didn't taste like beef at all for some reason. The two sauces were interesting but the winner was the ravioli. I believed they were filled with porcini mushrooms (could be mushroom cooked in a very tasty stock reduction though). They were divine. For what you get though I thought the dish was a little over-priced.

Hubby had the jarret de porc salé et lard croustillant, choucroute au Champagne (HK$250). The pork was tender and flaky: fall-off-the-bone kind of way.

We shared the fondue au chocolat Lindt aux fruits selon saison (HK$95). It was all good.

After the nice bread and everything the petits fours were uninspiring. As usual I just poked one without eating it. We decided to make a move as the joint at that point was starting to smell like a fish and chip shop + stinky feet with all the fondues cooking at the tables next to us. Why didn't they sort out the ventilation I wonder?

Overall a very pleasant dining experience. The service was spot on and unpretentious. Reasonably priced wine list (lots of GOOD half bottles) and we felt like the meal was definitely good value for the buck. In this instance if it wasn't for the smell we would have stayed longer and perhaps move on to dessert wine. In hind sight we are glad we didn't as we were pleasantly trashed as it was after 2 gins and one and a half bottle of wine later. For once we didn't go OTT!

Chesa

2/F, Peninsula Hong Kong

Salisbury Rd, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: 2315-3169