Festive seasons

It's so quiet during the holiday season and work has whined down a lot and started to clear my vacation days.. after the complaints by my mom that i rarely spend time in the kitchen nowadays, i decided to go on a mission to slave myself in the baking section during the idle time.

For my friend's christmas party, we made a festive buche de noel together the night before.
The "sophisticated" look *wink does give people the delusion that it is a time consuming cake... but actually quiet the opposite. I started off preparing the meringue mushrooms which are hassel free decoration, just whip up the meringue and pipe out the shapes and let them sit in the oven for 2 hr. Baking and making the log and decoration only took us for less than 3 hours.

The fluffy chocolate flavor cake wrapped around hazelnut praline flavor buttercream, with chocolate buttercream as coating, exclusive for the chocoholics. I was very happy with the result and it was actually nice to look at.

I've made another cake for the winter festival earlier. It is an apple caramel mousse cake that i recited from multiple cookbooks. As I am practicing more now, I find that it is actually easier not to follow every steps and recipes meticulously, the trick to reduce chances of failure is to recite the successful attempts in the past, combining the experience and invent something on our own. cookbooks can give me the inspiration and teach me how to decorate a cake... but the recipes are oftentime too complicated and hard to follow.

Blueberry muffins for bb chu. Not the american kind of muffins that are dense, solid, heavy and pack with multiple ingredients, sometimes you don't know whether you are eating a cake or loaf of bread... Mine is simple, crunchy in surface, soft inside, milky creamy muffin with slightest sweetiness. bb chu loves blueberry, we are training him to have a meticulous and sensitive taste buds.

Poached pear tart. I should have glaze it with napage beforehand. I loaded the tart with poached pears which were nicely done with dry white wine and vanilla beans... added almond cream on a almond flavor tart base. just right as a winter time dessert... 

For our family gathering christmas dinner, sis ordered a buche de noel from la maison du chocolat (my most favorite chocolate store). I had my frist crush when I had my last day in paris after a 5 weeks backpacking trip in EU, I bumped into a chocolate store that looked like an extravagent jewelry shop and I bought my first bar of cuana. the experience was mindblowing bc the chocolate was nothing that i have tried before. I still declare this the best after many years of chocolate experience.

Oyster night

Just a few days ago had a great oyster dinner at one small private kitchen in cwb. This is actually my first experience doing oyster tasting and having oysters as the main dish.... usually people order a platter as a appetizer, and then the waiter explains different breeds but you never really get to appreciate the subtle differences of flavors.

We started off with the first round of standard platter - kumamoto, malpeque, utah beach, south africa, south pacific. Some flavors are a bit muted but Utah beach is quite nice very creamy. I am glad that we started with something light that accentuate the power of premium oysters.

For the second round we went for the higher premium breeds - namibia, scotland pearl, gillardeau, belon 0000. I like namibia, clean and friendly, quite creamy to tasting but not the kind that gives the wow factor. I don't like scotland pearl, people like it for the after-taste which lingers in your mouth for a few minutes, it goes well with chardonney and white wine, yet i found the after-taste too strong and not crisp enough. I love gillardeau, briney, sweet and silky, the complexity of flavors represent the transformation of the breed from location to location, like a full bodied wine that wraps around your tongue and stimulate every taste buds. The belon 0000 is the best. each zero represents 3 years, so 0000 means the oyster is 12 years old.  This is the best that i have had before, the taste is exquisite, crisp and sweet and complex. it is actually quite crunchy int texture, pretty much giving you everything you want in an oyster.. no doubt this is the best breed.

belon 0000 close-up.
I will definitely go back for more. someone says will treat me to another tasting.. i wouldn't say no for that. =) 

Sick

I figured my immune system has deteriorated significantly this year and have felt sick for multiple times.... what it means is no matter how much exercise you want to squeeze into your schedule the only thing that can keep you healthy is rest.

Been sick since tuesday and still haven't recovered. After a cocktail medication of colatin, tylenol, panadol, secret liquid and plum liqueur to help with diarrhea, the final resolution is to see a old time family doctor who still recalls me as a college student in the states. hope i can get well asap so i can resume work on monday...

HK Michelin

3 stars
Lung King Heen 龍景軒 -> never been there, at four seasons.. btw, who will go to a five star hotel for chinese food anyway??

2 stars
Amber -> pretty good.. only had lunch there before, but the dessert buffet is great
Bo Innovation -> that sucks, i trashed this place at my previous review.
Caprice -> delicioso!! exquisite french
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon -> this is what i love..
Shang Palace 香宮
Summer Palace 夏宮
T'ang Cour 唐閣

1 star
Fook Lam Moon 福臨門
Forum 富臨
Hutong 胡同 -> at first i thought it's more like a foreigners scene, but the signature lamb is indeed very good.
Lei Garedn （IFC）利苑酒家 -> good food and ambience
Lei Garden 利苑酒家 (TST)
Ming Court 明閣
Petrus珀翠
Pierre
Regal Palace 富豪金殿
Shanghai Garden 紫玉蘭 -> no kidding..it is just a regular chinese restaurant
The Golden Leaf 金葉庭
The Square 翠玉軒
Tim's Kitchen桃花源小廚
Yung Kee鏞記 -> love the "pei dan"

Extravagence
Gaddi's吉地士（尖沙嘴）

Comfortable restaurant
Nicholini's意寧谷 -> i normally don't like appetizer buffet, but the a la carte menu is pretty good, but it's kind of boring since they never change their menu.

One Harbour Road 港灣壹號

Making right calls

It takes time to prove one's call to be right. People tend to look at the positives and ignore the negatives. Contrarians are loners, but when they are right they will become heros.