Crazy for Sichuan food

I don't know when it got started. If yawning is contagious, I would argue food cravings can be contagious too. The devil living inside me has an increasing tolerance and appetite for Sichuan food ever since I moved back to Hong Kong. Albeit most sichuan dishes are excessively seasoned and oily, some said spicy food is good for skin but the unfortunate most would be more prone to massive breakout. Luckily spicy food doesn't stimulate acne for me or make my stomach turn, eating too much of it would still make my lover's handles more prominant.

As a typical taurus, I am not very adventurous with restaurant choices and tend to visit the same places incessantly until the restaurants screw up miserably. Whenever my friends ask where to go for dinner, I would always list my 3 choices: yakitori, sichuan food or hotpot.

For sichuan food, my favorite dinner place as gotten to be San Xi Lou 三希樓(滿江紅), even a chengdu born guy would claim this as the best sichuan restaurant in HK, although the spicy level has adjusted down a notch. I went there again, this time not for hotpot but for hot dishes.

Spicy chicken/ "saliva" chicken - chicken was lean and meaty. The sauce was adjusted just right and not too sweet. I always love the peanuts on top of the chicken to give a crunchy texture when combined. A must order item whenever I dined at the restaurant.

The cold dish - fun pai - I wonder if they make the fun pai themselves because these are thicker than the ones at other restaurants. The key is the sauce that's hot and flavorful enough because fan pai is basically tasteless. I just love the sauce that can burn your tongue.

Sichuan wonton in red sauce. Not the best that I have had, I still prefer the wraps to be the kind of dumplings rather than the guangdong wonton. I am still obsessed with the one at sichuan dai ping fou, where the skin is thick and chewy and absorb a great deal of hot sauce.

Dam dam noodles - basically noodles in peanut sauce.

Deep fried tofu cubes - great snacks for beer.

Fish in chili soup - Another must order item at any sichuan restaurant. because the soup base is so oily the fish fillets absorbed all the oil hence become very smooth and slimy. Inside the bowl you can also found the potato starch noodles and lots of beans sprouts.

Tofu and beef - the tofu was silky and smooth and is a great combination with the beef in chili sauce and peanuts.

For dessert, we had the pumpkin soup, red beans jelly and sweet dumplings in rice wine. I have to admit that the restaurant doesn't offer very good dessert. but still something sweet can moderate the flame after a spicy dinner.

I need to convince people that we all can train up our tolerance level for spicy food. I keep lifting my tolerance level for every visit to sichuan restaurant, and I am addicted to the excitment of burning my tongue off after a hot dinner. Call me crazy but that's my devil's calling....

Fook Lam Moon

LT has gone back to US for good. We had our farewell dinner at Fook Lam Moon 福臨門.

I would have never imagined myself dining at FLM since it's one of the tycoon's restaurant and I would have assumed the waiters are stuck up and it would be cheap and awkward to order non-abalone dishes in the restaurant.

I was wrong about the service. The staff there were very professional and didn't give us lousy service even we didn't order the expensive items on the menu.. although they did push for their shark fin soup when we asked for recommendation.

The food was good and delicious... but whether it deserved a rave review I really doubted it. I mean.. other than the more delicate items and extravagent ingredients which we didn't order, other dishes were normal cantonese food which was in par with a normal chinese restaurant. and a lot of the items we ordered I found inferior to many places I have tried before.

Cha siu - bbq pork - I think the one I had at Fu SIng tasted better, the meat was more tender and juicy at Fu Sing. But again, I am not a huge fan of bbq pork, the quality was good enough.

Fried frog legs - I haven't had frog legs in ages.. Chinese don't make good frog legs dishes.. but Thai does. I need this dish to be more spicy.

Sweet and sour pork - it was tasty, no surprise, but I wouldn't rate it high if comparing to the seafood place on lamma island, that one was awesome the pork was juicy and fried perfectly with the perfect sauce. This one was too average.

Vegetable dish - it tasted as normal as it looked.

Chicken - The skin was thin and crispy and the meat was tender and juicy and not fatty at all. interestingly the dipping sauce was lemon juice mixture unlike others which use white pepper and salt.

"Hong Siu" Tofu - The sauce was light and tasty, and the tofu was soft and silky.

Crab shell with crab meat - This is the most surprising item for the dinner. They stuffed the shell with lots of crab meat and covered with a thin batter that's not too oily to taste. It retained the light crab flavor every bite of it was crab meat. It was very nicey done although the presentation was just so-so.

Pan-fried sword fish - I found what my mom made would be better than this. The sword fish didn't come in one piece but in broken pieces. You would have thought the chef was experienced enough to not mess around the fish when it wasn't done yet. I was disappointed.

Fried rice wrapped with lotus leaves. This was the best executed dish for the dinner. The rice was chewy and not mushy, had very heavy taste of soy-sauce with bits of fried eggs inside. There weren't traces of many ingredients inside but the rice was packed with flavor.

Almond soup with egg white - Lots of egg white inside, above average quality.

Well.. I probably shouldn't set a high expectation for my first visit since the press commented it as a tycoon restaurant.. they should have very picky taste buds right?! I still felt the pressure of ordering the more expensive items on the menu, and I thought the pressure was not justified for the quality of food they offered.

Breakfast at J Residence

First question - what is your normal routine for the weekends? sleeping marathon? hardcore workout? midnight karaoke/ mahjong? reading rampage? or bun bun (maid) reincarnated = cleaning nonstop???

The worst possible answer is ... which I learn from many people... "I don't r
eally have anything to do in the weekends.." This is such a waste of time!!

Second question - what is your weekend morning routine? most people sleep through the morning to regain their strength. Some like an early dose of weekend paper with a cup of joe. I like to run the horses and jog in lush green surroundings.

One early morning, I woke up at 7am still laying in bed, batting my eyelids, dreaming about how great it would be to have a hot english scone to start off the day. I quickly got up and fetched for a scone recipe from my pastry books, and decided to replicate one that's originated from Oak Wood, a pastry shop located in one small town of Saitama, Japan.

What you need:
300g all purpose flour
15g baking powder
65g unsalted batter
2 eggs
50g granulated sugar
115g milk
35g dried cranberries
1 egg yolk (for glazing)

How to proceed:
Sieve the flour and baking powder together, cut chilled butter into small cubes, beating the flour and butter in a standing mixer under low speed for 15 min.
In a separate bowl, beat up the eggs with sugar, add milk and chill thoroughly in the fridge.
Chop up the dried cranberries and add to the flour mixture, and then add liquid (milk & egg) to the dough, stir until blended.
Gently knead the dough for a bit and chill for 1 hour.
Roll out the dough to 2cm thick, chill for another 1 hour..
Using a 5cm diameter cookie cutter, cut out the scones and transfer to baking sheet. Brush the surface with egg yolk.
Bake for 15-20min at 200c or until golden brown.

It is a japanese recipe so I wouldn't expect it to be dense and rich. I like the english style which you can taste the intense butter flavor and bread like texture. The texture here is pretty light and cakey. I would need to modify it to make it more english and substantial.. and more satisfying..

Unlimited variation exists for scones.. chocolate chips, raisins, lemon zest, blueberries, coffee, cornmeal, pumpkin, gingerbread.. you name it! just need a little bit of your spare time and creativity.. no need to go to four seasons for a nice hot scone. making one at home is as easy as making a trip to central.

It can't be a perfect morning breakfast without a nice cup of espresso. Ristretto it is, full bodied espresso with a strong lingering aftertaste.

So what is your weekend routine?

Pierre 2x

Have you ever imagine yourself going to a michelin star restaurant twice a day?

Food critics would need to dine at a restaurant more than twice in order to write a proper review...that's how they test the quality and consistency. well.. obviously I am no food critic, I am not gifted with complex palette and profound writing skills... i am just a crazy foodie who is always in search of good food and devoted to places which serve food with their hearts.

It's been months since my last visit at Pierre HK. So when a friend called for a catch-up lunch, I intuitively asked for Pierre. HK restaurants usually have very high turnover rate in terms of staff... much of it because the locals tend not to stay in the business as a career and they easily jump boat for slightly higher salary. I walked into the restaurant wondering whether the old gang is still there, and YES there I saw Herve the manager, Pierre the sommelier, and the rest of the staff was there as usual... I was given the warm welcome and being seated preparing for a great meal.

First came the amuse buche.

I chose 63degree egg as my appetizer. Slow cooked egg with running egg yolk resting on a bed of mushroom cream sauce. I absolutely loved the treatment of egg and earthy flavor from the mushroom. oh forget about the calories.. i just mopped the entire plate with the baguette.

My friend chose the tuna for starter which fused with the asian cuisine, a lighter dish as compared to my egg.

In between, we were given a little treat of polenta with crab meat with frisee green and meringue flavored with garlic and olive oil. I have to note that the foam based creature was absolutely wonderful.. it's exemplified something basic and simple could be so delicate and tasty. It left me wanting more than just a scope...

For main, I chose for the shredded lamb with eggplant. The lamb was really tender and flavorful, it almost tasted like beef. The sauce was rich and intensive.

My friend went for a steak, and it came with a salad and sweet potato mousse. Looked american but with a french twist.

For dessert I had the chocolate ganache. It was the best ganache I have ever had, what an oxymoron of so light but so chocolate rich. The trick was to use both cream and milk to lighten the chocolate sauce... along with the pistachio ice cream... yummy..

My friend had the apricote compote with wafers.

Nicholas was so nice to send us his signature vanilla souffle. Not that I have an unfathomable stomach, just that the souffle was light and fluffy, I actually finished the whole thing.

Petite four: I love raspberry and I love meringue.

I went into the kitchen to compliment Nicholas for his artful skills, wanting to meet the new chef but he wasn't there at that moment. We then paid the bill and left the restaurant... just when we were waiting for the elevator, Herve together with the new Chef Olivier came out to introduce himself.. what a nice gesture, making you feel important. 

After a lavish lunch I returned back to the office to work off the calories by exercising my brain. After work I met up with two other foodies for dinner.. actually I couldn't really eat much as I was still working on digesting my lunch, I had a couple of glasses of wine and decided to call it a day... up until...

My 2 foodie buddies wanted a place for good dessert.. First came to our mind was Caprice as one of BCH's favorite restaurant, unfortunately the restaurant was full house and couldn't seat us for dessert... Our spirit for sweet hasn't just died yet so next we pranced our way to Pierre, and here I was again.. being treated with a parade of sweets in the wonderland.

As a starter for dessert - passionfruit sauce and sorbet, passionfruit jelly, chocolate ganache, pistachio marzipan, cinnamon biscuit with vanilla icing.

I wanted to try something new so I asked for the grand dessert which comprised of orange compote and caramelized apricot tart, tuiles with vanilla cream and fruit candies, pistachio marzipan, macaron and ice cream with olives shaving. Everything was really good.. although I am generally not too fond of marzipan as the combination of sweetness and grainy texture makes it unfinished and unrefined. Love the ice cream with olive shaving.. the tanginess of olive makes an brilliant match.

We came here for a great dessert.. and we ended up having two rounds.

The second round included millefeuilles of strawberry and pistachio ice cream, I believe that's the kirsch sauce alongside the millefeuilles, nougat thins with pistachio and chocolate sauce, chocolate ganache with peach compote, and my favorite pistachio mousse with mixed green in melon soup.

We had a great time at Pierre. We chatted with every single one of the staff and amazed by the diversity of background and knowledge of food and wine. For the amazing people and food I will definitely come back for a degustation dinner.. It seems like I will never get tired of this restaurant.

Bordeaux Wine Tasting

Few weeks ago I had the pleasure to attend a wine tasting class hosted by a US wine dealer. I would really want to do it more often to develop my tasting palette and ability to articulate the differentiation. I would say after tasting wine from different regions and countries over the past years, I still prefer bordeaux for its subtlety and elegance of fragrance and flavor.

The line-up of our wine list is:

+ 2004 Chateau Carbonnieux Blanc, Graves
I enjoy drinking this white. Medium-bodied, delicate, fruity and classy white wine. It  has this flowery characteristic that makes it provocative.

+ 1998 Chateau Potensac, Medoc

Containing dark currant aroma, the earthy and leathery texture rubs onto the palette...  this goes better with food than drinking by itself.

+ 2002 Chateau Talbot, St. Julien

I do like the St.Julien regions which produces aromatic and less weighty wine. I had this Talbot before, very easy to drink given its light body. It carries the uniqueness of the smell of fermented tobacco...I can almost sense it...

+ 1999 Chateau Lascombes, Margaux

Margaux generally has higher concentration of Merlot blended. This is a MEN's wine, giving you the feeling of animal rusty smell, this contains higher acidity and requires longer time to understand the body language

+ 2001 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac
Needless to say I am a big fan of Lynch Bages. The wine itself won a lot of publicity given its well rounded nature and high quality. It is suitable for novice and enthusiast. The wine has a plush succulent palette and substantial body, and a long layered finish.

+ 2002 Chateau Le Gay, Pomerol

Not really my cup of tea... It has this deep saturated purple color accompanied by aromas of black cherry liqueur. This is too deep and muscular to my liking.

+ 2001 Chateau Palmer, Margaux

I just found my new favorite! This is a lighter version of Lynch Bages and mainly dominated with Merlot. This is delicate and welll mannered bottle of wine with everything related to elegance. It has a long sauve finish that's so addictive.

By the end of the class, the lecturer was long gone and a group of us were half drunk and collectively finishing the last bits of wine left in the bottles. Wine is not for getting drunk or sending you off to delusion, it's about enjoying the every taste of it and understanding the resemblance of flavor.

Cooking for Dad

I need to learn how to blog faster.

Many unfinished entries are sitting in the draft folder and I need to get these out before I send my computer for repair.

In order to celebrate for my 65 yrs old dad's bday, since we had done the up-scale dining with friends and relatives already, the kids decided to keep dad away from the kitchen for once and slaved themselves to make a home cooked meal.

Apparently we were not that good with planning and collaboration... we proposed what we wanted to make, and later on figured we had too much protein on the menu. Oh well... with my limited knowledge of savory items I put aside the nutritious aspect and try to replicate the recipes as much as I could.

The menu includes: herb crusted rack of lamb, clams with aioli, steak with caramelized onions, grilled pacific saury, sautee mushroom and brocolli, and warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

We got our rack of lamb from woo hing (和興行) which is frozen meat vendor in causeway bay... can you imagine the same item can sell at double the price at citysuper or other upscale grocery stores? what a ripoff to shop there...

Our two massive steaks - one rib eye and one sirloin.

OK, I didn't handle the steaks myself... AM stepped in and used salt and pepper and dried herbs to cook the meat the chef way.. you got to use butter to glaze the surface...

I copied gordon ramsay's recipe of clams with aioli.. this was very good the first time I cooked it.. and it's still good for the second time. As you can see I used a lot of thyme and garlic for seasoning. The mistake for this time around was I was a bit heavyhanded on salt.

A little drama at first with the herb crust... at first I forgot to buy the packaged bread crumbs from grocery store and decided to make my old with stale bread.. that didn't work out well, and then rushed to the grocery store to get the exact product... and figured I used too much bread crumbs and wasted my other seasonings... I need to remind myself next time - Read the recipe and find out the exact measurement for ingredients...

The herb crusted consisted of rosemary, thyme, parsley, and pamarsan cheese. The method is to sear the rack of lamb first to seal in the juice first, and then put into the oven to cook for 10-15 minutes, brush on dijon mustard and then pad on bread crumbs mixed with herbs, and then put back into the oven and cook until done.

Steak made by AM - how beautiful they looked.

Veggie dish made by sis.

Okay.. by now you would think why only 5 of us were eating so much... and that's not all of it...

We had 6 pacific saury to share to finish off our meal. This is super easy to make.... since one would use only salt for seasoning and oven to cook... most important thing was to get the fresh saury from the market.

I made the molten chocolate cake to finish our meal - the quickest warm dessert to make on earth. The most exciting part is to see the melted chocolate flooding out once you break the shell. Combing with vanilla ice cream, it's the most whole-hearted comfort dessert that everyone should make their own at home.

We had our all time favorite Lynch Bages 2001 to go with our meal.

Admittedly we made way too much food and meat that night... and surprisingly we were managed to finish everything! just that we didn't want to have any left over sitting in our fridge. Next time I need to better manage the balance of nutrition, make smaller portion, and have more variety of food on the menu.