85 South, HK

 

 

BBQ ribs, pulled pork, chips and slaw.

Will this be the start of a new food fad in Hong Kong? This hole in the wall on Kau U Fong is really easy to miss. I’ve walked past it a few times and even on this intentional visit, we weren’t sure if they were even open. I eat meat and I eat BBQ but I’m unfamiliar with the nuances. And since I’m unfamiliar, my yardstick is what they promise to deliver.


“North Carolina BBQ is different from what you’ll find everywhere else. It is the only kind of barbecue in which the meat itself – rather than the smoke, the pepper or the sauce is the centerpiece. Our slaw is a traditional North Carolina BBQ slaw that is unlike any other coleslaw you’ve ever had before. Ours is tomato based with a sweet yet tangy flavor that really compliments the smoky flavor of the pork.”

We had the big boi plate which came with a little of everything – ribs, pulled pork, chips and slaw.



So let’s put the meats forward - the ribs were tender off the bone but spiced rubbed rubs was a tad too aggressively salted and the pulled pork was a little on the dry side but douse it with a bit of sauce or as recommended with the coleslaw and it is good to go. Other meat plates offered were rib plates and also pulled pork sandwiches that judging from mixing the pulled pork and coleslaw on my own plate would be a good sandwich. And finally, as promised, the coleslaw was like nothing I had before and I like their version of it. Out with the mayonnaise and in with the tomato and tang, this was my favourite thing on the plate.

85 South
6-10 Kau U Fong

Ronin in HK

I will confess – despite the rave reviews it opened to, I didn’t enjoy my first experience here. We sat by the door and faced a wall all dinner. The menu read like a grocery list and the servers that explained it seemed condescending. The food, however, was pretty good so it did deserve a second go.

 

My second visit here was slightly more spontaneous, we were wondering the neighbourhood for decided to pop in for a few bites – plates are petite and dainty. The menu has changed since I last went. They now offer a tasting menu for HKD 900 which like the daily printed menu is based on the fresh seafood that they source.

 

Ronin will always be compared to Yardbird since it is their second venture hoping to strike gold like yardbird. Well, if Yardbird is yang, Ronin is yin. Like the food, the environment is more zen from the adrenaline pumping yardbird where you sometimes need to shout over dinner. The flavours are softer, clean and light – they let the ingredients do the talking. And on a totally random note, I really like the stoneware that they picked out for the restaurant.

 

 

We skipped the sashimi section this time.  We tried some the last time and the flavours were nice but the fish didn’t seem to be at the right temperature slightly on the warmish side despite being served on a bed of shaved ice. After seeing a few pictures of this delicious creation of this on the internet, we decided to try to heftily priced flower crab with mitzuba and uni. It is a luxurious combination without being too rich. The creamy uni gives it that richness and the crab gave the slight sweetness and I could have spoon after spoon but I think it lacks something that will give it a good pop – maybe ikura? We finished off with their unagi chirashi. The unagi was plumped, glazed and grilled and spiked with sprinkles of sancho pepper served on a bed of rice. The sancho pepper gave it that interesting dimension of lemony flavour and tingling sensation, this dish I really liked.

 

So my second visit here was more successful. Perhaps the early kinks have been evened out and the cooking and staff have found their stride. I might give the tasting menu on my third visit.

 

Ronin
8 On Wo Lane
Central, HKseats@roninhk.com

Tai Ping Koon - HK Retro Food

I’ve been in a retro mood and my recent dinner at Tai Ping Koon just fed it even more. Tai Ping Koon is a Cantonese Western restaurant where time has stood still. The décor is retro and the dishes and service are old school to match. Much like the genre of “western” food that we have in Singapore where they serve up localized western dishes like chicken chop, Tai Ping Koon is famous for a number of these like the Swiss-style chicken wing name has its own history and a taste that has nothing to do with its name. The flavours here are more localised, Swiss-style chicken wings are braised in a sweet soy sauce, which was tasty in their own sticky and not overly sweet way. The main reason why we came here was to sample the roasted pigeon. Only way to eat pigeon is to get stuck in with your hands and just gnaw away, not the most polite way but probably the best. The pigeon is roasted whole and the skin was nicely glazed and evenly roasted and served with a sweetish soy sauce at the bottom that I don’t think was really necessary. I had a good gnaw at it, and it was good. To end off, we ordered to soufflé. Man, I didn’t know it was that large! The table of 2 next to us valiantly tried to conquer it but I would recommend at least 4 people? It is soufflés like that put the spectacle element into dining out and makes it fun. We all had a giggle and took photos of that gigantic thing and dug in with our spoons together. I was a little concern about it not being cooked in the centre but it turned out ok. What it had in size, it had had in wow factor but not that much taste. I appreciated that it wasn’t too sweet but it was more a textural rather than favourful spoonful.

 

Tai Ping Koon, CentralG/F 60 Stanley Street
Central, HK

Cronuts by MO Hong Kong

The cronuts, they have arrived in Hong Kong an I have had a taste. Well, err... it tastes of what it should be, part doughnut, part croissant - an airy layered textured doughnut. I have no clue how close this tastes to THE Cronut that has taken New York by storm but as I have never been a doughnut kinda girl, I still remain unconverted after this. 

The Mandarin Cake Shop

M/F, Mandarin Oriental HK

5 Connaught Road

Central, HK

Sun King Yuen Curry Restaurant

This is my second time here for a pork chop curry. I’m not a fan of the Hong Kong version of curry but they serve a more Singapore/Malaysian style curry with stronger spices and a hotter chilli kick that reminds me about home. Here, the pork chops are flattened and deep fried on the bone and the bowl of curry is served with a token potato. I also tried their dry-fried beef hor fun (乾炒牛河), well oiled and well fried, the noodles was tasty and had taken on a good amount of wok hei. I’m not sure why I haven’t been back sooner but I will certainly return here for more of that pork chop curry.

Sun King Yuen Curry Restaurant
20 Spring Garden Lane
Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Motorino (now in HK)

Good news! There is a new NY-imported pizza place in town – Motorino. Yay!

Motorino serves up neopolitan styled pizza or for some it is the “soggy” styled pizza. Whilst this leans towards being authentic, I’ll be the first to admit that it really isn’t my style of pizza. Eating with a knife and fork is more appropriate than getting all stuck in with your hands and somehow with pizza that just seems too proper for this causal food.



As compared to the pizza places around the city, Motorino offers interesting toppings - their signature brussels sprout with pancetta, and cherry stone clams - gives them a slight edge and to make it a complete meal, they recommend Gragnano perfect pizza to wash it all down. Whilst what tops the pizza does matter, the dough and the crust is something that I’m still trying to come to terms with. The crust is very puffy. Puffy, puffy, puffy that when we first ate it my dining mate described being naan-like (less the ghee and garlic that is usually slathered on) and someone else said to me that it was like pita bread and all they needed was hummus, so not really pizza crust-like descriptions. To me, it was just too puffy and too much dough that even though it did have marks of the wood fire oven char – although some just were outright burnt – it lacked character is flavour and mouth feel texture.

Not a big fan of the crust but happy to have this pizza option in town.
 
Motorino
14 Shelly Street
Central, HK

Lunch at ManWah

I’ve been to Man Wah for lunch twice since I’ve started living here and it is one of the best dim sum places that I've been to. Fook Lam Moon is a very close second for me, and what makes these two places that I have had really good dim sum at is simply really good execution of food.



My first lunch here was just a small sampling of their dim sum and to my surprise everything that we had was really good. I expected it to be good and for some dishes to fall short but I’m glad to report that everything that we had was GOOD. One of the best things that we had was their signature Black pepper beef puff pastry and this was probably the best thing that we had that lunch. The beef is pepper with a bite and pastry is paper crisp and not greasy, and well layered to for enough textural bite but light and airy, really amazing.

 

 My second lunch here was during the hairy crab season where they featured a hairy crab menu. The menu featured some of their signature dim sum – black pepper beef puff pastry and hairy crab dishes. Whilst the roe is the most prized of the crab and was featured against a bowl of white rice – I felt that there wasn’t enough of it to enjoy it because much of my hairy crab fest experiences are more like "death by hairy crab until the next season", the other dishes used the overlooked parts such as the crab legs that were sautéed with Shanghainese rice cakes. In addition to the menu, we ordered a serving of crab meat and roe tart and this was the highlight for me. A little over the top tiny tart, flaky pastry cup packed with probably the amount of roe and crab that almost equated to a crab. Concentrated hairy crab flavor, now this is what I’m more used to with hairy crab – excess, over the top and now I had my fill to the next hairy crab season. Man Wah didn’t disappoint.





The food is excellent and the XO sauce condiment is something that I could pile on to most things. In addition to that, it is a room with a view and with fabulous service. All in all this is a very good restaurant.

Man Wah
(at Mandarin Oriental HK)
5 Connaught Road West
Tel: +852 2825 4003

Corner Cool: Po's & Deadend

Bready artisan morsels can be found in a corner at Po’s, a corner bakery along Po Hing Fong. At my last visit, instead of the chocolate Danish which I usually have that has a dark rich chocolate and crisp pastry, I had the “Today’s Special” Pain au Chocolate which was a hit and a miss as a whole. The pastry was airy and crisp but I didn’t enjoy the chocolate that was in the croissant pastry – it was too sweet and I couldn’t quite make out what type of chocolate or was it a caramel mix? Moving away from chocolates, one other item that I love and recommend is the Yunnan ham fougasse, that will (unfortunately) cost a large amount of your daily lunch pocket allowance at HKD 50 a pop, is a seriously delicious crusty breadstick with a good chewy texture that is flavoured with cubes of Yunnan ham.

 

If you want a cuppa just walk a few more steps to the neighbouring Café Deadend. In terms of coffee, my favourite thing to drink here is a dirty. Actually, no make that a dirty double – hot double espresso in a chilled cup and served with cold milk. It is a tricky one. It isn’t neither a piping hot drink that some are very finicky about and the milk isn’t foamed so the milk isn’t aerated to be creamier nor is it cold enough to be an iced coffee. The temperature that you have it is warmer than lukewarm and the idea behind it is that at that temperature, you get to taste more of the coffee, which you really do. This is me having a little whinge - since it’s opening late last year the café has gained a sizable following, which means more people and limited seats. A few months ago, Café Deadend didn’t even have a food menu and only served coffee and it had a more zen vibe about it. That’s all changed; now if you sit indoors (with the roof over your head) you get service and coffee in proper cups and food from their menu. If you sit outdoors, your coffee comes in a plastic cup, you can take out from Po’s and there is no service charge on your bill. In my ideal world, I would like a proper cup, no crowds and no restrictions on takeout from Po’s regardless of where I sit. The choice is yours.



Po’s Atelier
G/F 62 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
 
Café Deadend
G/F 72 Po Hing Fong
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Nagahama No.1 Ramen

I haven’t had very much ramen here in Hong Kong but I recently ate a good bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen with Hakata-style thin noodles at Nagahama No.1 Ramen. I had the No.1 ramen which was the ramen with the works – two kinds of pork (I found the lean pork nicer), wood ear, spring onions, soft boiled egg and roasted nori. Other than that, you can choose, oil or no oil and the level of doneness of you noodles, I elected for hard and the noodles arrived cooked through tender but firm. The broth was rich but mellow enough not to be overwhelming and the egg although it looked a bit dried out was still pretty flavourful and decent. I’ll probably come back again for a weekday dinner.

Nagahama No.1 Ramen
G/F, 14 Kau U Fong
Central, HK

Fook Lam Moon's Little Roast Piggy

Fook Lam Moon's roast suckling pig was one of the top yum things that I had in 2012. Perfectly evenly roasted crisp skin and sliced with a good meat, skin and fat ratio. Best little roast piggy I have eaten.

Fook Lam Moon
35-45 Johnston Road
Wanchai, HK
Tel: +852-2866 0663

Hola BCN!

I really like this place. BCN is one of the Spanish restaurants that have popped up in HK over the past few months and it is one of those places that I feel has the most heart. It is a small space. The bar stools are a little uncomfortable for a whole dinner but the table bar is the centre stage of what goes on in the restaurant. Eating at this table bar is great, you get to watch some kitchen action and talk to Chef Edgar, who is personable and keeps the whole dining experience casual.

I don’t know Chef Edgar very well (actually not at all), I was just another diner for that evening, but he entertained my questions and small talk. He talked about how he ended up in Hong Kong and he laughed about how sometimes he wakes up and wonders how he ended up here. I know that feeling. It is a mix of feeling nostalgic and homesick and yet excited about the surprises and adventure that awaits you. Perhaps it was the mood I was in that evening but the food gave me a sense of Chef Edgar’s nostalgia through the authentic flavours and the quality ingredients that he sources and imports.

This was my delicioso mini Spanish feast.

The meal kicked off with what I call the Ham and Cheese platter  – Manchego cheese, chorizo, iberico jamon and pan con tomate.

Following was a series of small bites – the best was the croquette, a good crunchy shell and creamy insides with the undertones of iberico jamon



iberico croquette.vegetable stack with aioli.foie gras and iberico ham crostini.bacalao with tomatoes and olives.


Tomato and melon gazpacho



The meal then took an interesting turn towards a very modern plate. Prawn carpaccio, thin sheets of prawn flesh topped with ingredients to enjoy it with, squid ink powder, pine nuts, olive oil and confit of tomato.



The high point at this meal for me was his paella. I’ve watched him cook it from my bar stool the entire night and the magic of it is in the rich brown stock that he cooks the rice in, that’s where the depth of flavour comes from. This is dished out from the paella pan into individual portions (maybe so we don’t fight) and topped with a perfectly cooked red shrimp. 


Suckling pig with sweet potato cream and a Spanish meat sauce.

The suckling pig is more like a suckling pig “sandwich” – two layers of tender meat, topped and bottomed by crispy suckling pig skin. Crisp and sumptuous, yum!



BCN
37 Peel Street
Central, HK
Tel: +852-28112851

The Fisherman’s Canteen

Aberdeen Fish Market Canteen has two versions. The first version is its primary function as its name suggests, it serves as a canteen to the hardworking people that work at the fish market. It secondary function is a seafood restaurant that serves simply prepared fresh seafood.

I shall state the obvious: the seafood here is very fresh. Call ahead, state your budget, seafood preferences and if you want you can specify the way you want it cooked. The Canteen celebrates seafood. It applies simple cooking and it does little to mask the essential taste of all the different sea creatures on the plate. Here’s what we had in no particular order –



Deep fried abalone – very delicious. Unlike my imagined notions of a deep fried abalone, it wasn’t fried to a death but rather the quick cooking it kept it tender caramelizes the edges of the abalone.


Deep fried squid – lightly battered, tender and tasty


Steamed local lobster – not particularly sweet and a little chewy but dip the flesh into the brain, together it taste better.


Stir-fried prawns – sweet and fresh


Stir-fried clams with black bean sauce

Stir fried bamboo clams with black bean sauce – I’m not a big fan of black bean sauce in general on seafood but again still good tasting bamboo clams and clams

Steamed sea grouper

And we ended off with their double boiled seafood soup.

 

THE soup, which I am going to call the fisherman’s broth, is double boiled but unlike the traditional Cantonese soup which is clear is served to us looking a little cloudy. Who cares, it is probably the best damn soup I’ve had this year. It is hard to doubt why it is such a great soup once they lay the soul of the soup on the table - a small mount of crabs, bok choy and chopped up small fishes. It has a very different in flavour profile and cooking style to its Western cousins the cioppino and bouillabaisse but similar in spirit.To catch a glimpse of the other version of the Canteen, finish off the meal with a cup of milk tea and their only ‘dessert’ offering - deep fried French toast drizzled with condensed milk. Don’t miss this either because the French toast fried just right, crisp on the outside and light and fluffy in the centre.

 

French toast

The art of simple is actually hard. Less is more. In this kitchen I suppose this translates as do less to taste more and this is the kind of food that I’ve come to fall in love with more and more.

From Lab to Table - liquid nitrogen ice cream

Let’s face it, some nerds can be cool or are cool. Food nerds in my book are especially cool. Alton brown? Cool. Applying some science in our cooking make us better cooks by giving us better techniques.

So …
Science + cool food = cooler food

Translated into layman’s terms …
Chemistry and in this case liquid nitrogen + ice cream = nitrogen made ice cream

Why this is good ice cream? Because the faster the ice cream freezes means the small the ice crystals = smoother ice cream. Element one: texture, check.

Next important element: flavour. The flavours change daily but for that day I had toast, peanut butter and condensed milk, a play on the the local cha chaan teng dish.

I really liked the way they combined this. Peanut butter and condensed milk was the base of the ice cream and topped with crispy buttered toast bits, good crunch good flavor.

Good science, good eats.

Lab Made6
Brown St,
Tai Hang, HK

Yardbird - chicken & rice

Back at Yardbird and feeling the same about this place. Love the idea, love the space, love the set up. I’m still not too hot about the yakitori but discovering gems in the non-yakitori section of the menu. The scotch egg was a surprisingly good but I have a genuine weakness for runny egg yolks so this had half my vote even before I tasted it. The discovery of this meal, however, was the Chicken & Rice and his interpretation is whimsical and delicious. In this dish, chicken is actually rice stirred in chicken fat and stock and topped with twice fried chicken skin, and a 62 degree cooked egg. Break the yolk and it coats the rice to give it a layer of richness and the skin is a crisp indulgence. And there are also some peas for greens and a balanced meal.

Choi’s - Good Old Skool

We came to seek some solace from the cold weather in some good old claypot rice but we were 5 minutes too late - we had just missed the last empty table and formed the first in the line that came after us. It was torture! We stood outside feeling a little cold and took in the sights and smells of the claypot rice that were being cooked to order.

The wait, thankfully, wasn’t that long and when we sat down – the food came fast and hot and it was really good.



Sweet and sour pork that is fried deliciously crunchy and glazed with a vibrant sweet and sour that well balanced in both sweet and sour rather than the ketchup dominated sauces that we generally get – it felt like I was re-discovering sweet and sour pork for the first time all over again.



The fried squid with white pepper also fried to perfection, light crisp and squid tender.



Their claypot rice sums up the cooking here for me. Each claypot looks deceptively simple but it takes experience and skill to cook everything to order precision that extracts taste from the ingredients and creates the right texture for the rice and a crusty bottom.

Good Cantonese comfort food.

Choi’s KitchenShop
A1, G/F, 9-11 Shepherd Street
Tai Hang, Hong Kong
Tel: +852-34850501

Mandarin Grill - Food Fun Seriously

I can't remember when was the last time when I laughed when a plate was laid before me.

Amidst the wood-dark dining room, starched white table cloths and suits clinking champagne, I laughed at the plate that was placed before me. In front of me was a duck foot. Not like the feet that you find in a Cantonese soup but a foot, a man-made foie gras duck foot. A duck foot made from a duck liver that isn't really a foot but duck. Tongue in cheek, funny. Heehee. Oops, pardon me, suits, I didn’t mean to laugh out loud.

Humour aside, the dish was fantastic. Firstly the foot got my attention, then the waiter started laying these rosy pieces of duck that I imagine was cooked sous vide and then finished off in the pan, cooked right. Nothing crazy in terms of flavor combination but just done really well but it hit the savoury comfort note for me.

But before that ducky dish arrived, there were other telltale signs that this was going to be good. As we were seated and deciding on tasting tours or a la carte, a champagne trolley rolled by and it was closely followed by their much spoken about EVOO trolley. The EVOO trolley I loved. It reminded me of the time we were in Robuchon in Macau when they rolled out the butter trolley that was thoroughly excessive. To me, the trolley speaks volumes in terms of what the restaurant also communicates to me the freedom to find something that suit my palate and a gastronomic education in EVOO with a parallel tasting, and not to mention generous since they do offer oils worth their weight in gold.

The amuse bouche also gave a little insight as to what to expect. Among the cheese puffs, the salmon mousse tart and the basil and parmesan biscuit was placed a small olive tree with spherification of olive jus, very el bulli – pointing in homage to his stagiaire that he did in El Bulli? What was unusual about the olive amuse was the fact that the wait staff point out that the plant is purely for decoration and inedible somehow leaves me to believe that the diners expect something different – ie. An edible tree; sorry folks, not everything on the table is edible and there is no edible paper here.

flower pot

I’ve dined here twice and I adore Chef Uwe’s sense of humour. He likes puns and mimicking nature that I find amusing and also highly skillful. A fake edible strawberry (previous meal), a flower pot made from a myriad of cooked and raw vegetables and a pretty insane rocket, coconut, pumpernickel soil, chocolate black truffles and in this meal - foie gras came in many forms: firstly as a faux mushroom, a foot and then in the most classically luxurious form, in a dish aptly named “millionaire” – a large organic egg cooked table side, then layered with foie gras and topped off with truffle jus and shavings of black truffle. Now, really who doesn’t want to be a millionaire so freaking bad?

Millionaire

Desserts are a pretty sight as well. Their soufflés, rise to the occasion and live up to the excitement that soufflés give us – that those airy delicate towers make it from kitchen to the table whilst we all hold our breath in anticipation and in fear that it might deflate. Their version Oreo was chocolately delicious but probed the waiter refused to divulge the secrets of the espuma and their version of bread and butter was presented as literally bread and butter.
The plates of Chef Uwe Opocensky at the Mandarin Grill are clever and they make me laugh. It is fun dining in a serious room and some seriously good food.

Menu II:

Forest walk - foie gras, truffle, mushroom, leaves

Onion - french, organic, consomme, egg, cheese, gold, tea bag


Mallard Duck - welsh, rhug estate, organic, foie gras, feet, pearl barley, jus a la presse
Lobster - brittany, rose, caviar, beetroot, fennel, lobster oil
Walnut - hazelnut, raspberry, armagnac, snow

photos of the entire meal in Feb2012
photos of entire meal Sep2011

Mandarin Grill & Bar
5 Connaught Road, Central Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2522 0111