Yardbird

There’s a lot to like about Yardbird, a lot, and it has got the right attitude of being a really good izakaya. The place looks cool - it looks more New York then Hong Kong - it offers nose-to-tail eating of a chicken (which almost seems to be the most politically correct foodie way to eat) and it has got a kickass drink list that will keep many happy. Even the name seems right. Yardbird, perhaps implying the happy carefree life that the local chickens that are sourced and used for the yakitori or that it will like to be the local chicken joint where people gravitate to for some comfort food. So it really is no surprise that the once the media got a whiff of this place, it fell in love with it too.



The big BUT for me on this place is that …
The yakitori for me unfortunately did not live up to all that expectations. The yardstick where it fell really short was the chicken wings (tebasaki). The tebasaki wasn’t stretched out to its full potential on the skewer, so instead of getting that really crisp skin that I was hoping for, it was unfortunately still a little flabby because not enough fat was rendered out. It was seasoned well and it was topped off with in-house blended Shichimi Togarashi but that didn’t save it. The non-yakitori items fared better. The KFC – Korean Fried Cauliflower – is great. It is a fabulous way to get children to eat cauliflower (or any vegetable) - lightly fried to a crisp and then coated with a sweet spicy glaze.



Yardbird
33-35 Bridges Street
Hong Kong
Tel: 852-25479273

Satsuma

Satsuma
#01-10/#02-10
The Gallery Hotel
1 Nanson Road
Tel: 6235-3565

Not all men can cook, but all men can grill. Correction, not all men can cook, neither can all women, and seriously, not all men can grill. I’ve thrown enough meat-feast barbeque parties to know that not all my manly macho man friends can grill. Anyway, I’ve never really been a big barbeque nut, but I have a soft spot for the whole idea of meat on sticks. As a young kid, I scared/impressed (depending on your perspective) my parents and their friends during on of their road trips cum eating excursions to Melacca. We stopped by one of their planned destinations, this roadside satay stall that served a wonderful pineapple sauce with along side with sticks of yellow juicy grilled pieces of chicken pieces and sandwiched animal fat, pig’s intestines, pork and lard and delicious things that are not for the faint hearted, and here I devoured the food, stick after stick after stick, and it so it seemed I ate a lot for a kid my age. I adore the idea of meat on sticks, it is fuss-free and so intimate – a one step procedure from the plate to your mouth, no cutting, no slicing, no scooping requires, just from hand to mouth, chew and macerate for flavour. No utensils, no formalities and sometimes no table manners required, the occasional dribble of oil at the side of your mouth, is also accepted.

At this point in time, my favourite meat and stick restaurant is Kazu, but after visiting Satsuma, this place offers itself as a good alternative. The menu is slightly smaller, and they have a smaller selection of the odd and end bits of animal parts, but they do have a grill up a good ox tongue, and I think their rendition of grilled foie gras is better. Our dinner of stick after stick was good and these were the highlights:

1. The classic chicken balls were also really good, well-seasoned and a crunch from the cartilage.
2. Chicken enriched with mentaiko was also really good, the ones that I’ve had usually made the mentaiko seem like an after-thought, but here they stuff the chicken strips with mentaiko that popped in my mouth as I chewed, very fun.
3. Curry minced chicken, as its name suggests, minced chicken flavoured with Japanese curry and wrapped with a piece of nori, interesting.

Satsuma was also built to be a shochu bar, so don’t leave without trying it. I didn’t so I HAVE to go back.