e*ting the world

Le Marron - A "French" private kitchen in Hong Kong, the land of compromise

2013-04-08T12:50:00.001+08:00

Duck breast a l'orange (I think)

Le Marron is my standard answer to the question: "Where do I go as a party of 6 (or more) for 'Western' food? Oh and it has to have free corkage".

Everyone thinks private kitchens don't charge for corkage - that couldn't be further from the truth, so there's no real advantage to them (apart from the "secret" element). I've said it once and I'll say it again - most private kitchens in Hong Kong, especially non-Chinese ones, kinda suck.

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Taipei - Jin Feng Luroufan (Braised Pork Rice)

2013-03-06T17:39:00.001+08:00

Luroufan at Jin Feng

There are a few signature or staple dishes in each city - some seem geared towards tourists (egg tarts in Hong Kong - not that locals don't like them, we just don't eat that many of them), while others truly live in people's subconscience and and are eaten by locals on almost a daily basis. To me, an example of the latter would be luroufan in Taiwan, or braised pork rice.

On previous trips, I had been introduced to Formosa Chang, or "bearded Chang" in Chinese (鬍鬚張), which, in my untutored opinion, is a very decent chain, but I decided I'd go looking for more options, just to compare (this will sound familiar to food nerds...).

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Cocktails and Whiskey in Taipei - Caffe Libero, Marsalis, Fourplay

2013-03-05T23:02:00.003+08:00

Souvenirs from Taipei - Kavalan Concertmaster, and vintage glass from Nostalgic Future

When I tell people I'm planning my wedding, they naturally ask about the person I'm about to be married to. "Is he a foodie too?" is probably the most common question, and my answer is always "absolutely not".

So a month or so ago, when I caught up with G in Taipei (he had already been there a couple of days), I was more than surprised when he suggested we go bar hopping after dinner. He said this knowing that my kind of bar hopping involves more whisk(e)y and proper cocktails than party scenes and bottle service (and in many cases, beer). Needless to say, I took that license to drink and ran.

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11 favourite drinks of 2012

2013-01-01T16:26:00.001+08:00

Scapa 16 years at The Macallan Whisky Bar & Lounge, The Galaxy Macau

As you can tell from the new "e_ting drinks" section on the blog, drinks have become an increasingly important part of my diet. This sounds crazy, because, everyone needs fluids, right? But around age 15, when I first started getting acne, I suddenly became obsessed with the idea of detoxification. Back then, we didn't have juice cleanses and the like (even if there were, they weren't easily accesible to teenage me) and the best and easiest way I knew was to drink gallons and gallons of water. For many years, probably half my schoolbag's weight came from my bottle of boiled, filtered, room temperature water.

As I grew up, I just kept on that path - first thing I do in the morning, even before coffee, is very warm water. When I went out, it would just be warm water, or warm tea, then maybe a glass of wine with a meal. I came to realise, however, that it was normal for people drink a whole range of things that were beyond my usual repetoire - juices, soft drinks, cocktails - and plus, my curious self drove me further down the paths of my mainstays coffee and wine, which saw me (and will still see me!) taking all sorts of lessons, classes, workshops and examinations.
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My top 20 dishes of 2012

2012-12-31T23:59:00.000+08:00

Baked char siu buns at Lung King Heen, Four Seasons Hong Kong

As I'm picking my Top 20, I realise I haven't travelled very much at all this year, and you probably already know why. It's funny, because I used to have to leave Hong Kong every few months, else I'd feel claustrophobic or just generally be itching to go away. This year has been so jam-packed with hugely fun things, I guess claustrophobia just got pushed out of the way.

I'm also cheating when I titled this post "top 20 dishes", because while some were individual dishes, others were full meals.

Anyway, without further ado, and in no particular order:

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A Guide to Coffee in Hong Kong - Where to Drink, Buy and Read about Coffee

2012-12-22T16:54:00.000+08:00

Cafe Deadend's "Dirty Double"

Hong Kong is no longer the coffee desert I came back to 6 years ago. It has gotten to the stage where I can get a good to excellent beverage whichever district I might be in - well, almost - there are none near my home in Tseung Kwan O, which is why I've also decided to list where you can also buy coffee beans and equipment to brew at home.
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Grassroots Pantry - Feel-Good Food

2012-12-07T21:30:00.003+08:00

Dessert at Grassroots Pantry - fig napoleon with pistachio and cashew cream

Eating well has been something of a challenge recently. It seems particularly ironic because I have access to fresh organic local vegetables every Sunday, however there is no irony in it at all when you realise that the time spent making sure that there are vegetables at Island East Markets every Sunday is exactly why I haven't been eating them.

The first time I went to Grassroots Pantry, it was with Table for Two, for our very fun food crawl. The second time, it was to invite them to come set up a stall at Island East Markets. This time, the third time, I was finally able to go in for a proper meal (after having seen the lovely GP girls almost weekly at the market! Needless to say, they knew I was going in for dinner - end disclaimer).

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Shiraz heaven - Fox Creek McLaren Vale Reserve Shiraz 2004

2012-10-25T21:18:00.001+08:00

I'm one of those lucky people who has quite a few wine lovers around her, who, seeing how miserable she looks without a drink, hand her a carefully-chosen bottle now and then.

This Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz is one such bottle. The thing is, I'm not usually a fan of Aussie Shiraz. Too much of the time it's got too much vanilla, it's jammy and stewed in an overripe way, and almost too luscious, so full-bodied it's just like thick, raisiny lead on your tongue. Or it goes the other extreme of being way too fickle, spicy and peppery.

I don't know what the Fox Creek was like younger, but after 8 years, this 2004 is beautiful. (Ok, come on Aussies, let's say it together: BEE-YOU-DE-FOOL!). It's got everything on the Shiraz spectrum, and it comes through in layers. On the nose it's pretty typical - dark red fruits, chocolate. On the palate, you get a bit of vanilla, but it's quickly offset by some green herbs - rosemary, perhaps - and a fruity freshness, like fresh cranberry juice. That freshness and seemingly lighter body is what I love most about this (but it manages to be 14.5%, I guess the fresh fruit is what does it). There's a teeny bit of black pepper too, and yes, some raisins but not too much, and lots of dark chocolate, especially if you're having meat with it. And such a long, velvety finish. Mmm...

If only all Aussie Shirazes were as sophisticated as this, then they wouldn't have such a dodgy reputation!

Interview: Fuchsia Dunlop at Hong Kong Literary Festival

2012-10-08T10:05:00.000+08:00

Fuchsia Dunlop

I was fortunate enough to get a last-minute press pass to one of the talks that Fuchsia Dunlop was giving at this year's Hong Kong International Literary Festival.

Entitled Hot and Sour, it was a Q&A session about Fuchsia's (mostly food) experiences in China, mostly related to her memoir, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper (which, by the way, has been translated into Traditional Chinese, and perhaps soon into simplified for the Mainland Chinese market, a prospect that Fuchsia looked forward to with "trepidation").

Fuchsia Dunlop at "Hot and Sour", moderated by Chengdu native, Jennifer Zhu-Scott

After a bit of a wait (that's what you get for being last-minute) I caught Fuchsia for a zippy 10-minute interview in the all-emerald Centurion lounge of the Kee Club, and I shivered all the way through, because the aircon was worthy of a mortuary, and I was so nervous and thrilled to be meeting the only non-Chinese author I trust to talk about Chinese food. I have an enormous amount of respect for Fuchsia's efforts in understanding China, its culture and its food. If I could achieve a fraction of what she's done in "communicating" China to the West, I'd be very proud of myself!

Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed recording it, and many thanks, Fuchsia, HK Lit Fest and CatchOn.

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Sang Kee, all things battered, fried and delicious

2012-09-01T15:51:00.004+08:00

Deep-fried squid

When we think of Cantonese food, we often think about subtly-flavoured dishes like steamed fish, lotus leaf rice and the like, and for a split second it may seem like everything we eat is super mellow. But given our love for lard and pre-deep-frying things (走油) that wouldn't be further from the truth. And if you want to talk "dirty" Cantonese food, Sang Kee is the place. (By "dirty" I don't mean hygiene, I mean how guilty-good you feel after eating it.)

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Cook For Family - Leftover Peking duck

2012-08-05T22:16:00.001+08:00

It's no secret that I love to eat, and on the blog it appears that I love to eat out more than in. In real life though, I eat at home quite a bit and I do cook, albeit super simple things that can be done in a few minutes - such are the demands of modern life (or that's my excuse...).

When I got an email from Razlan about Daniel's #CookForFamily initiative, I jumped right in. Rather than paraphrase, here's what it's about in Daniel's own words:

The #CookForFamily is a bloggers-for-bloggers initiative. No competition, sponsors, or hidden agenda involved. It is created with a simple objective of getting more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and bonding with their families.

You'll see that most participants are Singaporean food bloggers, but hey, food knows no boundaries, and certainly the internet doesn't.

Peking duck slices

But then came the challenge of what to cook. I was surprised by Daniel's blog post about bloggers telling him that they don't have time to cook or don't know how to. So instead of conjuring up a fancy menu, I thought I'd come clean and just tell you all how lazy I can be, and hopefully communicate that it really isn't hard to cook for your family, even if cooking means getting a little help from leftovers.

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Germans can make Champagne (if your name is Krug)

2012-08-03T09:06:00.002+08:00

Food and wine writers and sub-editors will know very well that only the sparkling wine from Champagne, the region in France, can be called champagne - everything else is "sparkling wine", or Prosecco, Cava etc. Even amongst Europeans, who all have their own legislation and certification with regards to regional/cultural produce, the French are known to be particularly picky about their appellations. You'd think then, that they were pretty xenophobic, but truth is, like most people, they just like nice things, wherever they're from.

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A Char Siu Wine - Eddie McDougall's Little Pig Rose

2012-08-01T22:50:00.001+08:00

Eddie McDougall's Little Pig Rose 2010

Wines with non-European cuisines have always been a challenge. I've talked about natural pairings in the world's cuisines before, say, soy sauce and rice, clams and pork - these foods appear in close geographical proximity, and through time, people have found ways to make nature's bounty work with each other. China doesn't really have a history of wines made from grapes, and only with globalisation has Chinese food and grape wines started to come together. Nowadays - well in Hong Kong anyway - there's been a lot of talk about pairing wine with Asian food - I'd say it's still in its infancy, but hey, what do I know, I'm just a drinker.

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Table for Two - Vegetarian Food Crawl in Central, Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun

2012-07-29T18:43:00.003+08:00

Black bean veggie burger at Light Radiant Food

In the developed world, we hear about health problems that stem from overabundant diets - from obesity to gout, yet in the developing world, the health problems come from malnutrition, the direct opposite. Policymakers and activists around the world are trying to remedy this, and one social enterprise hitting both these birds with one stone is Table for Two.

Founded in 2008 in Japan, Table for Two has been helping feed children in poverty-stricken parts of Africa and China through donations made from restaurants in more developed nations. The consumption of healthy meals in restaurants, offered through partnerships between Table For Two and restaurants, raises money for the children's meals.

Healthy Summer Dining Experience map via Table for Two

Table for Two was brought to Hong Kong late last year, and the team here have devised a great "Healthy Summer Dining Experience" in August (starting August 1st). Buy the designated "Table For Two" meal (or drink) at their partner outlets, a portion of proceeds will go to charity, and by snapping a picture of your meal, there are prizes to be won too.

I was lucky enough to have been brought along on a little food crawl with the lovely ladies of Table For Two to get a sneak peek on some of the fab food and drink on offer. It was lovely to see so many great names on the list of participating restaurants (and bar). We didn't cover all of them on the crawl, so do check out the map (above) for the full list.

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Shinya Shokudo - Food Manga Du Jour

2012-07-24T19:45:00.000+08:00

Shinya Shokudo book 1, via official website

Sweeping the Asian food manga (comic) circles in the past year or so is Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂 or Shinya Shokudou, and seemingly called Midnight Dining in English), a Japanese comic about a late night diner in the notorious nightlife district of Kabukicho, Tokyo. I'm not a comic obsessive, but since Les Gouttes de Dieu, this is the second food or wine-related comic I've been stuck into. In fact, it's the second comics series I've gotten stuck into in at least 5 years, full stop.

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Coffee in Hong Kong - Knockbox hand-drip class

2012-07-19T00:48:00.000+08:00

Last weekend, I went to Knockbox Coffee Company, one of the newer third-wave coffee shops in Hong Kong for their hand-drip (aka pour-over) workshop. You may remember that I went to another newish coffee shop, Rabbithole, to attend their coffee class not too long ago too. The Rabbithole class I attended was more of an overview of methods (they do a hand-drip class too), and I started to get curious about the different philosophies and theories baristas had about making coffee. (Plus, there was a lot of feedback and debate, on that blog post and off, about the different methods and the rationale behind them).

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Dadong - Duck down, Beijing

2012-07-14T23:39:00.001+08:00

Peking duck at Da Dong

According to my dad - back in 2010 or so - when in Beijing, we should skip the "classic" Quan Ju De and go to Dadong instead. That's a rule we (and I, when I've gone to BJ without him) have followed. This time, because I needed a baseline with which to compare Made in China, we found ourselves in Dadong again. Only this time, Dadong wasn't how we remembered it.

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Housekeeping - All in a Hong Kong Second

2012-07-04T08:27:00.000+08:00

I've always been a slow blogger, but recently the eagle eyed might have discovered a little more slowness than usual. There are two big things going on right now that are keeping me busier than ever (eating and writing already get pretty busy, I'll have you believe) so I thought I'd let you know and hopefully my tardiness will be somewhat excused.

A) Island East Markets.

Words cannot describe how excited I am about this one. On September 30, I'll be opening a farmers market!!!!!

It'll be 40-plus stalls of local (Hong Kong) organic farmers, arts and crafts, delicious food and drink, jams, honey, snacks, eco-friendly homewares, plus bands, cooking demos... everything great about farmers markets in every other great city in the world is coming to Hong Kong. It's about time we had one, dontchyathink?

We've been getting so much help from everyone, from finding the right organic farmers to cool vendors and more, and it's still a work in progress, so if you think you can help, please get in touch!

Meanwhile, we're on Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, Vimeo, and have a blog, newsletter and website - come say hi!

B) A wedding.

My wedding, to be precise. I've been looking at fabulous places, table settings, and enough white floaty fabric to wrap around the globe 5 times.

Nothing, aside from the Chinese banquet location, has been settled. An extremely messy affair this is, I tell you. Just look at all the places I've already been to to check out as potential venues!

Chapel at Bethanie Hall. Nope, not religious and certainly no drinks allowed here!

Suites at the InterContinental, sadly not enough space for everyone and layout not ideal

Cowshed - love the cow, the boy doesn't because he grew up on a farm

Peninsula - fabulous deck but closed for renovations first 6 months of 2013 at least

Yee Tung Heen for Chinese banquets - not big enough for our gigantic family

American Club - decent deck, but the indoor part (coffeeshop) looks very tired

And of course, I might have gone just a little crazy at pinning white dresses on Pinterest...

So, please excuse me if I'm a little slower than usual at blogging!

Peking Duck, Made in China - Beijing

2012-07-02T23:20:00.001+08:00

Carving Peking duck. Argh, gloves.

Not long ago, I wrote that the best Peking duck I've ever had was at Kowloon Tang, in Hong Kong. With that memory fresh in my mind, I set off to Beijing to try the "real" thing. It's my 4th or 5th time in Beijing now, and we've had our favourites (see: my dad's Beijing tips), one of which has been Da Dong. I revisited DD this time as well - more in a future post - but we also went to Made in China, which has always been highly regarded for its pan-Chinese cuisine cooked before your eyes in their glassed-in kitchens, but also for its Peking duck.

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Robuchon's backyard, Hong Kong

2012-06-14T07:30:00.000+08:00

Amuse bouche - duck consomme jelly (gelee, I soup-pose?!) at the front

Le Jardin de Joel Robuchon is the formal dining room behind the iconic raspberry-red bar tables of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. The menus are essentially the same; I think L'Atelier offers a smaller set dinner and smaller set lunch on top of what Le Jardin offers.

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Slow Down - Teakha, Hong Kong

2012-06-11T07:20:00.000+08:00

Masala tea and roselle scone

Since I last counted, no less than three major international publications have written about Sheung Wan's Tai Ping Shan Street as the city's coolest enclave. And it is, dotted with art galleries, studios, cafes and independent boutiques among air-conditioning repair shops and tiny temples. It just makes me wish I bought an apartment here four years ago when I started wandering the area at lunchtime. (Mom, are you reading this? Remember you said no?!)
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Strip House - More than Steak, Hong Kong

2012-06-09T00:00:00.000+08:00

Porterhouse for two

My review for Harlan's steakhouse came out in Time Out. The photos I'm putting up are actually from two meals. The first one I had there was for the review, and the second was an invitation from the big man himself. One thing to note that, like I said in my old blog post of the now-closed Tuscany by H, Harlan is the man (or should we say da man!) when it comes to consistency. When I went in for the review, I'm 100% sure he didn't notice me (he walked right past me a number of times) and needless to say I didn't make myself known. I noted my experience and then went back for the invited dinner the next week, and we had a few of the same dishes - guess what - they were exactly the same.

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Wynn Macau - Cafe Encore, the Stay and the Spa

2012-06-08T21:33:00.002+08:00

The Suite life at Wynn Macau's Encore Tower

In this final post on the couple of days I spent at Wynn Macau (to see why I was there, head here), I'm covering our ace room, breakfast at Cafe Encore, and for the first time on this blog, a spa, because it was truly lovely (no, I'm not just saying that).

This was our room, which was in Encore Tower, the newer wing at Wynn where all rooms are suites. All the rooms are facing Taipa, so you get an open view, and there are villas that are by invitation only - I guess I'll never be enough of a high-roller to know!

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Spring in Beijing - Itinerary

2012-05-30T19:28:00.002+08:00

One of my best-est friends, let's call her W, has finally moved back to Asia. One of her last stops before Hong Kong was Beijing, and she was there for a conference in Beida (Peking University), so we decided to go and crash at her hotel. That's the story. Here's just a quick itinerary of what we did - it's partially for myself, so I don't forget. I'll be writing up some of the more interesting meals soon. Over six days, we had 2 Peking ducks, two mala meals, a lot of coffee and a fair bit of drinking, with some Yunnanese thrown into the mix. We were trying to avoid Sanlitun but gave in on our last day...

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Stars for peanuts - Wing Lei, Wynn Macau

2012-05-30T17:41:00.000+08:00

Wing Lei

We got to Macau at around lunchtime, and our first meal was here, at Wing Lei. (The second meal was dinner at Golden Flower, which I posted just before. Please see that post for an intro to why this trip was made). Wing Lei is the romanised pronunciation of Wynn's Cantonese name, and fittingly, it serves Cantonese food. If you're the star-chasing kind, you might also like to note that Wing Lei has 2 Michelin stars in the 2012 guide.

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