e_ting

A Glutton's Guide to Hong Kong during Covid19

2020-04-16T21:27:00.001-04:00

Clockwise from top left: Nikushou, Duddell's, Roganic, The Chairman

Although I'm not in Hong Kong at the moment, I've been making a list of how and where I'd want to eat if I were. On a global scale, some might say that Hong Kong is fortunate that it hasn't had a complete coronavirus lockdown (though things can change in the blink of an eye, so please keep washing your hands, wearing masks, avoiding crowds, not going out if you're feeling ill or have pre-existing conditions etc.). For gluttons like me, it's good to know that many restaurants and bars are still open, albeit hanging by a thread.

I thought I'd write a quick list (not comprehensive) of some of spots I like and that I could easily verify info on, and what they're doing during these strange times, so you can still try and support them somehow (and eat & drink very well in the process).

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Best Things I Ate in 2019

2019-12-31T04:27:00.003-05:00

Grilled sea cucumber, Yue Hai Hui, Shenzhen

Hello, welcome. Why are you here? We've long since established that I no longer blog. I just pass through once a year now to record a year of eating. For slightly more frequent updates (no promises), head to @e_ting on Insta.

Anyway, 2019 is coming to an end, so let's get on with it.

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Best Things I Ate in 2018

2018-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Thanks for checking this post out. As you'll have probably realised, I don't blog anymore. I do waffle on a lot on Instagram though - you'll usually find me there.

Anyway, I thought I'd attempt my annual round up... I've travelled as much as I've been in Hong Kong this year so I'm going to have separate HK and international lists. Also, because I've missed having a good honest rant, I'm going to have a Worst Meals list. Social media is so sugary and positive these days, I thought I'd be that person and add a dash of bitter truth (I like Negronis and Old Fashioneds, what can I say).

15 best things I ate in Hong Kong in 2018

(in no particular order)

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20 best dishes of 2017 - Hong Kong

2017-12-30T23:38:00.003-05:00

One of the best things I ate in Hong Kong in 2017

It's that time of year again when I scroll through my Google photos and am reminded of the ridiculous amounts of food I eat, and how fortunate I am to call it my job. I did a lot of travel this year, including pretty epic trips to Chicago and San Sebastián, and there are still a few new restaurants I've been wanting to go to but haven't. This isn't a list of new places, although I have tried to stop myself from falling back on the classics (Seventh Son's suckling pig and The Chairman's steamed crab still haven't been beat though). Here's my list of 2017's best bites in Hong Kong in alphabetical order:

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Perfecting minimalist travel - How I Pack Light

2017-10-25T00:30:00.000-04:00

Stop agonising over packing and you'll be this happy. That's a fact.

In both daily life and travel, I pretty much try and keep a capsule wardrobe - I create uniforms for myself so I don't have to agonise over what to wear every day, and it's usually super simple stuff. For travel, everything just fits on a carry-on - then there's no waiting around for luggage, it doesn't get lost on tight connections, and if you're getting out of the airport on a train or metro etc., it's just less of a hassle lugging it around (I have painful childhood memories of lugging bags up/down/around the subway/train in Tokyo).

I didn't think it was anything special - after all, if you like to (or have to) travel, you want to be on your way quickly and efficiently as possible, right? - but I realised I might have nerded out a bit more than usual when even frequent travellers started saying I was an efficient packer.

So, to spread the ultralight gospel further, I thought I'd share some of the travel essentials that help me pack light. (I could go on forever, I love nerding out on this stuff).

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Piazza Duomo in Alba is special, especially during White Truffle Season

2017-10-18T01:48:00.000-04:00

Montblanc topped with white truffle at Piazza Duomo, Alba

You may have read the previous post about the White Truffle Festival in Alba - if not, follow that link and read it first to see how the visit to the restaurant fit into that day. This meal at Piazza Duomo was a crucial part, and probably one of the best food-related trips I've ever done.

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Alba White Truffle Festival - An Essential Road Trip

2017-10-18T00:07:00.002-04:00

A stall at the Fiera del Tartufo, the white truffle festival in Alba

If you live to eat like I do, the white truffle festival in Alba is a trip you must add to your bucket list.

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The Great American Eclipse - how we found the perfect spot to see the total solar eclipse 2017

2017-09-09T02:13:00.003-04:00

Most of the travel I do is in search of food. However - and I may have mentioned this before - my husband is the very opposite of a foodie, so when we travel together, I throw all my expectations of food out the window. It helps that usually we're going somewhere super interesting, and this time it was to see the total eclipse.

The Great American Eclipse, as it was called, was indeed pretty great for the US, because it basically crossed the entire country, west to east, and it's rare for totality to be seen on land (as 70% of the earth is water, a lot of times total eclipses happen over the sea and it's hard to catch them), let alone a country that is so relatively accessible by roads.

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Solo dining in Macau - Lai Heen

2017-06-19T01:27:00.000-04:00

Chaolian Roast Goose at Lai Heen, Macau

I could probably survive on rice and pickles, especially if it was the sweet mui choi and rice at Lai Heen, the Chinese restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton in Macau.

Actually, I probably couldn't, because I would also want the Chaolian-style roast goose too.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

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What happened when I quit coffee

2017-04-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

Strong latte (ie. what we call double shot lattes in Melbourne) at White Mojo in Balwyn, suburban Melbourne

I'm a caffeine addict. I had known this for some time. When I say this, people think I drank a lot of coffee. I didn't. I consistently had one a day, two max. The problem was the duration - I'd done this for about 15 years.

I first detected a problem when I would wake up in the middle of the night, usually in the early hours of Monday morning, after a weekend of not drinking coffee.
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Tallinn - An Overview, and Restaurants Not To Miss

2017-03-04T12:55:00.000-05:00

Tallinn Old Town in winter

But first, allow me to explain why we were in Tallinn.

I'd hardly heard of Estonia until they introduced the relatively avant-garde concept of an e-Residency. (read more here). It kind of sounds like setting up a company on the Cayman Islands, except the residency is for you, personally, for instance, you can open a bank account like a local and even start a medical record and get prescriptions. Almost any generally law-abiding person from almost anywhere in the world can get one, giving you the right to operate out of Estonia without even having set foot in the country. I decided that at some point, I wanted to visit a country that thinks so out-of-the-box.

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Beyond Old Town - An afternoon in Telliskivi, Tallinn

2017-03-04T10:02:00.000-05:00

On the way to Telliskivi Creative City, we passed Depoo, a temporary Soviet Market in an old train depot

Most people head to Tallinn on a day trip from Helsinki - for Finns, it's for the cheap alcohol, bachelorettes and whatnot, and for tourists in the area, it's to see Old Town, Tallinn's UNESCO-listed Medieval town (more about that here). Old Town is very pretty - not that there isn't good stuff there - a lot of the town's best restaurants, important historical features and views are there, but it felt too well-preserved, and too tourist-ready (in that way, it reminded me of Venice). It was a good sign that we should go explore other areas.

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Where to find proper coffee around Brisbane's Bayside (southside) suburbs

2017-02-25T21:40:00.001-05:00

I'm always looking for a good coffee in the Bayside suburbs or Redlands - you'd want a good coffee with this view, right?

When I'm in Brisbane, which has been about a month a year in the past few years, I tend to hang out in the bayside suburbs, as we have family in the area, and I love the chilled out, waterside village feel here. Admittedly, it isn't an area regular tourists would necessarily visit, but because I don't see too much written about the area, I thought I'd add my two cents. As a bit of background, my general stomping grounds range from around Wakerley to Cleveland. Do note that all of them tend to close by lunchtime - early bird gets the coffee! (Queenslanders all seem to be morning people). If you know any more good ones, comment away - I would love to check them out, and I'm sure that with time, there'll be more good cafes - the atmosphere in this area is kind of perfect for chilled weekend brunching and places to refuel after those early morning runs.

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10 best food things in 2016 - International edition

2016-12-31T07:55:00.000-05:00

One of the many gorgeous Georgian supra (banquets) we had

I did an uncharacteristic amount of travel this year, and as a result, had some amazing food-related experiences I couldn't fit on my normal year-end list (which was already packed). I don't know that I'll ever blog about these places individually, so here are my top picks, which you probably already know about if you follow me on Instagram, but hey, a round-up never hurt anybody.

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25 best food things in 2016 - Hong Kong edition

2016-12-31T07:45:00.000-05:00

Oyster tartare at Belon

I started with 31 and tried really hard to cut back to 20 as I normally do, but this year, I've included some things that I think are worth noting that aren't specifically dishes, but definitely worth talking about, so cut me some slack! Promise I won't go over 25 next year!

Belon, especially the bread and oyster tartare
Serge et Le Phoque
Kin's Kitchen, especially the Yi O collboration
Godenya
Gaddi's Chef's Table
Yardbird's rice cakes, and new cocktails from the Okinawa collab
One Harbour Road's steamed toothfish with preserved vegetables
Beef Bar
Samsen, especially the Son In Law eggs
The Bottle Shop Central's pandan pancakes
Second Draft's flower crab noodles
Cobo House's desserts
Caprice bar, especially Nicolas Lambert's desserts
CRFT-PIT's pecan pie
Kaum
Pak Loh Chiu Chow's mooncakes
Cookieboy peanut butter cookies
Grom
Redback Peel Street Espresso Bar
Seafood Room rooftop bar, my top pick for visitors these days
Buenos Aires Polo Club's sidecar
Camp cooking on wood fires
Green Common's amazing expansion
Online shopping: Cork Culture, Coffee & Tales, Ztore, HKTV Mall, Sunday's Grocery
Pop-up culture: The Landmark Mandarin Oriental's pop-ups, The Mandarin Oriental's Cafe Central collaboration, Birds and Bubbles' fried chicken and biscuits, Filipino feast by Cross Cultures, Roca brothers' visit to Hong Kong, Test Kitchen

Addendum: Hong Kong restaurants and bars I have been to more than once in 2016.

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Kin's Kitchen - Is this the future of Hong Kong's Cantonese food?

2016-09-26T05:53:00.001-04:00

Deep-fried pigeon with Chinese leeks at Kin's Kitchen

There's a bit of a backstory to this post, which I won't get into, but suffice it to say that I was thinking about restaurants I go to more than once a year. Yes, once a year. I eat out a lot, and go to different restaurants because it's a big part of my job to eat at as many restaurants as possible, in order to find good stories, to be on the ball, to... just do my job.

Kin's Kitchen, I have been to about 6 times this year - that's almost once a month (that's more often than I write on this blog, #burn). I take out-of-towners there, I go there for my own dinners with friends and family, I go with the hyper-discerning Little Adventures crew, I go for fun. And dining out for fun does not happen for me as much as it might seem (have pity on me, LOL!).

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The best rice I've ever had - Warakuen, Ureshino Onsen, Saga

2016-06-10T04:57:00.006-04:00

Warakuen 和楽園 in Ureshino, Japan, decked out for the New Year

Months after our road trip in Kyushu (the western-ish side: Fukuoka - Nagasaki - Ureshino - Saga - Fukuoka), there is only one thing that keeps coming up in conversation - the rice we had at our ryokan in Ureshino.

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The 38 Essential Hong Kong Restaurants for Eater

2016-06-03T02:47:00.000-04:00

Essential Hong Kong Restaurants! Go get it on eater.com

It's been three months since my last blog post - OMG.

(What are you doing here anyway? It's 2016 folks, at least get on Instagram maybe? I thought blogs were like stone tablets now. And no, kids, a tablet does not always mean an iPad.)

Just dropping in to say that Eater has launched a guide to eating around the whole wide world (well, sort of, but not really. You know what I mean) and once again, I got to put my 5 8 10 (actually, let's not go there) years of professional eating in HK to good use. ENJOY! And please don't get angry. When it comes to food lists, there is never anything to argue about, only more food to eat. #wisdom

Issaya Siamese Club, Hong Kong - Smoke and Mirrors

2016-03-05T03:58:00.001-05:00

Choo-Chee Salmon Rom Kwan at Issaya Siamese Club, Hong Kong

Let me start by saying this: Issaya Siamese Club is a gorgeous looking restaurant.

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20 best dishes of 2015

2015-12-30T07:13:00.000-05:00

#AMBERxBENU bamboo shoot with black truffle bao

Greedy food folk like me are lucky to eat a lot of good things all the time*, and I'm so very grateful to everyone who makes good food available to us (me!). In no particular order, I'd just like to celebrate 20 very memorable dishes I had (something I started 4 years ago and was supposed to continue annually but didn't - here's 2011 and 2012).

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Amber - Charming as always

2015-12-21T04:46:00.006-05:00

Cèpes at Amber

I don't think Amber needs any introduction. It's just funny to think that once upon a time I had to convince my bosses that it was worthy of being included alongside the Robuchons and other, older, hotel fine diners.

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Taiwanese Meat Sauce, with no meat

2015-11-11T00:11:00.001-05:00

Vegetarian rou zao (肉燥), in danzai noodles

To call this a "recipe" is kind of crazy, because it's basically throwing a bunch to stuff in a pan, but I guess that just tells you how easy it is to cook something pretty crave-worthy in about 15 minutes.

I looked up how to make southern Taiwanese meat sauce*, rou zao (肉燥) when I was craving dan zai mian (擔仔麵), an old-school noodles classic usually with a prawny-porky broth, prawns, some egg and this meat sauce.

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Tong Chong Street Market

2015-11-10T10:21:00.001-05:00

Tong Chong Street Market

So, I've started a new farmers' market in Hong Kong - actually it's been over a month now, but it just didn't occur to me to write about it. As you might remember, it's not the first time I've done something like this, although I'm happy to say that Tong Chong Street Market is a big improvement on my previous efforts, and much closer to my ideal - a food-focused farmers' market. We have a total of 40 stalls, 20 local farmers, 10 special stalls for food you can eat on the spot, and 10 stalls where you can buy pantry items, bread, wine and so on. But isn't she a writer, you ask, why bother setting up something like this? (Okay, no-one asked but I'm just going to tell you).

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Burch & Purchese - My favourite cakes in Melbourne

2015-11-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

Caramel, chocolate & hazelnut choux at Burch & Purchese

I've wanted to write about Burch & Purchese for ages - I came here about half a dozen times buying basically all the cakes we ever needed on the project I was working on (shooting this movie, and yeah we needed a lot of cake) because it was just so darned good. You can tell from the pics that I came around Chinese New Year 2015 - yes, it has taken me that long to blog it but anyone who reads this blog shouldn't be surprised by now :P

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Michelin Hong Kong is failing us

2015-11-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

Michelin Hong Kong and Macau is letting our cities down

Yes, this is a rant. Consider yourself warned.

It's been 8 years of the Michelin Hong Kong and Macau, and every year, people who are truly interested in food are disappointed by the overall results. Sure, there are amazing restaurants listed in the Guide - the hard work of these restaurateurs must not be ignored - but systematically missing restaurants that everyone in HK's food scene appreciates? I don't get it.

Not that there can ever be any objectivity in restaurant reviewing, and especially in the case of guides and lists, but any guide or list will have a clear set of criteria and rationales for their various rankings and awards - but Michelin has strangely flouted all their own guidelines for HK, and that's my gripe.

I said there is no objectivity in restaurant reviewing, but there are some things you can actually verify as facts, and see with your own eyes - quality of ingredients, service staff training, atmosphere. For some strange reason, Michelin in HK seems blind to these. Example: Can anyone tell me why, aside from foul play, all of Peninsula Hong Kong's outlets are omitted, wholesale, from the starred lists, year after year? Surely even judging by things we can see, physically, the quality of Spring Moon can not be less than that of Lei Garden Kwun Tong.

The new street food category in the guide this year is a bit of a joke - why are there only a couple dozen street food eateries in the whole of HK that made the list? And where is the delineation between the street food list and Bib Gourmands, and hell, even one-starred restaurants? Why Tim Ho Wan is not under BG has baffled me since the beginning. Thing is, I get the distinct sense that it's all just ammunition for buzzy marketing. "Cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world!", "First ever street food list in a Michelin guide!" - great headlines and soundbites that will spread far and wide, don't you think?

Visitors who appreciate food will read these soundbites (unhelpfully regurgitated by lazy news outlets as headlines), try these lists, and then turn around and say, "Whatever, it wasn't that great". Expectations matter - expectations probably matter the most in experiences like eating. And when such a well-known brand like Michelin says something, people listen, and a lot of the time, if it doesn't deliver on the expectations that the Michelin has set, the bad feelings end up being directed at the restaurant, which is incredibly unfair, because most of the time, it's not the restaurant that went all out and shouted, "we're the best, like EVER!". And when the Michelin, often inexplicably, takes away a star, or removes it from the guide, it's the restaurant that suffers too.

When the guide was first introduced in HK, a lot of people in the industry were excited, because it kind of put us on the map - it felt like we were on the global foodie circuit now; the big leagues. But 8 years on, the gimmicks and the inexplicable ups and downs (where else has a restaurant gone jumped from 1* to 3* in a year?#) have made the Michelin here a joke more than anything, and its usefulness to international travellers in search of a good meal is in rapid decline.

As a business, Michelin Guides are not doing well, and haven't done so in a long time. It gives them every reason to make noise and create buzz, but after 8 years, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's at the expense of our city's restaurateurs and our reputation as a whole.

One of the reasons I started writing about food in Hong Kong is because there used to be so much drivel out there - visiting friends would tell me they had read some list in a magazine that had been written by someone who had dropped in for a couple of days and knew very little about the context of the food. Fortunately, the scene has changed dramatically - voices of people who know their stuff have increasingly been heard, and research has become so much easier and faster, but these voices are forever living under this cloud that is Michelin HK. I'm incredibly proud of the food we have in Hong Kong, and I want people to go to the right places for the right reasons (armed with good information and well managed expectations) and have great meals here, and if you ask me, Michelin HK is not helping.

# Edit: Indeed, EMP in New York did too, and since the post went up, it's funny how many people have told me that these sentiments apply to the U.S. guides too.