吃喝玩樂 - Diary of a Growing Boy

As Uwe would occasionally, subtly remind me, it has been too long since I've been to see him at Restaurant Petrus. Over a year, in fact, since my last visit. Fortunately I know of a worse offender when it comes to this, which is how the Great One came to be my lunch date today.

I messaged Uwe and pleaded with him not to kill me, although I did give him permission to kill the Great One. We ended up with eight courses - not counting the amuses bouches and the petits fours - but in reality it's much more than that!

It would feel strange if a meal with Uwe didn't start with some Krug...

Krug Grande Cuvée, 171ème Édition, ID 122014 - the nose had plenty of toast, as expected. Once again the acidity was on the high side, which was the same as the last time I tasted this vintage.

Then we started with a trio of bites:

Hamachi tart - the flavors of young yellowtail (ハマチ) certainly took center stage as the caviar played a supporting role, which was as it should be. The scent and acidity from yuzu (柚子) was also notable, which was a nice touch.

Champagne cork - that would be the shape of the cork before it got shoved into the Champagne bottle, then... Anyway, the gougère filled with Comté cream was definitely tasty.

Celeriac millefeuille with truffle - I don't always go gaga at the sight of truffles, but damn! This was nice.

We always tell ourselves not to eat bread when we know the chef is sending a ton of food our way, but we always fail. At least I only took one piece... unlike my dining companion.

Today we have some mushroom butter in addition to the salted butter.

Mackerel : cucumber / onion / Parmesan - the mackerel from Fukuoka was fine, but the surprise was everything else that came with it. The onion panna cotta at the bottom was nice and light, while the cucumber gel directly above and pickle jam brought along some fruity acidity that integrated well with the panna cotta. We also had a little bit of citrus as a highlight, which was a lovely touch. A mix of burnt onions and puffed rice added a little texture on top of it all. The courgette roll on the side was put together with some marscapone, and the dish was finished with some Parmesan foam. Pretty nice.

Caviar : Maison Kaviari / initial egg / cauliflower - the "initial egg" is one which was laid by a hen who was laying eggs for the first time. This one came deep-fried with a thin layer of batter outside, served in a pool of cauliflower foam punctuated with pickled cauliflower.

Then Uwe put the finishing touches with a generous amount of Kaviari Kristal caviar. The good thing was that the foam came with a good amount of acidity, which helped to both cut down on its richness as well as balancing the salinity of the caviar. This "egg on egg" dish was very enjoyable.

Scallop : Scotland / Jerusalem artichoke / Vin Jaune - the big scallop from the Isle of Mull in Scotland came pan-fried with a sauce made with sunchokes and vin jaune, and I gotta say I really, really loved that sauce! Just about the perfect balance between the acidity and richness. The chunks of sunchoke added some cruncy texture to the mix.

Wa brought along these langoustines from Uwe's long-time supplier, and they're still moving... so per tradition I named them - Ingmar, Astrid, and Lars.

Langoustine : Norway / flowers / kumquat - the wonderful shellfish came topped with some puffed rice and a load of pretty, colorful flowers and micro greens, and we were asked to use our hands to dip it in the langoustine sauce. Wonderful execution with the perfect doneness. Also had a little wedge of kumquat from Yunnan where the pulp was replaced by a mousse.

Morel : Yunnan / beef / garlic leaf - the morel from Yunnan Province (雲南省) came with delicious garden peas "from Europe", as well as pasta that was shaped like a leaf and made with garlic leaves. Sadly the pasta didn't taste much like garlic leaves, or it would have been fantastic.

[Using my Luke Skywalker voice] "Look at the size of that thing!" I had to put a dinner fork next to the morel to have a proper gauge of its size. Since Uwe also spooned some white foam around it, I chose to make an inappropriate joke about BB(x)...

The plump shroom was stuffed with shredded beef cheek, which was so tender, so rich, and left us with collagen on our lips. Of course, that truffled beef jus didn't hurt, either. This was so, so satisfying!

We were presented with a duck. French, of course.

Duck : France / dry aged / plum - served with a lavender sauce and some Albuféra foam. The duck was pretty tasty, thanks to the fat from its skin.

The cabbage ball came with some moist, shredded meat from the duck leg.

The croquette, however, was a lot more dry inside.

Lamb : French / artichoke / jus - very tender lamb. Nice with a duxelles of sorts made with artichokes and pistachios.

Then came a tablefull of desserts. Uwe definitely looks like he graduated from the Pierre Gagnaire school of desserts, putting out a whole spread of sweets that could be an entire meal themselves.

Souffle : chocolate / rum / raisins - the combination of rum raisin ice cream with chocolate soufflé, topped with rum raisin cream and shaved chocolate, was pretty damn good.

Banana : Whisky wood / chocolate / caramel - the ice cream was made with milk which had the flavors of a Jack Daniels barrel infused, while amazingly, the caramel was made from banana peel. The end result, though, was absolutely joyous.

New Potaotes: coffee / white chocolate / soil - this wouldn't be the first time we see "potatoes" in a dessert from Uwe.

Plated with the "soil" this becomes a deconstructed tiramisu.

Chestnut : tart / mandarin / meringue - the little chestnuts were made with chocolate shell with ice cream inside, and served with a chestnut tart with Japanesse mikan (蜜柑) topped with meringue.

Finally, some petits fours:

Almond orange cake

Hazelnut chocolate tart

The Great One and I survived, but barely. This was a ridiculously long lunch with entirely too much food, but as Uwe said to the Great One, he only gets one chance with her every three years (not true!) so...

I was planning on hosting my blind tasting wine dinner at Andō tonight, getting Carlito gor gor involved in the fun of tricking the boys. Unfortunately something came up a few days ago and forced me to postpone the gig, and I had to scramble to grab a couple of people on short notice. The last thing I wanted to do was to be an asshole and cancel on a chef friend's restaurant with 2 days' notice. Thankfully DaRC called in a friend and Foursheets also came in to help, so it wasn't a total disaster.

I had previously asked for a menu that was red wine-friendly, but told Goldfinger that this was no longer necessary. Always happy to see what they have in store for us.

Bocaditos: as usual, we started with a trio of bites.

Shiroebi tart - we've got some yuzu (柚子) cream in the tart below the raw Japanese glass shrimp (白海老).

Lomo curado - from Joselito, on a piece of fried dough. Nice combination.

Tilefish tart - very nice and creamy, with a nice little kick from fermented chiles.

Kristal caviar, aonori cream, king crab - while the shredded king crab meat was seasoned with olive oil and citrus juice, the inclusion of perilla (紫蘇) salt was perhaps the reason it felt a little more heavy-handed and the flavors were no longer so delicate. No doubt the aonori (青海苔) cream contributed to the umami.

Rye bread, katsuobushi butter - I prefer bread that's simpler, and black olive has never been among my favorite ingredients. Oh well. They have also switched their olive oil from the extremely limited production El Mil del Poaig to the more accessible Carmen del Poaig.

Blue lobster, chimichurri, coral sauce - pretty, and pretty tasty.

Threadfin, salicornia, peas - fourfinger threadfin (馬友) is a dish I usually love, especially when cooked in a Chinese restaurant. Tonight the texture was OK, but I think it just comes down to the way the fish is cooked. I do love salicornia, and together with the shredded snow pea pods they gave us some very nice crunch. The parsley emulsion came with a white wine-based sauce with dashi and sofrito.

Secret dish - I wondered if Goldfinger had put this together for the wine dinner I was originally hosting, as this combination of braised beef tripe and pig trotter tendons would have gone really well. Of course, since DaRC reminded Nicolas about gold foil, Goldfinger decided to show his love for me...

Argentinian beef, crosnes and mirasol chiles - underneath the tasty hunk of Angus beef from Cabañas Monvale were some crosnes and cavolo nero, along with some garlic butter and beef jus. Some black truffle shavings helped to get the dish better.

Cracker with beef - this was pretty interesting.

Sin Lola : caldoso rice, abalone and chorizo - it's been a while, and tonight this seemed a tad more spicy than usual, which was OK by me!

Mikan, white sesame and kinome sorbet - a really refreshing dessert, with fresh Japanese mikan (蜜柑) and a mikan jelly, along with a white sesame cream and kinome (木の芽) sorbet. Definitely tasted very sesame-y, while the light flavors of sansho (山椒) leaves in the sorbet were pretty interesting.

Pink pepper, chocolate, ~~beetroot~~ and raspberry ice cream - chocolate and olive oil sponge cake at the bottom, with what seemed to be a raspberry ice cream encased in a chocolate mousse.

Dulces - as usual there is a whole series, with pear cake and Amaou (あまおう) strawberries among them.

We were pretty civilized when it came to wines tonight. In fact, Carlito gor gor even advised me against ordering an additional bottle from their wine list!

As a Krug Ambassade, they very kindly offered us a complimentary glass of Krug to start off our evening:

Krug Grande Cuvée, 171ème Édition, ID 322022 - very toasty nose, and also pretty yeasty.

2002 Bollinger Grande Année, dégorgée en mars 2011 - the nose was much bigger and much more open, pretty ripe now as the wine has aged nicely. Notes of Chinese licorice, caramelized sugar, and marmalade. Drinking well.

2017 Valentini Trebbiano d'Abruzzo - drank after decanting for more than 45 minutes. The nose was so nice and open, with big toasty notes, along with some flint. In fact, we all felt that the nose could have been mistaken for a Meursault from Coche-Dury.

1998 Grange des Pères Rouge - served about 1½ hours after opening. Very nice and elegant, with plenty of leather along with a little medicinal and savory minerals on the nose. Just so smooth and drinking beautifully.

A few days ago I put up a post on social media about something I ate earlier this month, which elicited reactions from a few friends who expressed interested to give it a try. I decided to organize a mini food crawl and asked them to come along. The itinerary would include a couple of places I tried out on my last crawl here, plus other famous places I have yet to check out.

It was less than 5 minutes before the appointed time for our meeting, and I have already received a message about keeping a few hangry ladies waiting. These people are so hard to please!

Hop Yik Tai (合益泰小食) is just across the street from Exit C2 of Sham Shui Po MTR station, so this became our first stop this morning. They are known for street food items like rice flour rolls and fish balls, and we quickly grabbed a table inside.

Steamed rice-flour rolls and fish siu mai (腸粉魚肉燒賣) - I've never been a fan of these siu mai (燒賣) made with fish mousse, but the signature rice flour rolls are soft and slippery as always.

Radish, fish balls, and pig skin (蘿白魚蛋豬皮) - the radish was amazingly sweet, and I'm always happy to have pig skin that's been braised after deep-frying.

Our next stop was down the street a short distance away. Lau Sum Kee Noodle (劉森記麵家) is arguably one of the most famous places for wonton noodles in Hong Kong, although due to their location in this neighborhood, I have never paid them a visit despite Tony Bourdain. The shop on Kweilin Street (桂林街) is their original location, and that's where I chose to take our group.

Wonton noodles (鮮蝦雲吞麵) - having spent decades being accustomed to the bowls at Mak's Noodles (麥奀記) and Ho Hung Kee (何洪記), imagine my shock when this arrived after I asked for a "small bowl (細蓉)".

As the place is famous for their use of "bamboo noodles (竹昇麵)", naturally I had high expectations. I wasn't disappointed. Loved the texture. What's more, I barely detected any alkaline flavors so I didn't need to add any vinegar. In fact the soup base made with flatfish (大地魚) powder was pretty sweet.

The wontons were also bigger than expected, with a whole shrimp wrapped inside along with a tiny bit of minced pork and some shrimp roe for flavoring. Very, very good.

Goose intestine and manyplies tripe with ginger and spring onion (淨薑蔥鵝腸拼黑柏葉) - someone thought getting goose intestines was a good idea, and we ended up have some beef tripe, too.

Our third stop today was, once again, just around the corner. Kung Wo Beancurd Factory (公和荳品廠) has a long history and has been featured on many TV programs. I have long heard the name but never stepped foot inside, until today.

Tofu pudding (荳腐花) - I chose a cold one as that's what I normally love, even though the hot ones are more fresh. Very smooth texture. The ladies were really, really happy that they came here for this.

Deep fried fish and soya cake (黃金魚腐) - I figured I should give the savory tofu dishes a try, and this was just OK.

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Our next stop required a little more walking, but it's the reason why we're on this little food crawl. This is the place which produces some pretty "evil" dishes, including this stuffed French toast...

Lee Hou Fuk Fast Food Shop (利口福快餐店) is a place I discovered by accident, and I quickly realized that they specialize in a number of sinful but delicious-looking offerings. I'm more than happy to come back more often in order to cycle through those.

Lava pork cutlet bun (流心芝士豬扒包) - one of the most popular items here is a burger with a deep-fried pork cutlet.

When cut open, the liquid cheese insided the breaded cutlet oozes out

To be fair, this was pretty decent. Not eye-openingly good, but I'd be happy to eat this any day.

French toast with satay beef (沙嗲牛肉西多士) - BABY, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR! The ladies finally have the opportunity to taste this for themselves.

Today was my second time tasting this, and I still really like it! The combination of sweetness from sugar and the condensed milk that yours truly skillfully drizzled on top, along with the small pad of melted butter plus the beef marinated in satay sauce that was enclosed in the middle. The consensus was that ¼ may be the ideal portion for this... or maybe ½ at the most.

There are still other things on the menu here that I'd like to try, so I look forward to return visits in the future.

Incidentally, someone noticed that the shop next door has customers lined up and it sells noodles with fried pork lard (油渣). I guess I need to come back and visit 春潤堂, too!

We haven't seen Mr. and Mrs. Birdiegolf in a while, and figured we need to meet up for our first meal in the Year of the Dragon. Somehow when I asked about where we should meet up, the (almost) immediate response came back to be "Neighborhood". Which was just as well, since it's been quite a few months since I last found myself there.

I knew that the Man in White T-Shirt had recently returned from his holiday, and when Shirley didn't bother to call me about any dishes I wanted to pre-order, I knew that once again the boss had already set the menu for us.

Whiskered velvet shrimp - these 赤米蝦 are a real delicacy, and very much favored by not just us but also each of our dogs at home.

So, sooo tender and tasty with a sauce that tasted of saffron.

Baby balylonia - this wouldn't be the first time we've been served babylonia (東風螺) here, but it IS the first time any of us have seen them in this size.

These were so small that I had sometimes trouble poking with the bamboo skewer to try to get the flesh out from the shell. Kinda reminds me of that time I ordered bigorneau in Paris and took forever to go through 2/3 of the plate...

Dried persimmon / bottarga - it's been a while since I last got to taste this. I love bottarga and these were cured in-house, and the sweetness of the dried persimmon really balanced out the light salinity of the dried roe.

Mackerel / horseradish - the fatty mackerel had wonderful smoky flavors.

Whenever I'm here, I have this urge to put a lot of the food on the beautiful sourdough bread that they serve us, and so I immediately put the mackerel on and added some of the horseradish sauce on top.

Lentil salad / egg / caviar - I think the Man in White T-shirt has gotten tired of me asking him where the gold is, so he now has gold flakes ready within arm's reach. I caught him sprinkling it on the caviar...

This is something that I ALWAYS put on sourdough, and I gotta say that the runny egg, and the caviar (but maybe not the lentils so much) are just a natural fit with bread.

Razor clams "pil pil" / pigsfeet - this dish is new to me. Once I was able to take out the bits of broken shell, the razor clams tasted fine in the pil pil sauce with fennel. I didn't notice the presence of bits of pigs' feet at first until I re-read the printed menu, but they were there.

Baby squid - I love it every time I've had squid come out from this kitchen on a sizzling hot pan, but tonight it was even better... since these were baby squid!

OF COURSE it took me no time to put some on sourdough. YUM!

Handmade garganelli / soft shell king crab - WOW! THIS WAS AMAZING! It was introduced as "soft shell crab"... and indeed the pan contained mostly the baked soft shells of a small king crab.

In reality, though, this is actually a serving of garganelli pasta! With a small amount of king crab meat and done au gratin. I was so, so happy.

The best part of the dish, though, were the soft shells of the crab. Although king crab shells are spicy, these were thin enough that, after being roasted, became crunchy enough to chomp on... as one would crab-flavored "chips". I loved this so much that I kept eating these shells!

Spring lamb giblets / morels / rice - yes, it's the season for spring lamb from France, and here we have a collection of liver, kidneys, other giblets like chicken hearts along with morels and herbs. The familiar cream sauce makes the rice taste so good.

Spring lamb neck / asparagus - ....aaand if the last dish weren't enough, we also have the neck of the lamb together with spears of asparagus, garnished with black truffle. Damn tasty lamb, as always.

Much to my surprise, someone had been cutting down on their alcohol intake lately... so this was a pretty modest selection tonight:

Eric Rodez Cuvée des Grands Vintages - very yeasty nose with a little brioche. Good acidity balance on the palate, but later on the acidity got more prominent.

Krug Grande Cuvée, (160ème Édition), ID 111005 - nice and caramelized nose by now, but still got the acidity on the palate. Drinking nicely.

2021 Aubert Chardonnay Lauren Vineyard - drank about 45 minutes after opening. The nose was so buttery with lovely caramelization. A little flinty and metallic notes like pear, along with some vanilla oak. Still got a decent amount of acidity on the finish, though, as it's still young.

1996 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select - served about 2 hours after decanting. There was more green capsicum on the nose than I had expected, but otherwise the nose was very smoky. There was still some ripe fruit here but no longer front-and-center, while black peppercorns were now more obvious. The wine was showing pretty elegantly after about 2½ hours in the decanter, about the same time that my last bottle reached its peak.

Unfortunately, as tasty as the food was tonight, the evening ended very badly... so Foursheets and I went home early and didn't partake in dessert. Sigh.

I'm back at the Chairman (大班樓) tonight, entertaining both fans of the restaurant as well as naysayers. A year ago today, My Birdbrain Cousin was a no-show despite the fact that I had booked a table for her birthday. Well, she finally showed up tonight on less than a day's notice. I guess that counts for something...

As I know most people haven't tried the restaurant's newer dishes, I made the decision to pick out a few dishes I had already tried recently, so that the others could get the chance to taste them. I didn't pick many of the "classics" tonight...

Ginger and vinegar pig trotter terrine (甜醋子薑豬手豬耳凍) - this is fast becoming my favorite appetizer here. I have always loved the classic Cantonese dish of braised pig trotters in vinegar and ginger (豬腳薑), and this terrine form is just a fantastic bite. I love the sweet vinegary flavor, and wish I could have 3 pieces to myself, or maybe more.

Pickled rose buds with lily bulb and lotus root (荼薇百合藕片) - so grateful that Danny always so kindly remembers to send this out even when I haven't ordered it. The raw lily bulbs are always refreshingly crunchy, full of sugary starch. The pickled centifola roses (荼薇) always bring with them that wonderfully elegant fragrance which lingers on in the mouth.

Char grill sun cured pigeon in soybean BBQ sauce (醬燒生晒臘乳鴿) - this was a new dish I just had to try. My family has always loved the classic cured duck (臘鴨) that is sun-dried, so I was really curious how that would work on a pigeon. Well... the flavors were pretty punchy thanks to the marinade, but it was definitely up my alley. How I wish I could bring one home to the Parental Units in Taipei! But with a potential fine of TWD 30,000 by the customs department at the airport, that would probably make it the most expensive pigeon in the world...

Thick cut Chairman style char siu (炭火厚切叉燒) - this has always been very enjoyable, and tonight it was no exception. Love, love, love the fatty part and the charring on the outside. Soooo tender.

Cleansing soup (一口湯) - the soup today was made with arrowroot, mud carp, and ricebeans (粉葛鯪魚赤小豆).

Wok seared mud crab with premium soy, preserved black beans and preserved olive greens (豉油王豆豉欖菜煎泥蟹) - a "new" crab dish! At least, one I haven't had before. Must try, try, lah! I thought this was pretty good, as I really liked the dried out bits of preserved olive greens (欖菜) and the flavors from the premium soy sauce.

Crispy skin chicken with red bean curd marinate (南乳麵醬炸子雞) - I enjoyed this dish very much on my last visit, and thought the others might find it interesting, too. I do love the flavors from the red fermented bean curd (南乳麵醬).

Sweet and sour pig tails (菠蘿咕嚕豬尾) - there were a few lovers of sweet and sour pork at the table, but not everyone liked the texture of the tails. But I don't care... because I love it.

Stir fried seasonal vegetables with XO sauce (XO醬炒時菜) - this is always a good choice, and today we have purple choy sum (紫菜心)。

Crispy aged eel and salted pork belly claypot rice (瑤柱咸肉燒鱔煲仔飯) - I have been introducing this to my friends on each of my last visits here, since so many of them have never tasted the aged and fermented eel.

I really do love the depth of flavors in the eel, but why are they so stingy and only give us one measly piece of very thin cured pork belly???

Always love these rice crispies.

There's a second serving with this clay pot, where the remainder of the rice goes back to the kitchen and get soup added to it.

I do love that they always add clams to this soup.

Desserts trio (甜品三味):

Almond cream (杏仁茶)

Adzuki bean cake (豆沙糕)

Puff rice cracker with aged mandarin peel (陳皮米通) - love how we get the savory notes from aged mandarin peel, plus that fermented citrus fragrance.

I tried to order some wines off the restaurant's wine list as prices are relatively reasonable, but alas, two of the wines I originally wanted were sold out!

2018 Vincent Dureuil-Janthial Rully Blanc - initially served a little too cold, but big toasty notes were already evident. Then the wine opened up really nicely, with more popcorn than buttery notes. Good acidity on the palate here, especially on the finish.

2010 Hospices de Beaune Beaune 1er Cru Cuvée Rousseau-Deslandes, mis en bouteille par Lucien Le Moine pour MNSC - still showing lots of toasty notes from the barrel, but they are more integrated now and more elegant. Smoother on the palate these days. That nose was really, really big... soooo fragrant and fruity, and of course really toasty!

1976 Sterling Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - drank after decanting for an hour. This was, unfortunately, lightly corked and showing obvious notes of wet cardboard and grassy notes. Later on the wine opened up and the nose became smoky and showed some graphite. The tannins are still here.

2016 Andremily Syrah No. 5 - this was decanted for maybe an hour, but of course the nose was really ripe and jammy, and also typically metallic. A very lovely wine, but pretty tannic, too.

It's time to celebrate mom's birthday with her once again, and this year due to scheduling conflicts, I had to take her out to dinner on a day that is neither her birthday according to the lunar calendar nor the Gregorian calendar - which is unusual for us. Nevertheless I made the trip back home with Foursheets to spend time with the Parental Units, because all of these memories with them are precious to me.

During the last few months, mom hasn't been as excited about going out to fine dining establishments as she had been, and even though she had told us that there is no need to go somewhere nice, I decided to take her out for a sushi dinner. Knowing that she is likely to balk at the prices charged by the top places in town, I chose to book us seats at Sushi Momo (すし桃) in the Sheraton Grand Taipei - a collaboration between the hotel's Japanese ryotei (料亭) Momoyama (桃山) and Sushi Akira (あきら鮨), which holds one Michelin star. It can't command the high prices as it doesn't have the accolades, yet I felt there would be a certain minimum standard in terms of the cuisine given its pedigree.

One of the rituals for these celebrations with the Parental Units would be the opening of birth vintage wines. I'm not inclined to pop open a claret to go with sushi, which meant the only thing I have available is a bottle of very old Sauternes. How well would they pair? I had an inkling that the sweetness in the wine would work well with some of the neta (ネタ), while the acidity would integrate well with the vinegar in the shari (シャリ), but one never knows until one tries...

This is a 20-course meal, which made me a little worried whether mom could take it all in...

Chrysanthemum greens with sesame sauce (胡麻春菊) - there's something extra in the sauce on top of the typical Japanese sesame dressing... like a hint of Sichuan peppercorns (花椒).

Lobster (伊勢海老) - this came with a nice crunch. The wasabi was definitely not needed, and I think the salt was barely warranted.

Botan shrimp with caviar (牡丹海老キャビア) - my substitute for fatty tuna (大トロ). With oscietra caviar and fleur de sel.

Japanese snow crab (松葉蟹) - mom loves crab so this was totally up her alley, and the portion wasn't too stingy by her standards. Served with some crab tomalley (蟹味噌) and perilla flowers on top. Trying this with the Yquem, I thought the two kinda worked well together. The wine ended up enhancing the taste of the tomalley, but not in a bad way.

Mackerel bozushi (鯖棒鮨) - this was a pretty big piece of bozushi! The acidity was on the high side, while I felt the shari was kinda on the soft side and slightly mushy. Not a good first impression.

Grilled broadbanded thornyhead (焼き喜知次) - this was nice. The seasoning was almost exactly right, but perhaps a smidgen over-seasoned.

Spanish mackerel tempura (鰆天ぷら) - my substitute for fish cum. This was pretty under-seasoned, and with the first bite I tasted almost no seasoning at all... just the greasy batter. I did get some salt with the second bite, and had to squeeze some lemon juice. Meh.

Now the sushi portion of our meal starts:

Sea urchin handroll (雲丹手巻き) - my substitute for fatty tuna (トロ). This actually worked very well with the Yquem.

Striped beakfish (石鯛) - good temperature on the shari and the vinegar was obvious, but perhaps still slightly on the soft side for me. Together with the Yquem it really brought out the saffron and honeydew melon from the wine. Fantastic!

Yellowtail (鰤) - good acidity in the shari came through.

Spear squid (槍烏賊) - I forgot to look at the chef preparing the neta to count how many times he scored the squid. Served with some grated sudachi (酢橘) zest on top, along with some juice and salt, of course.

Eel hand roll (鰻手巻き) - with perilla leaves. The skin on the bottom was very, very crunchy and satisfying.

Baby sea bream (春子鯛) - my substitute for medium fatty tuna (中トロ). The shari delivered a really high dose of acidity. Unfortunately this didn't work with Yquem, as the fish oil was too strong.

Gizzard shad (小鰭) - my substitute for fatty tuna (大トロ). Once again the fishy and oily flavors were boosted by the Yquem, and didn't really work.

Japanese glass shrimp (白海老) - my substitute for lean tuna (赤身). The sweetness from the little shrimps worked really, really well with Yquem.

Conger eel (穴子)– of course this paired seamlessly with Yquem, thanks to the sweet sauce lathered on top.

Japanese pink sea urchin (赤雲丹) - this was my subsitute piece, but when mom realized that she would be, once again, get less sea urchin than me, I knew I had to give this to her.

Trio combo - this is something so Taiwanese... and I first saw this in Sanka (山花) about 2 decades ago, where the chef called it "three-in-one (三合一)". This was chopped fatty tuna (トロ), Japanese pink sea urchin (赤雲丹), and a thin slice of torched fatty tuna on top. I honestly don't understand combos like this.

Egg (玉子焼き) - pretty decent.

Red miso soup

For our 20th course, we had fruits like black cherries and strawberries.

This would be the second time that mom gets to taste Yquem from her vintage, the last time being 11 years ago on her 70th birthday.

1943 Yquem, from Christie's Finest and Rarest Wines from the Cellar of Christen Sveass - level base neck. Opened around an hour before serving. The nose was really, really fragrant, and there was so much depth on the palate. Marmalade, honey, figs, saffron, honeydew melon, acetone. When it got a little too warm the wine became slightly bitter and astringent on the palate, but as after cooling in the ice bucket this changed. Yes, the wine is sweet and viscous, but that acidity remains after more than 80 years.

I really treasure being able to spend time with mom celebrating her upcoming birthday, and of course sharing another special bottle of wine with her. I'm also happy to report that, yes, Sauternes CAN pair well with sushi.

Some 15 years after her last visit, my friend B and her husband have decided to do another detour to Hong Kong as they vacation in Asia. I haven't seen them since visiting them in Switzerland on the back of a business trip just 3 months before the pandemic began, so I'm really looking forward to this catch up.

After doing a quick tour of Tai Kwun (大館), it was time to choose a place for lunch. I gave my friend a choice of two of my favorite places, and she picked the one with a Michelin star without knowing.

I was very surprised to see the Boss Lady in the house, as it's the day of the Michelin star revelation, and they were certain to get a star for the 10th year running (they did). After attending the ceremony last year, I think they probably felt a little out of place... This is understandable, as they are a small shop without a big PR team, and it's not like Mr and Mrs Chu are so recognizable to the crowd in attendance. It's only a small group of people like me who could pick them out of a crowd of hundreds - and that's becos I've been a customer for nearly 20 years. That's a shame, because I'd totally hang out with them at the festivities.

Barbecued pork (叉燒) - this was pretty decent, and even though part of our serving was lean, it was still pretty tender.

Rice flour noodles in soup (瀨粉) - my favorite option for carbs when I dine here. Love that MSG-laden soup.

Blanched choy sum (菜心全走)

Lower quarter of roast goose (燒鵝下庄) - the smart choice today, since we couldn't possibly take down half a goose.

My friend really, really liked the roast goose, as she doesn't get to have it often in Europe. Very happy that it worked out that way.

B was very disappointed when I delivered the news last year that Sichuan Moon (川江月) had closed. She had been looking forward to visiting André Chiang's restaurant ever since it opened, but the pandemic got in the way. To make it up to her - in a roundabout way - I decided to take her to Mián (紅棉). This is a restaurant that Foursheets and I like very much, because while it delivers some very good Cantonese dishes, Chef Ronald Shao (邵德龍)'s background in Sichuanese cuisine adds an interesting dimension to the dining experience.

We normally would have asked for a table on the terrace under the pink and white shower tree (節果決明樹) and take our CC Dogcow along, but not tonight. We ended up sitting inside next to a table of ladies celebrating someone's birthday, and this had a negative impact on the service level. Oh well.

Boiled sliced pork ∙ garlic ∙ chili oil (蒜泥白肉) - I had forgotten how spicy the sauce was, and almost choked on my first bite. This was juuuuuust at the edge of my tolerance, which is to say that I wouldn't be able to have more than 2 slices before my tongue gets lit on fire. I do like the julienned celtuce wrapped inside the pork.

Jade lettuce ∙ wasabi (日本鮮山葵玉玲瓏) - crunchy and refreshing, but while the flavors of the celtuce strips were clean, they could have done better with seasoning.

Boneless silky fowl and chicken fillets ∙ spring onion ∙ dan dan sauce (擔擔鴛鴦雞) - apparently someone likes chicken, and had never had silky chicken (竹絲雞) before. Of course, the dan dan (擔擔) sauce makes it a little more interesting for my friends.

Sichuan style boiled ∙ tiger grouper ∙ assorted chili (沸騰老虎斑) - a really good dish that my friends (and Foursheets) really liked. Just look at all the chili floating on top.

The brown-marbled grouper (老虎斑) is, unfortunately, classified as "Avoid" on the World Wildlife Fund Seafood Guide. I do like the acidity combined with the level of heat, but alas, the loofah was much, much too muddy in terms of flavor. The udon here ended up being our own dose of carbs tonight

Deep fried crispy chicken ∙ scallions sauce (紅棉䓤油雞) - a real winner tonight. I've always loved this dish for the intense flavors coming from the burnt spring onions, which contrasted well with the diced fresh spring onions. That paper-thin crispy chicken skin didn't hurt, either...

Beef brisket and tendon ∙ chili pepper broth (椒香清湯牛筋蝴蝶腩) - I knew I had to order this for my friend, and also for Foursheets. This is something we get on just about every visit.

The brisket and tendon were both very nice and tender, but I could drink the clear broth all day... especially with the bits of chili pepper adding that really alluring kick to it. Truly magical and makes you want more.

Assorted seafood in claypot ∙ chili crab sauce ∙ vermicelli (香辣蟹醬粉絲海鮮煲) - I like glass vermicelli and the spicy sauce was decent, but at this price point, it's obvious the seafood was not fresh but previously frozen. OK la...

Stir-fried water bamboo ∙ eggplants ∙ green beans (醬燒地三鮮：茭白筍，茄子，法邊豆) - I do like the combination of the vegetables, especially the water bamboo (茭白筍) that is difficult to source in the middle of Europe. My friend, however, didn't care for the heavy-handed sauce.

I brought along a few bottles to start the adventure.

Eric Rodez Rosé, dégorgée en Avril 2022 - flint, nice notes of red fruits, savory minerals, and a little caramelized sugar.

2007 Joh.Jos. Prüm Wehelener Sonnenuhr Kabinett - classic Mosel riesling, with lots of petrol and polyurethane. Not too sweet on the palate.

2001 Torbreck RunRig - drank 2 hours after double-decanting. While decanting the fruit was really sweet and explosive, but it had mellowed out when we started drinking. Much more elegant by then, but still lovely.

I think the dinner was a reasonable success. Looking forward to tomorrow!

It's B's second and last night in Macau, so this is when I choose to bring out the big guns for her. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were all foolishly hopeful that it would be over soon, so we discussed getting her to detour to Hong Kong so that I could open up a special bottle of wine for her. Well... Hong Kong's borders remained effectively closed for almost 3 years, and it took until now for my friend to return to Hong Kong.

During this time, I managed to acquire another special bottle of wine that I thought I could share with my friend. The bottles are so special that I would want a competent sommelier to handle them, and given that I want to go to a Cantonese restaurant, there are only 3 in Hong Kong whose sommelier I trust. So... it's back to Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店) we go... the day after they retained their 3 Michelin stars.

I've been told not to order too much food, but I still want to showcase a few classic Cantonese dishes to my friends.

Pan-fried cuttlefish cake (黃金墨魚餅) - the texture was very soft yet very springy. Fantastic dish to start with.

Chef Adam homemade roasted barbecued pork (滔哥靚叉燒) - we needed some meats to go with the pair of old wines, and I could think of no better dish to match than the beautiful char siu (叉燒) here. So tender. So flavorful.

Baked conpoy and crab meat in crab shell (瑤柱焗釀蟹蓋) - this is always one of my favorite dishes in high end Cantonese cuisine, and they do a fantastic job here.

The onions in the mix were very, very sweet, and the flavors from conpoy (干貝) were very prominent. Love it.

Roasted chicken wing stuffed with minced shrimp (百花燒釀雞翼) - I foolishly forgot to pre-order the wings stuffed with birds nest, so I had to settle for this version stuffed with minced shrimp mousse.

This turned out to be my friend's favorite dish. She absolutely loved how succulent the stuffed wing was as she bit into it. I can't say I disagree with her assessment.

Braised ox tail (燒汁焗牛尾) - always something we need to order, especially when we are drinking some nice reds. Very, very tender and so much flavor from the spices.

Bamboo fungus roll filled with vegetables (竹笙釀素卷) - not a veg dish that my friend is likely to find in Switzerland or Spain...

Deep-fried boneless duck stuffed with mashed taro (荔茸香酥鴨) - I really love duck with taro so I just had to order this. It was very tasty, and how could it not with both deep-fried taro mash and that thick layer of fat under the duck skin?! But it did feel a little too greasy at times, so definitely not for the health-conscious.

Longevity bun (壽包) - as we are celebrating my friend's birthday, so naturally I arranged for this.

Deep-fried sesame glutinous ball (黃金煎堆仔) - despite protestations from my friend about not being able to eat another bite, she took down two of these. I'm so happy that she got to eat ones that were freshly made and still piping hot, because that's definitely not happening for her at home.

So we uncorked a few more bottles tonight, including ones from the birthday girl's vintage:

Ulysse Collin Les Pierrières, dégorgée en 16 Fevrier 2022 - nice acidity on the palate, as one would expect. Later on the wine showed candied pineapple, a little flint, and minerals on the nose.

2014 Keller Westhofen Kirchspiel Riesling trocken - classic petrol and polyurethane. Reasonably dry but definitely a little soft and rounded by now.

1961 Ducru-Beaucaillou - level was a tad below top shoulder. Drank 20 minutes after opening without decanting. The nose was more floral and elegant, with notes of leather, a little smoke, and a little graphite. After a little more than an hour the wine was still holding up somewhat, with more prominent nose of smoke. About 1½ hours in the wine was really, really open and showing beautifully, with loads of leather and a big, toasty nose, along with some coffee, too. Very happy with this bottle, and in the end it turned out better than my previous bottle from 3 years ago.

1961 Pichon Baron - level was a tad below top shoulder. Drank 20 minutes after opening without decanting. Definitely smoky on the nose, initially showing well and better than the 61 Ducru, bigger and more concentrated on the palate, but there was perhaps a tiny hint of wet cardboard. Love the complexity here, with lots of woodsy and cedar nose, and still got the fruity cassis.

A very happy evening for us, and I got to congratulate chef Adam on retaining three stars for the restaurant. Many thanks to Jacky for taking such good care of us with the rest of the team.

One of the main items when I convinced B to make a detour to come visit me was a visit to Macau. While Hong Kong has always been a great destination, I've always felt that fine dining in Macau is a better deal - and it's easy to understand why. So I booked us a car to cross the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and, thanks to some unscheduled stops, checked in to the Grand Lisboa Palace more than an hour later than expected.

Which is how we arrived at La Famiglia on Taipa around 1½ hours later than the time of our original reservation. I had asked for recommendations for restaurants which are more Macanese and not just serving Portuguese cuisine, and I decided to check out this one.

Pastéis de bacalhau - these were pretty decent. On the dry side but still tasty.

Chamuças de porco - these samosas were also pretty decent.

Salada de lulas - love the little, tiny baby squid in the salad.

Arroz de pato - this was pretty decent, but I wish it packed a little more flavor beyond the couple of slices of chorizo and bacon.

Repulho salteado com alho - always happy to have cabbage done this way.

Galinha Africana - it's been a long time since I last had the famous Macanese dish of African chicken, and I didn't get it when I last had it. Well, this was OK, but I still don't get why this is supposed to be a special chicken. Yes, you've got some spices in the sauce, but so do many other chicken dishes.

Camaroēs à Macau - we needed another dish, so this was chosen so we could see how prawns could be "stuffed". As it turned out, there was no "stuffing", just a salsa of sorts like a sofrito. Not bad.

Serradura - I absolutely had to finish with this dessert. Not something I can find everyday.

We walked around the touristy area around Rua do Cunha (官也街) and did a little of our usual shopping. Time to retire to our room for a little break...

One of the regrets this week is that I was unable to bring my friend to dine at Sichuan Moon (川江月), the restaurant which featured Sichuanese cuisine as imagined by chef André Chiang (江政承). It was decided last year that the restaurant would close, and the space was taken over by Chef Tam Kwok Fung (譚國鋒) for the creation of Chef Tam's Seasons (譚卉) - a Cantonese restaurant where the dishes are based on the 24 seasons (二十四節氣) in the Chinese lunar calendar. The restaurant just earned its first Michelin star two days ago, so coming here gave me a perfect opportunity to congratulate Chef Tam in person.

We happen to be in the middle of jingzhe (驚蟄), the season when hibernating insects are awakened by the sound of thunder. While the restaurant has put together a set menu specific to this season, Chef Tam was always gonna brings us something special...

Steamed free-range chicken with scallion oil (蔥油葵園雞) - Chef Tam hits it out of the park on his first at bat. This is Foursheets' current favorite chicken, and I can't tell you how happy she was when this arrived. Wonderful stuff.

Crispy bean curd with bird's nest (燕窩琵琶豆腐) - this was beautiful. The very, very fluffy tofu came stuffed with some birds nest and very finely-diced water chestnuts to add a small amount of crunch.

Chilled turnip in pomegranate juice (石榴汁蘿蔔) - the vinegar helps to whet our appetites, not that I wasn't hungry...

Squid in soy sauce (豉油鮮魷) - the first of our extra dishes saw Chef Tam cook live squid fresh from the market in the soy sauce that's used to marinade soy sauce chicken. So fresh and delicious.

Chef Tam came across this Chinese white herring (鰽白) at the market and decided to use it for our next dish.

Boiled Chinese herring soup with tomatoes, potatoes and fish maw (蕃茄薯仔滾曹白花膠湯) - but this blew my mind... or had me scratching my head. I've never understood the tomato and potato soup (蕃茄薯仔湯) - usually made with pork - that Hong Kong people make at home. Here's it's been upgraded by using fish broth, then there's that big piece of fish maw in the bowl.

The soup was pretty fishy, so I wondered how my Swiss friend would take it...

Our second extra dish was stir-fried prawns and mantis shrimps (炒雙蝦). The flavors and the textures clearly show that these came fresh from the market, and I thought the finely-shredded fried taro and the jicama gave us a nice crunch. The toasted Chinese black olive kernels (欖仁) were very tasty, too.

Steamed threadfin in fig leaf (無花果葉蒸馬友) - now THIS was interesting... steaming fish with fragrant fig leaf.

Besides the unique and interesting fragrance of the leaf, we've got thick slices of fresh golden ear (黃耳) fungus, which have an interesting texture that's kinda somewhere in between fish maw and glutinous rice cake, chewy without stickying to the teeth. We've also got chunks of eggplant here.

Next came the 21-day-old pigeons for our next dish.

Baked baby pigeon with sand ginger and salt (沙薑鹽焗太子鴿) - I love pigeon, but to be honest, these were a little too small to deliver proper satisfaction. As a testament to the quality of the ingredients Chef Tam uses, the flavors of the aromatic ginger (沙薑) powder and velouté were pretty strong. I would have preferred to go without it.

Braised abalone and suckling pork knuckle (鍋燒鮑脯豬仔腳) - this dish may be Foursheets' nightmare but absolutely heavenly to me. Besides the nice abalone we also have a little trotter from a suckling pig, a shiitake, and sea cucumber (婆參) from Australia. They were baked in their individual serving bowls.

I know that sea cucumbers from Australia can be pretty big, and I'm used to the ones that mom braises every year for the lunar new year holidays, but this was pretty damn big, too! And definitely jiggly.

Stir-fried Chinese lettuce (清炒唐生菜) - we were meant to take the lettuce to refresh our palates a little, after the heavy flavors of the last dish.

We were next presented with rice cooked in a cast iron pot. The rice crispies on the bottom were particularly tasty since lard was used...

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We then had raw eggs mixed in with the rice, along with some kailan (芥蘭) and finally, shavings of black truffle.

Steamed rice with braised pork and preserved vegetable served in iron pot (梅菜扣肉鐵鍋飯) - the rice was then served with the classic dish of braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens (梅菜扣肉).

Just in case we were still starving, Chef Tam gave us an extra serving of char siu (叉燒), which were really, really tasty thanks to being made with pork belly, and roasted with lychee wood for that special fragrance. It was also done in a more traditional way, with a soy sauce marinade rather than being drenched in honey glaze.

A little sorbet to cleanse our palates...

Double-boiled barley with lemon (檸檬薏米水)

Hawthorn tea (山楂茶)

Deep-fried almond cream custard (杏汁戈渣) - they've done a very good job with the execution of the custard, as the texture inside was on point. I do love the fragrance.

Deep-fried walnut custard (核桃戈渣) - likewise, the walnut flavors were very good.

Salted egg yolk layered cake (蛋黃千層糕) - made the old school way, with layers of cured pork fat (冰肉) in addition to salted egg yolk. Slurp!

The staff heard us talk about my friend's birthday, so they arranged some birthday buns (壽包) for her.

At the end of our very long meal, the trolley was pushed to our table and mignardises were served... but we were just too full.

I don't remember much about Wynn Palace's wine list but I figured we could pick out something reasonable, so I only brought one little bottle to dinner...

2012 Roses de Jeanne La Haute Lemblé, dégorgée en Avril 2016 - by now this was pretty nice on the palate. Still got the acidity thanks to the chardonnay, but already a little rounded. Showing some marmalade on the nose.

2018 Latour-Martillac Blanc - a bit of lemon on the nose, but also some sharp acetone... and not in a way that I enjoyed. With time the wine opened up and got better in the glass, showing more depth on the palate, but I never liked this.

2007 Lodovico - started serving around 1 hour and 15 minutes after decanting. The nose was beautiful, showing tobacco smoke, lots of cedar, really woodsy and nice, minty nose. Also showing a good amount of sweet fruit and exotic spices. There's a nice degree of richness here, not quite so much that I would describe it as jammy. It was actually very elegant yet still had the power and concentration, reaching a fairly beautiful balance at this point in time.

I'm ever so grateful to Chef Tam for treating us so well, and sharing with us some of his beloved recipes and seasonal produce. I'm sad that I don't come back enough to see him, but I hope to make amends in the future!

One of the places I really wanted to take my friend on her trip was The 8 (8餐廳), since it's one of my favorite restaurants when it comes to Cantonese food. We have not been able to get some dim sum for my friend so far, and this happens to be the perfect place to get that checked off. Nobody does dim sum like the way they do it here.

But first, I took us on a short sightseeing tour around Largo do Senado with its historic buildings, as it's part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then we strolled around and made a stop at the Porthos Macau shop for some interesting almond cookies made with Porthos canned sardines.

After a few days of my eating program, I have been instructed to cut down on the ordering. This is pretty easy to do with dim sum, and I figured we could focus on the wines instead...

Abalone with celtuce stem

Blackberry and passion fruit jelly

Steamed dumplings with crystal blue shrimp in goldfish shape (藍天使蝦金魚餃) - BUT OF COURSE we would start our lunch with this! I've been loving these "goldfish" for years, and they continue to deliver. Lately they've added a dab of goldfoil on the dorsal fin.

I still love the flavors so much. Not only are the New Caledonian shrimp tasty, the chunks of bamboo shoots inside are nice, too.

Steamed "Shanghainese" dumplings with chicken essence and vintage dried tangerine peel (老陳皮雞汁小籠包) - another one of my favorites, because these aren't just any xiaolongbao (小籠包)... they come with aged tangarine peel, which bring a wonderful depth of flavor thanks to their smokiness and fermented flavor profile.

Steamed dumplings with shark's fin, scallop and asparagus (金翅帶子海棠餃) - my friend chose something that I would normally never choose, and in fact, I made an exception today to take in a little shark's fin that was in the dumpling. Texture-wise the small chunks of water chestnuts added a little crunch to an otherwise soft stuffing, as did some diced Chinese celery. The decorative flying fish roe on top were OK.

Pan-fried drumplings filled with wagyu beef and enoki mushrooms (濃汁金菇和牛煎鍋貼) - I was pretty sure the Swiss gentleman at the table would enjoy this, and I wasn't wrong. Big flavors, juicy filling.

Deep-fried shrimp rolls filled with black fungus and black truffle paste (脆炸松露蝦卷) - another item chosen by my friend. I could definitely taste the black truffle paste.

Crispy barbecued pork buns with preserved vegetables (脆香叉燒包) - another favorite dim sum of mine. Not only are the buns really tasty, but the amount of effort spent by the chefs in the kitchen snipping and shaping the spikes of the porcupines... I'm so grateful that they take so much care.

Chilled razor clam with Sichuan green pepper (青花椒聖子皇) - this was something Foursheets enjoyed a lot on our last visit, when it was served as an appetizer. Foursheets practically insisted on ordering the dish, and it turned out to be a big hit with my friend. Razor clams are very common in Spain, but we were told that this was the best version she's ever had. I could certainly understand why... with the wonderful fragrance and numbing sensation coming from the Sichuan green peppercorn oil, but there's no heat. The okra and the finely-shredded green papaya at the bottom provided additiona crunch as well as refreshing flavors.

Steamed dumplings in cuttlefish shape with satay sauce (像形沙爹墨魚餃) - I love these "cuttlefish", too. Especially their strong flavors with "satay" sauce.

Puff pastry with river shrimp in purse shape (河蝦肉鬆手袋酥) - sadly, these weren't mini Birkins... but still tasted very good.

Poached pea shoots with lily bulb and wolf berry (日本鮮百合杞子浸豆苗) - we insisted on ordering this for our friend, because she definitely can't find pea shoots like this in Taiwan...

Coffee jelly (咖啡啫喱) - I'm soooo boring. I ALWAYS order this for dessert when I come. But I love the coffee flavors so much.

I had asked them to arrange a birthday cake for my friend, and I have to say this was pretty good. Fruit in a cake is always nice.

Portuguese egg tart (葡式蛋撻) and milk tea (奶茶) - the usual ending. Love this milk tea.

Per SOP, I discussed the wine selection with my friends and pre-ordered the bottles for today. One of them from their anniversary vintage.

1994 Zind Humbrecht Riesling Rangen de Thann Clos St. Urbain - lots of polyurethane and some petrol on the nose, and plenty of apricot. The wine turned a little bitter on the palate when it got too warm. Later on this showed some marmalade, too.

2006 Trimbach Riesling Clos Ste. Hune - served around 1 hour after opening. Nose of white truffle, petrol, and a little flint. Slightly caramelized on the edges. A little grippy on the palate, and certainly more ripe on the nose than I had expected from this wine, but still has the acidity.

1987 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve - showing nicely some 30 minutes after opening without decanting, with minty and earthy notes, some smoke, and cassis. There was a nice level of acidity on the palate to balance out the tannins that were still around after all these years. About an hour in, this was showing more meaty, leather, and animal notes. Tannins were still noticeable, and the nose was now very smoky.

I think my friends were pretty happy. This is not the kind of dim sum that can be found easily, let alone when one lives in Europe. Very happy to have checked this off the list for her. And always grateful for the team at Lisboa for taking such good care of us.

While I'm generally a creature of habit, I do occasionally try out new restaurants where I've received positive feedback from friends. This time around in Macau, I was determined to check out Imperial Court (金殿堂) at the MGM Macau. In my years of somewhat frequent visits to Macau, I had never once dined in one of the MGM casinos. In fact, I've never even stepped foot in either of the casinos. So this would be a first...

But the evening did not start well. The second I stepped foot into MGM Macau, my olfactory senses were overwhelmed by the house perfume that permeated every corner of the casino, including the restaurants. I love the scene of jasmine, but I don't want it shoved up my nose for the whole 2 hours or so. And certainly not while I'm dining or trying to enjoy a nice bottle of wine.

Once again I'm trying to be conservative when ordering, which was why I could't order up the sunflower chicken that Foursheets loves so much, because it only comes as a whole chicken. Oh well...

Our amuse bouche was a green pepper stuffed with cuttlefish mousse, which was very tender and nice.

Crispy fried shrimp with seaweed flakes on toast (香酥海苔鍋貼蝦) - this turned out differently than I had imagined. Loved the crunchy, fried toast. Loved the shrimp on top. Why was there a piece of seaweed at the bottom when it was just loose and not attached to the toast?! And what was the deal with the dried fish furikake (ふりかけ) on top, when the menu said there would be seaweed flakes?! Suddenly this tastes like some kid just sprinkled stuff on his bowl of steamed rice.

Crispy fried chicken skin with shrimp mousse and salted fish flakes (嶺南魚香脆皮百花雞) - I love these "chicken" dishes where they remove part or all of the meat, and replace it with shrimp mousse. The presentation here is quite pretty, with crispy noodles arranged to evoke images of fishing nets as a tribute to the history of Macau. Finally, salted fourfinger threadfin (馬友) was shaved on top for a little pick up in terms of flavor.

Beneath the paper-thin crispy chicken skin is a mousse made of three different shrimps and prawns: white shrimp (白蝦) from Vietnam, tiger prawns (花竹蝦), and shrimps from New Caledonia (藍天使蝦). The texture was very springy and bouncy, and pan-fried at the bottom to enhance the texture.

Steamed crab claw with egg white (玉液芙蓉蒸鮮蟹鉗) - we wanted to introduce this classic dish to my friend. I've always loved steamed crab claw with egg whites, and the superior broth gives a little highlight to the dish.

Simmered baby cabbage with conpoy in chicken broth (瑤柱濃雞湯浸娃娃菜) - Chinese people always need their veg, and this was good.

Steamed cabbage money bags with wild mushroom in supreme sauce (鮮菌素石榴球) - I was surprised that the money bags came with a cabbage wrapper instead of the usual tofu skin, but I really enjoyed this.

Eight treasures suckling pig with morel mushroom (羊肚菌八寶焗釀乳豬) - I wanted to try their version of the "suckling pig maki" so I ordered this up.

This was OK, but then again, anything with crispy crackling and a layer of fat underneath would naturally taste good. The issue is the rice stuffing, which could easily fall out since the crackling isn't rolled all the way around. Tasted good with the morels.

Sweetened red bean soup with vintage tangerine peel and sesame glutinous dumplings (廿年陳皮紅豆沙湯丸) - sadly the fragrance of the 20-year-old tangerine peel wasn't very prominent.

Tart with intage tangerine peel cream (陳皮忌廉撻)

Sakura and red bean cookie (櫻花紅豆酥) - what sakura flavor???

I figured we should take it easy with the wines tonight, and I left the ordering up to my friend.

2015 Cloudy Bay Te Koko - classic nose with lots of green apple and muscat grapes.

2010 Canon - drank after 45 minutes of decanting. Honestly, I couldn't smell anything other than the jasmine perfume of the hotel. What a waste of a nice bottle of wine.

Well, I thought the food was pretty good overall, and some of the dishes were pretty creative. Unfortunately, I can't bear to sit through a few more hours of being assaulted by that jasmine perfume, so I guess that's the end of my dining experiences at any MGM casino...

It's all Hairy Legs' fault.

While he was in Macau 4 days ago for the Michelin Guide ceremony, he stopped by Robuchon au Dôme for a meal, and Chef Julien Tongourien made him Oncle Joël's signature black truffle tart. Now, this is not something you see often, because 1) it's gotta be during truffle season, 2) the quality of the truffles must be sufficiently high to ensure enough pieces can be cut in the same shape, and 3) the food cost for this is so high that most of the L'Ateliers around the world simply can't make it work economically.

But this is au Dôme in the Grand Lisboa Macau, and if anyone could do it, it would be Julien. I quickly asked for a table for lunch today, and inquired whether it would be possible to have the truffle tart. I was happy that the answer to both questions were in the positive, and looked forward to getting my friends their first experience with it. I had prepped them beforehand about the whole series of chariots that would be pushed in front of us, and that's something that is not often seen outside of France and Europe.

The weather is completely crap today, and there is almost zero visibility from the windows, so I was perfectly happy being seated in the private room.

For lunch service, one can still choose among the 3-, 4-, or 5-course menu in addition to the full tasting menu, so we all opted for 4 courses since we also would have the extra course of the truffle tart. In fact, I was surprised my friend didn't choose the 3-course lunch. As for me, all of my choices today included black truffle... because it just felt like that kind of day.

As management very kindly provided us with a bottle of Champagne, there was no need to push the Champagne trolley to our table. This was a shame, because I really enjoy seeing the sight of that trolley.

Our first order today would be from the bread trolley. Paul pushed this into the room, and I gotta say this is still very beautiful to behold.

I chose this spinach roll to start.

Comté roll was nice, too.

You can't have bread without butter, so Paul came with the butter trolley. Sadly, it's still Pamplie... but I'll live.

Salé for me, as usual.

Our amuse bouche today was white asparagus panna cotta topped with some caviar from Sologne, with white asparagus velouté, itty bitty croûtons, and tiny dots of lobster oil, turmeroic oil, and chive oil along with chopped chives. Carta musica on the side. Not the first time I've had this here, and it was totally delish.

Le foie gras: black truffle with Roseval potato caparccio, foie gras rolls and parmesan cheese shavings - the potato slices came topped with pâté de foie gras which have been shaved and rolled up, accompanied by shaved Parmesan, radish, black truffle, and served with truffle sauce and piment d'espelette. I dish I'm familiar with and happy to enjoy always.

La fine tarte: friande aux oignons confits et lard fumé paysan - BABY, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR! LA PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE. Something I am only having for the second time, with the last being more than 6 years ago. There were 25 (near) perfectly round slices of truffle which have been cooked today, while the last one I had came with 21 slices.

Underneath the thin slices of truffle we had a thin layer of very fine chiffonade of onions and lardon, as well as incredibly finely-diced truffle. Just look at that knife skill.

All of this was held together with a very thin layer of puff pastry. So delicate in terms of construction, but of course each bite simply flooded one's mouth with the fragrance of truffles. What a treat!

Le soupe: truffle soup with chicken consommé and small cheese ravioli - just like the tart we just had, at the bottom of the bowl there were onions and lardon. The little ravioli came stuffed with Comté, with a sprinkle of finely-diced truffle all over. A few sprigs of micro parsley and a good pour of chicken consommé complete the dish. So satisfying.

Le pigeon de Bretagne: Brittany pigeon and foie gras duo with bacon and black truffle coulis - I guess this is the pigeon version of the Rossini... Served with black truffle coulis and pigeon jus.

The rolls came with foie gras with the pigeon, wrapped first in bacon and then with cabbage. So delicious. So happy.

The signature Robuchon mashed potatoes, which would never taste like this without so much butter.

There was also a small salade verte on the side. Feeling very healthy...

With our main courses done, it was time for the cheese trolley to make its appearance. I chose just three.

Brillat-Savarin - difficult to resist this "triple cream ice cream".

Mimolette, 24 months - very nice. How I wish they had some Hoegaarden to go along with this!

Comté, 30 months - still somewhat soft and not too dry, and the salt crystals haven't appeared yet.

I took a slice of Chestnut bread with the cheese because I love it so much.

Trolley number 4 today was the dessert trolley. We were pretty full by this point...

Mont Blanc - I've always love this dessert since childhood, but today I took some because my friends can see Mont Blanc from their home. This came with cassis in the middle.

Millefeuille - the trolley came in with a whole piece that was freshly made, so we had to take some. Simply wonderful.

Coffee religieuse - yum. The coffee flavors really lingered on my tongue for a long time.

I don't always ask for the ice cream trolley, but I figured my friends need to see it.

Mandarin sorbet - really nice and refreshing, with bits of frozen mandarins inside.

Number six and last was the mignardises trolley. We were beyond full, but I took a few pieces since Easter is coming up.

Madeleines - baked à la minute.

This was the "Easter set".

The bunny came with lemon, yuzu, and peppermint inside.

The chicken came with mango, cheese, and coconut.

Green apple inside, with a four-leaf clover on top.

Chocolate egg.

It turns out that both bottles of wine - the latter of which I had chosen yesterday and asked Jeffrey to reserve for me - came compliments of management. Such an unbelievable treat.

Krug Grande Cuvée, 171ème Édition, ID 322033 - really nice and toasty on the nose. Good acidity on the palate as expected for this edition, but later on this softened up a little.

2003 Guigal Côte-Rôtie Château d'Ampuis - served a little more than 1 hour after opening without devanting. The nose was very open now, and showing beautiful notes of leather, grilled meats, smoke, and blackcurrant. Very happy with this.

We were stuffed to the brim, but so, soooo happy. We had just enough time to go back to the Grand Lisboa Palace for my friends to quickly clean up, check out, and head to Hong Kong International Airport for their flights out. I think this was a fitting finale for the Swiss gentleman after traveling in Asia for a month and eating Asia cuisine everyday. I hope this is an experience they will remember for some time to come. As usual, I am very grateful for the hospitality of my friends in the different Lisboa hotels.

But I wonder... was this meal "too French"?

After being back in Hong Kong for less than 3 days, I'm on the road again. This year's festivities for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants are being held in Seoul, and I've decided to come back to Korea for the first time since 2017 to check out the dining scene.

After being dropped off by the bus in front of the Parnas Tower at COEX, I wheeled my luggage across the street to check in to Shilla Stay Samsung across the street. It was now past 4pm and I hadn't eaten lunch, so I was kinda starving. I knew that dinner was less than 3 hours away, but I still needed to just get something in my stomach. So I strolled around COEX Mall for a little, and eventually made my way to the basement food hall at The Hyundai where I grabbed a deep-fried halibut cutlet. Not the lightest bite I could have chosen, but it would have to do.

I made my way to Jungsik for a return visit. I had given Chef Yim Jung-sik (임정식) some small gifts last year, and he was appreciative enough to ask me to pay his restaurant a visit. So I roped in Mikacina and Kutsuyama - who played carrier pigeons for me - as well as my local kohai (後輩) to make this a foursome.

The took the signature menu, with the accompanying wine pairing courtesy of the chef. This should be fun.

First up was the banchan (반찬), which came in 6 parts:

This was tofu with gamtae myeongnanjeot (감태명란젓) - fermented pollock roe mixed with seaweed. The flavors from the sesame oil were pretty prominent, and there were crunchy cubes of radish.

A thin slice of tuna was wrapped around some rice and topped with caviar.

The scallop tart came with some "fish sauce" and clam powder, and to me this tasted like mayo with katsuobushi (鰹節) powder. Good acidity here. Pretty nice.

Toast with yukhoe (육회) and truffle aïoli. That truffle oil was pretty damn strong.

The octopus was boiled before being (deep?-)fried, and served with gochujang (고추장).

Finally, there was the baesuk (배숙), or pear soup. A chilled, refreshing drink.

Caviar - the mackerel was definitely on the fatty and oily side, with some kaluga caviar on top. Underneath there was an emulsion made of (whisked?) pear, with some sauce flavored like dongchimi (동치미) so I definitely tasted both the acidity and the fermentation. Good to balance out the fatty fish and salty caviar, then...

King crab - the charcoal-grilled king crab pretty tasty, and the smoked butter sauce was definitely pretty smoky and also got that acidity thanks to the citrus fruit salsa.

The king crab achappam was very greasy, but certainly crispy and tasty.

The consommé made with crab shell was very good, with very clean flavors.

All in one gimbap (모듬 김밥) - I was dumb. When I saw "everything" I imagined one of those monster rolls like a giant futomaki (太巻き) where all the ingredients are stuffed inside, and that would make for one of those silly clickbait KOL pics. Alas, all the ingrediens were served separately on a plate, which included scallops topped with kombu (昆布) jelly and kimchi, and one is meant to construct one's own...

...with the long roll of rice wrapped in seaweed. The sauce was made with shrimp powder and kombu.

With caviar.

With sweet shrimp.

With (fatty) tuna (belly).

With Korean beef yukhoe with pear.

With sea urchin topped with black sea salt.

Jogae juk (왕우럭 조개죽) - the rice was cooked with a soup made with shepherd's purse or naengi (냉이) and doenjang (된장). The topping included two types of clams - surf clams and Japanese horse clam (왕우럭 or 海松貝) - then some dried naengi powder. The surf clam, in particular, had a texture that was soft yet crunchy. The strips of kimchi in the porridge added a nice dose of acidity.

Ok dom (옥돔) - the texture of the tilefish was very nice, succulent yet retaining a springy texture. A little smoky, which was just right. Underneath we had yam, pumpkin, and sujebi (수제비), which was new to me and pretty nice.

For main course we had a choice of lamb or Hanwoo. When I came to the restaurant 7 years ago, I was aghast at how they overcooked the beef and wasted such a nice ingredient, so I opted for lamb tonight. From looking at my friends' overcooked beef, this was definitely the right decision...

Lamb - the lamb came like a roulade and was slow-cooked with butter and rosemary. As is obvious, the lamb was pretty fatty - and therefore very tasty. Underneath we had some nokdoo kimchi (녹두김치), made with mung beans and, I believe, some diced leeks.

Apple sorbet - WHY?! Why did they have to ruin a perfectly good apple sorbet with rosemary granita? No, the little balls of coconut gel couldn't save the day.

We had a choice of two desserts, but since I already had the little phallic statues on my first visit, I decided to have the other option today.

Carrot - yes, one had to "pull" the carrots out of the "soil"...

Carrot cake with cream cheese mousse. Served with a quenelle of black tea ice cream.

Kkae cone - sesame ice cream and dark chocolate, with vanilla cream on top.

Chocopie - the chef's own take on the popular Korean dessert. With Jeju Island barley powder, marshmallow, and Valrhona chocolate.

Chef Jungsik very kind offered the wine pairing for us.

Le Brun de Neuville Double Autolyse, dégorgée en Février 2021 - good complexity here.

Guccione 1920 - a blend of 2019 and 2020. Nose was pretty fragrant with notes of apricot and peach, as well as honey. Very ripe on the nose and kinda ripe on the palate, too.

2019 Els Jelipins Vi de Taula Rosat - a little sulfuric on the nose. Savory, toasty, and definitely bongwater.

2019 Serene Chardonnay Evenstad Reserve - this was really oaky and buttery, with vanilla and flinty notes.

2016 Luis Cañas Gran Reserva - nose came with lots of vanilla and coconut butter, really sweet fruit.

I was really happy to come back here, especially since it was the first time for Kutsuyama and also my kohai. Many thanks to Chef Jungsik for the VIP treatment.

I haven't seen my friend Jay Essu for a while. In fact, the last time I was with her 10 years ago we had hit Dominique Ansel Bakery together and waited in line for cronuts. My time in NYC back in 2019 was too short during a hectic business trip so I never bothered to arrange something, and then came the pandemic years... Anyway, now that she's moved back to Seoul, I took the opportunity to catch up with her.

I had asked her to pick a restaurant that she wanted to show me, so that's how we ended up in the basement at Wooga (牛家), a restaurant that specializes in aging Hanwoo beef. The menu at lunch is pretty simple, and we ended up choosing the simple sets.

First came the banchan (반찬), with a big bowl of salad plus tofu and, of course, kimchi.

Aged beef tartare bibimbap (숙성육회비빔밥) - this is a signature dish of the restaurant, where the aged beef comes in a big ball.

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The raw beef is then torched on the outside to brown it. Then one drops it into the bowl with vegetables, add the rice, and mix it all up.

I gotta say that torching just the outside of the ball did give a slight bit of charring for some smoky flavors, while most of the meat remained raw and hence, the classic flavor profile of the bibimbap (비빔밥) was still retained.

The accompanying radish soup came with slices of beef inside.

Aged sirloin bulgogi (숙성 등심 불고기) - we would, of course, also have some bulgogi (불고기) while we are here. Seoul-style bulgogi means it comes with vegetables - in this case mushrooms - and also sweet potato noodles.

The marinated beef is then cooked on top of a copper dome, with mushrooms and noodles simmering in broth in the trough around the outside.

It's nice to enjoy the beef with some warm broth.

We also had some ciabatta on the side, with some cheese, tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar.

Some of the cooked beef is then put on the bread to make a bulgogi ciabatta sandwich (불고기 치아바타 샌드위치). An unexpected way to enjoy bulgogi, but nice.

We finished our meal with some yoghurt sorbet, which was very refreshing.

I need to go shopping for L, and thankfully it was just within a short walking distance. After getting the goodies at Tamburins, Jay Essu took me to the basement of the same building for some coffee at Nudake, which has become one of the go-to spots for influencers and wannabes to create their posts on social media.

As we had just finished lunch, I decided against ordering one of their very artistic-looking cakes. This was probably a mistake in retrospect, as I remember Jay Essu mentioning that on previous visits, all the cakes she wanted to try were sold out. That wasn't the case today...

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Instead, I got myself a creamy black latte. The plastic cup is coated with a thin layer of white chocolate. Squeezing the cup multiple times breaks the chocolate, revealing the mix of black sesame, black beans, and honey inside peeking through the pattern created by the squeezing. It's an interesting concept for sure.

I strolled around Apgujeong-ro and revisit Galleria, strolling through their gourmet food hall which, 7 years later, seemed a little less upscale than I remembered. I also walked through the men's designer sections looking for something in vain. Eventually I went back to my hotel, dropping off the goodies and waited for dinner.

When I was planning my itinerary in Seoul, one of the restaurants whose name kept coming up was Kwonsooksoo (권숙수). I'm definitely focusing on Korean cuisine while I'm in town, and this seemed to be a place that quite a few friends have enjoyed dining at. So I roped in Haokofu to be my partner in crime and got ourselves a table out in the main dining hall.

Since we were here for the first time, we decided to take the Chef Tasting Menu, since it only has 2 extra courses in terms of volume.

The table setting was not something we were used to or had expected - having an wooden, elevated platform on which our dishes are placed.

Welcome drink with small appetizer (우리 술과 작은 안주를 곁들인 주안상) - from reading the menu, I thought we'd get the famous kimchi cart wheeled in front of us as a start, but I suppose it does make more sense to have our welcome drink first...

This was introduced as "galbi (갈비)" - Hanwoo marinated in soy sauce - but texture-wise tasted more like some kind of headcheese, with crunchy bits like beef tondon inside.

Fried sunchoke - wrapped in tofu skin, with a mushy filling in the center alongside the sunchoke. Topped with what seemed like pickled radish to me.

Parboiled octopus - this was very chewy, with sesame oil and soy sauce.

Whelk with gochujang. The sauce wasn't too spicy but had acidity.

Chestnut soup

Sweet pumpkin pancake - this was very mushy and very sweet. I thought I heard it introduced as being made with "shrimp" but the bits inside tasted more like squid to me...

Dried mullet roe (어란) with pine nuts

Our welcome drink was made with potato and rice.

Pine nut, snow crab porridge (대게 잣죽) - a porridge made with glutinous rice and pine nut, topped with a quenelle of snow crab meat with chamnamul (참나물) mixed in. We also had some Japanese angelica (두릅) shoots. This was pretty nice in terms of both textures and flavors, and not too heavy.

Finally, the kimchi cart (김치 카트) was rolled in front of us, with a selection of 6 different kimchi. We were told that we could select two types per person, which I thought was pretty stingy... So Haokofu and I each picked two. Some of these I definitely have never seen elsewhere before...

Cutlassfish kimchi (갈치김치) - while I have seen how kimchi is made and know that they use anchovies and the like, this was the first time I had it with big chunks of fish inside. This had been fermented for 2 months.

Pheasant kimchi (꿩김치) - likewise, I'd never had kimchi with chunks of meat, nevermind pheasant.

Seafood bossam kimchi (해물보쌈김치) - with mushrooms, shrimp, octopus...

Boiled meat slices - we were also given some Hanwoo brisket to accompany the kimchi.

There was a slight miscommunication with the staff at the beginning. We had expected them to ask whether we would opt for wine pairing, but this issue was never raised... and we didn't push the issue as we had a welcome drink at the beginning. By now we realize that we should have proactively asked for it, and I chose the Korean wine option. Now we would play catch-up...

Midam Seoktanju (미담 석탄주) - some acidity and fruity flavors, with a slight hint of nuttiness and bitterness. Would have been a good match with the pine nut porridge.

BeWater Brew Inner Peace Calm - sweet on the palate, as expected, but very nice with much more character than your usual makgeolli. I can see how this would match well with kimchi.

We were shown a box of chanterelles, which are used in the next dish.

Chanterelle, Korean raw beef, chestnut (오이꽃버섯 육회) - the yukhoe (육회) was mixed with coriander leaves and served with wild chanterelles known as oikottbeoseot (오이꽃버섯), literally "cucumber flower mushroom" as they resemble the yellow flowers of the cucumber. On top we had really fine chiffonade of raw chestnuts, which were not too sweet but had a crunchy and powdery texture. The marinated sancho (산초) pepper brought some anise flavors to the mix. I have to say that this dish was really, really good!

Red-banded lobster, duruep (fatsia sprout), Korean beef (딱새우 두릅적) - inside the pan-fried omelet we find some beef, red banded lobster (딱새우), and some Japanese angelica. We also have some Japanese angelica shoots on top, along with some pine nut powder. Very nice.

Ellyeop Pyunjoo Cheongju (一葉平舟 / 일엽편주 청주) - definitely more layered when it comes to flavors, and fruity.

Steamed geumtaefish, Korean beef, wild mushroom (금태찜) - the rosy seabass (눈볼대) was steamed and came atop a mix of wild mushrooms, beef, and (water parsley?) Interestingly, the sauce tasted somewhat similar to Chinese preserved mustard greens (梅菜).

Horang Horang (호랑호랑) - OK lah... A bit more savory on the palate, still got some fruity notes. It was a bit more viscous on the palate, and I could definitely feel the alcohol.

Truffle, cold bean soup, green bean, noodle (트러플 콩국수) - the traditional kongguksu (콩국수) gets upgraded here with some shavings of black truffle on top. To really up the mushroom flavor profile, we also had morels in the thick velouté-like soybean broth along with green beans. This was cold and refreshing, and very enjoyable.

Seokroju (석로주) - this was very interesting as it was fermented with mushrooms, and I could certainly taste a little mushroom flavor in the liquor. Paired well with the black truffle in the noodles.

There was a choice of main course, with both options being beef. I decided to forgo the Hanwoo 1++ striploin for the Korean "hamburg steak"...

Korean beef tteokgalbi (한우 떡갈비) - served with three different garnishes, the first of which was some type of mushroom...

I've always loved hamburg steaks, and this one made with Hanwoo was definitely very tasty. Good texture, too.

Kooksoondang Sashitonggeumju (국순당 사시통음주) - high acidity, high alcohol.

Goat’s beard pot rice (눈개승마 솥밥) - the rice was cooked with anchovy stock and served topped with goat's beard (눈개승마).

The rice was served with banchan (반찬), which included Chinese chives kimchi, japchae (잡채) with burdock, anchovies and almonds marinated with gochujang, yuzu deodeok (더덕), and stir-fried beef. The soup came with mugwort (쑥). Oh yes, the rice was definitely tasty with the fragrance of goat's beard.

Isibo Makgeolli (이시보 막걸리) - light-bodied with lower sweetness and lower acidity.

Yuzu rosemary sherbet, persimmon leaf tea, apple chip (화양연화) - the name of the dish is actually 花樣年華 in Korean, which was apt as it is presented as a flower, with the petals made with apple and some type of Korean flower whose name I didn't understand. Very refreshing, naturally.

Then came the petit fours trolley (다과 카트), and without prompting, we were served one of each...

Doughnut

Beef jelly

Green tea and pumpkin seed dasik (다식)

Maejakgwa (매작과)

Mini black sesame macaron

Strawberry tart

Biscuit with mugwort and lavender cream

White chocolate with rice

Red ginseng caramel

This meal definitely did not disappoint. For those of us with little to no baseline knowledge of traditional Korean cuisine that isn't flooded with spicy gochujang, each meal at establishments like this allows me to very slowly build up my database of Korean ingredients and flavor combinations. Many thanks to Chef Kwon Woo-joong (권우중) for showing us the seasonal ingredients. And yes, the Korean liquor pairing was pretty good.

I decided to sleep in this morning. Haokofu and I decided to take a long walk after dinner last night along Apgujeong-ro before returning to our hotels, and that was a lot of walking. So... I was still in bed when the Great One went for her breakfast soup with Vicky Cheng. I did get around to having a quick coffee with her at Coffee Jinsim Bakery (커피진심베이커리). As we were about to have a huge lunch, I decided not to get one of their cute-looking salt breads and just had myself a hazelnut cafe latte. I expected this to just have a shot of hazelnut liqueur inside, but was pleasantly surprised by the presence of crushed hazelnuts and pine nuts.

A bunch of us piled into a taxi and made our way north to Onjium (온지음). We are joining one of the events of the 50 Best Signature Series, which sees Onjium host the Chairman (大班樓) from Hong Kong and Seroja from Singapore for a "6 hands" collaboration.

Now, the reason why I came up 2 days ago was to visit restaurants before the "50 Best crowd" get into town, and try out the restaurants' own cuisine instead of all these "collaborations". So many of these 4-/6-/8-hands events are simply different chefs alternative dishes from their repertoire, and they don't feel like real collaborations. I had told PR8 point blank that I wasn't interested in any collaboration meals from his clients, and most of all, I didn't want to run into some of the people who somehow always show up at these sort of events.

But... this is different. Any of the Chairman's collaborative events is worth attending, because Danny and the team insist on it being true collaborations - where many dishes actually combine elements from all participating parties. This requires actual thought and effort in planning ahead, and indeed, the teams for today actually got together multiple times to work on the menu. So... I'm always willing to make an exception for the Chairman's events.

Today's seating plan saw the same foursome that had sat through this dinner last October placed at the same table. I saw a few familiar faces around the dining space, but it was all good.

Amuse-bouche - we began with this platter featuring nibbles from all three restaurants.

Tangerine rice cake, by Onjium - kinda chewy and a little dry.

Fish roll with spring vegetables, by Onjium - why, YES! That IS a thin layer of fish on the outside of the roll! With all the multi-colored julienned vegetables inside, the flavors were very well-balanced.

Crispy fish floss with raita and mint, by Seroja - the floss was made with mackerel. A thin layer of mint jelly on top, and really nice cumin flavors from the raita. The flavors were very much Indian, and very good.

Tartlette of fatty tuna with ginger kerabu and oscietre caviar, by Seroja - not sure what the marinade was but there was definitely some soy sauce, and the marinade tasted awfully Japanese to me... Good fruity acidity from the kerabu, and much to my surprise, the caviar worked well with everything. BUT OF COURSE this had to be the best bite because of the GOLD on top!

Black chicken skin with Sichuan pepper, by The Chairman - covered in a sweet and sticky glaze. Pretty nice.

Dried abalone, by The Chairman - the abalone was dried by Chef Park Sungbae (박성배) and cooked in a soy sauce and abalone broth to maximize the flavors. This was definitely a little heavier than usual, and the flavors of the abalone definitely came out more intense.

Krug Grande Cuvée, 171ème Édition, ID 322035 - crisp acidity on the palate, with lots of lemon and a small dose of brioche on the nose.

Tropical herb noodle - buckwheat noodles with a sauce of tropical herbs and vegetables, including betel leaves.

This was really nice, with lots of green flavors which left a wonderful fragrance in the mouth. We also had diced winged beans and abalone, the latter of which was so tender I initially thought it was oyster mushroom! What a fantastically refreshing dish!

This was meant to be some tom yum drink traditionally paired with the noodles at Seroja, with a tomato base, and cucumber, coriander, lemongrass, green chili, and root vegetables. Definitely smelled something green there, but not quite like green capsicum.

Yusheng with pine nut sauce - so this is a Singaporean-style yusheng (魚生) typically eaten for lunar new year, but this features 6-year-old lily bulbs from China (The Chairman's contribution), asparagus and cucumber from Korea (Onjium's contribution), along with jicama and celtuce from Singapore (Seroja's contribution). The vegetable mélange was really refreshing, and the Korean pine nut velouté was lovely.

The sea cucumber was stuffed with a mince of clams and shrimp, and this was nice and savory.

2019 Alheit Cartology Bushvines - ripe on the nose, very aromatic. This was ripe on the palate, too, but still got the acidity and slightly grippy on the palate.

Hwe (회) - Danny confessed that they have never served raw fish in the entire history of the Chairman...

Sea perch - the fish was marinated with the vinegar that has been pickling the Chairman's young ginger for 1 year, and stuffed with said pickled ginger, then topped with rue.

Striped jack (縞鯵) with smoked caviar - with some Sichuan peppercorn oil for that wonderful fragrance. The fish was smoked with camphor wood.

Sweet shrimp - with gochujang (고추장) so it was pretty spicy, but OK for me.

Anchovies - I love anchovy fry.

Burdock

Rockfish - served with jellyfish, tossed with juice from oyster fermentation, with sarai (สาหร่าย) gelée and finely-diced lemon zest. Very nice.

2022 Moulin de Rameau Chardonneret - toasty nose with good acidity. Bongwater.

A kimchi palate-cleanser...

Hanwoo BBQ - the eel was fermented by the Chairman with stinky tofu starter, while the Hanwoo was barbecued with perchik from Seroja. Onjium provided the namul (나물).

It was suggested that we stack the beef and the eel together "like a Rossini", so I did... and took it down in one bite, as I always do. I do love the combination of the flavors, because each element had its own complexity, and having them mashed up together in the mouth made it even more interesting.

Onjium's homemade soju - this was really strong and burns in the mouth when drank after the beef.

Crispy and chrunchy - an interesting-looking trio.

Taro cake (芋頭糕), by The Chairman - with X.O sauce on top.

Japanese angelica shoots, by Onjium - interesting that the タラの芽 was coated in glutinous rice powder and fried, then served with pickled radish.

Squid roll, by Seroja - the squid was stuffed with julienned carrots and zucchini wrapped in laver, then coated in a layer of kadaif which provided a crunchy contrast to the bouncy squid. Oh, the curry spice here was nice.

1993 Fleury Symphonie d'Europe, dégorgée Janvier 2020, en jeroboam - very nice, a little caramelized but still fresh and lively with plenty of bubbles. Got the acidity as well as a grippy texture on the palate.

Daegae - since we are not in Hong Kong, we do not get the Chairman's signature dish with flower crab. We do have a damn big snow crab (대게), and I could see that the kitchen has taken time to remove all the kanibiru (カニビル) eggs from the shell... leaving some marks.

The sauce was made with tomalley and whisked "like a sabayon". They've also taken the trouble to take the meat out of the shell for us.

Seroja's signature roti paung.

Of course we are supposed to not only wipe up the sauce, but also eat the roti with the crab meat and tomalley. So, sooo good.

The next juice was probably made with radish or turnip, with some savory profiles. Funnily, though, it also was a little like sugar cane juice.

More palate-cleansing kimchi.

Jeju black pork - I'm so happy that I get a chance to eat the famous black pig from Jeju Island, and in very interesting ways!

Jowl - marinated in soy sauce and tasted like Cantonese preserved mustard greens (梅菜) and also had distinctive flavors of aged tangerine peel (陳皮).

Tail - served with Malaysian chili and spices. Really good.

Intestine - deep-fried and stuffed with salted egg yolk and a little ginseng. So, soooo good!

Hock terrine - any pork terrine is good for me. I just wish they didn't slice is so thinly...

Satay - made with pork shoulder, and garnished with pineapple, shallot, and cucumber. This was so fatty and satisfying.

2020 Harmand-Geoffroy Gevrey-Chambertin - nose of blueberries and black fruits. Later on we've got some strawberries and also forest notes.

Bibimbap - the signature bibimbap (비빔밥) of Onjium features 8 kinds of vegetables, which include bamboo shoots, zucchini, daylily shoots (원추리), two types of spinach, godeul-ppaegi (고들빼기)... etc.

Chayote slices

Doenjang guk (된장국) - with shepherd's purse (냉이).

Granita with sorbet - for a refreshing finish to our meal we have Korean strawberry (millefeuille) jelly, a really delicious Korean tangerine sorbet, and a bandung granita.

Tea and sweets

Pineapple bun - these had adzuki means inside and, to be honest, were a little dry.

Kueh bahulu - I love anything made with brown sugar.

Black sesame cookies

This was sooooooo much food! Very tasty and certainly interesting and educational for me, but by the time we finished lunch at 4pm, I was so glad that I didn't commit to any dinner engagements tonight. Two of my table-mates, meanwhile, were off to another collaboraiton which starts at 5pm - giving them exactly one hour before they start eating again.

My 16th Earth Hour finds me in Seoul, as I had come up a couple of days earlier before the festivities that will take place next week. After a very long lunch today I had retired to my hotel room, and when the time came I decided to walk around the big block that is COEX and see if anyone around here cared about Earth Hour.

COEX has a ton of large, bright LED screens that blast out advertising 24-7, and there's one just across from my hotel room. Like all the others on both sides around the block, the screens never darkened.

I had to walk halfway around the big block before realizing that the InterContinental Seoul COEX had turned off their signage at the top of the building.

Needless to say, Seven Luck Casino was as bright as ever. Not one single bulb was dimmed.

Continuing the circle around the block, the Grand InterContinental Parnas seems to have turned off their signage, along with the Parnas tower next door.

The Canon did turn off the neon sign at the top, which they later turned on.

Around 9:30 p.m. the few lights that had been dimmed began to turn back on. At least someone cares around here.

I was finally getting around to feeling a little bit hungry, so I took the subway to Gwangjang Market (광장시장) for some street eats. It was past 10 p.m. when I arrived and many stalls had closed, but I still found a couple of places to grab something I really wanted.

I actually only just wanted soondae (순대), as they are pretty damn huge in terms of size, but of course the ajumma wanted to make more money so they gave me the combo with pig's head (돼지머리고기). Along with a plate of kimchi and a bowl of soup.

I really do have this Korean blood and vermicelli sausage, even if the ones sold at these markets aren't that good.

Buchujeon (부추전) - this chive pancake from another stall was just not good. Very little batter, almost no seasoning, and really needed the dipping sauce. And the chives were old and fibrous.

Glutinous rice twist (찹쌀꽈배기) - I saw a line in front of this apparently famous shop Gwangjang Market Glutinous Rice Twists (광장시장 찹쌀꽈배기) before I sat down for the unsatisfying pancake, and as I was getting out of the market to go home, I noticed they were cleaning up but still had a few of these lying around. So I got myself one. Pretty nice, and actually the tastiest bite I had tonight. Deep-fried dough with a coating of sugar? Hell yeah!

I'm spending the whole day with the Man in White T-shirt.

He wanted to grab a coffee before we headed off to lunch together. After cleaning up, I headed his way via the subway. This was when I encountered serious problems for the first time in 3 days - both in terms of inter-line transfer as well as the train not reaching my desired destination. After switching to taxi, I managed to arrive at Nudake for the second time in 3 days... albeit much later than I had wanted to be.

Since I was incredibly late and we were running out of time, I just got myself an iced long black and kinda gulped it down.

Lunch today was at Born and Bred in Majang-dong (마장동). Almost 7 years after I first experienced the magic of the best Hanwoo around, I finally had the opportunity to come back. Except I'm not dining at the original "speakeasy" upstairs from the butcher shop. This is the newer, multi-story restaurant that owner Jung Sang-won (정상원) originally described as inspired by the movie Kingsmen before the restaurant opened.

Once everyone had arrived, we moved to the private counter in the basement. I had missed a group outing here in late 2019 not long after the place first opened, but at the time I was already so busy flying around the world for work that coming in just for a weekend - in the middle of an already hectic schedule - just didn't make much sense. What followed was 3 years of effective border closures for Hong Kong, and here we are.

Chef Min Kyung Kwan was taking care of us today while his kitchen team works on their upcoming collaboration with Dave Pynt of Burnt Ends. He wants to showcase the best they have to offer, but is well-aware that everyone here has been - and will continue to - eating nonstop. He has chosen to serve us smaller portions of each item, so that we wouldn't feel like throwing up by the end of our meal from being stuffed...

One of our dining companions very generously brought a bottle of Krug to share with the Man in White T-shirt. The rest of us became beneficiaries of this generosity by default...

2000 Krug, ID 313058

Galbitang (갈비탕) - the morel was stuffed with different types of mushrooms, and we also had finger meat. Gotta say that stuffing was really tasty, as was, of course, the soup itself.

Yukhoe (육회) - made with chuck tender, and mixed with oi gochu (오이고추) peppers. This was really nice, with a little fermented sauce that wasn't quite spicy but very flavorful, and worked well with the caviar and the umami.

Bone and Brew - brewed with bone marrow and koji. I could definitely taste the flavors from fermentation. There's good acidity here, and also a little grippy on the palate. The nose was showing some bone marrow notes with that fatty richness.

We were next presented with a platter bearing big chunks of beef ham, along with Korean strawberries.

Beef ham with Korean strawberries - the ham was served in thin slices along with some vanilla oil. The strawberries provided some refreshing acidity along with fruity sweetness to go with the ham.

Chateaubriand - this was what we started with on my first visit.

This was cooked medium rare, and served with black truffle, although the truffle was fresh today and not marinated like last time. Good flavors in this beef, as one would expect.

Striploin - this comes from a young cow between 28 and 30 months old, and undergoes 2 weeks of wet aging.

Served with pickled mustard seeds, like last time. This was really marbled and fatty.

Pickled napa cabbage - we need our veg, of course.

Sea pineapple - meongge (멍게) is something I have never tried before.

This was served with three different types of seaweed, along with puffed rice, lemon juice, and doenjang (된장). The acidity of the lemon juice helped to balance the iodine, and the toasty flavors of the puffed rice were really nice.

Skirt - only the middle part under the striploin was used, and it is the muscle used by the animal to regurgitate.

Served with "mountain burdock" pickled with soy sauce and gochujang. There's still marbling here, obviously, but the texture was pretty springy and this was more flavorful.

Top blade

Tenderloin chain - this was first cooked on the edges of the grill so that it gets the lower temperature treatment.

This was very, very, very chewy with sinews.

Kumquat - cooked with Champagne vinegar.

The kumquat came stuffed with gelée made from the kumquat's juice and infused with perilla. Then it was sprayed with a perilla syrup. The skin was very soft, and this was really refreshing.

Flat iron steak - this alternated between cooking on the grill and then being cooled on the crushed ice, as the process was repeated several times.

The beef was marinated not in soy sauce, but in Suwon (수원)-style marinade using pear and leeks.

This was so, sooo tasty. Unbelievable.

Outside skirt

This was really tender, with lots of flavors here.

Celtuce stem - dried gungchae (궁채) was rehydrated.

Tri-tip tataki - served with truffle ponzu (ポン酢) made with truffle juice. The acidity from the ponzu balanced out the fat.

Next came something wrapped in paper, which was unpacked to reveal a "chain" of alternating chunks of "finger meat" from the ribs and cod. Chef Min mentioned that this is similar to the en papillote technique to keep the moisture in.

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After spreading some soy bean paste on top, which kinda reminded me of Japanese chefs with saikyo miso (西京味噌) on cod, Chef Min took a torch to finish cooking the dish.

Saseul jeok (사슬적) - the dish is described as a "chain" due to the interconnection between life in the sea and life on land, with the alternating pattern resembling a chain. This was definitely a very interesting dish that I've never had before in Korean cuisine.

Jeolliptu (전립투) - next came the Korean hotpot that's cooked in a pot shaped like an ancient soldier's steel helmet.

Plate - cooked on the rim of the pot. This was nice with the kick from freshly-grated wasabi from Shizuoka (静岡) as well as the pickled wasabi leaves.

Ribeye - this was cooked in the broth along with the vegetables. Normally the jus from beef cooking on the rim would drip into the broth to add flavors.

Today, though, the broth was made with beef brisket along with with mushrooms stock and was so, so nice.

Ribeye bulgogi (불고기) - this was, of course, done Seoul-style over a copper dome with mushrooms in broth.

We are reaching the end of our meal, and this is where the rice and banchan (반찬) come out. These include: bone marrow broth, raw scallops marinated with soy sauce, herring paste, shrimp paste, and ssamjang (쌈장).

The bulgogi comes from Jeonju (전주)- style rice which has been cooked in a bone marrow broth.

Of course, I had some bulgogi wrapped in greens as ssam (쌈).

We also had pickled sea pineapple.

Gejang (게장) - I normally don't touch this stuff, but I just had a tiny bit with rice.

Galbi (갈비) - they wouldn't dream of letting us leave without having some galbi.

Of course, this had to be taken as a ssam.

Cheeseburger - Chef Min asked whether we had room for their cheeseburger, knowing that he's already given us plenty of food. But of course we wanted to try it!

We each took just a quarter of the burger, but needless to say it was really, really good - especially the well-charred bits around the edges... and those onions.

Phở bò - the finale here is always a bowl of beef phở, but the difference today is that we got just a small bowl - enough for a proper taste, but not too big that it would kill us.

This was made as a "hangover soup" with brisket, oxtail, and shank. Very happy.

Lychee bingsu - with lychee, lychee sorbet, and granita.

I can't believe we ate all that beef and then some! Truth be told, the portions were better-sized than on my first visit, and we got to try a few more interesting dishes. We all left very, very happy, and I really would have liked to have bought some of their beef to take home to Foursheets. Alas, I have a detour to make after Seoul, so carrying Hanwoo around just isn't possible...

Very, very grateful to Sang for the treat, and thankful for Chef Min and team for taking good care of us.

After our very big lunch, the Man in White T-shirt decided to accompany me on my hunt for cute clothing for our CCDogcow. I had seen a few recommendations for Café Bite Me, and their online shop had a lot of cool stuff, but unfortunately the physical location was mostly a pet cafe with some pet supplies. Most of the nice clothing had to be purchased online. That was disappointing.

My day got a little worse when I returned to my room at Shilla Stay Samsung to discover that the temperature was 30°C inside. Apparently the hotel does not turn on the cooling function in winter, so instead of lowering the thermostat to a more reasonable temperature, my only choice was to keep the heating on or turn it off... WTF.

Well, this made me somewhat look forward to getting out of my room for dinner, some 3 hours after the end of my big lunch. I thought there was an event I didn't know about at Vinho (빈호), a wine bar which had recently gotten themselves a little macaron. As it turns out, the Man in White T-shirt wanted to check out the place and simply asked me to join him.

With a name like Vinho, I thought there was some Portuguese connection to this wine bar. The reality is that co-proprietors Jeon Seong-bin and Kim Jin-ho wanted to name the place after themselves, so "Bin" and "Ho" together made for vinho. I guess that works, too...

The setup here - with a long, C-shaped counter around the open kitchen - reminded us a little of the old Florilège... which was where Jin-ho spent some time. There's a 2-hour period at the start of the evening where a tasting menu is served, but then it becomes a casual, bar-like service where ordering is à la carte. As the two of us arrived somewhat early, we would be trying out the whole tasting menu.

Clam - the clam came with mini cucumbers, oriental melon (참외), and pickled miyeok (미역) - the latter of which provided both umami and acidity. The creamy sauce was made with peanuts and had a slightly grainy texture, and this was meant to evoke the classic dish of kongguksu (콩국수).

2022 Txomin Etxaniz Getariako Txakolina - very floral nose, flinty and mineral. Lots of tropical stone fruit like a good lolly water. Still got the acidity on the palate, though.

Yukhoe - on top of the charcoal éclair was a layer of yukhoe (육회) with gochujang, shallots and vinegar. Finished with a tri-color gel of parsley, paprika, and egg yolk.

André Beaufort Polisy Réserve, dégorgée en Mai 2023 - a bit toasty on the nose, more lean with some metallic notes, and perhaps a bit of sulfur? Acidity was on the higher side with a long finish. Later on with aeration this started to show more caramel on the nose.

Chicken - we were meant to dip the fried chicken bits into the charcoal aïoli. Not surprisingly the chicken was pretty tender, with some sort of green flavors in the seasoning which, thankfully, wasn't too heavy.

Oyster - we've got a little oyster ice cream together with oscietra caviar and seaweed oil. When put together, there was a good balance between the savory and creamy flavors. Then that little bit of shaved lime zest on top just added a little something nice to elevate it.

2021 Stadt Krems Ried Wachtberg Grüner Veltliner - refreshing, a little ripe on the nose. The palate was slightly grippy and clears the fishy flavors of the caviar, and the acidity made its presence felt.

Pumpkin - we've got a pumpkin crêpe folded over, with a whey sauce on the side.

Besides the hunk of pumpkin wrapped inside - with that characteristic hard skin - we also had shredded celeriac which reminded me of shredded coconut, along with a sauce made of suljigemi (술지게미) - sake lees.

Paul Prieur Sancerre Rosé Perpétuel - lots of juicy red fruits like cranberries. Acidity was high but at the same time, this could get grippy on the palate.

Quail - we have quail but made in the style of samgyetang (삼계탕), with the ginseng broth.

The shallot was stuffed with minced quail breast and basil, while the morel was marinated in soy sauce and stuffed with glutinous rice.

2020 Trimbach Riesling Vieilles Vignes - lots of petrol and polyurethane, or "white truffle". A bit more sharp with acetone, with a surprising resemblance to insecticide... I could see how the riesling paired well with the ginseng.

Abalone - so we have a "deep-fried dumpling" made with tofu skin, served with a sauce made of abalone instestines (or was it liver?) and a little dab of mustard on the side.

Served with some chamnamul (참나물).

Cutting open the deep-fried tofu skin revealed a combination of abalone and minced Korean beef, along with some bracken / gosari (고사리). This was, quite frankly, fantastic and the best dish tonight. The combination of the very tender abalone and the beef was really interesting, and even though the sauce was on the heavy side, I really loved it! In fact, I was suddenly reminded of the Peranakan dish of ngoh hiang (五香) - as both involve wrapping fillings in tofu skin before deep-frying. I really could have used another serving of this!

Rodenbach Alexander - obviously very fruity with cherries. Good acidity and not bitter. Paired very well with the abalone/beef combo.

Seasonal fish - the (red) tilefish from Jeju Island was cooked in the typical way by pouring hot oil on the skin side to that the scales rise up. Topped with some dongchimi (동치미) and micro-parsley. Served with a sauce made of rice porridge and dongchimi. The "tapenade" on the side was made with fermented chili and radish leaves.

2021 Histoire d'Enfer Petite Arvine Réserve - a little bit of toast on the nose, some buckwheat, almost a little savory. Very dry and grippy on the palate, with a long and sharp finish.

Deodeok sikhye (더덕식혜) - our palate cleanser before the main course.

Duck - the duck was brined for 2 hours before being dried for 2 weeks. It's cooked to about 60% done by pouring hot oil on top.

The duck breast was then charcoal-grilled. Served with some pickled mustard greens (갓), duck jus, and black garlic purée. The meat was very tender and succulent, not quite overcooked but starting to feel a little powdery on the edges. Nevertheless, this was very tasty and satisfying, as the skin was nice and crispy, with a layer of springy and bouncy fat underneath.

2020 Ravaut Ladoix 1er Cru Le Bois Roussot - very fruity and jammy, like a cassis or blackberry jam. Very fragrant.

Kumquat - kumquat sherbet with kumquat infused with honey, celery, mint sauce. This was so refreshing and beautiful, with some really crunchy celery. Such an interesting dessert.

Root - onion ice cream with root vegetable sauce and dacquoise. Garnished with crunchy potato chips, with a sprinkle of burnt vanilla bean and lime powder. The foamy sauce was savory and tasted like sunchokes. The dacquoise tasted pretty burnt.

Candied kumquats with lemon gel inside. Nice to see some gold foil at last.

1995 da Silva Presidential Colheita - nutty, honey, medjool dates, and orange blossom water. So lovely.

Since we're in the middle of 50 Best season, it wasn't surprising to run into chefs who are in town for the event, including Kawate-san paying a visit to one of his former guys. The Man in White T-shirt went over to greet the chef mafia, and I was tasked to take a picture of the group from afar...

I thought this was a pretty good meal. The food certainly came out tasty, and there were a few dishes where the kitchen got me wanting more. The wine pairing was definitely interesting, without the typical bongwater bent I see from so many sommeliers. I was pretty happy that the Man in White T-shirt asked me to come along, and I know I made quite a few people jealous by coming here tonight.

But the real surprise tonight? The playlist. Most of the songs were from the 70s to early 90s, including a bunch of stuff I had totally forgotten about. I definitely did not have "listening to Skid Row's I'll Remember You while sitting in a wine bar in Seoul" on my bingo card tonight. And the last time I heard something from Hall and Oates was... yeah, more than 30 years ago!

I really messed up my itinerary today.

Besides all the eating I had planned for this trip, I really wanted to do some sightseeing around Seoul. Having explored a couple of palaces within city limits on my previous trips, I figured I should look for something outside but not too far away. Namhansanseong (남한산성) Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that's just outside the city, and it's only a short trip from my hotel in Gangnam. Since I hadn't booked anything for lunch today, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to go for a visit.

Well... while the park is open year-round, the palace within the grounds is closed on Mondays. So... I guess no sightseeing for me.

Instead, I met up with RAW Yeah for coffee this morning. He was incredibly kind to have picked up something from Foursheets in Hong Kong to pass to me, and we ended up hanging out for a little bit at Peer Coffee inside Starfield COEX Mall. As a lover of Ethiopian Yirgecheffe coffee, this pour-over from Haru Suke was right up my alley.

I didn't want to venture too far from the hotel for lunch, so I simply strolled over to Joongang Haejang (중앙해장). This is a place famous for their "hangover soup" and other goodies, and came recommended by not just Mikacina but also Jay Essu.

As soon as I've ordered, the staff brought over two small plates of kimchi. I guess there's no need for me to take my probiotics today...

Beef tripe bone and intestine soup (한우 내장탕) - I chose not to order the signature hangover soup, because this was more up my alley.

I've got different tripe and intestines from the cow, in a milky bone broth that I really love. As recommended on the menu, I dipped the goodies in a little bit of salt. So, soooo satisfying!

I retired to my overheated hotel room to rest up, but even with a fan now moving air in my room, the temperature was still too warm. So I decided to go shopping and walk around Starfield COEX Mall, going through almost the entire place. Of course, this took me to Starfield Library again... and this time I counted the number of people who were actually reading books.

I got a little hungry in the late afternoon, and needed a little something to sustain me till dinner, so I stopped by Samsong Bakery (삼송빵집) because I was attracted by their different offerings of baked croquettes. The picture of a corn-filled croquette really made me drool.

Vegetable baked croquette (야채 고로케) - in the end I chose this one with different diced vegetables. It was pretty decent, but maybe not as satisfying as the corn or meat-filled ones would have been.

Time to go back and freshen up for dinner...

This was one of my most-anticipated meals for the trip. I had heard pretty positive feedback about the cuisine at Eatanic Garden, although I hadn't done too much homework to know what to expect. I did hear from Mikacina that Chef Son Jong-won is very handsome, and she had wanted the opportunity to introduce him to Kutsuyama.

Well... I'm here with Kutsuyama tonight but Chef Son is nowhere to be found. Of course, I did make the mistake of booking the restaurant on the same evening as the Chefs' Feast being held for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, and this is the time when no chef from any decent restaurant in town would be in his or her kitchen. So... Kutsuyama would have to find another opportunity to meet the handsome chef.

As I'm not here with the love of my life, I did not book Kutsuyama and I into one of the window-facing loveseats with spectacular views of the city. As I was being taken to be seated at the large, U-shaped "Chef's Table", I was greeted by that annoying yet familiar voice belong to none other than PR8.

FUCK. I have to sit through an entire dinner in close proximity to HIM?!

So, yeah... half the counter is filled by people from Hong Kong, including Juve Fan and, of course, Giona. In fact, I don't think any of the diners at the Chef's Table was local - other than my date.

As each course is served, a card is placed in front of us, with a drawing on one side, along with a blurb on the ingredient drawn that comes from a staff member.

Our welcome drink was made with birch (presumbly the bark?) as well as some "spring flowers". The flavors were, not surprisingly, very, very, very light.

I'm not a fan of restaurant wine pricing in Seoul, and I had forgotten to bring a few bottles from home, so I chose something from the wine list that didn't cost an arm and a leg...

2020 Michel Redde Blanc Fumé de Pouilly Barre à Mine - this was an easy-drinking wine, soft on the palate. The nose was nice and fragrant, but not overpowering.

Bamboo shoots (죽순) - this was mieum (미음) made with rice, milk, and topped with thin slices of bamboo shoots. There was a light amount of charring on the bamboo shoots.

Jujeonburi (주전부리) - there is a series of 4 snacks, starting with a gaesung jooak (개성 주악) topped with a disc made of 18-month Comté and karasumi (唐墨), with a cute pattern showing the moon rabbit (달토끼). I'd love any kind of donut, especially one that comes with a topping of those two ingredients.

Crispy tart with japchae (잡채) - topped with strips of zucchini, carrot, and mushroom. Very nice and crunchy, and very tasty.

Crispy potato snack with yukhoe (육회) - some diced potatoes here in the crunchy tart, topped with spring greens. Flavors were pretty good.

Parae seaweed bugak (파래김 부각) - made into a origami crane and sat on top of a paste decorated with petals. The seaweed was crunchy while the paste was sweet and tasted of some peanuts.

Fatsia shoots (두릅) - a dish that came in two parts, the first being naengchae (냉채), where blanched and pickled fatsia / aralia shoots were julienned and served with cuttlefish and pear, along with cooked shrimp underneath and pine nut sauce on the side.

The fatsia shoots were deep-fried with shrimp paste, and meant to be paired with the makgeolli (막걸리).

Makgeolli - a tiny bit of fizz, not too sweet, with nice fruity acidity here.

Soy bean (콩) - the tofu was made with 'smoked soy water' and 'smoked bean sprouts', topped with a disc of egg white and caviar (and gold!)

We were then presented with some beluga (?) caviar...

This came on top of a snack called gangjeong (강정) which had very strong flavors from the dried shrimp, with savory flavors but sticky and candy-like at the same time thanks to some almonds. Loved this.

Tomato (토마토) - the roll was made with layers of cabbage kimchi fermented in corvina broth on the outside, stuffed with tomato, octopus, sea cucumber, and flounder. Thanks to the serving temperature, this was really nice and refreshing. Varying textures thanks to the different stuffing, and the tomato was really nice along with a little perilla. There was a little kick here to the fish, but not enough to be overpowering.

On the side we also had some geotjeori (겉절이) - fresh kimchi made without fermentation - with tomato and flounder.

Spring greens (봄나물) - with convict grouper / neungseong-eo (능성어) that has been grilled over charcoal, barley rice mixed with doenjang, and stuffed with 5 different types of spring greens including jicama.

We also had doenjang-guk (된장국) on the side, which was pretty thick and tasted pretty heavy.

Samgyetang (삼계탕) - it's not surprising that many Korean restaurants serve up their own version of this classic dish, as it's familiar to both locals as well as foreigners. The skin was thin and crispy, and the stuffing of glutinous rice, ginseng, garlic, ginkgo nuts, jujube, and chestnut were pretty nice. One could taste the ginseng but it wasn't overpowering and kicking your teeth in.

This "tea" was served in lieu of the usual soup of the samgyetang, made by boiling ginseng and chicken broth. Not sure how this is supposed to be different, then... I do have to say, though, that this was nice and thick.

Taro (토란) - make no mistake, this is a meat dish and not a vegetarian dish. We've got two different servings of Hanwoo.

Tteokgalbi (떡갈비) had really good flavors. This was really tasty.

This was a millefeuille of beef with abalone and bone marrow, and I gotta say I really loved this. It was a very creative dish, and I loved the spring texture of the abalone sandwiched between layers of beef.

On the side we had a small serving of geotjeori (겉절이) made with spring cabbage and taro.

I had chosen not to take the wine pairing with our dinner, but Super Somm was kind enough to pour us a glass of red to go with our beef. This is the newest offering from the team at Lafite-Rothschild, and only its second vintage.

2019 Anseillan - very ripe and sweet, with plenty of vanilla oak on the nose.

Yuchae (유채) - bibim-guksu (비빔국수) with yellow rapeseed flowers and rapeseed greens.

Taken by mixing everything together. This wasn't really spicy, though, like the standard bibim-guksu, but it had a good amount of acidity from the fermented juice.

Later on we were given some dongchimi (동치미) ice on top of the noodles. This made it even more refreshing and enjoyable.

Strawberry (딸기) - first we have yugwa (유과) with strawberry powder.

This was followed by sikhye (식혜), which is a drink I love very much. This, too, came with strawberries.

Mugwort (쑥) - mugwort is mixed with glutinous rice powder and yuja (유자) zest, then steamed to make ssukbeomuri (쑥버무리), a seasonal snack during springtime.

We also had mugwort ice cream along with a glutinous rice cake on top.

Mother-of-pearl box (자개함) - finally, the petits fours were presented in this lovely box.

Omijacha (오미자차) - with nice acidity, and a little grippy on the palate.

Ganache with wild sesame seeds - crunchy inside.

Chocolate bon bon with Haechang makgeolli

Pâté de fruit with apple and mustard leaf

Yakgwa (약과) - made with ginger but the flavors weren't very strong. Deep-frying made it a little greasy.

Bell flower root candy - made with doraji (도라지)

Dried persimmon with nuts and yuja skin

The handsome chef did come back to the restaurant after finishing his duties at the Chefs' Feast, and he ended up giving us a tour of the different outlets within the Josun Palace hotel. Kutsuyama even got to take pictures with him, which certainly put a smile on her face.

There was a party being hosted jointly by Chef Tam and Chef Ton at a bar, so all of us hopped into taxis that Chef Son ordered for us. When we arrived, though, the place was a total mad house. I think 80% of the 50 Best crowd was there, or trying to get in. The bar had at least 5 times the official allowed capacity in the house that the Man in White T-shirt joked that this was a fire marshall's nightmare. He wasn't wrong.

I greeted Chef Tam when he came out of the small kitchen with this oyster omelet. I took a bite and decided that this was not a place I wanted to stick around long... So a few of us escaped and went back to our hotels.

At an event a few days ago, Mikacina introduced me to the owner behind Geumdwaeji Sikdang (금돼지식당), the famous "Gold Pig". The place is apparently very famous, and came highly recommended by my friends including Kutsuyama, who has been there and could vouch for how tasty the food is. Well, OF COURSE Gastronaut and I were dying to go, so strings were pulled and we got ourselves seats for lunch today - without needing to line up outside the no-reservation restaurant. I was really looking forward to lunch today.

I was not too surprised this morning when I got a message from Gastronaut, informing me of a sudden engagement on his side. He won't be joining me for lunch, but others will take his place. I'll be lunching with his chef friends.

I saw a group of people lined up outside the restaurant entrance when I arrived, but the others were already upstairs on the top floor. At my table were Chef Edward Chong of Peach Blossoms (鴻桃軒) in Singapore along with family and team. As I was the last one to arrive and the boss had already set us up with a selection of goodies, Britney arrived shortly and began her introduction to the different pork we would be having.

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Nunkkot moksal (눈꽃목살) - the famous "snowflake pork neck" is up first.

We were instructed to take the first piece with some Maldon salt.

I dipped the second piece into the green onions marinated in soy sauce.

Galmaegisal (갈매기살) - we were instructed to wrap the "seagull" with basil and add a little ssamjang (쌈장). The flavors of the basil leaves were surprisingly strong. This was chewy, fatty, and also crunchy at the same time.

I took another piece of this beauty. So juicy!

Bonsamgyeop (본삼겹) - the famous bone-in pork belly.

The belly was separated from the bone to continue grilling...

This was sooo good! With a very springy texture.

I had to take a second piece, and just look at that tasty, charred fat!

So I then had a third piece...

Kimchi-jjigae (김치찌개) - OK la... Yes, it did come with pork.

Deung moksal (등목살) - this was the "back neck meat".

First piece taken with the green onions. Very tasty.

Just couldn't resist having a second piece.

Pork cheek (항정살) - just look at that marbling!

So, sooooo juicy.

I took a second piece and made it into a ssam with pickles.

We ordered up a second serving of Bonsamgyeop, because why the hell not?! We're here for the first time, and might as well enjoy as much as we can!

Just look at the beautiful layers of fat, now charred around the edges.

Yes, more! More! I would never say "no" to delicious fat.

OK, since some of the others seemed to have stopped, that meant more for me. This one wrapped into ssam.

The eringi mushrooms were pretty good.

The staff then stripped the meat off the bones, and made sure to grill them properly. As we all know, the meat right next to the bone packs the most flavor.

Another piece from the bone, this time with grilled leek.

Finally, we come to the dessert part of the meal - which actually comes from the pig, too. Yes... it's actually the pig skin (껍데기)!

This was slowly-grilled until it gradually becomes translucent and slightly charred.

The texture was definitely chewy and bouncy.

It's served with soybean powder like kinako (黄粉) along with a garlic sauce. When dipped into both, the sweetness of the powder dominates, and it really IS like dessert!

I was really, really happy that I got to come and try this place. So much delicious pork! Thankfully I didn't eat any rice with my meat, which meant I could take in more of the goodies. At the end of the meal, I discovered that Chef Edward had snuck off to pay the bill... Very grateful for the kind treat, chef! And many thanks to Mikacina for arranging everything.

I strolled around COEX Mall to walk off a few calories, and walked into Krispy Kreme because I was curious about their collaboration with Haribo. So I ended up trying this one... which was a real surprise because the gummies were actually pretty damn sour!

After a few years' absence, I'm back catching up with chef friends at the awards ceremony for Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Aqua Panna. This year Seoul plays host to the awards, bringing in chefs, restauranteurs, KOLs, groupies, and wannabes to the large metropolis. Most of us having been eating our way around town, but we've finally arrived at the main event.

Of course many people take pictures to commemorate the occasion, especially chefs. After a few years of trying, Hong Kong team finally got their act together to take a group picture. This year there are 6 restaurants in the top 50, plus another 6 in the back 50 - which is a slight improvement over last year.

I didn't join the group going for some offal stew before the ceremonies, so I was a little hungry. Fortunately there were a few booths serving nibbles - including one from Eatanic Garden. But since I was just there last night and had already tasted what's on offer, I chose to try out something else. Pot rice, steamed okdom, and seafood broth from Yunseoul (윤서울) helped to stave off hunger pangs for me - at least for a little while. The red tilefish has gone through some dry-aging, and I could certainly taste the complexity in the flavors.

The best part of being here is seeing my friends get the recognition they so richly deserved. I'm so happy for them.

Having just paid my first visit to Chef Tam's Seasons (譚卉), I was really happy to see Chef Tam re-join the list with his new restaurant, which also picked up the award for the Best Restaurant in Macau.

I was also happy to see Goh-san rejoin the list after opening Goh in its beautiful new location. One of my regrets is never having visited La Maison de la Nature Goh before its closure, but I did love my dinner at the new incarnation.

Caprice has moved up 17 spots this year, and naturally I was happy for Hairy LS and Victor.

Neighborhood moved back into the top 20 this year, so congratulations were in order to the Man in White T-shirt. He had the honor of Kutsuyama's company tonight.

WING jumped a whopping 32 places this year, getting into the top 5 and picking up the Highest Climber Award, sponsored by Korean Air. With Vicky's legions of fans out there, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

The Chairman moved up to No. 4 to take the award for the Best Restaurant in Hong Kong. Hong Kong now has 2 restaurants in the top 5. Danny Yip also managed to pick up the Icon Award.

I was so happy to see my friend Gaggan tonight, and Gaggan Anand moved up from last year to take the award for the Best Restaurant in Thailand.

When Sezanne was announced as the Best Restaurant in Asia, sponsored by S.Pellegrino and Aqua Panna, I was not the least bit surprised. Given the number of Daniel Calvert fans I know, I figured they wouldn't be satisfied with the restaurant only taking the No. 2 spot last year. This year, they succeeded in getting their friend to the top. Congratulations to Daniel!

I'll do the usual summary:

The Best Restaurant in Japan is Sezanne, which serves French cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Thailand is Gaggan Anand, which serves up innovative Indian cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Hong Kong is the Chairman, which serves up Chinese cuisine. One can argue whether the cuisine is actually fully Cantonese.

The Best Restaurant in Singapore is Odette, which serves French cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Korea is Mingles, which serves Korean cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Mainland China is Fu He Hui, which serves Chinese vegetarian cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Taiwan is logy, which serves Asian-accented French cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in India is Masque, which serves Indian cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in the Philippines is Toyo Eatery, which serves Filipino cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Indonesia is August, which serves up cuisine with Indonesian flavors.

The Best Restaurant in Vietnam is Anan Saigon, which serves contemprary Vietnamese cuisine.

The Best Restaurant in Macau is Chef Tam's Seasons, which serves Cantonese cuisine.

There was... almost no food at the official "after party". Some people resorted to munching on Valrhona chocolate, while I made a beeline to the Nongshim (농심) booth to shove down a tiny cup of Shin Ramyun (辛라면). I didn't pay much attention at the time, but I think those were the special Jay Fai editions!

There was a horde of starving people at the event who all needed to be fed, so Chef Son Jong-won from Eatanic Garden organized a group outing to grab dinner at Saebyeokjip (새벽집). The place is open 24 hours, so that was definitely perfect for us.

I arrived to various banchan already laid out on the table.

There were pots of kimchi-jjigae (김치찌개), and i was happy to slurp it down. Juve Fan wasnt a fan of the big chunk of (beef?) blood in his pot, so I offered to take it off his hands.

Yukhoe bibimbap (육회비빔밥) - not bad la...

Sirloin (꽃등심) - the expression "so hungry I could eat a cow" comes to mind... and cow was what we wanted!

Yangnyeom-galbi (양념갈비)

With my belly now not completely empty, a few of us decided to head to the GohGan after-party being held at a little place called Salt. The place was definitely pretty tiny, so lots of people spilled out onto the street outside...

It's ain't a GohGan party without curry...

Not sure what the sauce for the pasta was, but it was pretty decent.

It was really good to see everyone, especially Gaggan, Goh-san, Vlad, Julien... and friends from other cities I don't see often. Congrats to everyone for making the list!

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