New Year Get Together at Catalunya

It's a miracle that we - at least most of us - could agree on an evening that we could all get together for a meal to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Catalunya recently has a new chef on board with a revamped menu so they invited us in to give it a try, giving us the perfect occasion and venue to catch up before everyone is going all over the place around the world again.

Fine Dining with Family and a Kid

There was a sense of uneasiness when my brother told us at the last minute that their original babysitting plan didn't pan out and they have to bring along our 3 year-old nephew Ethan to lunch with us at Caprice during the Chinese New Year long weekend. For those who don't know us well, we were usually the kind of people who frowned upon others for bringing small children to fine-dining establishments, so the thought of becoming one of them for an afternoon didn't sit all that well with us, even though we would love some quality time with my bro, sis-in-law and nephew as they only returned to Hong Kong for a short vacation.

Birthday Dinner at Dynasty

We were at the Dynasty Restaurant, the Chinese dining outlet at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in Wanchai, on one Friday evening for a surprise birthday celebration my friend C threw for her dear husband. It's been ages since I last visited the restaurant, one of the handful finer hotel restaurants in town serving top quality traditional Cantonese cuisine. But they seems to be running in a relatively low profile, compared to its counterparts - you hardly saw them being mentioned in the news or magazines.

Dinner for Two (Part 3) - Heart-shaped Dessert

Originally I wasn't planning to make any dessert after our previous 2 courses of ravioli and chicken - thought we would finish the dinner with some cheese instead. But at the very last minute I changed my mind - after all it didn't sound right not having something sweet for Valentine's Day dinner so I squeezed an extra course in using simply ingredients I had in hand.

Dinner for Two (Part 2) - Coq au Vin Blanc

Continuing with the dinner I prepared on Valentine's Day after the first course of a "modified ravioli" it's a more classic main course dish of Coq au Vin. I wanted to do this dish partly because I got some white wines sitting on the shelf that I need to get rid of - those bottles that are proper enough to drink but I would rather use it for cooking instead. And I wanted to make a chicken dish - something I felt like I haven't done for a while. And this would work well with the Champagne I intended to open. So the Coq au Vin Blanc seems like a natural conclusion based on that chain of thoughts.

Dinner for Two (Part 1) - Rice Paper Ravioli

Bouquet of 99 roses. Candlelit Dinner. Those are not really our thing. At least not on February 14. Not when restaurants were baiting on customers with "special menu" charging twice the normal price; not when pretty much everyone is doing the same thing.

Instead, this year I decided to cook a simple dinner at home on Valentine's Day. I realized it's been a while since I cooked a slighly more sophisticated dinner just for us two so it's good to stay in, opening up one of the bottles we kept in the wine fridge to clear up some much needed space, and just chill.

Toritama - Finally, a legit yakitori joint

We have been longing to go to this new yakitori restaurant on Glenealy but their waiting list just grew longer and longer since it opened last October. So when my friend managed to make a booking on a Tuesday night and asked who's available to join him, we immediate raised our hands.

"Tea for Love" at Island Shangri-la

Recently I attended a tasting event previewing the new afternoon tea menu at Island Shangri-la. The month of February saw every hoteliers and restauranteurs in town scrambling to come up with special menus or events or promotions to celebrate Valentine's Day. This year, Island Shangri-la collaborated with the French Champagne house Perrier Jouet for a love-themed afternoon tea menu, available not only on the 14th but throughout the month of February across multiple dining outlets within the hotel.

Artsy Brunch at Bibo

We somehow missed our big group meet-up at the relatively new restaurant Bibo a couple months ago, so we decided to make it up by checking it out on our own on the very last day of January.