The Standard Bearer

We realized it's been more than one full year since our last visit to VEA... don't know what happened and how time just flew by but we quickly made amend by making a booking to go one evening a couple of weeks ago. And we managed to catch up with Chef Vicky "in residence" in between his overseas trips. 

Marco x Lorenzo

It's barely 3 months since Rosita officially opened but they already hosted a number of special dinner events at this new space specializing in homestyle Latin American dishes. Their latest one paired Chef Marco with Lorenzo Antinori, one of the most popular mixologists in town for a special menu with cocktail pairings.

New Spot and New Word

Chef Sai To and the Mira Dining team have such a unique concept in transforming this new spot in IFC that they invented a new word, “Chinesology”, to be the new name for the restaurant, taking up what used to be The French Window. While contemporary Chinese cuisine was obviously not something revolutionary, I was curious what this new dining venue would bring when I was invited to a dinner tasting late last month. 

Pre-Christmas Brunch

We never need any excuse to eat out any day, any time of the week, but we thought we would have our little pre-Christmas celebration over at the Sunday brunch at Landmark Mandarin Oriental in early December. I always enjoy the ambiance of MO Bar during the day, which felt like a little oasis right next to the busiest street in town and inside the busiest shopping mall, and even better was the Christmas decorations that’s already set up weeks ago bringing a sense of joyous mood.

Event Preview

I was gutted for not being able to attend the T.Dining Off-Menu event in mid-November because of other engagements, but glad I was given a sneak preview in an afternoon recently with a few participating chefs showing us some of the dishes that would be presented at the actual event. T.Dining has been great in bringing together some of the best culinary talents in town for one-of-a-kind collaboration events for the past few years (such as this and this), and this may be their most ambitious one yet, featuring over a dozen chefs not only from Hong Kong but some flying in later this month, all paired up to create a number of unique dishes only available at this event to be held at The Peak Galleria.

Place to Rest

Recently we became more conscious to bring our business to local and small shops around our city as our tiny contribution to support them. And it often led to pleasant surprises as we ventured out of what we are more familiar with and started checking out new places.

Not the Usual British Bar Fare

The other night I was at Gough’s on Gough to check out the new bar menu that they are introducing, in addition to their regular a la carte menu. The entrance area on the street level was remodeled slightly to fit in a small bar counter with trays of seafood on display, which formed part of this new menu featuring a few seasonal dishes and some simple British bar bites.

Late Night Fine Dining

Eager to explore more of the rising Taipei restaurant scene, we made a reservation to eat at Longtail, helmed by the young Chef Kin Lam. We have long heard good things about the restaurant and the chef and we regrettably missed out last year when he returned to his hometown Hong Kong for a brief pop-up to much acclaim, so this is how we made amend to that.

Whimsical Bar at IFC Mall

Recently I was at Dear Lilly, a new restaurant/bar concept on the rooftop of the IFC Mall, and it did change my impression somewhat of restaurants under the Dining Concept group in general. I don’t know what this site was before, but with the setting like a glasshouse right in the top shopping mall with unobstructed view of the Hong Kong skyline, you already got half the winning formula to be the popular place for anything from leisure lunch to afternoon tea to happy hour drinks. They don’t take reservations, and by the time we arrived, there’s already quite a waiting line for people wanting a drink and a bite, and some were just happy to take a snap of the romantic interior on their mobile phone.

Sequel to a Bar Pop-up

We have to keep reminding ourselves it's not Friday just yet when we were sipping drinks at MO Bar at the Landmark Mandarin the week before the Christmas long weekend. The New York City-based speakeasy bar PDT (short for Please Don't Tell) is taking up permanent residence at the hotel soon but before that, they hosted one last pop-up at MO Bar for a preview of what they are going to offer.

Bar Crossover

A few days ago I dropped by Okra in the afternoon for a sneak preview of the upcoming collaboration dinner menu featuring dishes by Chef Max Levy and drinks by Yuta Inagaki of Bar Butler in TST. The full menu was a 10-course long meal completed with 9 different cocktails but this time we had the abbreviated menu with 6 of those dishes.

Centurion Lounge

I don’t usually write about airport lounges - cuz doing so made me sound like a humblebrag - but then this is the one I was truly excited about. I have never visited the American Express Centurion Lounge before - they started operating a few in US after my time (would have loved to have a few of those when I was flying regularly for work), but recently they expanded to a few overseas locations, starting in Hong Kong this past October, which obviously is a good news to me.

Four-Hands Preview

I was not able to make it to either nights of the special Vicky Cheng x Margarita Fores dinner at Chef Vicky's restaurant VEA in late October, but was glad to get a sneak preview of the menu a couple of days before it was launched. I have never tried Chef Margarita's (of Grace Park Restaurant in Manila) cooking before but I always wanted to, ever since she received her Best Female Chef award by the Asia's 50 Best Restaurant last year.

Unfinished Mission

Coming back from a weekend trip from Thailand only recently doesn’t mean we couldn’t have more Thai food. A few weekends ago we went to check out the weekend brunch at Mak Mak and felt we have uncovered the best hidden gem in this part of town. Took both of us a while to find the restaurant, located at a corner of the luxurious Landmark shopping mall in Central. The façade looks just like a glorified Pret A Manger takeout stall, with ready-to-eat lunch boxes and drinks in the refrigerator shelf and a long open bar, but through the tucked-away entrance on the side, we were led to the dining area at the back.

Dinner at a Speakeasy Bar

A week after attending the pre-opening media preview of the new Employees Only Hong Kong at Lan Kwai Fong, I was given a second opportunity to try more of their food and drink, this time at a sit-down dinner. Monday was probably not the busiest night at Lan Kwai Fong (plus we started a bit early), but it was fairly packed when I walked in to the bar (and soon it was filled to the capacity as the night progressed and by the time we moved to our dinner table)

Pop-up Weekend Part 1: Sook x Fly by Jing

I began the "weekend of speakeasy" with a short hop to my friend Mina's kitchen studio in Chaiwan for a one-night only "Sichuan Seoul Food" dinner, a collaboration between her and Jenny from Shanghai.

I had the chance to enjoy Mina's fabulous cooking a few times at one of her pop-up dinner events in the past year - even got my hands-on experience at her kitchen studio Sook when she hosted a kimchi making class a few months ago. And I have been following the writer-turned-chef Jenny's culinary business ventures in social media, from the starting of her online site Jing Theory to the founding of Baoism restaurant in China, and now with her second dining concept of Fly by Jing, inspired by the cooking of her hometown Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

Bar within a Bar - Evening Drink at High Five Pop-up

Last Saturday a bunch of us made a booking to drink at the pop-up bar of the Tokyo-based Bar High Five, who is taking up temporary residence at MO Bar at Landmark Mandarin Oriental for 2 months (til end of October). You got to admit there's a certain charm about a classic Japanese bar – polished interior, excellent selection of liquors, well-dressed bartender, hand-carved ice, impeccably professional techniques and focus – okay at least that was my impression based on my embarrassingly limited knowledge on this subject.

Delicious Lesson Learned

I must declare I knew absolutely nothing about Indonesian cuisine. With such diversity because of race, religion and cultural backgrounds for this fourth most populated country in the world, there's simply way too much to learn, so I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to explore a bit more about Indonesian food (and in a sense, their culture) with a presentation by a culinary expert on this subject followed by dinner at Kaum, the restaurant at the newly-opened Potato Head Hong Kong in Sai Ying Pun.

Another Pop-up Bar at Landmark Mandarin

I hardly know anything of the latest in the dining and drinking scene in New York City these days, but I was told PDT (Please Don't Tell) is some big shot in East Village many considered to be the best speakeasy bar in town, if not the world. After a few stints of pop-up appearances around the world, they recently stopped by Hong Kong to take up a 3-week-long residence at MO Bar of Landmark Mandarin Oriental, and I went on one of the earlier evenings to check it out.

VEA-ry Impressive Dinner

There is always a constant stream of new restaurant openings throughout the year in Hong Kong, but to me, so far in 2015 there is none more exciting than this new place near Sheung Wan, which opened its door a couple of weeks ago.

This new restaurant, called VEA, is a collaboration project between Chef Vicky Cheng (formerly of Liberty Private Works) and mixologist/bartender Antonio Lai of The Quinary. I am a fan of Chef Vicky's creative cooking since his early LPW days so I am eager to find out his next move since he left the old venture early this year after over 4 years at the helm. And I came here for the dinner tasting during their soft opening period last week at the invitation of their PR.