Half and Half

After seeing Chef Jayson’s post about the special Mushroom Feast menu they were having at his restaurant Man Ho, I asked whether we could have a customized version with only half the mushroom dishes on the menu and half something else. So a couple of weeks later, we came with some other friends for this “Half Mushroom Feast”. 

Mushroom Feast

"Interested to join our mushroom dinner in August?" When my friend N told me about this themed event and offered to save me a couple seats, I felt this is something I would definitely make room to go. J's Garden, the family business co-owned by N, is a food purveyor and the biggest local supplier of Chinese mushrooms, so their annual mushroom feast (which they have been hosting for a few years) has always been popular with tickets sold out within days among their many regular customers. 

Chinese Italian Crossover

Some may argue there’s some sort of intricate relationship between the history of Italian and Chinese cuisines going way back – so it was an interesting idea when Chef Gianni Caprioli (of Gia and Giando) and the father-son team of Kin-wai and Chun Lau (of Kin’s Kitchen) collaborated to create two sets of special menu at their respective Italian and Chinese restaurant, each using ingredients from the other country and I was curious to see how they turned out.

Feast of Mushrooms

With pictures of mushroom dishes flooding my social media feed, I don’t need further reminder that late summer/early fall marked the prime season for Chinese mushrooms. And I had the first taste of them this year at a recent dinner at Ming Court of The Cordis, with a series of vegetarian dishes by chef Yuet-faat Li using many kinds of seasonal fungus imported from Yunnan Province, as well as plant-based “meat” Omnipork introduced by the Green Monday team in Hong Kong.

Champagne Food Crawl

We had an interesting evening a few weeks ago following the Krug team to a few restaurants trying out new dishes specifically designed to pair with their champagne. Every year they ran a campaign with participating restaurants and chefs creating special Krug pairing menus using a theme ingredient. Last year it was eggs, and this year, it came to the time of mushrooms.

Risotto with White Truffles

Originally I was planning to make some pasta going with the piece of white truffles we got at the Fair in Alba, but the house didn't come with a pasta machine (plus I got a little lazy once we settled in), so instead, I bought some rice in the market and made a risotto instead one evening.

Dining at a True Private Kitchen

We were at this "secret" private kitchen in Central one weekday evening recently, joining a group of new and old friends who shared a common passion for food and wine and cooking for a feast featuring some classic Cantonese dishes.

In Hong Kong, there's no shortage of restaurants labeling themselves as "private kitchen" or "speakeasy", partly to circumvent the complicated licensing requirement for a proper restaurant, and partly to add to the mystique factor as a way to attract its clientele. But this one, on the other hand, is a true "private kitchen" - you can try google it and you probably can't find any reference to it; same if you went on Openrice or WOM guide or any restaurant directory; it's located right in Central but even if I tell you the address, you wouldn't know there exist such a building let alone a tastefully decorated place to eat as you go up this narrow and dim staircase inside.

63-Degree Eggs - playing with Sous Vide Supreme

Come meet my new friend Sous Vide Supreme! Ever since I got it in early December I have been experimenting and trying out dishes that I had difficulties making without this super machine that can keep temperature to 0.5 degrees (Celcius) accuracy.

I have been trying to cook a few things with this new kitchen yoy but particularly here's a simple dish I made over the new year for a vegetarian friend of mine - hearty lentils combined with fresh mushrooms that I got from the farmer's market, and eggs cooked at 63-degrees sound like a perfect winter appetizer dish to me in this occasion.