Lesson on Balsamic Vinegar

It was an educational experience when I came to Cucina a few weeks ago for a tasting session on Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena followed by a dinner with the very ingredient being the theme and paired with wines. Balsamic Vinegar was probably one of the most widely used yet most misunderstood condiments at any kitchen pantry so I was happy for the opportunity to learn more.

Night at a Beer Brewery

I rushed off from office on a Friday evening to catch a bus to the industrial district of Fo Tan up north for a guided tour of the new Hitachino Nest Brewery facility. Over the past few years, the growing trend of boutique craft beers have finally reached Hong Kong. It’s now much common for bars and restaurants to offer a wide selection of beers from around the world with some high quality but lesser known brands, and a handful of local breweries set up here in the city. Some friends even started to brew at home, keeping a container or two  inside their cupboard or wardrobe.

In Search of the Best Fried Chicken

Fried chicken was probably not what the doctor prescribed as I was still nursing a bit of a flu and recovering from a redeye flight home less than 24 hours ago, but I joined a few others at Jinjuu at Lan Kwai Fong earlier this week to judge at the "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" and see who won the bragging right for having the "Best Fried Chicken in Hong Kong".

Char Siu and Whisky Challenge

The stage was set at our friend’s house for another weekend afternoon of eating and drinking – with 10 plates filled with Char Siu, or Cantonese barbecue pork, at one table, and 10 different bottles of whisky at another. A few months ago we tried to settle the long-standing question of where to find the best Cantonese roast goose in town by running our own blind tasting session, and this is the sequel as we tried to do the same for char siu, another local favorite.

Pre-opening Dinner

My friend E has been working on this new restaurant concept for a while at the site under the same roof as his wine cellar venture. It's good to see that the project is near completion and last weekend, we were there to give it a try.

Rare flight of vintage G.H. Mumm

Just a couple days before my "accidental" long vacation trip, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon in TST at a champagne tasting of several rare vintages from the famous champagne house of G.H. Mumm, led by their cellar master Didier Mariotti, who was in town to promote the brand in this part of the world.

Albino Rocca Winery at Barbaresco

After spending the first 2 days in Piedmont focusing on food - with white truffle fair on Saturday and Salone del Gusto on Sunday, we went off to explore the wines, another famous product in the region, for the next few days. Our first stop was the commune of Barbaresco, located in the Langhe region between the towns of Asti and Alba, and 15 minutes away from our villa.

Visiting Massolino

I was curious to find out more about the difference between wineries of different areas and sizes and styles within the Piedmont/Langhe wine regions, so after spending our first day near the village of Barolo visiting two of the wineries there, we headed down Serralunga Valley on the east side and paid a visit to the legendary Massolino winery in the afternoon on our last day of the trip.

Pisa Wine Dinner at Messina

What's Pisan cuisine like? To be honest I hardly know anything about the town of Pisa except their apparent poor building skills, so I was curious when I saw a dinner event promoting their food and wine, organized by the Italian Chamber of Commerce. Another part that caught my interest is the venue - I have been hearing positive comments about Messina, an Italian restaurant in Hung Hom so that gave me the incentive to check it out myself. 

Comfort chic at Harlan G's new restaurant

Before Christmas, I visited the newly opened Comfort by Harlan Goldstein, sitting in one of the buildings top of Lan Kwai Fong, at the invitation of their PR firm. (it's a long belated post, I know)

Our First Sake Tour - Shirataki Sake Brewery

One of the many interesting parts of the recent Japan trip is a visit to the Shirataki Sake Brewery (白瀧酒造) in Echigo-Yuzawa in the southern part of Niigata prefecture. We were drawn to the area of Niigata mainly for it being a major rice growing and sake brewing region. I always wanted to go up close to learn more about how to make sake, but turned out it's much harder to find a brewery open to public, and even harder to find one that have someone fluent in English to explain everything to us than say finding a vineyard that can do the same for wine elsewhere. But a few email exchanges later, I am glad that Shirataki Sake Brewery agreed to show us around their facilities, and guide us through sake tasting at the end of the tour.