Green for a night

Last week I attended yet another Green Monday dinner hosted by Ming Court of The Cordis. It's not my first time trying the meatless menu prepared by Chef Li but this time I got to taste a few of the new dishes. And even better as they put us up in the private room for a more cozy setting.

Shanghai Vegetarian

On our second night in Shanghai we went for something different and visited Fu He Hui. I am always curious about this restaurant as this is one of the two vegetarian places awarded a star in the local Michelin Guide, and ranked highly as one of the Asia’s best.

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.

Plant-based Tasting Menu

I was at Man Ho at JW Marriott in Pacific Place last week when their chef Jayson Tang was tasked with creating a tasting menu using Omnipork, the new plant-based “meat” developed and marketed by the Hong Kong-based Green Monday team. Most other plant-based products launched recently (Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods etc) have been focusing their marketing effort in western cuisine – burger in particular – but it’s good to know there are ones like Omnipork targeting Asian palate and cooking. That's actually a sensible business move given the large Chinese market (twice as big as United States for food consumption), and pork has traditionally been the preferred meat choice in most Chinese cuisine and still formed the majority of all meat consumed in China by a comfortable distance (in fact, 3 times more than poultry which is the second most, as I found out from research reports)

Temple Food

Every time when I visited my friend Mina's kitchen studio Sook in Chaiwan, I couldn't help but exclaiming how much I love this space inside an industrial building, so spacious, tastefully decorated and practical - exactly how I wanted my own kitchen to be. Of course, adding to that Mina was an excellent cook and always enthusiastic to share the skills or inspirations by hosting pop-up dinners with specific themes or kitchen workshops with friends over.

Slow Food Awakening

Up a flight of stairs of a random industrial building in Kwun Tong is a small café/restaurant called "8104 Box of Life", and every Monday evening, Kong Yeah, a small advocacy group that supports local farming and food products, puts words into actions by hosting dinners at this place with an ever-changing menu using produce freshly harvested from local farms and other locally made artisan products.

Meatless Night

Admittedly, I normally would not fancy much of a vegetarian special menu, but I do like Chef Peggy’s cooking and her innovative take on meatless dishes, and enjoyed quite a few relaxing afternoons at her Grassroot Pantry restaurant on Hollywood Road. So I thought I would give it a shot when she collaborated with Chef Nate of Rhoda for an one-night only crossover event at the restaurant.

Vegetarian for a Night

My friend D was perhaps one of the most authoritative voices in the vegetarianism movement in town, and knowing he's a regular at Seventh Son Restaurant, I suggested we went there for a meatless dinner when we tried to fix up a time and place to catch up. It's my first time coming to the restaurant at its current location since they moved a few blocks down in Wanchai a few months ago, now housed inside a business hotel in the midst of the bar district. Despite the "colorful" neighborhood, I actually prefer this new location with a more spacious setting and modernized décor.

Cooking Experiment #1: Potato with a Fancy Name

I decided to take a week off in the middle of summer just to get some rest at home. When we told others about the plan, or rather a "non-plan" of doing nothing, many seemed surprised that we were not travelling anywhere. Well, it’s not exactly a week of “doing nothing”, but I have decided to take this week for some cooking experiments at home.

Weekday Urban Farm Lunch

I came to learn about this cool café/bookstore called ACO in Wanchai purely by chance (thanks to the almighty power of Facebook "recommendations"), and after seeing the posts on their Facebook page recently about the lunch they offer as part of the "Food Art Experience" project, I was intrigued by what they are trying to do and asked a few friends of mine to join me on a Friday afternoon to check it out.

Koyasan Experience Part 2: The Art of Shojin Ryori

True, during my stay in Koyasan I was impressed by its beautiful scenery, stunningly magnificent architecture and interesting lodging facilities, but it's their unique cuisine which drew me here in the first place. With its religious background, Koyasan is known for Shojin Ryori (精進料理), the art of vegetarian fine dining.

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.

Easy Summer Recipe Part 4 - "Green Monday" Salad

Since late last year, I have been working with the social enterprise Green Monday team to develop a few vegetarian recipes for a project that they do with The Link REIT, which managed several wet markets in Hong Kong in their real estate portfolio. Beginning in January, those recipes were printed as colorful leaflets and be distributed at the markets on a weekly basis throughout the year as a way to promote green living and inventive cooking. 

Green Monday x Miele x Grassroots Pantry

Last week I was invited to a private dinner hosted by Green Monday and Miele, held in the posh dining space of Miele Private Lounge in Causeway Bay and catered by the very talented Peggy Chan of Grassroots Pantry.

I have known David, the co-founder of the social enterprise Green Monday, for over 20 years, and he never occured to me as a serious foodie person, yet in recent years he has been making huge impact on local culinary landscape by advocating vegetarianism and in a broader sense, a healthy eating style through his venture. He even wrote a book reviewing and recommending top vegetarian restaurants in town, which was published a few weeks ago and became a bestseller overnight. And I heard a lot of good comments for Peggy and her pure vegetarian Grassroots Pantry cafe in Sheung Wan from many of my friends (vegetarian or not), so I was quite excited about this one-off event put together by them in collaboration with Miele, the innovative home appliance maker which probably needs no introduction. 

(Vegetarian) Cooking at Home: Strawberries with Mascarpone Cream

I love Mascarpone cheese - it's so versatile. Of course, its mild sweetness made it an obvious choice for desserts, but I occasionally used it for savory dishes with some success too in the past (for example, it's good for some cream-based sauces for meat or pasta - you got a more interesting flavor then just double cream)

For desserts, most people relate the cheese to tiramisu in which whipped mascarpone cheese was mixed with egg whites and layed with liquor and coffee-dipped ladyfingers, but I also love the combination of hulled strawberries and mascarpone - it's creamy with a hint of sweetness for a subtle and classy dessert (not something overly rich or like a sugar bomb)

(Vegetarian) Cooking at Home: Pesto Linguine with Asparagus

This is the third part of the vegetarian cooking series that I did for a local magazine a few months ago. One thing I learned during the process is now I know a bit more about what's actually vegetarian and what's not. For example, I always think cheese, which was made of milk, is vegetarian (even though it's non-vegan). But little did I realize most cheeses use animal rennet - an enzyme extracted from cow or sheep stomach and essential for cheese production - that makes them non-vegetarian. Then there were also the issues with eggs, garlic and onions - especially to those who practice vegetarian for religious reasons.

(Vegetarian) Cooking at Home (Part 2): Garden Salad with Balsamic Gastrique

This is the second part of the vegetarian cooking series. Well basically I was asked by a local magazine to share the recipes for several vegetarian dishes, and I came up with a 4-course meal with salad, secondi (pasta), main and dessert which can be made in a regular home kitchen with easy-to-find ingredients. It was done over one Saturday afternoon at home and they featured the recipes over a few issues later on. 

(Vegetarian) Cooking at home: Cauliflower au gratin

I was asked to do a recipe series for some vegetarian dishes for a local magazine recently. Given I am not a vegetarian myself, I found it a bit ironic but nonetheless I wanted to take this up as a challenge, to come up with something decent yet easy to make for fellow home cooks. At the end I made a 4-course dinner with salad, pasta, main and dessert which can be done within one hour if you prepare some steps in advance - at least that was the plan.

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.