Once a year

Kudos to the Michelin Guide Hong Kong/Macau team for putting together another fabulous event at City of Dreams Macau yet again where restaurants were awarded and chefs were celebrated over an evening of festivities at the black-tie Gala Dinner mid-December last year.

Pre-Holiday Surprise Feast

We intentionally didn’t make a fuss of telling Chef Dan Calvert in advance that we were coming to his restaurant a few weeks back (meant to be a surprise), but glad to see him and his team working hard in the kitchen as we walked into Belon at Soho just right before Christmas and for the first time since the place was awarded one Michelin star (and a well-deserved one). Our friend V was in town briefly and she made the booking to meet up with some of our other friends for some good food and wines.

A New Casual Shabu Shabu Joint

The entrance of the new Shabu Shabu Shiki restaurant did somewhat resembles those that one may find inside commercial buildings in Ginza Tokyo, with just a small sign at the door and a long corridor leading into a cozy dining room at the back. The former space of La Bombance (a restaurant that I loved but sadly closed a few months ago) right in the middle of Causeway Bay has become a pop-up venue for this new shabu shabu restaurant by the same group, which my friend (and dinner host) D was describing (quite accurately) as a casual and reasonably priced restaurant using top-notch Japanese ingredients.

After Work Sushi

I wanted to reward myself after being stuck at work for a Saturday morning, so I made a last-minute booking at Sushi Shin of Central the moment I left office and walked over to the restaurant once they said they could accommodate me at the sushi counter.

Night of Shuan Yang Rou

I thought we caught the perfect weather for a hotpot dinner at Dong Lai Shun a few weeks ago when the temperature dropped momentarily to mid-teens. Despite the restaurant - located in the basement of Royal Garden Hotel in TST East – is most famous for its Northern Chinese-style hotpot, I have never tried it until this time.