Since both E@L and Phooey have blogged about our meet last night, I suppose I ought to mention it as well.

Since E no longer lives here and I knew we’d have just a short time to get together, my idea was to bring him to some place relatively new and not one of the same old hangdog hangouts. I’ve been to Uno Mas a few times since its opening and have enjoyed it each time, so it seemed a good choice, and I’m happy that my friends agreed with me.

One thing is bugging me about the place. They have a jamon iberico plate, two sizes, $188 and $388. And they have a charcuterie platter at $188 that includes some of the jamon, some salami, some chorizo, one other bit of meat, some pate, a bowl of olives. So:

First time to order charcuterie platter – there’s a healthy helping of the jamon iberico.

Second time to order the charcuterie platter – there’s just two thin strips of jamon iberico.

Last night, ordered the $188 jamon iberico platter; later we order the charcuterie platter and it had the same amount of of jamon iberico on it as the individual order.

I don’t think it’s nitpicking to ask them to use the same amounts of an ingredient each time they serve the same dish. However, last night, I’d had a bit too much wine and beer to even think of how to mention it to the manager. The thing is, you go to a place and you enjoy the meal and you want the same quality level each time. It’s a failure to maintain consistency that leads to so many HK restaurants opening strong and then fading quickly.

I have to wonder … the mid and upper tiers of the restaurant scene in HK are ruled by corporations. It’s one thing if some French guy comes to HK and decides to open a French restaurant – he knows the food, he’s committed to it, he sticks to it. But a corporation opens 10 different restaurants, each a different style that they hope will catch the mood and be in fashion, and six months later they shut them down and convert them to the new flavors of the month. The results are just not the same.

Later, E@L took off to meet some other friends while Phooey and I hit a few more spots. It was a good night for me, one in which I managed to not think too much about the rest of what’s going on in my life at the moment … with the exception of an increasing stream of SMS messages from my gf, who is out of town and gets worried when she hears that I’m frequenting bars in a certain district here. But my goal is not to do anything that I can’t tell her about afterwards, and I think I did relatively okay last night.

Here’s a piece I did for the current issue of BC Mag on Corea/McLaughlin, written before the concert, so it’s a review of a CD, along with a hopefully funny tale about seeing Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 70s. My first feature article for BC should be appearing in the next issue. It’s a long time since I wrote something aside from the column and the blog, and my first time to write a piece based on an interview conducted via email, so I hope people like it.

Hongkie Town
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