My gf and I greeted the news that Mario Batali and partners would be opening a restaurant in Hong Kong with glee.  Batali is a celebrity chef in the US and we’ve been watching him on TV for years.  He’s got a bunch of restaurants, mostly in New York (he has two outposts in Singapore).  We’re big fans of the Spain …. On the Road Again show that he did with Mark Bittman a few years ago.  Batali’s as famous for his look – red hair and beard, plaid shorts, orange Crocs – as he is for his food, maybe even more so.  I know the whole celebrity chef deal, we had no expectation of him being in the kitchen, standing at the pass, personally supervising our food.  But we figured on an enjoyable evening and that’s very much what it was although the food itself was uneven.

I mentioned to a cousin of mine that we’d be going.  This cousin used to work for Batali in New York and dismissed Lupa as “pasta and peasant food.”  (One might accuse him of sour grapes but I’m proud to say that he won a James Beard award this year.)  At any rate, I told him that he didn’t know the Hong Kong market, that Batali’s approach would be somewhat unique here and we were looking forward to trying it.

So I booked Lupa for my gf’s birthday dinner.  I knew in advance that this was coming less than one week after their official opening and I’d heard there were some rough patches during their soft opening phase but it was her birthday so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

If you look at Lupa’s menu, the first thing that will probably strike you is how reasonable their prices are, if you take into account celebrity chef, “fine dining,” Central location.  Many of the main courses are in the HK$200 range, more or less.  I spoke with one of the managers there, a local Hong Kong guy who has worked in many restaurants in town and he told me that when he first looked at the menu, he had to ask if there was some mistake, that the prices seemed too low.

(In case you’re wondering, there are no photos to accompany this review.  I don’t believe that taking food photos in restaurants is appropriate at times and this was one of those times.)

So we arrived at the restaurant, which is on the 3rd floor of the new LHT Tower on Queens Road.  You walk in and are greeted by this giant bronze statue of a wolf (“lupa”) suckling Romulus and Remus.  It’s dramatic but a little odd.  The room itself is nicely designed, not too formal, wood where it needs to be, kind of a classic but modern feel to it.  Despite having booked 3 weeks in advance, we were given a small table near the bar.  We asked if we could get switched to a larger table (the place was more than half empty at 7:30 but did fill up later) and were told we could be moved to a different location but same size table.  We decided to stay put.

The sommelier helped us select a wine and came up with something we liked at HK$380 – wines start at HK$300 and ascend into the stratosphere, as you might expect.  And then onto the food.

The bread basket came by and the guy put one slice of bread onto each of our plates.  One small slice of bread.  All by itself.  We had to ask the waiter if there was any butter or vinegar and then he offered up a small bowl of olive oil and balsamic.  Throughout the night we’d see waiters bringing these little white bowls to tables and had to wonder why it didn’t come at the same time as the bread – or at least get offered?

I ordered the “Selection of Carne Grande”, a selection of meats that included prosciutto, lingua, salame, coppa and testa for HK$188.  I wanted to get this because Batali’s parents are famous for their artisan salumi – I doubted that this would be sourced from them but figured that some care and attention went into the selection.  Served on a wooden carving block and drizzled with olive oil and that was all.  The various meats were nice but … just some pieces of various cured pork sausages on a block of wood to be eaten by itself?  It was a bit of a letdown.  I felt, rightly or wrongly, that they should have gone further, perhaps paired this with different cheeses, put a pickle or some sort of garnish on there (there was a tiny bit of green with the lingua), maybe a biscuit or something?

We wanted to share a salad and went with grilled radicchio with scamorza (HK$98) – grilled lettuce dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and with a layer of smoked mozzarella cheese melted on top.  I didn’t feel that the flavors were well balanced here and the cheese seemed lacking in taste.

On to the mains.  I had been staring at the hanger steak for a long time but at the last moment switched and ordered the veal saltimbocca (HK$298) because I couldn’t remember the last time I had veal and the menu said it was Dutch veal, which many will tell you is the best.  The menu said prosciutto, sage and spinach.  Honestly, I got no prosciutto taste from this at all and while the veal was pounded thin I think it could have been a bit more tender.

On the other hand, my gf ordered the braised pork shoulder with averna and cucumber (HK$208 – glazed in apple and Sicilian bitter liquor) and this was a home run.  We were told that it was braised for at least 4 hours.  It was fall-apart tender and had a beautiful char on the outside, and all of the flavors really came together well on this one.  My gf only allowed me to have one small bite and then she practically inhaled the rest.

We did have room for dessert and wanted to order the lupa tartufo but they told us they were out of it – and had been out of it for two days.   So we went with the peanut chocolate bar (HK$108), drizzled with chocolate sauce and a small scoop of gelato on the side.  My gf had previously told one of the managers that this was her birthday dinner and there was a candle on the plate and they’d written “happy birthday” in chocolate as well.  This dessert was also a winner.

We followed that up with a latte for my gf and an espresso for me.  The bill, including a bottle of wine and the 10% service charge, came in at around HK$1500.

So, what did we like?  We liked the pork shoulder and the dessert and the wine.  We liked the look and feel of the place and felt that the staff worked really hard to make us comfortable.

What didn’t we like?  I wouldn’t rush to order the same starter or salad or main dish again.  I might go for the hanger steak or one of the pastas next time.

Yes, there will be a next time, we think the place has promise.  One of the managers there, someone who has worked for Batali for a long time, told me he thought that a restaurant can open as a good restaurant but needs 6 or 7 months to develop into a great one.  It was the staff there more than anything else that won us over – friendly and helpful to the extreme.

By the way, Lupa also features a large outdoor terrace.  There’s no view to speak of from this terrace but it’s well-designed and comfortable.  The menu is slightly different – same starters and salads, no pasta or main courses, but adds 6 different types of pizza.  It strikes me as an alternative spot to stop for a drink after work if I’m feeling so inclined.  Next time we go together we’ll probably try the terrace and the pizza.

Frequent visitors to this space know that I love food.  I love to try new food and new restaurants.  I don’t do it that often because of the cost (since food blogging is just a small percentage of what I do, I don’t receive the invites and freebies given to those who have dedicated food blogs) and the distance of most of these “hot spots” from where I live.

Yesterday we were walking around the Hollywood Road area so we went for lunch at Brat (“purveyors of awesome sausages”).  We love sausages in all varieties and I’d heard good things about this place.  After trying it, I’d say that the sausages were indeed pretty awesome.  My gf had one that was loaded with a variety of different chiles and I went for one that listed bourbon as one of its ingredients.  The dogs were nice, the casings had snap, the buns were good too.  Our waiter forgot to punch our order for sweet potato fries into the computer so we didn’t get those until I asked and we were almost finished with our dogs.

The sausages seemed pretty unique for Hong Kong and we enjoyed them.  I doubt I would ever make a special trip to this place but if I’m in the neighborhood, I’d consider returning.

Even so, when I got the check, I had to pause for a moment.  Reduced to its bare minimum, we had two hot dogs, one order of fries, two soft drinks.  The bill came out to HK$319.  That’s roughly US$41.  Seriously.

Of course we all know why the price is so high.  The restaurant is on Elgin Street.  Who knows what kind of rent they’re paying to be there?  What percentage of the bill went just to cover that rent?

Yes, I know, before you say it, we could have gone to the dai pai dong just across the street and had a couple of bowls of noodles in soup and some tea for well under US$10 and sometimes that’s fine and dandy for us, sometimes it’s not.  We chose to go to this place, I saw the prices on the menu before I went in, I’m not blaming the (presumably) good people behind Brat who are trying something a little different (and apparently succeeding).

On a similar note, a friend and I went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch one day this week.  She suggested it, I agreed because they do make a relatively decent burger there.  I ordered a 6 ounce burger (the menu pushes the 10 ounce burgers, which is just ridiculous; the six ounce ones are buried in small print at the bottom of the page) with bacon and cheese and an iced lemon tea.  She ordered a veggie burger and an iced lemon tea.  Our bill for that came out to just under HK$400.  Hard Rock’s rent in LKF is HK$1.4 million per month.

Delaney’s in Wanchai is rumored to be closing or moving because their landlord just doubled their rent (I have this as second-hand info).  Like ‘em or hate ‘em, they’ve been there for years and it’s a popular destination for many.

I’m just thinking that if the big landlords don’t like C.Y. Leung, that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the 7 million other people in Hong Kong.

For some reason, many celebrity chefs have not opened outposts in Hong Kong.  With so many American cooking shows available on cable here, it’s a bit frustrating because I’d love the chance to try the food of some of the chefs whose shows I watch.  On the other hand, these days what does it mean when a chef opens a new restaurant?  The celebrity chef himself is not in the kitchen, he’s not even on the premises most of the time.

At any rate, Mario Batali is opening a restaurant in Hong Kong in April.  Batali is based in New York and his restaurants there have been exceptionally well reviewed. (I should probably mention that a cousin of mine worked as a sous chef for Batali.)    I’ve never eaten his food but I am a huge fan of his travel/cooking show Spain On the Road Again, in which he, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Goop Paltrow and gorgeous Spanish actress Claudia Bassols traveled the Spanish countryside in two convertible Mercedes (Mercedeses?) cooking and dining and sightseeing.  On the other hand, he’s in large part responsible for the initial success of Crocs and he recently settled a lawsuit that accused him and his company of skimming tips from waiters. On the other other hand he’s buddies with Anthony Bourdain, and that endorsement is good enough for me.

Anyway, his restaurant will be called Lupa.  It means “she-wolf” (not sure what relevance that has to dining) and is the name of one of his NYC outposts.  It will be in Central in the LHT Tower (above The Gap).  Asia Tatler informs us that “ the new restaurant is massive with over 5,500 square feet of space seating 130 diners indoors, as well as a huge terrace that will seat an additional 80 guests for alfresco dining.  On the menu will be New York-Italian dishes such as escarole walnut and pecorino salad; ricotta gnocchi with sweet fennel sausage; crispy duck with salsify; and spiced dates with mascarpone. To accompany the dishes, the wine selection features more than 40 wines by the glass from all regions of Italy, from big and small producers alike.”   Batali of course is there in name only.  ”Leading the kitchen will be executive chef Zach Allen, a protégé who has worked with Batali for over a decade.”

Batali’s probably a big enough name to fill a space that size on a consistent basis and I’m sure it will be solidly booked for at least its first few months.  I do hope I get to give it a try.

Lunch today, at a place called Zheng Zong Yun Gui Chuan – the last three letters because this wonderful little hole in the wall at 123 Jervois Street serves Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan food.  Not much to see from the outside (or inside, for that matter) but they do display a menu translated into English with some photos.

My gf ordered what the menu said was their signature dish.  Basically it’s cold poached chicken, Hainan style, but buried under a mess o’ chili.  She could have ordered it with rice or noodles but for some reason she wanted it on its own.

I went for a bowl of soup.  Their soups start at $21 for just the (chicken) soup & the noodle.  Of course there are several types of noodles, lots of things you can add in and you can also specify several different degrees of heat for the soup.  I went for the regular noodle (they also have some kind of noodle made from sweet potato flour – guess I’ll try that next time), medium spicy, with fish slices (bits of real fish, not that processed fish cake stuff) and pork dumplings.

For me it was a comfortable degree of heat – I didn’t want the top of my head blowing off at lunch time.

As I suspected, a peek into the kitchen revealed this:

You may find it interesting to note that the one English language review on OpenRice is a total rave – and the writer does seem to know what she’s talking about.  The overall ratings for the place are poor – 1 good vs. 3 OK vs. 5 not good.  Google does a pretty miserable job in translating the Chinese reviews.  An example – “Well tasty chicken quite shoesmeals paper of the worst thing to ban all one, asked him whether the tissue, even to speak with you +3 mosquito .. ……. + a packet of fixed +3 mosquito mosquito style Gangster transferred frozen drink with the meal … +3″  And “Ganji Department are a few would like to ask a few hot, the last pick left big hot!! have left a few minutes ride something to eat first, shop kittens 23, left a bit like resistance!”

I have no idea what those folks were on about.  I’ll definitely return.

Since my previous post on Sheung Wan restaurants seems to have been well-received, I figure a similar post on dining spots in Sai Kung is in order.  If you don’t live in the area, you might think that Sai Kung is only those waterfront seafood restaurants but actually OpenRice lists 299 restaurants in the Sai Kung district.  Most are in Sai Kung Town, but not all.  This is just a rundown of the ones I’ve eaten in.  Note that I have not eaten in some of Sai Kung’s more famous restaurants, such as Loaf On and Anthony’s Kitchen and One Thirty-One.  One of these days …

Honeymoon Dessert – Yes, they’re all over town but if I’m not mistaken, this is their original location.  Every bit as good as you’ve heard, when the weather’s nice people are still lined up on the street waiting for a table at midnight!

Anthony’s Ranch - Anthony knows food (and I know Anthony, so take this with as many grains of salt as you wish).  Some of the best baby back ribs in HK, really good steaks, and what I’m sure are the best huevos rancheros to be found in Hong Kong (only on the breakfast menu but they’ll sometimes make them for other meals on request).  A bit on the expensive side for some items.

May’s Sawaddee Thailand – A bit confusing because there are three places in town with this name and at least one claims to have no relationship to the others.  Popular and reasonably okay Thai food.

Paisano’s – This is the original branch of what is in my opinion the best pizza in Hong Kong.  The owner, a former golf pro, is an Italian-American whose parents have pizza places back in the US.  He makes his dough and pasta fresh daily.

Pepperoni’s – I’ve been here several times but it’s been years since I’ve gone back.  It’s very Hong Kong-style pizza (wrong kind of dough, sauce too sweet), the other dishes are okay.  The owners of Pepperoni’s also own Jaspa’s, Wagyu and several other chains around town.

Jaspa’s – With branches in Soho and TST (and Saigon!), this is the first place that fills up in town on weekends and with good reason.  I’ve been coming here for 10 years and never had a bad meal.  Whatever you order comes with a huge amount of fresh greens.  And last time I was there, Moreton Bay Bugs were back on the menu!

Chuen Kee – I think there’s been some consolidation of ownership among the waterfront seafood restaurants.  For all I know, they might all be owned by just one or two people now.  If memory serves, this is the one that is listed in the Michelin guide.  Stay away from larger fish, lobster and more exotic choices and the price can be quite reasonable.  Beer is super cheap here and a great place to sit at night stuffing your face and watching the crowds stroll by. I’ve probably eaten at all the waterfront seafood places at one time or another, I’ll just list this one.

A.J.’s Sri Lankan Cuisine – I believe this is the only Sri Lankan place in Hong Kong.  R.J., the owner and chef, is really from Sri Lanka (the place is named for his son) and the food is consistently delicious.

Sawaddee Thailand – Okay, I see they’ve removed the “May’s” from the name of this location.  It’s a back alley place, cheap folding tables and plastic stools.  I think they’ve got the most authentic Thai in town.

Mr. Froyo – Nothing that really sets this apart from the other frozen yogurt shops in town except this is the only one in Sai Kung town and it’s quite nice. (Oops, there are two now.  This is the only one I’ve tried.)

Ali-Oli – If this isn’t the best bakery in Hong Kong, it certainly has to be in the top ten.  Aside from the cakes and fabulous breads, they set up tables outside now for sandwiches, salads, or just a cup of decent coffee with a croissant.

Hebe One O One – In a village house in Pak Sha Wan.  Readers of Sai Kung Magazine voted this their favorite Sai Kung restaurant last year.  Another consistent spot, it’s what I think of as Australian style.  Great grilled stuff and my gf swears by their apple crumble.  The ground floor bar area is filled with overstuffed old leather sofas and steamer trunks for tables, first floor a more traditional looking restaurant, rooftop bar.

Colour Brown – Yeah, we do have a Starbucks in town but why go there when we also have this gem?  Serious coffee, good sandwiches and cakes, a small place that’s impossible to get into on weekends but worth the wait.

Anthony’s Catch – Same owner as Anthony’s Ranch, this is mostly Italian-style seafood and they make their own pasta.  Expensive but quality stuff.

Fiesta Fiesta – An odd little place in the old part of town, they have some western dishes and some Filipino food.  And it’s the Filipino food that we go there for.

Ristorante Firenze – An Italian restaurant that appears to be owned and run by Indians.  Quite good.

Sauce – I think I’ve been here twice in 10 years.  It’s not bad, it’s just not as good as Jaspa’s in my opinion.

Steamer’s – A longtime Sai Kung favorite, a bar with half a dozen outdoor tables and some British and Indian style pub food.  Nothing exceptional but cheap & cheerful.

Classified – The Sai Kung branch of the popular HK chain has me on the fence.  Sometimes when I go here I really love it, other times it hasn’t quite lived up to my expectations.  On the whole though, I’m glad they’re here.

Sawaddee Thailand – This is the branch next to McDonald’s.  A couple of outdoor tables and usually busy.  My opinion is that the food is fairly average HK-style Thai.

Village Malaysian and Indian – I’ve been here twice and wanted to like it a whole lot more than I do.  Ground floor of a village house, they grow their own spices in their backyard, yet the two or three times I’ve been here it’s been less than inspiring.

Juicy J’s – Big British-style breakfast served all day in a tiny place, they also specialize in hot dogs with Japanese toppings.  Definitely different and the one time we were there it was quite okay.

Bacco – The upstairs portion of this bar is a branch of HK Indian favorite JoJo’s.  The one time I ate here, the biryani had what was obviously frozen vegetables in it, something I think is inexcusable in HK.

Agua Plus – It was Aqua Plus when they first opened, then it changed for some reason.  This was a hard luck location with two previous places not catching on here, but they’ve made a run of it.  Booze and outdoor seating, mostly, but the British pub grub and Indian curries are quite okay.

Occo – The Pepperoni’s/Jaspa’s folks shut down Cru, which I loved, and re-opened as Rocco, but then had to drop the R because there’s already a Rocco someplace else in town.  Been here once, it’s good, I miss Cru and don’t know why they felt impelled to change.

Ten Ku – See if you can follow this.  The sign outside says “Shushi”.  The listing on OpenRice calls them “Shsui”.  Whatever it is, I came here twice and doubt I’ll go back for a third try.

Wing Wo – There are actually two listings for this place in town (they have two shops, directly across from each other).  One listing says closed, the other says closed for renovation.  Either way, incredibly friendly staff, cheap prices but some of the worst dim sum I’ve ever had in Hong Kong.

Thai Ho – Actually I’ve never been here but each time I walk by I tell myself I need to try this place.  Maybe by listing it here I’ll remember next time!

There was a great small and cheap Vietnamese place in town that recently closed that we miss.  A couple of years back Dia, which I thought had the best Indian in town, got replaced by a Japanese “fusion” joint that I still haven’t tried.

For many, the center of food in Sai Kung is not the water front or the Man Yee Square, it’s the alley that runs between Fuk Man (yes, I know) Road and King Man Street.  There must be at least 20 different hole in the wall joints here, mostly HK style noodle joints, some little Thai places, all of them extremely cheap. most of them foreigner friendly, most of them quite good.

So there you go, 27 out of 299, obviously I still have quite a few places to try!

What places have I missed?  What are your favorite spots?

I’m coming up on one year working in the Sheung Wan district.  That’s following a year in which I worked in Cyberport, one of the worst places in all of Hong Kong for food.  Open Rice currently lists 496 restaurants in Sheung Wan so I suppose one might say I’m spoiled for choice now.  Sheung Wan is interesting in that much of “old Hong Kong” is still very visible.  However, the pace of gentrification is rapidly increasing, rents are going up, the neighborhood is changing almost daily before my eyes.  I thought some people might find it useful to know where I’ve gone for lunch and maybe even give a few recommendations in return.  Note that my office is not far from the MTR and Wing On and that I have a tendency to avoid walking up hill in the direction of Hollywood Road and Soho; I pretty much stay close to “home” for lunch. No food photos, no silly language about mouth feel or how some wine has undertones of chocolate and carpet scrapings, just the facts, as it were.

One final note – most offices in the area start their lunch hour at 1 PM.  That means if you go out to lunch at 12:30 you stand a good chance of getting in almost anywhere without a wait.  At 1 PM, any place in the hood that offers lunch under HK$50 will have a long line in front – that means either doing takeaway or going someplace expensive if you don’t want to wait.

Sang Kee – These guys have 3 store fronts along Hillier Street and Burd Street.  They’re most famous for their congee and their beef brisket noodles.  A bowl of beef brisket noodles costs HK$26 and is quite nice.  They also have this sort of fish pancake thing for $11 that I always order as a side dish.

Barista Jam – Everyone’s favorite coffee shop also serves pasta, salads and sandwiches.  A little bit pricey but not bad.

Dim Sum Square – A tiny place that gets seriously packed at lunch time.  The quality of their dim sum is average at best but the prices are good.

Pizzeria Jacomax – Owned and run by an Italian, the pizzas are supposed to be quite good here.  I’ve been here once, ordered a panini, it was awful, haven’t been back.

Malaymama – One of my favorites.  I can’t speak to how authentic this hole-in-the-wall place is but I love their bak kuh teh and their laksa.  Around $45 per bowl unless you go for one of their “special” combinations, seriously filling and tasty stuff.

Pret A Manger – Sometimes I just want a sandwich and Pret has a $50 combo that includes a bowl of soup, half a sandwich and a cup of tea or coffee. It’s also a fairly comfortable place to sit and read while you eat.

Men-Dokoro Ryo Tei – There are two ramen shops near my office.  I prefer this one.  A little bit pricey – a bowl of ramen, an order of gyoza and a drink has me pushing the $100 mark but sometimes it hits the spot.

Chez Meli Melo – An odd little shop in an odd out of the way location doing authentic French baguettes.

North Garden – Your basic standard Cantonese seafood restaurant serving dim sum for lunch, I’ve been here a few times for big team lunch events.  Quality-wise they’re about in the middle of the pack. Nothing is great but nothing sucks either.  Prices also in the mid-range.

Monsieur Chatte – A small French grocery store in Sheung Wan?  Well, they’ve lasted 4 years and have now opened a second branch in Elements so I guess they’re doing okay.  Aside from the wine and cheese and homemade foie gras, they have 4 different baguettes each day along with some pasta and salad choices.  The bread for the baguette is seriously good.

Pho Tai – People seem to really line up for this Vietnamese spot. I think it’s more for the price than the quality of the food.  It’s okay.

Ninoen – This little Japanese take-away only place must be less than 100 square feet.  I tried a sushi assortment here once.  About the same quality as you’d get at Park ‘n Shop.

Katong Laksa Prawn Mee – Directly across from Malaymama, I’ve been here once.  I ordered the prawn mee.  I think I found 1, maybe 2, pieces of a prawn in the bowl.  Haven’t been back.

Trattoria Doppio Zero – This is a seriously nice Italian place.  I’ve been here twice and loved it each time.  But set lunches start at $100 so it’s a place I go only on rare occasions.

JP Deli – Tried here once.  A bento box of Japanese style fried chicken with rice & veggie set me back around $50.  Quite okay but I thought a little expensive for what you get.

Bowl Burger – Sometimes I just have to have a burger.  This is the closest burger place to my office.  It’s better than McDonalds.

Mian Cafe – Two menus here – one for Japanese food, one for Taiwanese.  So far I’ve tried off the Japanese side (pork cutlet curry with rice) and it was quite okay.

Masala – The closest Indian place. Their set lunch includes soup, salad, naan, rice and a main dish.  A lot of food for the money compensates for the food only being so-so.

Bun Me – I wish this place was better.  Even so I end up coming here roughly once a week.  Their baguettes are Hong Kong-style – soft.  They don’t have pate to put on the banh mi.  Otherwise it’s quite okay, their vermicelli salads are nice.

Subway – Yeah, I come here sometimes.  Every day they have a different $19 special.

Maxims Palace Chinese Restaurant – In the basement of Shun Tak Centre, it’s every bit as good as you’d expect it to be.  Also expensive – special occasions only.

Harmony – One of the more English-friendly cha chaan tengs in the area.  The food isn’t great but they have a huge menu, well translated, portions are huge and prices are cheap and they’re very friendly.

Mutekiya – Our second ramen shop. Been here twice, I just seem to prefer Men-Dokoro.

Taiwan dumpling place, no English name – Quickly becoming a new favorite.  They have about 8 different dumplings to choose from, mix and match, they also do a really nice hot and sour soup with dumplings.

Cafe Nirvana – Oy vey.  I really want to love this place.  A funky bar, almost a dive bar atmosphere, during the day they have set menus for Italian and Thai food, neither of which they do particularly well.  But it’s a comfortable place to sit.  Their lasagna’s not great but it doesn’t suck.

Lee Fa Yuen Korea House – The set lunches are around $70 and for that money you get a ton of decently prepared Korean food. Probably not the most authentic Korean food, mind you, but good enough.

Grove Sandwiches – Another sandwich chain in Hong Kong, they manage to make Oliver’s Super Sandwich seem good.

Magnolia – Okay, I’ve never been here for lunch, they don’t serve lunch.  But it is in Sheung Wan.  A private kitchen doing authentic New Orleans cuisine.  We came here once for dinner and it was fantastic. Highly recommended.

Gourmet Burger Union – This branch of a Hong Kong burger chain has outdoor seating only and is a bit of a walk.  I’ve only been here once as a result but the burger was quite okay.

Gaia Ristorante – The set lunch here is $248, which means I don’t come here unless someone else is paying.  It is really good, though the portions are on the small side (not counting, of course, the antipasto buffet, which is very nice indeed) and service is haphazard.

Hmmm, what have I left out?  There’s a branch of Cafe O that I’ve been to a couple of times, relaxing and decent food.  There’s this place on Queen’s Road, upstairs, Cafe something, recently opened, western set lunchs running between 50 and 100, had a nice burger and salad there.  A few more hole-in-the-wall joints with no English name doing some seriously good noodle soups seriously cheap.

So that’s 30+ places out of 496.  I still have quite a few to go!  (And sometimes when I’m feeling ambitious I’ll head over towards Central for a bite.)

What places have I missed?  Which ones do you consider to be a “must”?

With the weather so depressing outside, we spent the day cooking … and eating.

My gf dug out the Julia Child cookbook and went for chicken ragout and I must say it came out rather nice.  It’s a sort of rich, dark stew with a very deep and flavorful sauce.  Can’t complain about her getting more ambitious in the kitchen.  I think one reason for the ambition is that I recently got some new pots and pans, German stainless steel, 50% off sale in Hang Hau.

I was vaguely less ambitious.  Salmon.  Quick and easy recipe grabbed out of Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.  Cast iron pan.  Little bit of vegetable oil.  Salt & pepper.  Salmon, skin scored.  A minute or two on each side.  Then used Bittman’s “5 Minute Drizzle Sauce” – extra virgin olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt & pepper, heated up in a sauce pan, poured over the salmon.  The salmon was Alaskan sockeye salmon, scored from The Porterhouse.  I gotta say, they’re not a cheap, but some of the stuff I’ve gotten from there has been seriously good.  Their Angus burgers (8 ounces each, 6 for about $200) are the best I’ve ever had at home.

We also prepared something to marinate overnight and cook and eat tomorrow – suon nuong, or Vietnamese style pork chops.  These are the ones we had on the street when we were in Nha Trang and I can still remember how damned good they were.

I found this recipe in Saveur Magazine and a friend of mine asked me to post it on the blog so here goes, more or less:

You start with thin pork chops, no more than 1/4 inch thick.  Then you need:

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced shallots
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced lemongrass
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1-1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• ground black pepper
• 8 garlic cloves finely chopped

Heat the 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan until it turns to liquid caramel. Remove from heat, add 1/4 cup boiling water, return to heat, cook till the caramel dissolves in the water.

Put this in a food processor or blender along with the rest of the sugar, lemongrass, shallots, oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, pepper and garlic. Puree until smooth.

Put the pork chops in a pan or dish, cover with the sauce, cover and chill anywhere from 1 hour to over night.

Cook the pork chops in a cast iron pan about 2 minutes till cooked through and charred in spots.  Serve with rice and chili-garlic sauce (we have lots of bottles of Sri Racha sauce at home, I can’t live without it now).

Richard, let me know if you try it out yourself and how it comes out.

This ad was in The Standard today.

I love In-N-Out Burger.  There is no fast food burger in the US that comes close to this one.  For those who’ve never had one, maybe the best comparison I can come up with is to say it’s like Triple O’s only better.  They’re only on the west coast of the US, the burgers are made from quality meat, real cheese, the fries are made from fresh potatoes right in the store.  So the notion of In-N-Out in Hong Kong is like a fantasy I wouldn’t dare to have.

But wait a minute.  Just what is going on here?  One day only?  4 hours only?  And in Braemar Hill, FFS?

Is there anything about this that even slightly makes sense?

An absolutely gorgeous day today and I couldn’t believe that I managed to leave my camera behind when we went out.

Anyway, the small shop sizes and relatively low rents in Sai Kung mean that people feel a bit freer to try something a little different here, or at least try to get a business off the ground.  Sai Kung is home to HK’s only Sri Lankan restaurant (AJ’s) and is where the Paisano’s empire got its start (a mere two years ago – he’s up to 5 or 6 locations and is promising four more for next year as well as expansion into Shanghai and Beijing).

Walking around today, we found a new place, open for just two weeks, with the descriptive but perhaps unfortunate name of Juicy Jap Dog.  All day breakfasts, all natural smoothies and combinations of Japanese things on top of sausages.  I tried the Olopon dog – Yuzu Ponzu, grated radish and green onion.

My gf went for the Okonomi dog, featuring Okonomi sauce, Japanese mayo, bonito flakes and cabbage.

The hot dogs were big, plump and, yes, juicy.  The shop is at most 200 square feet, including the kitchen.

Just around the corner was an even smaller place called Ali Baba’s Curry House which, oddly enough, doesn’t serve curry.  They had samosas and a kind of crepe (I asked if it was murtabak and the guy said, “yes, it’s kind of like murtabak”) with various meat or fruit fillings.

The samosas are sitting there on a tray, ready to pop into a bag, but the crepes are made fresh when you order them – and cost a measly HK$20 each.  And yeah, it was nice.

Which makes me think about something that Hong Kong has lost by outlawing most street food, the notion of going from stand to stand, grabbing a little bit here, a little bit there, mixing and matching tastes and cuisines.  You can do that in many places in Asia but really, what’s left of street food in most of HK are small little shops with counters out on the street, mostly selling various bits of crap on sticks.  (And when I say crap, don’t get me wrong, I frequently go for this stuff, but I’m sure that most of it is horrendously unhealthy.)  It ain’t anything close to walking around the back streets of Shanghai or Beijing or a food street in Kuala Lumpur – even the cooked food centers in the wet markets (Sai Kung’s wet market doesn’t have one) aren’t like this.   As long as our useless government is into needlessly “upgrading” streets and neighborhoods and destroying what character they had (have you seen the plans for Sneaker Street, Fa Yuen Gai, in Mong Kok?) why not create some food streets – streets with street carts or dai pai dongs and tables, some crap on a stick here, a bag of dumplings there … but I can do without the stinky tofu, okay?

Do people in Hong Kong know about Lucky Peach?  It’s a quarterly food journal published by McSweeney’s and co-edited by David Chang (of NYC’s Momofuku empire).  It’s a literary journal, with recipes.  Issue number one came out last summer and was mostly devoted to ramen.  It includes “Mediocrity,” a conversation between Chang, Anthony Bourdain and WD50′s Wylie Dufresne, sitting around in a bar in San Sebastian, Spain.  And “Harold McGee in Outre Space.”

Issue #2 came out recently and my copy will be arriving this week via Amazon.

Something else that I just ordered is called Notes From a Kitchen.  The first thing to know about this is that it comes in two volumes, is 932 pages long and weighs 15 pounds.

Provocative artist, filmmaker and photographer Jeff Scott and chef Blake Beshore bring you the re-envisioning of the modern American cookbook. Notes from a Kitchen redefines the cookbook genre in a spectacular two-volume, 900 page cloth-covered collection that feels more like a beautiful museum artifact and private chef’s journal than a traditional cookbook.

This beautifully-crafted collection explores today’s most exciting young chefs in their kitchens and in personal conversation. Featuring over 1,000 vibrant color photographs, uniquely edited documentary film footage and private journals, this new form of modern cookbook studies the unique artistry that surrounds their emotional craft.

How do you get documentary film footage on the printed page?  I have no idea.  Huffington Post says it “redefines the cookbook” and has images of some of the pages.

Interestingly enough, they raised the money to publish this book via a Kickstarter project.  At Kickstarter, they describe it this way:

Notes from a Kitchen is the first book ever produced, which accurately portrays the daily creative lives of world-renowned chefs in a strikingly visual and narrative format. Never before has a cookbook focused more intently on who a chef really is as a person and why they place their culinary passion before almost everything else in their lives. This revolutionary cookbook reveals firsthand the daily journey inside a chef’s culinary obsession.

Kind of an unfortunate use of a comma in that first sentence, eh?  Anyway, it’s released on December 10th.

Artist, photographer and director Jeff Scott and chef Blake Beshore have teamed up to produce this inventive two-volume compilation, changing form and function and transforming how cookbooks are utilized today. We want to produce a book that is accessible to foodies, while also stimulating the culinary passions of working chefs, sous chefs, line cooks, servers, culinary students and avid home cooks.  Our intent is to focus on the authenticity of the craft and not on the hype. This reinvention of the modern cookbook is a one-of-a-kind culinary experience.

I’ve pre-ordered one already.