Miscellaneous Food: Hong Kong Part 2

How cute is she? This is Ari, my friend's daughter and an absolute babe at the age of almost-2....

We rounded up our weekend by joining my friends for tea and then family friends for dinner and family lunch the next day. Unfortunately, I had no pictures from dinner which is a tragedy because it was easily the best Cantonese meal I've had for years. It was chosen by a friend who is a great connoiseur of food and I had never been to this restaurant before, although it's opposite the street in Wan Chai from Che's Teahouse.

This place is called Futong Cantonese Restaurant and if you ever get to go, gosh but I'd recommend it. I don't know what the prices are like but the food was stellar. We started with some local soup, then a stir-fried shark's fin and crab roe dish. Delicious! Then we had this braised chicken (you know how HK chickens always seem yellow on their skin, unlike the pasty pink Singapore ones) that had been stuffed with glutinous rice and mushrooms. Geez, it was good. My brother and I are fairly discerning with food and pick quite a bit over our plates but we licked every course clean at this dinner, then looked over at each other in a mixture of horror and disbelief.

The other dishes that were notable were the yummy fried rice and this obscure dish, which is pomelo skins, which have been slow-steamed for hours, until the porous husk becomes a soft, supple, yam-like dish. This is a old, traditional offering that is well-remembered by my parent's generation but doesn't make an appearence much anymore.

After staggering out of that restaurant, my parents went for a tour of Lan Kwai Fong while I went to join friends at the new Zuma. I didn't eat and the sushi bar looked both hip and promising but I have to say I was not impressed by the desserts, which were all nouveau riffs of pomegranate and banana and passionfruit and green tea with coconut rum kind of combinations that I find pretentious and jarring. The good part about Zuma is probably the drinks, they mix with a delicious variety of fresh fruit.


The next day, we awoke very close to lunch and hopped along through the Landmark building to get to the L'Atelier de Joel Rubuchon for lunch with my two cousins. I must admit that I had my reservations. After a horrid and freakishly expensive meal at L'Table de Joel Robuchon in Paris, the memory of the cold, unsmiling service was still etched into my brain. I've also been to the Robuchon a Galera in the Macau, which, although known as the finest French restuarant in Asia, is really a bizarre, luminous coloured empty birdcage of a restaurant in the seediest-ly prostituted casino. So I had some doubts.


The atmosphere was neat, if slightly empty and from the two streaks of crimson neon that parallel the escalator entrance to the black marble floor and red leather tables, this was definitely a dramatic restaurant. The walls of the counter were lined with scores of identical bottles of cleverly colourful capsicums and other vegetables and you could look through to see the chefs and head chef Philippe Groult, running the kitchen.


I was cheered to think that really one should eat at Joel Robuchon in Asia because you pay the same prices but in Asian currency instead of Euros! We went for the lunch menu set which was about $360 HKD or $70 SGD and the service was far more attentive and friendly than in Paris, although still quite Frenchy-snobby-wobby. Forget genuine banter and little surprise chef's specials, this ain't that kind of place.


We began with a lemon jelly with truffle cream and then we were served a beetroot carpaccio. These were interesting, though I felt, not very substantial dishes.


The second starter was probably the most interesting dish. It was a take on the usual presentation of scallops, these were pan fried, then served with a tempura-ed asparagus and dehydrated bacon. The whole thing was a very full, savory taste but it was so small. I couldn't really decide if, as a gourmet dish, it was fun (ie. clever) or funny (ie. unnecesary).


The mains were a salmon poached in chicken broth and a teriyaki chicken. Although the salmon was nice and soft, the chicken broth was rather oily and the teriyaki chicken was a rather disappointing affair, with a very thin cutlet and an unmemorable sauce.


The last thing we had was a refreshing dessert and my photo of it is not at all representative, as usual I tucked in before I took a photo (beginnings of a blog called "half-eaten" with my kind of photos). It was a coffee ice cream with mango and caramel, surprisingly, the tastes went very well together, although what the dessert was, was rather simple in execution. That's a fairly balanced statement about the whole meal really, that all in all, it was good although it wasn't mind-blowing. I felt a bit aggrieved that clearly, the set is just about satisfying your Joel Rubuchon curiousity and not really reflective of any breadth or depth in cooking.




Fu Tong Cantonese Cuisine
3rd floor Wharney Guang Dong Hotel
57-73 Lockhart Road,
Wanchai, Hong Kong

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Shop 401, 4/F, The Landmark, Hong Kong, China
(852) 2166-9000

Giveaway: Cooking and plating lessons for the home chef!

Happy weekend everyone!

We have an exciting giveaway to help brighten your weekend cheer (and your next weekend). Gourmet Kitchen is conducting a gourmet culinary course for beginners or home cooks. The lessons are on 24th Aug, Fri ( 6pm - 9pm ) and the 25th Aug, Sat ( 2pm - 7pm ) and they have kindly sponsored two places for our lucky readers.

This program aims to help students become more proficient home cooks and hosts, so that they can raise their game and throw truly restaurant-worthy dinner parties. I think this is a very worthy cause and will attend the course myself.

You can attend either day, or both. What will be taught on the first day is aspects of table settings and set up for the dining table, introduction to quick cooking, basic soups and knife techniques, a hands-on section for Cream of Mushroom Soup, Pumpkin Potage with Asparagus Spears and Minestrone Soup and basic Italian cooking for pastas and sauces. The second day's schedule is a revision of basic Italian cuisine, introduction to meats, kitchen maintainence and if time permits, a hands-on session for gourmet cuisine.

You'll also get a complimentary recipe book and get to spend some time with the talented chefs at 19 Lewis Road, a lovely spacious home off Bukit Timah and Dalvey Court. Please see here for more details.

All you have to do to win, is drop us a message in the comments, sharing your best/funniest dinner party host story and why you want to cook with the Only Slightly Pretentious Foodies. Good luck! I'm sorry but the contest is only open to our Singaporean readers and the closing date is 20th August 12 midnight Singapore time.

Miscellaneous Food: Hong Kong Part 1

I wanted to post about Paris but I have a dear friend, S. going to HK in a bit and I wanted to show her what I had to eat while there, so here goes! Colin is in HK for work and I had to go there on a business trip, so my family decided to go the weekend before, for a short break.

We arrived so late and had a giant dinner waiting for us with some family friends, so we just went to the dumpling store that I'd posted on before here and then to the Chris Patten's egg tarts. The noodles and dumplings are so satisfying and the egg tarts are to die for, soft, supple and still runny inside. Near the egg tart store, where Lyndhurst meets the top of the Cochran Street, there is a brilliant local milk tea stall, you have to look Behind the regular street set-ups to the permernant shop in the back, which makes a mean Dong Nai Cha (cold milk tea), which we also had to tide us over till dinner, which was at a private eating club. There aren't a terrible number of photos from the first two dinners because it'd have been a bit rude.


The second day, we went to Che's Teahouse for lunch. Che's is at 4/F The Broadway, 54-62 Lockhart Road, Wanchai, Tel 2528 1123. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Wanchai has a seedy reputation but it is the Best place in HK for Cantonese food.


I'm a big fan of dim sum and we had all the usual suspects, like the crystal mushroom dumplings, siew mai and prawn (hao gao) dumplings pictured above. I had been here before with my mom and one of my friends and I felt that the previous time, the service and the food had been far superior.


I guess the takeaway is, don't come at 11am on a Saturday as we did this time but 1pm on a Sunday, as we did the first time. If you do come, definitely try the spring rolls and the regular dimsum.


Also, you definitely have to book ahead as well, as it is very crowded and well-regarded.


This is probably my favourite place to have dimsum in HK as the quality is fine and the price is not low but fair.


I generally find there's no need to go to a hotel to eat dim sum as it tends to be quite pricey, the other place that is good is Maxim's at the Harbour or else Star House at Tsim Sha Tsui.


We had desserts as well, the usual Cantonese fare of coconut pudding, egg tarts and steamed custard layer tarts.

Then we took a trip down Lockhart Street, I couldn't resist as we were already just one MTR stop away from Causeway Bay and we went to my favourite place in HK, Yee Shun Milk Company.


I blogged about it on my previous trip to HK but I just have to emphasize that it's so worth the trip!


As a milk company, all they do is milk and custard desserts but boy, they do it well! This is my favourite "steamed milk pudding with two films". You seat yourself and ask for "dong siong pei nai" and they bring you the most refreshing, smoothest, creamiest milk pudding this side of the equator. The other items really worth trying are the papaya milk (if you're a papaya fan) and the steamed egg custard.

Review: The new Au Petit Salut

You know the economy is doing well when not only new restaurants stop popping up, but old ones start opening new outlets in interesting locations.

Au Petit Salut is one of my favourite French restaurants, because they keep themselves reliable, both in terms of the quality of food and service. So it was with great keenness that I discovered that it would be opening a new outlet in Dempsey Road, adding to the cluster of FnB venues that are already making the location a great place to go after work or on weekends.



The new Au Petit Salut is perched on a hill, making it unmissable from the road, and the restaurant boasts a much more attractive al fresco dining area than its Chip Bee Garden outlet (which is now a bistro).



Nightfall is the best time to enjoy the restaurant though, as it shines like a beacon in the Dempsey darkness, with spotlights throwing the restaurant's stylised "Au Petit Salut" sign into starkly dramatic relief. The warmly lit interior is immediately welcoming, able to easily seat fifty or so people in air-conditioned comfort.

In terms of food, the restaurant has retained old crowd-pleasers like the escargots and onglet steak, while introducing new items like a Cote de Boeuf for two. It's a bit like watching your favourite comedian, and finding out that since the last time you heard him perform, he's acquired some new uproarious jokes.



Salads remain a good bet; the chefs treat the leaves respectfully, allowing them to retain their crisp freshness and natural moisture. Dressings are never forced - instead they are kept light and piquant, while accompanying ingredients are used sparingly and sensibly, keeping you pleasantly refreshed.



The French Onion Soup was fairly pedestrian, with only a smidgen of melted cheese floating rather morosely on the surface. French onion soup should be powerful - arresting, even - and in order to achieve that you need a strong base stock; something I felt this soup lacked. It was thin and meek, hardly satisfying.



Escargots have been on the menu at Au Petit Salut for ages, and still come served with lots of garlic butter. I maintain that the AVA has some really misconceived rules about importing animals - the unavailability of fresh escargot being one of them.







One of the old bugbears about the old menu was the relative infrequency of its updates. Well, that will probably no longer be a concern; the new menu features such offerings as braised lamb shank, new cuts of steak and also some pasta dishes for those who insist on ordering Italian food in a French restaurant.



Au Petit Salut handles slow-cooking very well, and the braised beef cheeks were comfortingly tender, paired with a rich sauce and some root vegetables. It's probably safe to say that you're quite safe ordering meat dishes here.



Unfortunately, it must be said that the standard of the desserts has fallen somewhat, like your favourite comedian forgetting one of the best punchlines. It was all the more disappointing since it came at the end of the meal, with nothing to make up for it. Ostensibly a Grand Marnier souffle, it was over-cooked and stodgy; nothing like the airy masterpieces the kitchen used to churn out on such a regular basis.

The new digs has come with a slightly more expensive menu, perhaps best encapsulated in the fact that the famed set lunch is now $28 (though it's still $22 at the bistro). Overall, the new Au Petit Salut is a valuable addition to Dempsey Road, paving the way to the establishment of more formal restaurants in the area.

Au Petit Salut (French)
40C Harding Road
Tel: 6475 1976

Read: The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley, by Elizabeth Romer

I just wanted to highlight this book, having mentioned it a couple of times over the last months. I love this book, it's an awesome and dense read. The premise is, an English girl goes to live in Tuscany and for a year, observes and details exactly the life of a Tuscan housewife in her kitchen.

She notes all the farm recipes calling for olive oil measured in wine glasses, specific kinds of tomatoes and wild peasants (as well as more common meats like beef, veal and chicken). Romer recounts the way of life folks in Tuscany have enjoyed for centuries, tabling the changing of the seasons and the household chores according to the seasons- in winter they spin wool and cure quantities of prosciutto, in springtime the pecorino cheese is made, while in summer the farm is ripe with corn, pears, and sweet peas and in autumn, they wine and harvest. The rhythm of life naturally follows from the foods of the seasons.

The whole process is evocative and informational. If you're a fan of Italian cooking, this brings you back to the basics, the blends for pasta and pasta sauces, the combination of specific vegetables for the 'odori', which she explains is the substance and fibre base to any pasta topping. The recipes are incredibly authentic, any Italian cooking class you attend will pretty much have the same recipes that grew out of this region and I myself have used many of the recipes listed in the book.

This is obviously not the only, nor neccesarily the best book on Tuscany out there but I think it's a classic introduction to the cooking and culture of Tuscany and that it's so important not just to cook food or take pictures of it, but really read about it and understand both the context and culture of what we are celebrating.

Thanks Auntie C. for a great gift!