Tales from the Crypt - Ibu Oka, Ubud

From a trip several years ago to Ubud. See below pictures of babi guling - no words needed.

Quote

"I don't want to stand there, I just want to dance." Amanda Chan.

Waku Ghin

Tetsuya's Singapore restaurant opened recently and we were lucky enough to visit on the weekend. The cuisine is Japanese as opposed to the Japanese influenced served at Testuya's and is cooked/prepared at Teppanyaki stations, something I enjoy as I love seeing what's going on. The cost is incredibly high and its hard to even consider if "its worth it." I will say it is one of the greatest dining experiences I have had in a long long time.

Warm soup of pumpkin with white truffle.

Martinated botan ebi with sea urchin & Oscietre caviar.

Tachiuo wrapped in Pancetta with braised witlof & aonori.

Abalone with fregola & tomato.

Braised lobster with tarragon.

Warm salad of Cape Grim grass fed beef.

Australian blackmore Wagyu with wasabi.

Consomme with rice & snapper.

Gyokuro.

Granita of Kyoho grapes.

Ghin cheesecake.

The new fact for the evening was that the harder you grate fresh wasabi, the hotter it gets. We took the Pepsi challenge and sure enough less pressure results in a milder wasabi.


I have never really seen why abalone is such a highly regarded ingredient and I still don't, however the abalone dish served at Waku Ghin was phenomenal and by far my favourite dish of the evening.

The food was incredibly restrained. Exceptional ingredients prepared very delicately, the chef's skill being leaving the ingredients alone rather than doing too much. I would absolutely go back tomorrow, if someone else paid or next year if I am paying.

Deepavali long weekend in HK

Amanda and I have a tough life. We flew to HK again last weekend to celebrate the Deepavali long weekend with Bin. It was an eating holiday for all and a shopping holiday for the girls. I had my plans for the days however constant rain stopped me from walking the streets.

On Friday night we were booked in to Liberty Private Works, a private kitchen we had loved on a visit earlier in the year. Upon arrival we were told that there was a private function and that they had tried to get in contact with us, our booking wasn't confirmed, a dog ate their homework, sometimes bad things happen to good people.........I suspect that they had a better offer which I can understand for a 10 seat restaurant however that lack of professionalism and behaviour will come back to haunt them. I had such a great meal there last time that I am not sure how long my black-list will host them.

Try getting a booking at 8:30pm on a Friday night in Hong Kong. Our fall back plan of some noodles and meats was always going to be great however we were focused on something else. We eventually got a 10:15pm booking at The Drawing Room, a 1 star Italian restaurant attached to our hotel (JIA). The food was fantastic and everything I love about great Italian food - simple & unfussy, great ingredients, unpretentious. And generously covered in freshly shaved white truffles.

Amanda has taken an immediate shine to the white truffle after just our first try. Heaven forbid she should take to the slightly less ridiculously priced black truffle.

So we went to Bo Innovation for dinner on Saturday night. The Chef Alvin Leung is some sort of bad-boy rock star of the HK food scene although I think that this is mainly self-styled. I was very excited to eat here as Bo is one of the few restaurants delivering modern Chinese food (not to be confused with fusion). I have been very disappointed with most of the "acclaimed" fine dining locations I have eaten at in Asia many of which have been French (should I be surprised?).

I am very glad I dined here and I generally enjoyed the meal however I won't be back.

A google search will find you far better and in-depth food reviews than I can provide however my general thoughts are that this is meal is a condescending theme-park offering. As each course is served, the waiter brought out the traditional Chinese ingredient(s) that is referenced in the course being eaten and explained the background of the dish. I am fine to have some irony served with my dinner however not if it needs to be explained (condescendingly). There were almost no Hong Kong natives eating and this restaurant will continue to be a tourist only destination if it continues down this path.

Some dishes were molecular, some not. The interpretation of Beggar's Chicken was made from frog with an almost flavourless lotus root powder. It was tender and delicious however there was no link whatsoever to Beggar's Chicken. The foie gras course didn't make any discernible reference to a Chinese dish.

As a friend aptly described, it was try hard.

Deepavali 2010

Hong Kong - Bledisloe Cup weekend

Amanda and I were in Hong Kong to watch the Bledisloe Cup - a great birthday present from a very thoughtful husband. Australia had not beaten the All Blacks in 10 matches and NZ were on track for a world record winning streak. The Wallabies had a recent habit of running in tries through the first half then being overrun in the second so when the All Blacks went into half time with a lead, it looked bleak.

The Australian back three were brilliant again and when O'Connor scored after the final whistle to tie the scores, it was left to him to convert his own try for an overdue win. The rest is history and a history that will give the All Blacks some nightmares over the coming year. It was a fantastic test after a brilliant Tri Nations with rugby back on track after some boring years. It's now time for SA, NZ and Aus to embarrass the Northern Hemisphere teams and the quality of rugby being served up there.

So, food.

We ate at an OK Teochow restaurant on arrival but it was great to line the stomach for the rugby. A few drinks with Bobby and Kim after the match and then off to an Italian steak restaurant for some very fine meat. Bistecca in Lang Kwai Fong served some of the better steaks I have eaten in recent times.

In the morning I went for a walk and came across one my favourite street foods of all time - congyoubing - scallion pancake. A few pancakes were scoffed on the street watching the world of Causeway Bay go around. They were not great, but they were still congyoubing.

We were staying in a cool boutique hotel called JIA which I can recommend. Cool design, afternoon tea, evening drinks, free flow soft drinks, a 1 Star Michelin restaurant attached......

While we ate lunch at Caprice and were pretty disappointed (as I semi-expected to be), the real treat was eating at Le Marron, a small French restaurant which has recently graduated from a private kitchen. Very well done classic French cuisine - plump, juicy escargot, some delicious Gaillarde oysters, the juiciest pork chop I have ever eaten and a bottle of Bass Phillip pinot noir hands down outshone the over-priced and beige offerings of Caprice. Excluding the Epoisses cheese perhaps.