A Taste of Spain - BCN

For a belated celebration of M's birthday, we decided on BCN (short for Barcelona), a Spanish restaurant that does only tasting menus.

On this night we were given a choice between two menus -  "Trip to Spain" ($628) and "Summer Chef" ($708). As we were first-timers here and being pork lovers we went with the "Trip to Spain" to sound out their suckling pig... 

We began our meal with our own platter of goodies. My favourite was hands down the ham but the Manchego with a drizzle of honey and thinly sliced spicy chorizo were delicious all the same.

Fancy Thai - Mango Tree

When a Hong Kong person thinks of Thai food, Kowloon City aka "Thai town" of Hong Kong often springs to mind. No doubt, there is an abundance of cheap and cheerful Thai eateries there although standards have dropped since I was young - my school was nearby and visits to the Thai restaurants in the 'hood as well as Kung Wo Soybean Factory was a must-do every week... Now that I am based on Hong Kong island, trips to Kowloon City is rare and when I do go it's often for the veal goulash cakes, or "牛肉餅" in Muslim Food followed by a bowl of smooth tofu fa at Kung Wo. (If you haven't been already, what are you waiting for?!!)

Anyhow, I do often make trips to Elements - it being easily accessible and all; and one of my favourite restaurants there is Mango Tree. It's first branch in Hong Kong is in the Cubus building in Causeway Bay, but this place has a slightly longer menu and a floor to ceiling windows giving you a wonderful view of Hong Kong.... This place is definitely pricier than the many Thai restaurants around Wanchai, Causeway Bay and Kowloon City but on my couple of visits here the dishes were executed well and tasty. 

chicken and beef satays with peanut sauce and pickles (($98 ea)

Zanzo - izakaya with vegetarian friendly eats!

Visiting Rakuen recently reminded me of another Japanese drinking/eating establishment I enjoy taking friends - Zanzo in hipster area Tai Hang. They have a lovely bar area and small tables surrounding the bar - whilst I wouldn't recommend this for big groups it's definitely somewhere to check out with a partner or a couple others. Part of the Miramar Group, this Japanese 'contemporary bar' has a short but well-executed menu and several daily specials each night; and although one doesn't often think of Japanese places as vegetarian friendly, this place does have a small but good selection that will make any vegetarians happy. Moreover, the prices are ridiculously reasonable.... probably because of its neighbourhood being not as easily accessible (okay it was a good ten minute walk from the MTR, which, is not bad at all!)

guess what's this black and multi-colored dish?!

Izakaya with reliable, delicious drinks & food

A couple weeks ago I was invited to a tasting (thank you David for the invite and arrangements!) at Rakuen in Lan Kwai fong. Now the Causeway Bay branch has been around for a while with quite a good following but this branch, in a somewhat nondescript building of LKF is much quieter (and comfier!) Anyhow, rather than giving us a set menu of selected dishes we were given a budget which we thought was much better as this allows for room for people with picky palates or allergies (*myself included)... Since they have a recent Okinawan chicken specials menu, we went ahead and ordered several dishes from there as well as Rakuen's signatures and staples. 

Soju + Apgujeong Tent Bar

I love spicy food. I might not be able to handle Sichuan Shuizhu  (水煮) as I find that it shuts down my throat which is not a good feeling for anyone to have.... but when it comes to ethnic food generally e.g. Thai / Indian / Korean, the spicy dishes tickle my fancy.  

Banchan

Top left: fried anchovies, vegetables, fishcake, beef, spinach and sprouts, radish kimchi and cabbage kimchi in the middle. 
The banchan here was probably the most disappointing banchan I've had in the many Korean restaurants I've tried around town... (if you are looking for good refillable kimchi like they do it in Korea, Sura is it!) Save for the cabbage kimchi which was way too heavily salted and spiced, the other items were acceptable but even though we were a table of six the above was what we had in total; so we each probably only had a bite of a few of the banchans. When asked whether we could have a refill they simply said no.

Washoku lunching at Nadaman

After a hectic week, dad, brother and myself headed over to Nadaman at Kowloon Shangrila Hotel for Sunday lunch. Given that it was the weekend we arrived at almost 2pm to find the restaurant fully packed and a few tables celebrating birthdays (I believe you get a free tiramisu cake with certain credit cards!). Anyway, we were led to our seats and promptly ordered as we were quite close to the last-order time of 2.30pm.  

Although I really wanted to order the kaiseki set lunch ($480) our waitress informed us that we were too late! Next time I thought, next time... Having ruled kaiseki off, the two men went with the Nadaman shokado bento boxes and a Tokusen nigiri zen called for me... 

Tokusen Nigiri Zen ($440)