Daisan Harumi, Tokyo Japan - omakase sushi lunch

Daisan Harumi, Tokyo Japan - omakase sushi lunch 

Having done a bit of research I found out about this place and wanted to go during one of our days. We were lucky to be able to plan 2 months ahead and made reservations the month before the date we wanted to go. 

Menu during lunch

うに虎喰 - Tsukiji Itadori Unitora Kurau, Tokyo, Japan 

Our first breakfast in Tokyo was na sea urchin specialty store to satisfy our sea urchin cravings... we went to this place by the Tsukiji market and avoided the queues at the popular sushi joints as we were going to get top sushi later.

catch of the day

Tapas Molecular Bar, Tokyo - Fun, interactive molecular gastronomy cuisine

Tapas Molecular Bar, Tokyo - Fun, interactive molecular gastronomy cuisine

The few months leading up to my Tokyo trip was almost torturous. The moment I booked my tickets I started to research where we would spend our main meal times knowing reservations would be tricky. I know molecular gastronomy isn't everyone's thing but N and I happen to be fans and generally open-minded on food, and so we decided to do a non-Japanese meal at the 1 Michelin starred Tapas Molecular Bar. I'm not too sure how they coined the name as it's not so much tapas than a degustation menu, with no choice but their current seasonal tasting menu. You can of course let them know in advance if you have allergies but generally there's no room for choice. 

Compared to the sushi restaurants around town, TMB wasn't too hard to secure bookings at, you simply have to do it early as they only take 8 seatings per night. I made the reservations for the night we landed, so this was our first meal in Tokyo (if you don't count the matcha swiss roll from cha no wa or the ice cream macaron sandwich from Pierre Herme we had 2 hours before dinner ;-). 

Tool box - essential part of everyone's meal tonight

Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin - Fine, Modern Thai food in Central Bangkok

Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin - Fine, Modern Thai food in Central Bangkok

Located inside the Kempinski Siam hotel (next to Siam Paragon mall) this restaurant is easy to reach and food and atmosphere amazing. I know they were previously on Asia's 50 best restaurants although for some reason it is no longer on the 2015 guide. That aside, a friend who visited both this and Nahm highly recommend this over Nahm and I took their advice. 

Soul Food Mahanakorn, Bangkok - Many expats, but definitely an excellent place for modern Thai eating

Soul Food Mahanakorn, Bangkok - Many expats, but definitely an excellent place for modern Thai eating  

Apologies for such a long hiatus! Blogging definitely requires a lot of effort and I admire those who hold a 10+ hour job and can still make time to post their foodie excursions. 

I'm currently on a long holiday break and hence have found some time to post my travels of this year. I definitely regret not posting anything whilst away in London, Madrid, Berlin, Paris, Singapore and Philippines in 2014 as I've maintained this blog as a way to remind myself what I've eaten in the past and share with the public pictures of my meals and thoughts for reference. Going forward I'm going to do my best to post blogs on my meals during my travels, and for photos of my meals in HK you may visit gastronomerr.tumblr.com! 

On to the good stuff, earlier in May my first stop was Bangkok. I was there mainly for spa and relaxation however did manage to book two restaurants I had read about and wanted to try - desperately! I picked one casual and one fine dining place to see what Bangkok had to offer. Both turned out great, and below is my experience at Soul Food Mahanakorn, which I had read to serve excellent Thai food with small twists to the traditional ingredients/methods. 

Catalunya - Sunday brunch with a lot of spectacle and excellent service

Catalunya was definitely one of the hottest restaurants to open in Hong Kong last year - so for a Sunday lunch I gathered my folks for a stuff-yourself-silly meal...

menu

Tim's Kitchen

Admittedly this is a very belated post, a visit made last October, but a post nonetheless! Happy New Year everybody - the holiday period was definitely enjoyable for me, being a glutton and all....hope all of yours was too!

Braised pomelo skin with shrimp roes ($80/pc)

Really good - not to get into the whole cooking process but the soaking of the skin to remove its bitterness alone takes around 3 days... since this is something I wouldn't bother doing, this is one dish I like ordering. The shrimp roes were fragrant too and seasoning was just right. 

Chilled marinated goose meat roll ($54)

Not a big fan of beancurd skin but I liked the filling - different textures and flavours made for a delicious bite.

Choice of 2 BBQ meat: BBQ pork and roasted crispy baby pork belly ($118)

BBQ pork (char siu) was mediocre at best, lacking both sweet and salty flavours, charred bits and wasn't quite tender enough; but that clear five-layered roasted pork belly was as glorious as last time.

Double-boiled winter melon soup with shrimps, yunnan ham, crab meat, fungus ($550/7 servings)

In line with the end-of-summer heat, we pre-ordered this bad boy to share. Luscious winter melon meat with fresh seafood and quality ham... lovely!

 

Deboned Eight Treasure Duck ($500)

This was fall-off-the-bone tender, one can easily cut through the meat with a spoon. Well-seasoned and something worth ordering in advance for.

Barley, chesnuts, green beans, lotus seeds, gingko nuts, egg yolk and various offal including liver.

From a previous visit: 

Two barbeque selection ($118) - BBQ pork and roasted baby pork belly

Oven-baked chicken with preserved vegetables wrapped in lotus leaf ($450)

This chicken was one of the better Chinese-style chicken dishes I've had. Very tender chicken with basically no fat between the skin and meat, and full-on flavours coming from the bird itself and saltiness from the preserved vegetables. I'll be ordering this again.

 

Tim's Kitchen deserves its popularity. I have yet to try the taro puff with sliced duck and the fried glutinous rice,  and will definitely be back for those!

Food: ♥♥♥♥1/2

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: About HK$300-400

 

Tim's Kitchen

G/F & 1/F, 84-90 Bonham Strand,

Sheung Wan 

Hong Kong

T: +852 2543 5919 (bookings highly recommended, many dishes require at least a day's notice)