Friday night at Sushi U (鮨雄)

It's been a long while since I last wrote anything about...anything. I'm surprised by my own impetus to scribble a few lines tonight, as I try to break in my new Grado headphones on the good ol' Ipod.

After a week of back-to-back, 8.30am to 7.30pm meetings, nothing relaxes me more than a proper sushi meal on a Friday night. Sushi U has been the one hitting the right notes with me lately - fresh fish (except the slight burnt anago), right size, right temperature, balanced rice, yummy sake, friendly chefs. I wondered why this place was relatively empty on a Friday evening, given the quality and a reasonable omakase price tag?

I am looking forward to Sushi U again next Friday. Hopefully my favourite fresh saba will be available then.

More Favourite Places to Eat?

I am wrecking my brain here. The elusive 10th favourite place to eat...surely there must be a memorable Vietnamese, Indian, or Lebanese place for me?

Well, there is that USD 2 pho place in Ho Chi Minh that I adored, but if I am not even sure of its name or exact location, how can I include it? Bukhara in Delhi was supposed to be the best, but my experience there was very sub par. Forgettful me also has a vague recollection of a fancily decorated Lebanese place in Paris where I had the best falafel.

Then suddenly it occurred to me, that closer to home, there are 2 places I like very much also:

1. 再 興 BBQ Pork Rice in Wanchai, Hong Kong. While there have been incidents of inconsistency lately, this dirt hole's BBQ pork rice is still my hands-down favourite comfort food. I still remember on my first visit, I idiotically asked for extra sauce when the server pointed out a whole jugful of "all-you-can-pour" sat right in front of me. Duh.
2. Main Street Deli, Langham Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. This place serves consistently some of the best and most authentic deli sandwiches and burgers in town. I really enjoy their reuben, because they had turkey meat in the mix, making the package a lighter journey. The decor is original, I get root beer or Dr. Pepper, and even giant American cheesecake or lemon meringue pie! Heaven.
   

Now I can sleep.

My 11 Favourite Dishes

For fun, I list my favourite restaurant dishes (including dessert) - items that I would love to repeatedly indulge in:

1. BBQ pork rice (Wanchai's Joy Hing's version comes to mind)
2. Pappardelle al Ragu (Cova in Causeway Bay or Pacific Place does a nice one, I don't think it is on the menu, but they can do it for you)
3. Tamago (any variety, but especially the soft, freshly steamed kind mixed with fish)
4. Pancakes (BC Cafe on Indian Hill Blvd in Claremont, CA has HUGE flapjacks that I remember to this day from my college times. But I would LOVE to try the fluffy pancakes from Bill Granger in Sydney. The ones from the Flying Pan are quite nice also.)
5. Saba sushi (but it has to be very good quality saba)
6. Vietnamese pho bo (anywhere in Vietnam, LA, Paris)
7. Linguini gamberi (from the infamous Da Domenico...)
8. Classic cheesecake (from the Mandarin Oriental in HK)
9. Minced pork pie with squid (from Sang Kee in Wanchai)
10. Salt and pepper shrimp (from Fung Lum near Shatin)
11. Pig's liver with ginger and scallion (from "Kau Duck Chu" congee shop in Wanchai)

My Favourite Restaurants

For what it's worth, below is a list of my favourite restaurants, in no specific order of preference. My key criteria are that it should represent a memorable meal, and that it would be a place that I like to re-visit again and again.

1. Peter Luger's in Brooklyn - I haven't been to this place for ages, but a TV program just reminded me of my love for the "steak for two" (steak for one somehow just doesn't taste the same). More cholesterol? Yes please.
2. Hugo's at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (now torn down) in Tsim Sha Tsui. In my mind, nothing beats its prime rib. Too bad my favourite fantango bread was long gone before the restaurant was closed. I am looking forward to going back when the new Hyatt opens (whenever that may be, given the current economic climate).
3. Sushi Ichi in Tokyo - refined sushi at its contemporary best.
4. A tempura joint next to exit B3, Kamiyacho metro station, Tokyo. This 12-seat family-run restaurant is my favourite lunch spot but I don't know its name! At the price of 1,300 yen for a tempura teishoku, they use fresh ingredients, proper sesame seed oil and quality sea salt. Thinner batter definitely exists in Tokyo, but I think nothing beats its bang for the buck.
5. Cal Pep in Barcelona - simply the best tapas ever. I remember having the sweetest and most succulent green peppers there, and I don't even like green peppers much.
6. L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon - Tokyo branch. My 2nd favourite lunch spot. I always have the steak tartare with frites, and the dish looks the same year after year after year - I appreciate the reliability and consistency.
7. "Fung Lum" Restaurant (楓林小館) in Shatin, Hong Kong. An institution for me since childhood - salt and pepper shrimp, pigeon, braised bean curd, "yeung chow" style fried rice.
8. Toscana at the Ritz Carlton (also torn down), Hong Kong. I love its authenticity, and hope to see the talented Chef Bombana resurface soon.
9. Kahala - Osaka, Japan. Wonderful creativity and diversity from a chef who claimed to have not been out of Japan.

It is getting late, maybe I will come back and think of my 10th place after some snoozing.

My Sushi Journey: from Yamato to Itching for Sushi Ichi

My first recollection of sampling Japanese food was at Yamato, a long-gone restaurant on the 1st floor of a commercial building next to Eldorado Watch Co., Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong. As a 5-year-old, I remembered how I never liked the tonkatsu rice much but yearned always for the tamago (I still do).

Then came the day and age when the also-defunct Benkay at the Landmark was all the rage: miso cod fish, california maki's, toro, hamachi and salmon sushi became staples of my formative growth years.

The world of sushi was much larger of course, as I gradually discovered sans-familie in my food exploits from Causeway Bay to Ginza. Credit to Sushi Hiro for realizing the fickle palette of Hong Kong people, and introducing me to different fish with names unheard of before. I have since become far less fond of toro, in favour of seasonal white fish preferred by the Japanese.
(a nice piece of kimedai from Sushi Hiro)

It was, however, my first visit to Kybei in Ginza many years ago that cemented my current foundation views of what a great sushi-ya should be like - in terms of ambience, chefs' skills, the lack of fish in front of you except for what you are eating, and the quality of the all-important freshly steamed tamago.

Sushi-hopping became a new hobby, the first meal of each trip to Tokyo had to be a quality sushi dinner at some exotic, hard-to-find sushi-ya. Of all the first class joints in Tokyo, Sushi Ichi is my current favourite. It offers refinement with a contemporary twist, and its relatively casual setting had none of the stiffness sometimes associated with comparable competitors.

Importantly, the chefs understood that less is sometimes more: fatty fish served in a large portion might taste overly oily, but slicing it thinner or cubing it would allow better texture and flavour to come through actually.
(Grilled saba at Sushi Ichi)(Negi toro sushi with a twist at Sushi Ichi)
(Freshly steamed tamago with fish at Sushi Ichi)

I am yearning to go back to Sushi Ichi soon, but life is not always about new favourites. I suppose progression should be balanced by remembering your roots. For a taste of old times, I find Sagano's traditional fare serves me just fine.

Sushi Hiro: 10/F New Henry House, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. T: 2882 8752
Kyubei: http://www.kyubey.jp/index_e.html
Sushi Ichi: http://www.3567-0014.com/english/sushi/sushi.html
Sagano: 1/F Nikko Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. T: 2313 4215

A Short Musing on Cipriani

I have been craving for some decent Italian food for a while, and decided on lunch at Cipriani. It has been eons since I last visited this establishment, so it would almost seem like a first visit this time.

Lunch turned out to be "Tagliolini Day", as my friend and I both picked pasta as main dishes. Mine was a pesto and shrimp version from the set lunch menu, while my lunch mate took the à la carte tagliolni with crabmeat and zucchini flowers.

I thought my pasta tasted generally authentic, and I quite liked the heavier-than-expected, almost creamy pesto sauce. The shrimps tasted strangely Chinese though, crunchy like the Cantonese speciality "glass shrimp". A set lunch compromise perhaps? My friend's tagliolini was spot on taste-wise, and the crabmeat was fresh and chunky. However, given the high price tag I thought one really deserved a bigger portion.

Service was impeccable, as was expected from a restaurant of this calibre; but I wished the air conditioning was not freezing cold, and my single espresso did not come in a regular coffee cup. Nevertheless, I look forward to my next visit.

Cipriani
12/F Old Bank of China Bulidng, Central, Hong Kong.

My Alternative Take on Nino's Cozinha

Many raving reviews have been written online about the delicious and authentic food at Nino's Cozinha, a family-style Macanese / Portuguese restaurant in Wanchai. I have been a regular since they opened, and got to know the owners quite well. So I suppose my compulsion to take a different view and rant about Nino's here is justified.

Rant #1: What is wrong with the manageress at Nino's Cozinha and why is she still here? She lacks basic courtesy but is ignorant of it, has no phone etiquette, carries a rude disposition, and wants to charge me HK$700 (!) per head for Portugese food by emphasizing the need for me to cover for revenue loss by booking out the whole place. Yes I know that, but this is such a crass
way to talk to a large customer.

Good food coupled with a customer-unfriendly manageress (especially one who doesn't know it!) is not a recipe for long-term success.

Rant #2: food quality at Nino's might have gone south somewhat. I treated my best friend to a belated birthday dinner. While I could not remember all the items we ordered as the dinner was some time ago, one impression that lasted was how salty everything was, including my favourite beef short ribs and fried egg. What happened? I could tell the quality of the ingredients were the same, and I have always embraced the occasional shoddy and slow service as part of the deal with a small, inexperienced family restaurant; but such consistent over-seasoning was unexpectedly unpleasant.

Final gasp: adding more salt to injury, my tennis elbow arm was left hanging in the air for more than 5 seconds with my "credit card + bill sandwich"; the manageress decided to zone out after handing me the damage. Hello? It was a busy night at the restaurant and it was "ka-ching" time! What would I have done if Dear Joe of Nino's hadn't rescued her from the trance? That was the tipping point for me, too flabbergasted to feel anything more about this woman.

I wish Nino's well as it ponders expansion, but for now I think I have to give it a rest.

Nino's Cozinha
Ship Street, Wanchai
T: 2866 1868 (Book well in advance for dinner, and I hope you don't get to talk to the manageress)

Amused by Some "Amazing" Chirashi Sushi

I have had some misgivings about the Japanese joint "Ito-san", the next incarnation of my ex-favourite hidden gem, Sodeyama. As the only decent Japanese place in Quarry Bay, Ito-san ripped me off at dinner once; and lunch quality has gone south recently as prices increased and portions decreased. Despite this, I did not mind going there again for lunch, as the opportunity to meet up with my friend IM, who worked in the area, was more important.

As I scanned through the menu with famished eyes (I had been hungry since 12pm, and it was 1pm already), something like "bikkuri bara chirashi sushi, AMAZING sushi rice" caught my eye. Given my pretext about Ito-san, I asked the waiter just how amazing this chirashi sushi was then, not without a hint of sarcasm. Kudos to him, he proceeded to recite to me, methodically and in a deadpan tone, the usual ingredients of the dish.

Deciding between whether to laugh or to get pissed by the waiter's tone / attitude, a fellow patron at the next table chimed in and said the chirashi was indeed quite amazing: the dish it came in was extra large, but the portion was decidedly not as large. Well, if you put it that way, I had to give it a try for myself then.

I am a fan of chirashi sushi, since the day I actually made some myself in a high school class. My favourite version is the one from San San Trois, despite the fact that the portion they serve has also shrank somewhat over the years. I waited with anticipation to see how Ito-san's version would stack up.

The portion came and looked disproportionately small in the huge plate, but actually the restaurant did provide a decent mix of sake, maguro, hamachi, saba, ikura, cucumber (I requested no ebi and tako) etc. The dish was rather quaintly arranged for a lunch set and there was even a garnish of gold flakes on top. The flavour of the sushi rice was not excessively sweet, therefore to my liking. Another feature I liked was the balance between the amount of rice versus fish. I think many Japanese restaurants tend to spoil lunch sets by overstuffing with rice - I like to be full after a meal, but not in a "Cafe de Coral lunch box" way.

To my slight surprise then, I enjoyed the lunch very much. However,
despite Ito-san's comparatively delicate offering, at over HK$200 this lunch set was more expensive than Causeway Bay equivalents and almost on par with establishments in Central - not easy to justify given the service, ambience and Quarry Bay locale. San San Trois charged maybe $50 more, but the service and surrounding were in a different class.

Notwithstanding the fact that IM kindly treated me for the meal, I would go back to Ito-san for lunch; but I would go back more often if prices were more sensible. Maybe someone should enter the market to break this quasi-monopoly.

Ito-san
G/F Dah Chong Hong Commerical Centre, Quarry Bay
T: 2803 1803