Friday 10 November 2006

Tru, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong

I've been re-reading an entertaining book by Ruth Reichl, food critic at the New York Times in the 1990s. "Garlic and sapphires" unravels her tale of traversing the New York restaurant scene. We see her world through her behind the scenes tales of how to prepare yourself for a food review (from choice of compansions to disguises to know what experience a "real" customer gets), food reviews reproduced from NYTimes and even some of her recipes. Its a delicious read for a foodie but I think the most important tip I picked up is that she never reviews a restaurant she hasn't visited more than 3 times, usually more. I truly experienced the importance of this repetition last night at Tru.

I had recommended a restaurant to a fellow foodie at work who was meeting up with a friend from out of town. I'd been to Tru twice before and was impressed with the Thai and Vietnamese cuisine served in a modern, funky decor. The servings were generous, tasty with lots of different herbs and spices and best of all, prices were reasonable (one walked away paying less than $300 for a full meal). I'd visited the much acclaimed Lotus shortly after and still found Tru trumping.

On my third visit last night I was disappointed. We ordered two of my previous favourites, including the duck and lychee salad and deep fried barramundi. On my first visit, the duck and lychee salad was a small hill with roast duck tossed with sweet lychees, tossed with thin slices of spring onion, garlic and a slight hoisin dressing. The deep fried barramundi came upright, the skin scored with thick cuts to make removing the flesh easy, then generous serving of sweet tangy chilli gravy. Tru must have been doing some serious accounting because this time the salad was half the portion and the barramundi looked like a much much younger relative of the last one we had, and felt like it has been in the oil for a tad too long ... we also tried out the coconut crepe with crab meat (lovely crab meat but not sure about the sweet chilli dressing), pad thai (not the most exciting version I've had) and some vegetable curry (delicious but in hindsight perhaps we should have opted for something more exciting like the lamb in taramind sauce).

When the the waiter came around with the bill later and asked "how was your meal", I couldn't help but tell him my disappointment with this particularly experience ... I appreciated him asking but it seemed that he wasn't quite prepared for my answer because he continued smiling and nodding and didn't really seem to understand that we didn't find the meal that great.

Maybe Tru had an off night. I might have to traverse back one more time just to find out! But for now ...

Overall: 2.5 of 5 stars.

2/F, Grand Progress Building, 15-16 Lan Kwai Fong, Central +852 2525 6700

Monday 6 November 2006

Melbourne Melbourne

Culinary highlights of trip back to Melbourne which somehow began and finished with crab!

Pacific House, Richmond - First stop back landed me in this small linoleum joint which serves just about the freshest Cantonese style seafood. Mud crabs with scallion and ginger, lots of Chinese wine and finely diced garlic. Then there's the steamed garoupa with lots of soy sauce and peanut oil and thinly sliced scallion.

Strawberry eclair at Laurents
Strawberry eclair at Laurents,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Laurents, Collins Street - Strawberry eclair with mildly sweet whipped cream, topped with amazingly light pastry and almond flakes. Fresh. Sweet. Feels like eating candy floss ... a few bites and you wonder where its gone.

Melba Cafe@Langham Hotel, City - The chocolate fondue. Ok so its a little cheesy but its amazing how beautiful endlessly flowing chocolate looks. Its like the real life incarnation of a Charlie and chocolate Factory fantasy!

The Street Cafe, St Kilda - The seafood platter filled with all kinds of goodies.

Old Kingdom - Cheesy interior with red lanterns with matching furniture, its like a local suburban Chinese restaurant but this place also serves the best Peking duck in the world. I know this is a BIG call, but I've spent a lot of time in Beijing and am yet to find any better. I'm talking thin stretchy but strong pancake (secret ingredient's egg) which you use to securely wrap large pieces of crispy duck (with no visible fat). The duck slice has been generously sliced by Simon the owner himself to give you a big hunk of the duck meat, which you place on the pancake with one cucumber and one spring onion ("Remember, only 1 per pancake!!" - Simon says) and the lovely specially mixed hoisin sauce.

The rest of the duck is served as 2nd and 3rd eats: stir fried bean sprouts with duck meat and tasty tofu duck bone soup.

Canton Lake, Box Hill - Snow crabs fried in goose liver sauce. Decadent, rich but utterly divine. Not for the faint hearted and prepare to leave your health warnings behind.

IMG_4677
Snow crabs in goose liver sauce,
originally uploaded by choccis.