Hot Pot, Hong Kong

Tis the season to warm up our tooties with some steamy hot pots of seafood, marbled beef, squid balls scooped outta the bamboo shell and all other manners of goodies. Here's my quick take on two of my recent two fav places in Hong Kong.

Ying Kee Seafood Hotpot, Hong Kong

My galpal Q and I share a few things in life: tennis, crabs, seafood, crabs, travelling, massages, crabs ... did I mention crabs? One week Q mentioned that she and OB had been to a fantastic hotpot place in Sheung Wan recently which served the freshest baby abalone (at $10 each) and crabs to go in the hot pot. When Q suggested that we try the place out on a Friday night, I was looking forward to the meal the whole week ... and I wasn't disappointed!

Turns out I'd been to Ying Kee before with another bunch of friends a few years ago. This place is on the 1st floor of Lucky Commercial Building in Sheung Wan. Unassuming decor with tanks of seafood at the entrance, this place is low key but fabulous. This place has got the three essential ingredients to a great hot pot right: (1) freshest seafood, (2) great soup base and most importantly (3) a consistent powerful flame. So go for the baby abalone, the crabs, US sliced beef and the squid paste which you scoop out of a bamboo container bit by bit. Don't forget to cool down with the sugarcane juice.

I'm going back again this Saturday night.

1/F Des Voeux Road West, Sheung Wan. Tel No: 2548-8897

Spring Autumn Hot Pot (春秋火锅)

Kind of a mid to high end hot pot place with table cloth and ingredients beautifully arranged and served on a little plates. The soup base is great, so is the beef balls and squid balls, but my fav has to be the delicious marbled beef. Requires booking in advance as it's not a big place so it's always full.

26 Leighton Road, Causeway bay. Tel No: 2878-1128

Cal Pep, Barcelona, Spain

Ok, I guess I'm wayyy behind on my food reviews. It's the start of autumn in Hong Kong and I'm just starting to write about my favourite restaurant from the summer holidays. I have no excuse except that it's been a fantastic busy summer and I'm finally settling down to do some real work.
My fellow foodie travelling buddy S had raved about Cal Pep last time she visited Barcelona so when we found ourselves back in Barcelona for a week long visit, I couldn't wait to make my way there ... even with the warning that we were in for a wait of at least an hour. Cal Pep is located at no. 8, Placa de la Olle (http://www.calpep.com/), which is close to the sea side end of Gran Via. In the evening, the restaurant opens at 8 pm sharp, and from about 7.30 pm onwards you'll notice a queue. (The first time S went, it was full of locals ... this time we were in a queue with about 15 other American tourists - apparently it's been written up in TimeOut and a few other US guides. I guess the secret's out.)

The restaurant is divided into two sections, a long bar overlooking the open kitchen and a dining room area. The bar is the place to sit, facing the energetic chefs hollering at each other as they serve up plates of crunchy deep fried seafood, pan fried steak and fish, while filling everyone's glasses to the brim with cava and vino. It's the heart and soul of Cal Pep. When the restaurant doors open, the guests will quickly fill up the 16 or so seats at the bar. When these seats are filled, it's at least another 45 min wait before the first round clears. The rest of the guests form an orderly queue directly behind the long bar of patrons. If like us, you were unlucky enough just miss out because some tourists in the queue ahead of you were bagging seats for their friends waiting at the bar in the middle of the Placa, all is not lost. Just order a bottle of Cava (local sparkling white) which the bar staff will happily serve you and keep cool for you behind the bar. There's nothing like being a little bit tipsy and watching the plates of good food whish past to get your appetite going.

As for the food ...

Tuna tartare

Well the English of the staff is limited, as was our Spanish, so we decided to let the waiters decide for us ... though we did let them know of the (few) preferences we had developed from gaping at those seated at the bar table during our wait ... "No chickpeas" ... "definitely want tuna" ... "clams!". Firstly, you will be served with the toasted bread rubbed with tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil. Unless you are very very hungry, we suggest that you leave it for now. Wait for the platter of deep fried mixed seafood plate ... so lightly battered, crunchy and tasty, there's a mix of white bait, a flatish fish (eel?), squid and shrimp. This dish is to die for. Then they might follow it up with the baby clams cooked with parsley and olive oil, with bits of pancetta. My favourite is probably the tuna tartare, which is tangy from being lightly marinated, to be scooped up onto the accompanying small crispy toasts.

At first we were going to give the tortilla a miss because it looked so heavy. When it came towards the latter part of our meal we had to take a deep breath before digging in. But one bite and we were in heaven. The outer layer is light and cripsy and the inside still gooey, the best part was that they had cooked it in chorizo oil with chorizo bits so that the whole torilla ooozed with a smokey, salty flavour. Lathered with the aoili (garlic mayo), we polished off the whole dish even though we were absolutely stuffed.

But the most memorable dish is probably the pimientos (small green peppers). The first time I had them with S, we had a plate full of salty deep fried peppers which were slightly spicy. The second time I visited with J, I was hit with two bombshells of spicy pimientos ... J looked at my bemused as she crunched her way through the plate while I fanned the flames in my mouth and wiped the tears with my napkin, saying, "Hey S, there are not spicy at all!". It was only later at the airport checking out recipe books that I realised that eating pimientos in Spain is like playing Russian roulette ... 1 in 10 is extremely spicy!

Deep fried seafood, oh the crunch!

Even if you have tourists breathing down your neck behind you, you must stay on for the dessert. The flavoured cream is an interesting concoction, but it's the daily pastries that they get from a local bakery that will knock your socks off. The puff pastry with chocolate truffles that J and I dug into at the end of our meal left us in no doubt that we'd have to go back. Soon.

Cooking class, Barcelona, Spain

S and I had attended a cooking class in Barcelona, so last night I tried to put my newly acquired skills to use. On the menu was gazpacho, chorizo tortilla, seafood paella and a light salad with avocado and juicy vine tomatoes.

Tesuyas, Sydney

.... !

Rating: 5 stars (yep, it's this good)

Definitely worth the flight up to Sydney from Melbourne.

I'll write more once I've recovered from the experience.

Long grain, City, Melbourne

Sister of the Sydney favourite. Well executed Thai influenced dishes in a cosy bar atmosphere. The caramelised pork hock with chilli vinegar is delicious, though my favourite is probably the battered squid dipped in the soy and fish dipping sauce. Sit at the large communal tables or one of the many large round tables. There’s no booking except for groups of 6 and up, but that’s really ok because you should really go with a group of friends or family as the dishes are made for sharing. Excellent cocktails - if you like lychees and raspberries try the "Jimmy Chew".

Rating: 4 out of 5

Durian Lu lian

Durian flavoured gelato.

East meets West fusion cuisine doesn't get much better than this.

It's a well kept secret except to the flock of Asian university students which converge upon Il Dolce Freddo at the end of Lygon Street near Queensberry Street.

I preferred mine in a cup, where each spoonful is creamy and cold durian with the full heady flavour and none of the stringy bits. It's almost better than eating the real thing!

+613 9639 3344

116 Lygon St, Carlton, Melbourne

MoDiva, City, Melbourne

A cozy tapas joint tucked away in little alleyway with delicious plates of goodies to share over a bottle or two of vinos. Bookings recommended.

When D, R and I travelled to Spain a couple of years ago, I fell in love with tapas. In Maybe having grown up with Sunday dim sum, tapas appealed to me in the same wy: it’s the Spanish equivalent where you get to try a seemingly never-ending little plates of goodies - and when you find something that you (and everyone else at the table love), you can simply order more.

Spain, tapas came about from the tradition of serving small snacks with drinks. Little bite sizes of ham were served on slices of bread placed over the wine glass … slowly this has evolved into a wide variety of dishes: chorizo, croquettes, garlic chicken, pan friend mushrooms, calamari …

MoVida is a great little tapas joint tucked in a little alley Hoiser Lane near Federation Square. Looking carefully, you’ll notice that you are sitting in a small part of a converted warehouse with the brick walls are whitewashed. But the restaurant is all very cozy: behind the bar are light wood shelves covering every inch of the wall with bottles of vino packed tightly. Bar stools and tables cover on section, and another section with normal tables.

On the Thursday, the table sections were fully booked so we contented ourselves with sitting at the bar counter, which was actually great because the barman made sure we were never in short supply of house bread, which was served with very virgin olive oil.

The menu is listed as “racion” and “tapas”, the former is a small plate with enough to share between friends, whereas the tapas are really just individual portions. Everything was delicious.

The portbello mushrooms marinated and sautéed in red wine vinegar and variety of herbs was rich yet tangy (though a little salty). L’s favourite were the potatoes braised with pimientas (roasted peppers) which had a slightly sweet caramelised flavour. Eying the couple of the bar counter next to us, D couldn’t resist adding a plate of marinated olives which were plump and glistening. The plate was filled with small green Arbequina olives, the black Kamalata olives and a few large green Cerignola olives. The most interesting dish was probably the tender rabbit meat balls served in a slight gravy with calamari.

Definitely a great place to chill out for a bite with a glass of wine or two …

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Cost: Reasonable, ~ AUD 25 per person for dinner

MoVida
1 Hosier Lane
Melbourne 3000
+613 9663 3038

Chocci’s chicken casserole

True to its four seasons in one day reputation, Melbourne has been spring t-shirt warm in the day time, dipping to thick coat and mittens required temperatures in the evening.

I thought a nice hot chicken casserole would help warm our tooties. I was in a lazy mood today, so this recipe is perfect for anyone with who’s got a couple of hours to spare to before dinner needs to be served but doesn’t want to spend more than 20 mins in the kitchen. You can prep everything, chuck it in the oven and simply put your feet up with a mag or book for an hour and half.

You’ll need:

• A whole chicken for roasting, divided into 8 portions. Usually you can pick up these roasting portions at the supermarket, if not, it works equally well to use 4 large drumsticks and 4 chicken thigh pieces, on the bone
• 100-150 gms of kalamata olives, with stones to keep the flavour in
• 4 medium sticks of carrots, cut into small pieces (2-3 cm pieces)
• 4 small potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 small onion (or ½ large one), sliced thinly
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 10-12 basil leaves
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Preparation: Pan fry the chicken pieces in a pan (with a little olive oil) until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to a large casserole dish which has been oiled with olive oil, making sure you also pour over any juices. Pour over the can of diced tomatoes, mixed with about 2 cups of water (or stock if you want it to be extra tasty - I’ve done without in my cooking and it tastes fine without). Arrange the pieces of onions, potatoes and carrots around the pieces of chicken. Make sure all the ingredients are covered by the tomato sauce so that it cooks properly - if not, add a little extra water. Scatter the olives and cherry tomatoes on top. Finally, top the dish with basil leaves, and salt & pepper.

Cooking:

1. Seal the caCookingsserole firmly with foil and bake in oven at around 180 degrees for 1 hour or so until the chicken, carrots and potatoes are tender.
2. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 mins to give some bits of the casserole (e.g. the sliced onions and chicken pieces) a nice browning. Note: Take care that the sauce doesn’t dry out too much when the foil’s off.

Ladro, Melbourne, Australia

So after 24 hours of being back in Melbourne, while taking a tram down to the “city” to run some errands, I dialled one of the few Australian mobile numbers I can remember off by heart. Actually I can’t even remember my family’s mobile numbers but I put that down to the constant change in numbers over the years.

“I'm back, I'm back! So when are we going to catch up?” I asked D, friend from university days, now adopted as my “Dai lo”. We met at a Hongkie club meeting a few weeks into our freshman years at Uni. Since then, D and I have spent many of days and nights swotting in Ballieu Library on the 3rd floor, fewer (thank goodness) all nighters trying to finish off our computing science projects, karaoking at Club Hollywood, and now that we can afford it, eating our way through Hong Kong and Melbourne. The only blib in our shared experience was probably our Andalucia trip ... where to my horror D opted for Maccas when we were standing right next to a jambon deli. We can laugh now, yes. In any case, things have picked up since then (food wise) and during D’s last visit to Hong Kong, we did a Central eating tour, working our way down the hill to a few places including Tsim Zai Gei wonton mee and jok, egg tarts up Lynhurst Terrace and then into LGB at IFC for lemon tarts and more macaroons (it was a macaroony kinda day).

“Hey I’m good any day this week!”

“How about lunch? I can pop down to the city … ”

“Actually, dinner’s better …”

“Ok let’s make it Wednesday” (mentally calculating that I’ve got a couple of nights of catching up to do with my sisters).

We chatted quickly about the next month or so’s schedule. We both agreed that there was a lot of exploring and dining to be had in Melbourne before I head back to HK and D leaves Melbourne for his overseas stint.

Efficient as always, the next day, D sends me an email with a few recommendations for our upcoming food extravaganza in HK.

“As for Wednesday – wanna do this place? http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/ladro/”.

I quickly flicked to my Luxe guide, which gave Ladro the thumbs up under the Relaxed section, quipping “The best pizza, daily roast and pastas. Laid-back, urban, communal tables and heinously popular”.

Yes, let’s do Ladro.

So tonight, we drove down Gertrude Street into Fitzroy. It was dark by around 7 pm, so we squinted at the shop numbers as we went past the hairdressers, Dean’s Art, funky boutiques, and a costume shop. When we saw an unassuming glass fronted restaurant, crammed with people at shared benches, we knew that we’d arrived.

Even on a weeknight, the restaurant was packed wall to wall, so we were lucky to score a couple of seats at the bar. The service is friendly and efficient, and our waitress proved spot on in her recommendations. As promised, there is a long list of about 20 pizza options, followed by appetizers (primi), and mains (secondi) … rounded off with the dolce options. Any other night we would have taken a closer look at the secondi which I recall included scotch fillet, but tonight our focus was on pizza. Some of the menu is in Italian so we needed a little help. I have to say, after my experiences in Hong Kong, it is such a pleasure when the staff know everything about the menu.

“What’s melanzane”?

“It’s eggplant. And this particular dish is eggplant battered and deep fried … it’s really quite delicious”. That proved to be the start of the waitress’ good recommendations for the evening. The entrée plate of melanzane was simply four round decent sized flattened balls of breadcrumbed eggplants (mashed), served simply on a plain plate. The salty, tender and moist eggplant filling complemented the hot and crusty breadcrumbed coating really well.

Next were the skewers of fresh grilled prawns, lightly flavoured with garlic and drizzle of lemon, sitting on a bed of rocket leaves. It went down really well with the house bread - ciabatta and extra virgin oil.

For our gourmet pizza (is t here still such a thing in Melbourne or is the gourmet pizza the norm now?), we narrowed it down two choices: the seafood pizza which sounded delectable with mussels, fish, prawns or the truffle pizza with truffata, potato and truffle oil. We opted for the latter and we were rewarded with a massive thin crust pizza, irregularly shaped (which D loved), topped with truffata (a paste made up of porcini/cep mushrooms combined with white truffles), kipfler potatoes and yes, we could smell it, truffle oil. Very good stuff.

We ended the evening with a lovely cassata. The waitress helpfully explained that unlike the Lygon street varieties, this cassata is not the ice-cream type … this cassata was more of a trifle (tiramisu) type, with a trifle soaked in brandy, topped with ricotto cheese mixed with candied fruits. The dessert didn't turn out to be quite what I expected, and I was convinced that I would read 0.05 on a breatheliser when I took a driving lesson on D’s car after dinner (though that is another story).

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Cost: $65 for two for a pizza, 2 entrees and a dessert (and drinks).

224 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Melbourne, Australia
+613 9415 7575

Baba House, North Melbourne, Australia

Errol Street is one of those places that I know is going to blossom into a Brunswick street. For now, it's remains delightfully quiet and mine (ok and those other few thousand ppl living in North Melbourne). Lately, there have been a few subtle changes though. There's still the pub blaring out live music, and the Comedy Club ... the local IGA supermarket and Thereshman's style bakery (which serves yummy gourmet pizzas). But I've noticed a mushroom of Chinese takeaways ... 1, 2, 3 ... 4 in total!

My sister, L wanted to try out a Malaysian restaurant that she'd noticed previously. So we hit the Baba House.

We had the baba chicken which was better than KFC (coming from a KFC lover - this is a big statement), nasi lemak with deep fried hard boiled eggs and sambal, gado gado. Good, authentic malaysian. We like. We really like. It's now our local favourite Malaysian.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Price: around $50 for two.

Baba House Malaysian Restaurant & Takeaway
34 Errol Street
North Melbourne
(03) 9329 2882

La Mer Brasserie ... or La Merde?

Let's start with the good parts. The ambience is lovely. Comfy dark wooden furnishings and dim lighting. On one end of a restaurant there is a fresh seafood bar with lots of fruits of the sea waiting to be pointed at "I'll have that thanks". Surprisingly the food is also priced reasonably, with soups around 50-70 HKD, entrees from 100-200 and mains from 150-250. I was wondering how they would pay for the rent in LKF until the bill came later ...

Food: Ordinary. The meal began well, we ordered two large buckets of mussels to share between the group ... we were quickly served with lovely fresh fat mussels in big colourful pots (though given its name - surely fresh seafood must be expected) cooked in provincale sauce - tomato based - and the other in a white wine and herbs cream sauce. Both were delicious. But the french fries which accompanied it were a little tired looking. For entrees, my girl friend and I shared the esgargot - tasty, garlickly, sitting on a potato mash which was surprisingly a good match - and the soup du jour - a pumpkin and crabmeat soup which was a little too sweet for my liking. For the main course I opted for the duck which was served with ... actually the main course wasn't too memorable ... I can't actually remember now what it was served with! That in itself is perhaps not such a good sign.

For desserts, the restaurant helpfully provides a dessert platter option where you can select 4 out of the 5 dessert which included the chocolate mousse (nothing earth shattering), shortcake creamy concoction with avocado and strawberries (fresh, quite interesting), an apple tart and pinenuts slice. None of it was anything to write home about!

Service: Any place which plies unsuspecting guests with endless bottles of sparkling and mineral water ... at $40 per 500 ml bottle surely needs a peg or two taken off the service mark. Especially when some guests specifically asked for tap water at the beginning of the evening. Put it this way, our water bill came up to 2/3 the bill of our wine! More to the point, we could not quite understand how each person had supposedly drunk around 1 litre of water each (roughly 20 bottles x 500 ml), on top of the wine we had consumed. When we questioned the bill - it wasn't until we threatened to write to the management that they agreed to cut the bill down for us to a more reasonable figure.

Despite this, most of the night was very enjoyable, great friends catching up over some lovely wine (Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc) is always a good night out!

Rating: 2.5 stars

Verdict: Average food at average prices

Cost: $450 per head (not including wine)

La Mer Brasserie, Lan Kwai Fong Hotel

How to make 24 burger patties in half hour

Burger patties,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Firstly, find two mates (preferably guys) who don't cook all that often. Get them to bring their diving or snowboarding goggles. While they're on route to your place, get about 2 kgs of minced beef, half a box of breadcrumbs, 1 whole glove garlic, maybe 2-3 onions, heaps of fresh or dried herbs and lots of salt and pepper. When they arrive, get one friend started on the onion chopping - which needs to be very fine. Get the peeling the garlic, then either chop or use a barmix to chop it up. For the fresh herbs - use anything you like - thyme, rosemary all go down well, as does oregano.

Take a massive bowl, chuck in all the ingredients and get the boys to dig their (clean) hands in mixing it all up until it forms a big doughy mixture. Make the first burger pattie about the size of a cricket ball, then slightly flatten.

Keep an eye as your mates compete to see who can make more patties more quickly. Intervention required when competition turns to who can make bigger patties.

Cooking: grill in the oven for 20 mins. Serve with hot fresh bread with thickly sliced tomatoes, big dollop of ketchup and dijon mustard.

James' potato, bacon and leek soup

My mate J used to live about a street away from me, about equal distance from the fabulous Victoria Market, choc full of all the fresh fruit, vegs, meat or seafood you could possibly need for a big cooking session. Together with the rest of the Carlton gang, we used to rotate home cooking sessions - great of us kids living away from home. I still remember when J taught me and Y how to make a creamy brocolli and potato soup and Chinese steamed fish. I'd forgotten what a good cook he was until our home cooked meal on New Year's Eve in Les Houches.

It started off with Y making a lamb stew and me with my coq au vin. I had started chopping up some shallots and streaky bacon for my coq au vin when we realised that s the whole chicken probably had better days. What to do with all that bacon and shallots? As he was cutting a leek for Y, J thought of a cosy potato and leek soup to warm our tootsies.

And that's how it began with J guiding me through this recipe.

We had:

• 2 large rashers of bacon, diced
• 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• stalks of 1 large leek, thinly sliced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cream
• dried italian herbs, parsley and oregano (whatever herbs you like)
• vegetable stock

Cooking the soup itself is quite simple. Pan fry the bacon until lightly browned and remove from pan. Remove most oil except a good coating to fry the leek, shallots and onions. Add the potatoes and gently stir fry for a few minutes. Add about 2 litres of water (refilling every now and then) and let it gently simmer for about an hour. Add stock and pan fried bacon and simmer for another 10 mins.

Stir in cream and butter (J's special ingredient - you can leave this out if you want this to be a healthy soup) and serve immediately.