It sounds awfully pretentious here’s the text from the website:

Rock Salt 7 Stars Sea Bass, Crushed Urchin & Sea-Water Lime Fizz
Ocean Waves – Seagull and Whales in Love – Scent of Seaweed
Pacific Breeze – Vaporized Iodine Water – Blue Lights

But on the other hand the entire set-up sounds really intriguing. Ten seats every night – Tuesday – Saturday. 2000 RMB per dinner. Meet at an appointed place and then be drive to the dinner. A total immersion experience. So, of course, I put down my deposit yesterday for a dinner at Mr and Mrs Bund and got this “boarding pass” – it’s pretty cool.

And then you need to fill in an informational questionnaire on the website including . . . what handedness you are? Weird. Especially since I am left handed.

Anyways, Ultraviolet opens tomorrow – and my seating is for June 9th – so more to come!

So aside from craving all the Japanese food to be had in Japan, I landed in Narita with an odd desire for SPAM Musubi and Loco Moco. And what do you know – in Shibuya, there’s a branch of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. (In actuality, I ran across three separate Hawaiian restaurants in the Shibuya/Ometesando/Harajuku corridor alone).

So I stopped by for a plate lunch.

L&L Hawaiian facade – right next to Tokyu Hands (best store in the world)

SPAM – with pictured musubi on the label

Interior shot

Loco Moco and No Reservations on the iPad

SPAM Musubi

So was it any good? Well, I’m not sure good is the right word for it. A Hawaiian plate lunch, by nature, is salty, filling comfort food. For example, the loco moco I ordered is a hamburger patty, covered in gravy and sunny side up eggs served over rice. Its bachelor chow. Tasty – but I’m not sure other people would really enjoy it. Maybe Hawaiians and Hawaiian obsessed Japanese. As for me, I did enjoy it, but I think that’s partially because I was tuned into Hawaii after watching half of season 2 of Hawaii Five-0 AND the No Reservations episode.

L&L Hawaiian BBQ
Japan
Shibuya (Tokyo, Japan)
12-12 Udagawa-cho
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0042 Japan
Phone: +81-3-3476-1941
Next to Tokyu Hands

First off, Tokyo. Returned to my favorite ramen place in the entire world, So Kan To.

I don’t think I really need to talk again about the attention to detail to making a simple pork broth noodle soup – I mean there’s entire movies which state it more eloquently than I can in my simple blog. But the pork toru buta ramen is reason enough to move to Tokyo.

Of course, some katsu-don was eaten.

Cyndi Lauper is coming! (to Japan)

It was SNOWING in Tokyo

Then we headed up to Nagano – Hakuba where it was snowing even more!

Evan at lunch

The water was delicious.

The Japanese face mask – very useful when it was snowing.

Then we had some yakitori – which was amazing

And then the second night, we had an amazing chanko-nabe meal. That’s right sumo wrestler food. This was so unbelievably tasty, and yet an under-represented portion of Japanese cuisine. I mean I had only heard of it via Tony Bourdain’s book – but I’ve never seen a chanko-nabe restaurant outside of Japan, but now I’ll be on the look-out. It’s basically Japanese hot-pot, with a heavy focus on vegetables, chicken and more vegetables. Then the post-cooking broth is used to make soba and the diner finishes off with a big bowl of soba noodles. During a sumo tournament, wrestlers only eat it with chicken, but since neither Evan nor I were in line to complete in a sumo tournament, there were also pork meatballs.

More snow.

A return to Tokyo meant a return to Hina Sushi as well as Komen for more ramen.

Not really a whole lot of conclusions to draw except how much I enjoy Japan!

The first thing I will mention is that the service at Morton’s is excellent.

Kyle and his lobster bisque

Andrew and his New York Strip

Sides sides side sides

That’s hash browns, asparagus, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach

Dessert tray offering. We ended up with an Apple pie, the cheesecake and the chocolate thing on the lower left.

So, Morton’s is very expensive. At least 50% more than what you’d pay in the US or Hong Kong or Taipei. But as a once a year or twice a year extravagance, they do it very well. The atmosphere is very comfortable, old school Chicago steakhouse. Piped in jazz standards, Sinatra, Billie Holiday. Excellent aged steak (I think Australian – only Roosevelt’s in Shanghai serves American . .. and that place is more expensive). The steak was perfectly cooked – in fact they confirm with you when you order rare or medium rare – pink with warm center. And the service; when I called to reserve, they asked if it was a special occasion (hence the printed menus), plus they gave Kyle a free dessert and took birthday photos and had the staff sign them.

Again, not cheap at all. But it was really a great dinner.

PHONE:6075 8888
ADDRESS:IFC Pudong,
4/F, 8 Shiji Da Dao,
near Lujiazui Huan Lu

From there, we proceeded across the river to the Waldorf Astoria to have drinks at the famous Long Bar. Big Bird was back in town too! Martinis, cigars, steaks.

Andrew at the Long Bar

Kyle and Jercy

Welcome back Big Bird!

The next evening we went out to the Yongjia Lu location of Kota’s Kitchen to celebrate Colin’s birthday.

Then we ended up at the bowling alley, where Colin found his old boss

This was actually my second time here, as I had been before a couple of years ago – I really like the L’Atelier concept, as its fairly casual and an ideal place to have a meal by oneself should you be travelling that way.

Red & Black Entry Carpet

The concept is this – the main dining area of L’Atelier is a bar surrounding an open kitchen. Service is, well, as casual as a 3-star Michelin French restaurant is supposed to be. I ordered the 5 course lunch (spending over $100 USD is never really a deal, but honestly, you’re not eating this level of food for this cheap anywhere else in the world).

Open Kitchen

The Menu:

I ordered Le Foie Gras, Les Lentils du Puy, Le Cabillaud, Le Porc Iberique and Le Paris-Brest.

The Amuse Bouche
Cream of mushroom, topped with a bacon emulsion and porcini mushroom powder. This, was wonderful. Super rich mushroom flavor, the bacon emulsion was the right salty touch to top the mushroom cream.

The awesome bread basket. Favorite bread – the mini croissants. Also, the plain baguettes were really nice.

Le Foie Gras
Perfect execution. Well, maybe slightly stingy with the initial toast, but they quickly offered two more slices as soon as I went through the first two pieces (I don’t know how you’re supposed to fit an entire round of foie gras onto one piece of toast anyways – I think four slices should be the standard order anyways.)

Les Letils du Puy
The flavors of the soup were excellent, but I wasn’t in love as much with the texture – which was slightly gritty, and some of the flavorings (like the cracker) didn’t work as well for this.

Le Cablliaud

The cod itself was solid. Flavorful, firm fish. Very nicely done, but not . . . outstanding.

Le Porc Iberique

This was very very nicely done. The richness of the pork, the fresh dill was a nice touch. But those potatoes puree. Oh man, these are the best mashed potatoes in the world.

Reading on the internet, its apparent that these use some ridiculous ratio of butter to potato, but they are so fluffy, so rich, so ethereal – life changing mashed potatoes as it were.

Le Paris Brest

Wonderful dessert. Little cream puffs with little bits of pear in cased in edible gold foil. A wonderful way to cap off the meal. The sorbet was frighteningly refreshing.

Then les petit fours and tea. The macaroon was really wonderful, as were the little golden chocolate nuggets.

I’d be remiss if I missed mentioning the service. Unfortunately I think this is pretty hit or miss. I had an excellent waiter who was able to explain all of the dishes in both Chinese and English – however, the couple sitting next to me had to repeatedly ask for the wine list, and had their dishes sitting in the service ready area, just out of reach, before being served up to 2 minutes later. Also their waiter looked like he had been in a fight the night before with bruising all around his eye.

It serves in stark contrast to what passes for high end dining here in Shanghai – even if the reviews have say its declining, I still had an exceptional meal here and look forward to returning in the future sometime.

So within a few minutes walk of my friend Abbie’s apartment was “mentioned in the Michelin guide Wing Wah Noodle House”

The menu is typical for a HK noodle house.

But they handmake their noodles upstairs.

Just about my favorite meal on earth. Wonton soup noodles.

Was still hungry, so ordered some beef tendon mixed noodles (dry) as well

Wing Wah Magazine Accolades

Wing Wah interior

The verdict – well, certainly a lot more convenient than trekking out to Ping Kee. The noodles were all quite good, but not really good enough to displace my favorites at Tasty Wantun or Jim Tsai Kee. Great though, if you’re in Wanchai or Admiralty.

Wing Wah Noodle House
89 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong, China
(Across the street from Southorn Playground)

First – here’s a list of (most) of the places Tony went when he was in Hong Kong – I decided I’d go out to Tai Po Market for Ping Kee and Yat Lok (although I saw the next day there was a Yat Lok in Central). Then I made plans to meet my former co-workers Monica and Jenny at Tung Po at the Java Road Cooked Food Center.

First, Tai Po Market is out in the New Territories, where I probably spent only 2% of my time in Hong Kong when I was living there. So after 40 minutes on the subway and train (I’m so dated I still think of it as the MTR and the KCR) I arrived at Tai Po Market.

Exiting out MTR exit A1, I walked straight for about 10 minutes, made a right turn and a little past the Cooked Food Center on the main town square was roast meat specialist Yat Lok. Famous for their roast goose and roast pork, I ordered a plate of each. Oh my goodness, do they do a really good roast pork. Seriously, I think its better than the stuff at West Vila and definitely better than the very expensive Yung Kee – both of which are excellent, but really Yat Lok was even better.

And the goose. I could only make stupid noises after eating the goose.

Roast Pork

Roast Goose

One of the best ways to distinguish a great Cantonese place – hanging meats in the front window.

If you saw the No Reservations episode, there’s probably one of the most beautiful sequences dealing with food ever filmed, where the noodle maker is rolling out the noodles by bamboo pole. While Josh wasn’t really accurate with saying there were only about 3 places left that made handmade noodles, the truth is they really aren’t that common.

Ping Kee was where Josh and Tony ate at (and where the handmade noodles were sold). Since I just had the big meal at Yat Lok, I only opted for the lo mien – dry noodles with lard. They were excellent, and really, the denseness of the noodles really came through. You don’t get noodles of this quality in Shanghai and only at a few places in Hong Kong.

The old guy from the No Reservations episode

Tai Po Market Cooked Food Center

After digesting and walking around for a while, I met up with my former colleagues Monica and Jenny for dinner at Tung Po. I had actually been to Tung Po many years ago with my cousin/roommate Patryk. Tung Po is basically a ‘dai pai dong’ – a big sign restaurant, or what traditionally were outdoor eateries – moved indoors. There’s still a few surviving dai pai dongs in Central/Sheung Wan, as well as Jordan/Yaumatei/Mongkok. I do think sometimes food tastes better when served by guys wearing Wellington boots.

Started with the daily soup. Here’s a good tip, when you’re at a Cantonese restaurant, order the daily soup. We do like our soups, and we make good ones. This is pork with carrots and winter melon.

Sometimes in crowded restaurants, especially if you have no reservations and a small party, you’ll be asked to share tables – dap toi. We shared with 2 other parties, but we were group A.

Spinach with conpoy/dried scallops

Pork Knuckles. Crispy on the outside, succulent and juicy in the middle. I’m sure these aren’t good for you.

Mantis Pods with garlic. Wow. These were amazing. Not cheap, but wow, I would eat another one right now. (In Cantonese these are called ‘pissing shrimp’)

Squid ink noodles. Garlicky. And really satisfying.

The surroundings at Tung Po.

Chef Robby

Final Damage for 3

Information on all three restaurants is readily available. I really love Tung Po, and the food at Ping Kee and Yat Lok is excellent. I probably wouldn’t travel all the way out to Tai Po Market again (especially since you can get handmade noodles at Wing Wah – upcoming post alert! and there’s a Yat Lok in Central) but if you’re ever out there. Mmmm.

I realize that this blog really has consistently been a love letter to Hong Kong . . . well, deal with it. Because I do love that place. So why not move back there? Costs . . .and job opportunities. However, since I’m only a two hour flight away, I will continue to go back as often as I can.

A return to Australian Dairy Company

New Apple Store

Ferrari

#occupyhongkong – which was mainly tents and only a few people. But they chose a great location – right below the HSBC Headquarters in Central

The market area around where Abbie lives (border of Causeway Bay and Wanchai)

New Year’s Eve



Crowds

I did some eating too – went back to Goldfinch’s, had an Anthony Bourdain day and went back to L’Atlier de Joel Robuchon. Will try to get up some posts about that later

I found myself (and my friend Colin) down in the Shanghai Stadium area last week, and since I had only been to the Yongjia Lu location, we thought we’d hit up the mothership.

First, the Beatles are the theme here. The music. The DVDs playing on the televisions. The decorations – all featuring the Fab Four. But while I like the Beatles, I came for the food. And the food was glorious. This is really where Kota’s Kitchen shines – this is my favorite yakitori place in Shanghai for now.

Eggplant (this was ok)

Chicken Meatballs (with a quail egg surprise inside) these were delicious

Beef tongue and chicken skin – both wonderful with a twist of lemon

Short rib

Mushrooms and delicious delicious delicious pork belly

Chicken bits

Awesome grilled avocados

Cloyingly sweet grilled marshmellows and ice cream (not highly recommended)

I really liked this place – I don’t know how much more descriptive I could be. Its grilled meats and vegetables. The pork belly and avocado is highly recommended if you go. Its not the cheapest yakitori joint around – and down past Xujiahui isn’t very easily gotten to, but I’ve penciled some weekend nights there.

Kota’s Kitchen
2905 Xietu Lu, near Lingling Lu
Near Shanghai Stadium

Wee Ling and I done messed up last month when I was in Hong Kong.

I purposely scheduled a 5 hour layover between Singapore and Shanghai where I sought to rectify this.

And I did.

Downstairs at Mido Cafe

and the famous baked spare rib rice. It was every bit as delicious as I thought it would be. Maybe because I had just gotten off a 3 hour flight, but it was still appreciated.