Thursday, January 16, 2014

志魂 Sushi Shikon

Wanted to try out Sushi Shikon for a long time. Been keeping an eye on it when it's still called Sushi Yoshitake. But the steep price tag makes it a place reserved for special occasions.

Called Sushi Shikon to book for a new year dinner and found out that they will be closed from December 29 to January 7, 2014. Later found out from their facebook page that's because the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is closed during that time. So booked the first Friday night after they resume business in 2014.

Was a bit worried when a sudden trip come up and have to reschedule the dinner in very short notice. Luckily someone else cancelled on the proposed night I wanted to change to and managed to finished the quest of trying out all Michelin three stars restaurants in Hong Kong.

The have changed their menu from three different price sets to only one omakase menu, which is the same as the three-star served in Tokyo. There's a page about Sushi Etiquette on their website which is quite interesting.

The restaurant is tucked away in a hotel in Sheung Wan. The small place accommodates maximum 8 and we were quite comfortable seated as there's only 6 during the first seating (6pm).


The wood bench made from a single piece of wood.


Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し)with Shirako (白子), which is steamed savory egg custard with cod milt. This is the first time I tried Shirako after hearing and reading about it for a long time. It's very light, cream and with a delicate taste. But guess it not for everyone as my fellow diner was not too sure about it after finding out it is "fish sperm".


The slow poached octopus or Tako Yawarakani (?) is so tender is not like octopus at all. Chef Yoshiharu said he is very good at massaging the octopus to make it tender.


Flounder (Hirame平目) sashimi

The fish is super fresh and sweet, changing my impression about white fish. We were suggest to eat the little piece of fin at the top last, as it's a bit more oily and chewy.


Special made soy sauce cooked with flounder bones


Execute Chef Yoshiharu Kakinuma


Abalone (Awabi 鮑), with abalone liver sauce

This is their signature dish and the two big piece of abalone is very tasty, especially with the liver sauce. After finished the Abalone, the Chef put a little bit of sushi rice to go with the remaining sauce. It's almost like a risotto.




While eating abalone, the chef prepared the next charcoal grilled fish using Bincho Charcoal. The fish is only slightly grilled and served with scallion. But despite I've rack my brain for hours I could only remember it' delicious but not the name of the fish. It's either a mackerel or a skipjack.






After the appetizers, starts the ten piece of sushi


Squid(Ika いか)


Seabream(Tai 鯛)


Medium tuna belly (Chūtoro中とろ)


Fatty tuna belly (Ōtoro大とろ)


Japanese gizzard shad (Kohada 小鰭)


Barracuda カマス with Shiso


Smoked yellowtail (Hiramasa 平政) instead of (Akagai赤貝)


Sea urchin (Uni雲丹)


Giant tiger prawn (Kuruma-ebi車海老)


Sea eel or Conger eel (Anago穴子):
grilled in between two piece of bamboo(?) leaves

The sushi are just heavenly delicious, very fresh, the seafood with their own distinctive flavor and sweetness.  Never like squid sushi but was pleasantly surprised.  It's also the first time I had Barracuda.  It's a bit funny that I've seen so many while diving and never consider them edible. Needless to say my favorite fatty tuna, sea urchin and conger eel are just perfect.  


Egg castella


Miso soup with crab and spring onion


Strawberry and pear with maple jelly

There's two chefs and two waiters for the 6 patrons in the shop front. Service is attentive and Chef always wait till the conversation paused and cut in at the perfect moment to introduce the dish. Our tea cups were change at least 7-8 times during the evening. Upon leaving the restaurant, had a surreal feeling that we've just stepped out of a restaurant in Tokyo directly onto the street in Hong Kong.













記性差的愛吃鬼

實在是記性越來越差,又貪新忘舊,不太記得吃過些什麼地方。再懶也要把照片分一分,找起來也簡單點。

Monday, January 11, 2010

2 years old

Taken on 14 Dec 09, Mitchell's 2 years old birthday. A 6.2Kg giant cat!

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

London 2009

Despite the short stay in London en route to Cayman Islands, managed to squeeze in some good meals...

The Park @ Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park


Gordon Ramsay

68 Royal Hospital




Foliage



l' Atelier de Joel Robuchon



Gordon Ramsay, Plane Food


Tom Aikens














Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Latte




You Are a Hazelnut Latte



You often having the craving for something exotic. You get bored easily.

You are a true adventurer. Nothing makes you happier than traveling.



You're a very cosmopolitan and worldly person. You have sophisticated tastes.

You have a keen attention to detail. Little things matter to you - you are a bit of a perfectionist.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Shoe fetish?



Is my boy a shoe fetish?!

More than 6 months


It's been more than half a year already, and Mitchell has turned into a fine young man(mao), almost 10 months old and 10 + pounds... Though as noisy as ever...

New Product


Uhm... new product from Fancl?

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

First day home


It's Mitchell's first day home. Hope he'll settle in quickly and won't miss his mom and siblings too much.

Mitchell is a blue mitt ragdoll. His birthday is 14/12/2007, which means he's only a little bit more than 3 months old.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

New oven test run

Had a test run on the miracle oven/microwave/grill/steamer.

The baguette came out alright. Still need more time to get use to how it works. But what makes it good is the butter...


Also tried the "grill" function. It managed to make "とんかつ" (Fried pork chop) without any oil! Very happy about the idea of able to have a lot of "fry" food...

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Nadaman-Shanghai

A lunch set about $100 dollars :-


No wonder it's very popular with Japanese ladies who have small appetite. But all their other set lunches are quite reasonably priced, guess it's because the hotel is located in Pu Dong?

Friday, July 13, 2007

魯一居

Was around the area and eager to try out the restaurant. Not many Shandong restaurant in Hong Kong.

Well, the menu looks more like a normal Shanghai/Beijing restaurant and didn't notice much special Shandong dishes. Would be helpful if there is some indication for the specialties.

Guess we didn't pick the right item...

Stir fried walnut and chicken(醬爆雞丁) - the chicken is alright but some larger pieces didn't have much flavor, also the walnuts are stale, which ruined the whole dish.

Ordered the Shandong fish dumpling and this showed up. When questioned, the waitress told us that the fish dumplings were sold out. Wonder why we were not told when ordering? Anyway, since it's already there and was very hungry, decided to have the pork & vegetable dumpling in chili sauce(紅油抄手) and not to sent it back.

The dishes were all very oily(even the stir fried vegetable with garlic), and felt stuffed after the meal and didn't even feel like having dinner afterwards.

Saw a lot of articles on newspaper and magazines recommending this place, was quite disappointed.


Monday, July 09, 2007

茶餐廳

我在茶餐廳品嘗到愛》

作者:周淑屏及洪佩珊著

C處借來了這本書,讀後有感而發。我對茶餐廳的記憶,多數與J有關。 J為少數不挑食的乖寶寶,又肯陪我試新地方,不介意從5元魚蛋吃到4位數字的法國大餐。

我倆以前常去灣仔巷子裏的一間茶餐廳,二人叫一份午餐分、加2杯飲品。印象中那間茶餐廳的份量很大(因為1時前午市的主要客源為裝修師父),總是你推我讓要對方把飯吃完。茶餐廳的阿哥們到後來見到我們就會自動放下2個碗仔給我們分飯。可惜這家茶餐廳現在已結業了。

美都是 J的好介紹。焗豬扒飯、西多士真是百吃不厭。人多的時候還可以叫個廈門炒米。加一杯奶茶或凍唂咕,看廟街的攤販開檔,有一搭沒一搭的聊聊天,消磨一個悠閒的黃昏。也許這是我對美都的印象比作者來的好的多的原因吧。

還有在旺角極之好吃車仔麵和炒出前一丁匆匆擠在永遠人山人海的蘭芳園吃的葱油心多多/豬揼兜撈丁、豬扒包和絲襪奶茶是澳門茶餐廳的豬扒包...

不論一個人或是一堆人,趕時間或是消磨時間茶餐廳都是個好去處。同意C的說法 - 我愛茶餐廳



Monday, June 18, 2007

一碗麵

Choose this restaurant for Mom as she likes noodles. So there's a lot of comment coming from her.
Smoked fish (薰魚). Mom orders it whenever she sees it on the menu and usually finished the whole plate by herself. Uhm..I only remembered to take a photo after we each took a piece. The dish remained untouched after that.
Boiled pork with garlic sauce. It's tasty and a bit too spicy for me. But Mom commented it's not made in the "traditional" style, were you cook the meat than slice it thinly instead of using "hot-pot" type of pork. Well, it's not a "traditional" Chinese restaurant so maybe shouldn't be too fussy.
Vietnamese spring roll. Mom again think it's not very "authentic". (See, I'm really not picky when it comes to food)
The famous $180 beef noodle. The noodle is chewy but not hard, and even for someone who doesn't like noodle like me think it's very good. The beef is very tender and richly flavoured, with very thick soup. It's good but guess it's very personal opinion whether it's worth that much.
This was highly recommended by a friend and otherwise probably would never try/or even notice the mango cake. This turned out to be the best ! Soft and fluffy cake with lots of cream and mango and mango puree on the plate. Well, it's $40 per piece but...

Mom classified this as a "try once and no need to go back" type of restaurant. Won't say their food is not nice, just considering the price, environment and the food, it's not that outstanding.