Sole Traders
Sweltering kitchens all over the SAR are busy battering fish, proving that Hong Kong has a whole lotta sole.

The One on the Street
Sonthra Kebab - $45 (Shop C2, 146 – 148 Lockhart Rd, Wanchai, 2866 2563)
Curries, kebabs… and fish’n’chips?
Bag a street-side table, wait 15 minutes and hey presto! – a plate piled with crinkle-cut chips (remember those?) arrives with a bloated fried fillet and squirts of Tommy K. The batter is light, knobbly and dusted with the chef’s ‘secret blend’ of snappy speckled seasoning. The fish is soft, delicate and melts on the tongue. Definitely dirty fish and chips from nana’s deep freeze – but the trip down memory lane still packs a punch.
Served with tartare, salt and pepper.

The One with the Golden Batter
The Dublin Jack - $109 (1/F, 17 Lan Kwai Fong, Central, 2543 0081)
Charm of the Irish.
Kilkenny and lager are mixed into the flour water batter at Dublin Jack’s, and the special effort shows – slightly chewy with a soft crunch, every bite of light golden batter is to be savoured. It comes wrapped around a fillet of prime white New Zealand Ling that holds its texture well and has a mild flavour. The Dublin Jack serves its fish and chips with plump jacket fries and fresh-made tartare, an unexpected treat and jazzy on the tongue.
Served with a fresh bread basket, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and vinegar.

The One that’s Closest-to-British
The Stag’s Head - $90 (G/F, 11 Hart Ave, TST, 2369 3142)
Old man surroundings – old faithful taste.
A long, curling fillet of New Zealand sole covered in rich brown, crispy batter tops a plate of hunky, chunky chips. (Alas, not England’s soft, soggy kind, but worth munching.) The fish is soft and delicately flavoured but a bit too squishy in the middle. Still, for those scratching a Brit-itch, this would still do the job nicely.
Served with decent mushy peas, white bread and butter, salt and vinegar for the chips.

The One that’s Divine on a Diet
Eat Right - $70 (4 Shelley St, Central, 2868 4832)
Not a fryer in sight.
Two smallish fillets coated with baked ‘batter’ gives a surprisingly dense crunch. The fish – bright white cod – is delightful, full of pure flavour, flaky and refreshing. Rows of tasty
baked potato wedges still in their skins are enlivened with paprika – and make a healthy stand-in for oily chips. Not the stuff of belly-busting blowouts, but a delicious, clean and wholesome lunch.
Served with tangy tartare and a sprig of dill.

The One with Staggering Portions
Belgo’s East - $83 (G/F Oxford House, Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay, 2250 5020)
Busting Belgian guts all round.
Three sole fillets, with smooth, golden-brown batter, piled on top of each other, arch away from the plate. The Belgian beer batter is light and crunchy, with extra crispiness each end. Fish was well cooked with a fragrant flavour. Continental style frites go down well and the only trouble is polishing it all off.
Served with tartare, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.

Still not Sated?
Hotstuff chef Vanina Chimena brings her special blend of Argentinian recipes to the Sheraton Oyster and Wine Bar (20 Nathan Rd, TST, 2369 1111) this September 15 – 24. The highlight of the 10 days will be a South American feast in style on September 22 in which each dish from the kitchen will be paired with a wine from Bodega Catena Zapata, a family-run winery in the Andes. Salud!

Pan-fried scallops and herb-seasoned lamb rack are just two of the items sizzling away at the new Mezzo Grill (Regal Kowloon Hotel, 71 Mody Rd, TST, 2313 8778). Five oyster shots with caviar ($98) or pan-fried foie gras ($138) make for a grand starting point. Then drizzle lamb, duck and lobster with lime béarnaise sauce, apricot marmalade or smoky pineapple gravy to add a fruity tang to your main. And it’s fruit all the way to the finish with lemon ganache tart for dessert.

Café Too (Island Shangri-la Hong Kong, Supreme Court Rd, Central, 2820 8571) hosts you with Malaysian recipes this month. The cuisine incorporates flavours from North and South India, Portugal, and China in a taste fusion like no other. Sample dishes like green papaya with sweet and sour salad, Malaysian beef with dry coconut, and grilled bamboo chicken, all mopped up with fresh roti bread. You’ll find them at a lunchtime buffet ($258 Monday – Thursday, $298 weekends) and in the evenings ($358 Monday – Thursdays, $398 weekends) from September 1 – 15.

Celebrate the warm weather with some ice-cold gelato at Gaia Ristorante (G/F, Grand Millennium Plaza, Queen’s Rd Central, 2167 8200). The new booth holds a multitude of sin-free low-fat flavours, from nutty pistachio or hazelnut through to rich Valrhona chocolate or fruity melon and lemon sherbet. Grab a scoop for $25, two scoops for $30 or for gelatoholics, three for $40.

The Water Margin (1205, 12/F, Food Forum, Times Square, CWB, 3102 0088) delves into history by re-creating scenes of the Shandong Market. From stalls overloaded with fresh vegetables to baskets spilling fruits, the entrance welcomes diners in with old-world market-day flavour. Toss bamboo sticks to win copper coins – a favourite marketplace game – and try out the authentic Shandong snacks. But don’t fill up on these; the menu incorporates several special treats enjoyed in the North Eastern region – like the bitter partridge eggs and bean curd, and Chinese caster sugar flavoured with orange, blueberry or watermelon. Truly a unique experience.

Introducing Hindi Movie happy hour at Khana Khazana (1/F Dannies House, 20 Luard Rd, Wanchai, 2520 5508). Watch favourite Bollywood hits every afternoon from 3-6pm while munching away on a special set menu – for the bargain price of $68. Select one dish each from three broad sections of the menu. Group A offers appetisers like masala dosa and mixed vegetable pakoda. Group B follows, with pani puri, bhel puri or vegetable sandwiches and burgers. Finish it all off with group C - the drinks. Soft drinks, hot tea and coffee all come included.

Slight Bites
The food is Mexican and the chefs are Mexican. The festival must be from down south of the border at Harbourside (Intercontinental Hong Kong Hotel, 18 Salisbury Rd, Kowloon, 2721 1211) from September 15 – 24. This Mexican Food Festival looks like the brightest bash in the calendar.

“Ooh, Argh, Capt’n, fresh catches ahoy at the new Stormies Crabshack (G/F – 1/F, 46 D’Aguilar St, LKF, 2845 5533) in Lan Kwai Fong.” Order up a bucket of clams and mussels or Alaskan crab legs, and settle down true naval style.

E.C Eatery (G 103, G/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, TST, 2956 0888) is just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Golden Gateway cinema. So it’ll be out of the movies, and in for a filler of Hainan chicken and rice, plump Xiao long bao or bulging wontons. Movie? What movie?

Those Middle Eastern aromas drifting down Staunton Street could only come from newly opened Meze Café (G/F, 34 Staunton St, SoHo, 2525 5786). Moroccan chicken, falafels, shawarmas and all manner of other Middle Eastern delights are waiting…

And in keeping with the Middle Eastern theme, Marouche (Lebanese Cuisine & Wine Bar G/F, 48 Cochrane St, SoHo) will let you in on the Lebanese lowdown when it opens on September 5.

Inaho Tei (133 Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, 2265 7088) celebrates long summer days with a rejuvenated menu – Japanese pumpkin soup ($38), salty cuttlefish ($38), and
fish cooked with plum ($58) are summery? Yep, they’re all served cold.
The Bostonian (Langham Hotel, 8 Peking Rd, TST, 2375 1133) is featuring a foie gras menu until September 30. Fans of the rich pate can choose slow-poached smoked duck foie gras with truffle consommé ($110), pan-seared goose foie gras on phyllo layers ($220), and Indonesian gindara fillet with seared foie gras ($350).

Lawry’s, The Prime Rib is set to open its doors on September 18 in Causeway Bay (4/F Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Ave, CWB, 2907 2218). First opened in Beverly Hills in 1938, it gave movie stars something to get their gleaming gnashers into. Now serving folks in Dallas, Jakarta and Singapore, the company is still family run and still prides itself on quality, all-American beef in its prime. Sizzling.

Searching for Sandwiches

Sticky peanut butter jam or ham and cheddar with pickle, sandwiches are the staple of many a school lunch bag. It makes sense really - two slices of bread and something squished in the middle. Surely sandwich creation is simple, so why was a week in sandwiches nearly as dull as nine-to-five?

Monday: In a bid for ultimate healthiness, first lunchtime sandwich was at Kosmo (16 D’Aguilar St, Central, 2868 2002), of where I’d heard all the ingredients are fresh each day. They had some interesting new world flavours too, and I plumped for a yummy sounding Thai Chicken. I hadn’t banked on sarnies being quite so pricey, and took a slim looking single ($23). The bread was mild, chicken pieces were juicy but it was the chilli that tingled leaving all the other ingredients in the pale. Good for my diet though, until 3pm, when my grumbling tummy became too much and I nipped out for a quick choccie fix.

Tuesday: In desperate need of more filling fodder I ventured into Panash (City Plaza 2, UNY B1/F, Taikoo Shing, 2885 8012), a place that lets you construct your own sandwich without getting a finger greasy. Feeling inspired I went for Japanese Chujoku bread with smoked chicken and Dijon mustard. $22 bucks bought something substantial; two hulking white slices were fluffy and very slightly sweet, but the smoked chicken was too mild next to the tang of Dijon. It did see me through the afternoon. Well, 4.30pm.

Wednesday: Today at Taste (Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, 2265 8698) I joined the big boys. Thick wads of Turkish bread, filled with smoked turkey filling and salad ($32). Why, oh why does the smoked stuff tempt me? The flavour is too mild to make a meaty snack and the dressing was lost. No real taste sensation in this mighty looking feller. Managed to get through the afternoon without a single snack though the smells wafting from my colleague’s lunchboxes had me drooling.

Thursday: Il Bel Passe (25 Queen’s Rd East, Wanchai, 2804 2992) is a nifty little find – an old-school Italian deli, right on the path into Wanchai. $30 bought me half a fresh French loaf, filled with meat and cheese of my choosing, sliced right in front of me. I selected Porchetto, dried roasted pork, and the assistant recommended pairing it with cheddar. Mild and creamy, the cheese was the highlight, but as a whole my sandwich proved too delicate a taste experience.

Friday: Stumbling across the chilled sandwich bar in Great gave me that Friday feeling - fillings were loaded and leaping from their crusty restraints. I settled on a Habibi salami and artichoke baguette, at a whopping $34 – seeing the week out with a bang? Imbedded chilli seeds and roasted peppers set the mouth aglow and the waxy salami added an extra peppery element. Slivers of parmesan did a good job of stepping up to the strong flavours, cutting through the spice. Mild artichoke offered softer textures, and all in all this was a magic combination.