3rd International Chef’s Day
October 20th was a busy day for HK’s chefs as over 100 gathered for Hong Kong’s third International Chef’s Day, and spent hours developing a buffet lunch big enough to feed over 600 people. The lucky recipients, pupils at Hong Chi Pinehill Integrated Vocational Training Centre for mental disabilities, feasted on lip-smacking, filling fare including sweet and sour, bolognaise and a special secret chicken wing recipe. Desserts were plentiful with towering chocolate cakes, cheesecakes and crumbles. Chef Perry Yuen, one of the day’s organisers, remembers when the celebration was somewhat smaller. On the first such day, just a handful of chefs took time off to cook for the cause. “In the city, a lot of people don’t understand these people. We are chefs, not rich men, but we can cook,” says Yuen, of the reasons they chose to cook for charity. Pinehill students are a big help to the chefs on a daily basis – at the school they learn hotel back-of-house trades, which are put into good use in real hotels after graduation. Each year the party is growing and Marco Veringa, Hong Kong Chefs Association’s vice president, is confident the day is set to swell year after year. Proof that beneath each chef’s sweating brow and kitchen bark beats a heart of pure marzipan.

Bone Appetit
For many the race to stay thin far outweighs the need for good bones – for the young, old age frailty seems a long way off, but this is all skewed thinking according to Professor Annie Kung, president of Hong Kong’s Osteoporosis Society. “…By 2050 about 50 percent of all hip fractures will occur in Asia,” she said at the launch of World Osteoporosis Day, also October 20th. Frequently in Hong Kong soy products, which lack calcium, replace milk, so it is important to look for fortified soy and add two or three servings of calcium rich foods to the diet. Yoghurt, a slice or two of cheese or a glass of milk nourishes bones sufficiently to stop weakness later in life. Intercontinental sous chef Kit Po Tsai has put together a sampling of dishes for a Bone Appetit dinner that includes slow-baked Atlantic salmon, high in vitamin D which is good for bone development, and an almond and sesame dessert also high in calcium, that will be available until December in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant Yan Toh Heen.
Hotel Intercontinental, 18 Salisbury Rd, Kowloon, 2313 2323
More bone-friendly recipes can be found at www.iofbonehealth.org

Herboland
Seven years ago Gavin Yu Ka Fai and Gary Tse Yau Chit were Sunday farmers enthralled by their weekly escapes from city life. Three years later the happy-go-lucky duo started Hong Kong’s only organic herb garden, Herboland on Lamma Island. The couple and the business are flourishing. Yu says the most rewarding aspect of herb life is enjoying and sharing the harvest with friends and family. Many customers – a mix of Western and local tourists who show up to buy freshly picked products like sage and curry leaf, enjoy exotic herb tea infusions and learn about organic processes – have become friends, with the owners and other customers. “We are providing a place for health and relaxation, and people appreciate and enjoy what we did for them,” says Yu. Organic farming seems to be gaining popularity, though there is nothing too fancy or special in its methods. Farmers were working organically over 3,000 years ago, and so the approach follows a back-to-basics plan. One of the biggest difficulties is pest control. Successful farming needs a careful balance between harmful insects and those that benefit – distinguishing them is a lesson well learned, says Yu. Just one look at their land, dancing with dainty chamomile blossoms, or at baskets brimming with eggplant, zucchini and okra, and it’s clear that Yu and Tse have mastered the art. As it seems simple and natural may be the next trend, Yu adds encouragement to people making the switch. “If people ask me ‘why organic?’, I say ‘why not organic?’ We live healthily from healthy foods.”

Take a boat over and enjoy a day of simple living. Herboland conducts workshops on organic DIY, pot painting and herb cookie making and sells herbal teas and products.
Call 9414 2866 for details.

Finding Nemo
Sushi houses are latching on to the fact that slices of cold raw fish are best experienced fresh. Two new joints guarantee a Japanese catch of the day.

Sushi Masa just opened its doors at the Park Hotel (5 – 8, 61 – 65, Chatham Rd South, TST, 2191 4781) following 26 openings in Japan, and one each in China and Vancouver. Early each morning the chain’s buyer goes hunting at Japanese fish markets, and his selections are shipped to Hong Kong later that day. From a stacked sushi menu, chef Sato Hideki sends specials such as shark fin sushi ($55 for two pieces), and a fantastic eight-inch jumbo anago conger eel ($40 for one piece) along the conveyor, or to enjoy at your own private table if you wish. Open 11.30am – 11.30pm, but arrive early – sushi places in Hong Kong inevitably accumulate long queues.

Prompted by MTR plans for Kennedy Town in the next few years, many restaurant owners are finding a new fertile land for setting up business. One, Kamukara (G/F, Luen Tak Apartment, 45 – 51 Smithfield Rd, 2986 5557), opened a month ago, just metres away from the proposed site. Fish comes directly from the land of the rising sun, and the clear displays show lots of options. Choose from platters loaded with seven sliced fish types, including the recommended red tuna fish fillet ($280). Manager Lewis Wang also applauds Canadian sea urchin, black pork belly skewer, and thinly sliced yellowtail, kanpachi ($40 – $155). The place is warm-hearted, clean and fresh and, until that MTR hits, is still one of the undiscovereds.

Truffle-tasms
Is any other ingredient as ugly as a truffle? It’s a wonder the first discoverer didn’t discard and forget the gnarly, hard and uneven cog immediately. Maybe the pungent earthy aroma was so intoxicating it called for further investigation. Nowadays the uncultivated fungus sparks bidding wars the instant a trifolau – truffle hunter – uncovers it. That is before it arrives on the best haute cuisine menus worldwide.

White truffle season is well underway here in Hong Kong. The Repulse Bay (109, Repulse Bay Rd, 2292 2822) is holding a one-off special dinner on November 9, featuring Alba’s white truffles. Those in the know proclaim the white truffle’s damp fragrance is as strong in the kitchen as it is on the Italian hillsides in Langhe. Often shaved straight from the body and served raw, at Repulse you’ll find it sprinkled over beef carpaccio and goose liver, and dotted over pan-fried veal, porcini and mascarpone. Most gastronomes agree Alba truffles and eggs make a masterpiece: on this menu you’ll find them blended in ravioli with Fontina cheese. Even the vanilla bean ice cream is studded with truffle flakes and concludes four courses of exquisite fungus infusion. Each course comes with a suggested Italian wine to accompany, and the whole dinner costs $1,800.

Gaia’s (The Piazza, Grand Millennium Plaza, 181 Queen’s Rd, Central, 2161 8200) Paulo Monti is also celebrating a bumper bounty combining North Italy’s porcini mushrooms and white truffles. You’ll find them in another beef carpaccio dish ($328), this time with pieces of parmigiano tempered with truffles, while beef consommé and creamy egg yolk is showered with Alba flecks ($328). But that freshly-dug flavour is sometimes enjoyed best in the raw – how about undisguised in a simple homemade angel hair pasta, dusted with some tangy parmigiano ($426).