Last Call for Dad!
 A last call for all those who have not planned anything for their dear old dad on Father’s Day yet. The Japanese Fiesta dinner buffet at The Spice Market (3/F, Prince Hong Kong Hotel, 2113 6046) features Japanese dishes from wagyu beef tepanyaki and Japanese skewer to green tea ice cake and sakura flower mousse gateau. A free shark’s fin and lobster soup will be offered to each guest during dinner and a glass of Sapporo beer will be served to each father. The dinner buffet is $338 for adults and $208 for children. Lunch and tea buffets (adults $188 and $138, children $118 and $98) are also served. A few floors down at Coffee Mill (LB, Gateway Marco Polo Hotel, 2113 7926), the Lobsters Highlight dinner buffet at $328 for adults and $198 for children is a recommendation. Signature dishes include lobster and crabmeat vol-au-vent and lobster mousse wrapped in bean curd. There are also dim sum fever ($188 for adults and $108 for children), mango specialties (adult $128, child $78) and lobster delights ($98) buffets to choose from.
 A complimentary bottle of red or white wine and the harbour view are on offer on Father’s Day and its eve at Congress Restaurant (6/F, Convention Plaza, 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, 2582 7250) and Golden Bauhinia Cantonese Restaurant (enter via Expo Galleria entrance, 2582 7728). They invite all dads to the ‘Most Creative Wine Matching Dishes Competition’ at the HK Convention and Exhibition Centre. The winners will be invited to a seminar entitled ‘Food and Wine Matching’ on June 28 where they will receive another bottle of wine. Highlights of Congress Restaurant’s dinner buffet include North Pole sea whelk, made-to-order sashimi and hand rolls, and Australian yabbies and seafood while the set dinner at the Golden Bauhinia has deep-fried crab meat and bacon stuffed in a shell, steamed melon stuffed with braised whole abalone in oyster sauce and baked fresh pawns with vegetables in chicken broth. Congress Restaurant’s buffet costs $398 for adults and $208 for children. At the Golden Bauhinia, the meal is $3,988 or $5,088 for 10-12 persons and $2,038 or $2,548 for 5-6 persons.
On Kowloon side, at Langham Place’s The Place (Level L, 3552 3200), apart from free house wine, beer and soft drinks, every father will receive a nice designer apron during a dinner buffet that costs $428 for adults and $258 for children (lunch buffet is $288 for adults and $178 for children). For a more traditional Cantonese touch, the delicacies of Ming Court (Level 6, 3552 3300) may be more your choice. The special Father’s Day set menu includes deep-fried crispy chicken, fried rice with shrimps and meat wrapped in lotus leaf, glutinous dumplings filled with sesame and coated with ground peanuts and sweetened red bean cream. If you prefer healthier food, try Chinese longevity buns filled with lotus seed paste, simmered chicken in superior soup and steamed spotted garoupa. Special set menus range from $6,180 to $7,580 for 12 persons.
New Flavours
 Originally from London with its Japanese robata grill, ROKA has recently opened a branch in Hong Kong (Level LG1, Shop 002, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, 3960 5988). The 6,000 sq ft venue provides a casual atmosphere with its famous charcoal-grilled meats, seafood and vegetables and 500 bottles of premium wines from around the world.
Cucina (6/F, Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2113 0808) prides itself as a culinary theatre where East meets West, and a new ‘performance’ is being staged this June to welcome the approaching summer. On the Western front, Chef Graeme Ritchie has selected some of the best cold cuts from Italy including bresaola carpaccio with gribiche vinaigrette (air-dried beef, $120), speck alto adige with scampi tail, cress and sprout salad, lemon and extra virgin olive oil (cured Italian bacon, $225) and guanciale stagionato ‘cinta sinese’, warm vanilla fig, truffled mascarpone (cured pork cheek, $145). In the Chinese kitchen, the refreshing and healthy watermelon is the main ingredient of new dishes. Highlights are the delicate steamed winter melon roll stuffed with lobster ball ($288), sautéed fresh seafood in winter melon ($168) and the classic mini winter melon soup ($288).
Delicious seafood while overlooking Victoria Harbour from a sky-high view is what Santa Lucia Restaurant & Lounge (38/F, Hotel Panorama by Rhombus, 8A, Hart Avenue, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, 3550 0262) offers. The restaurant has pulled together a special ‘love affair’ between lobster and crab starting with a choice of the refreshing lobster and avocado martini or harmoniously blended warm lobster and potato salad, followed by a special soup named hot crab vs chilled lobster: hot blue crab creamy chowder with cold cucumber white gazpacho with poached lobster. For mains, the baked macaroni and cheese is stuffed with crab, truffles, tomatoes, fresh herbs and parmesan cheese in a light cream sauce. Meat lovers can go for beef tenderloin with sweet lobster roll made with pan-roasted premium US beef tenderloin and lobster roll baked with fresh lobster, basil, garlic, potato and caramelized shallot. A more simple choice is broiled half Boston lobster seasoned with garlic butter, or a pan-seared skate wing and king crab leg steamed and garnished with sautéed vine-ripened cherry tomatoes and lobster base sauce. Round things up with a light lychee and champagne jelly float. A four-course dinner is $428 per person, a six-course meal with an extra appetizer and main course is $528.
Some look at sea urchin and are disgusted but some are just plain addicted to it. For the latter, Aji Bou Izakaya (1/F, Regal Riverside Hotel, 34-36 Tai Chung Kiu Road, Shatin, 2132 1256) is launching a sea urchin all-you-can-eat dinner. Sadly the sashimi is not provided on an unlimited basis – each diner will be served 25 gms of sea urchin sashimi but there is still a wide selection of other sea urchin dishes on offer. Highlights are sea urchin and crab roe congee, deep-fried sea urchin and asparagus with seaweed and, of course, no Japanese menu will go without the classic sea urchin, salmon and tuna rice, sea urchin hand roll and sea urchin and egg roll. Other than the 40 kinds of sushi and sashimi on offer, highlights also include the baked scallop in Japanese sauce, prawn tempura, deep-fried shrimp and roasted black cod steak. The promotion lasts until June 30 and costs $258/$158 per adult/child from Monday to Thursday; $278/$179 from Friday to Sunday and on public holidays and eves.
 You say potatoes, DiVino (73 Wyndham Street, Central, 2167 8883) says tomatoes – the king of summer according to Chef Senigaglia. Go sweet and sour with appetizers like chilled plum tomato soup served with a hot parcel of lettuce filled with ricotta cheese and herbs ($78), or the yellow and red heirloom tomato terrine with aromatic herb salad, sun-dried tomato and basil oil infusion ($128). Go without meat for the main course of carnaroli risotto tossed with Roma tomato compote and buffalo mozzarella fondue ($168), and the duo of tomato ‘fondant’ and fresh goat cheese quenelles served on violet eggplant puree ($158). Rarely do we have tomatoes for dessert, but DiVino is serving a San Marzano tomato ‘semifreddo’ with balsamic vinegar sauce and crystallized basil ($88) to round off the meal.
Award Class
 Chef Marco Torre of Grissini (2/F, 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, 2584 7933) recently has been recognized by the Italian Class Magazine as one of the five “Best Italian chefs under 30 working outside of Italy”. The title is a bit long and the category seems a bit narrow, but still it is quite an achievement for the young chef. To celebrate, Torre has created a new menu with some seasonal Italian ingredients – including rabbit. Highlights include Tuscany bread and tomato salad with cucumber, basil, red onion and tender roasted rabbit loin, homemade potato dumplings with a gently spiced red mullet sauce and homemade pasta with smoked eel, green peas, fresh tomatoes and orange.
We may not have a Michelin food guide in Hong Kong yet, but we can still find Michelin standard cuisine in the city. French chef Didier Rochat, who has long served in Michelin-starred French restaurants and a number of five-star hotels, has been appointed the executive chef at La Brasserie (Lower Floor, Gateway, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2113 7925) starting from this month. The man has made a list of what he recommends for diners when they next visit the French eatery – his choices include lobster and grilled vegetables with aioli sauce ($195), pan-seared beef tenderloin and foie gras, truffle gravy and potato gratin ($310), pan-seared salmon and scallops in a creamy sea urchin sauce ($240) and warm chocolate fondant with raspberry sherbet ($90).
We have dined in the newly relocated Jimmy’s Kitchen (Shop C and C1, G/F, Kowloon Center, 29 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2376 0327) twice this fortnight and decided to tell you more about it, as they have many new dishes to go with the new look. Loyal fans of the 80-year-old brand will stick to the famous items like baked onion soup ($78) and seven-peppered steak ($360/400g), but the eatery is proud of its new star – the new broiler that, with 1,800∞C, turns their dry-aged hormone-free beef into medium rare in just four minutes. At the same time, they say, the beef stays juicy and tender. And their 15 new dishes include Jimmy’s crabmeat and avocado cocktail ($104), dry lamb vindaloo ($166), grilled spring chicken ($198) and the trickily named dessert Knickerbocker Glory ($72). Also consider a pre-dinner quick drink at the bar overlooking the not-too-busy Ashley Road – happy hours run long from 3pm to 9pm daily.
Festive Food
Okinawa is one of the hottest travel spots these days and the Okinawa Festival hosted by En Group promotes the region’s culture, starting from food and music. The festival’s highlight is a live music banquet featuring Okinawa soulful songbird and four-time Nihon Record Grand Prize winner Natsukawa Rimi and musical five-piece Parsha. The banquet will be a mixture of Okinawa and Chinese cuisine. For a glimpse of the region’s rich flavours, highlights are the Okinawa sea grapes, pork ear, and shallot platter as a starter, the traditional peanut tofu, mozuku seaweed in Japanese vinaigrette and fermented bean curd and the famous Okinawa lafte. The banquet will take place on June 26 at HITEC Rotunda 6 starting at 7:30pm. Entry costs $980, $780, $580 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.
The Taiwan Night Market Festival returns after popular demand. But this time the focus will shift from the busy Taipei to Kaohsiung, the largest city in southern Taiwan. While the famous slack season tan tsai noodles and chous’ shrimp roll are still one offer, the highlight this time must be the re-creation of the inauguration banquet of Ma Ying-jeou by Chef Chan of the famous Grand Hi Lai Hotel in Kaohsiung. The festival will be held from June 13-15 at the East Point City (L1, East Point City, Tseung Kwan O) where a charity donation of $10 will enable the donor to try one snack. For enquiries, ring 2628 7399.
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