bc magazine

Wine & Dine Festival 2015

The 2015 Wine & Dine Festival at the Central Harbourfront features a dizzying array of food and wine to enjoy over the next three days. The festival is organised by HK Tourism, which ensures that a large number of the territories hotels have food booths showcasing their signature dishes at prices well below what you’d find when dining at the hotel.

There’s wine, wine and more wine, tasting rooms, samplers and wine pairing dinners. To enjoy a glass and to keep things simple wine’s have been divided in to two categories. Classic wine – $20/coupon and Grand wine $50/coupon. You can purchase as many or as few coupons as you desire.

Food… There’s lots of lovely food, a smorgasbord of tastes and flavours from across the globe. The food and wine booths are separated into zones. Sadly, neither the festival map nor the booklet offer a list of all the participating outlets. In a way that good as it forces you explore, but it can also be a pain to locate a booth you want to visit.

Buffets are for grazing and sampling, and this is the best way to explore the large festival area because you never know what you might find. Dishes are paid for in cash and prices range from $10 up. Some of delights we discovered on our wander last night included a lovely artesian french booth offering cones of cheese, ham’s and salami ($50-60). Among the delights in the hotel booth area were a tasty lamb shank and a delicious stuffed crab topped with melted cheese; or enjoy heart shaped meatloaf topped with gold leaf.

Locally it can be hard to find good bread, but several restaurants make their own and are showcasing this on their booths Ciak has nice fresh bread to go with it’s spicy sausages. While Bagoes is offering fresh bagels, bagel sandwiches.

There’s lots of desserts, one definitely to look out for is is egg custard served in a real egg shell. It’s not cheap $70 for 2, but it’s delicious – booth C204.

There’s also a stage offering a variety of live music through the festival.

Frustrations – there’s very little seating, and no shade! So if the sun’s out, bring some suntan cream and an umbrella because without any breeze Central Harbourfront can be very hot.

It’s outside, there’s food, wine, beer, live music… what’s not to like, have fun.

Wine & Dine Festival 2015
Date: 22-25 October, 2015
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: $30
More info:
22 October – 8-11:30pm
23-24 October – 12-11:30pm
25 October – 12-10pm
More images here

Feeding HK Cookbook Launch – 14 October, 2015

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Feeding Hong Kong launched it’s third cookbook at Cafe 8 on the 14 October, 2015
Click on any photo to see the full gallery

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Megabites: Cheeky

Pretension, often without substance, has been the trend in recent years among new restaurant openings. In stark contrast to this is Roberto Kwong’s, the original owner of Racks in Lan Kwai Fong, newest venture Cheeky. A bright orange irreverent hole in the wall pasta takeaway in Wanchai. Founded with long term friend Fu Chan, Cheeky – complete with it’s own theme song composed by local singer Charles Chan, aka H, aka Fu’s brother; and a logo drawn by comic artist Elphonso Lam – opened in mid-September offering a menu of bites, pastas and lunch sets.

Fu’s in charge of the kitchen, while Roberto handles the witty repartee. And since neither likes doing the washing up they employed a kitchen hand. One of Fu’s creations is jalapeño poppers ($35) – these are jalapeños stuffed with cheese, breaded and deep fried, and they’re delicious. The big fat skin on chips ($30) sound like they’re something different but sadly turn out to be normal chips, but nicely cooked crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. There’s three pasta options spaghetti, penne and linguine with a choice of freshly made toppings – bolognese, meatballs, bacon wild mushroom cream sauce and pesto primavera. The cheeky specials are cream pea wasabi, ring of fire in three firery flavours ‘burning’, ‘pounding’ and for the real masochists ‘bleeding’. There’s also a sweet angel hair dragon beard, a dessert style pasta that’s served cold and needs to be ordered a couple of hours in advance.

Cheeky also have $48 lunch sets, where the sauces are different to the regular menu and there are side dish options of a pork chop, chicken fillet, seafood or vegetarian.

The portion sizes are ok, the pasta is served nicely al dente. The meatballs were baked and the tomato sauce fresh with a hint of herbs. The wasabi cream pea is something cheeky that shouldn’t work but does. If there’s one slight criticism, I’d prefer slightly more sauce, but that’s a purely personal preference. Take a wander down Swatow Street for an enjoyably Cheeky lunch or dinner.

Cheeky
B2A, 4 Swatow Street, Wanchai. Tel: 2325 2725

Megabites: Greenhouse

Greenhouse on the 10th floor of Times Square is the latest outlet from the Gaia Group. The menu shares a theme and several dishes with sister restaurants Townhouse in Lan Kwai Fong and Glasshouse in IFC, but the 7000 square foot Greenhouse’s menu is different enough for a separate visit. The bright open plan layout is big enough that, unlike many smaller places, if you want to relax and chat with friends over some bites and drinks you can – without that feeling that the waiter wants you gone…

The main menu is split into 6 sections – small bites, bigger bites, robata bites, garden bites, pizza bites, main bites with a separate sweet bites menu. Prices range from $48 for the small bites to $568 for a 24oz rib eye. The dishes that caught our eye were the bacon wrapped scallops ($52/skewer) and coco-cola prime beef ($58/skewer) robata. Not cheap per skewer, but the portions are large, the beef juicy. The scallops were big and tasty, but the bacon (sadly) was barely noticeable and (sadly again, as a bacon lover) added nothing to the flavour.

The Masaman curry lasagna with roasted mushrooms, chicken and smoked mozerella ($118) – it’s such an eclectic sounding mix that it shouldn’t work. Yet it does, the curry with the melted cheese and pasta, the vegetables and chicken providing textures. Just a delicious dish and one we’ll return for time and again.

The wagyu burger with black truffle mayonnaise ($148) is a big juicy 7oz fine ground wagyu patty served in a sesame seed bun. The patty was evenly cooked, served pink, nicely juicy with a good meaty bite. The bun is fresh and doesn’t disintegrate as the juice seeps down. It would be nice if the dish came with fries, but you can order those on the side ($68) with more black truffle mayonnaise. That makes a burger and fries almost $250 (including the obligatory 10% service charge) which, in any restaurant, is a lot for a burger.

The signature Balinese style fried chicken ($258) was perfectly cooked, the chicken meat moist, while the skin was crispy. The sambal sauce is spicey, and goes nicely with fries as well.

For dessert there are pizza crepes ($98) and the fun ‘candy crush’ ($118), a selection of ice cream, fruit, chocolate and sweets served in a stone mortar and pestle for you to crush and enjoy with friends.

The drinks menu includes all that you’d expect plus a selection of ice green tea lattes ($48). The green bamboo latte is a combination of sugar cane syrup, green tea, Gaia coffee and cream – a nice mix of flavours, the coffee adding a little sharpness to the green tea. There are ‘frozen’ drinks, the Pandan leaves and coconut is combination of fresh Pandan leaves, coconut cream, condensed milk, soft brown sugar and hazelnut topping. The signature milk tea ($48) served in a jug is a little milky for our taste but there’s a lot worse being served around town.

Service is polite and efficient, the dishes bc tried were well cooked, nicely presented and reasonably sized. It’s hard to find fault in Greenhouse – it is, what it is, an enjoyable place to eat out.

Greenhouse
Shop 1004, Shop 1004, Time Square, Causeway Bay. Tel: 2383 4022

Megabites: Gordon Ramsay’s London House

Newly opened in TST East is Gordon Ramsay’s London House. In the UK, London House is a fine dining restaurant. In Hong Kong it’s a pub, with a small simple menu comprising traditional English pub grub, of the type on offer before the term ‘gastro pub’ saw traditional English staples ‘re-invented’ (bastardised). To start there’s toad in the hole ($108), crispy whitebait ($108). Mains include cod and chips ($198), shepherds pie ($198), steak hash ($188), pork chops ($238). As for dessert there’s bread and butter pudding ($78) and trifle ($78) amongst others.

At a recent media tasting we were offered tasting samples of several dishes, the cod was firm and tasty but was in nugget form not as served to customers… The mash on the shepherds pie was more like a puree than mash, while the minced lamb filling was runny and lacked the rich thickness and flavour that a mince filling should have. The bangers and mash (puree) were ok, although the onions were still stringy and the gravy bland. As we were served tasting portions, regrettably we can’t comment on portion size.

If any restaurant wants to cook ‘staple’ dishes (of any cuisine) that everyone knows and probably makes at home – then there needs to be something ‘special’ about them or diners will be naturally underwhelmed. There’s no need to reinvent them, just make the good. At Gordon Ramsay’s London House you’re looking at $400+ per person for dinner without drinks, the staff are polite and the service efficient. There’s nothing much ‘wrong’ with the food (although, you could eat the same or better for half the price in many pubs across Hong Kong without Ramsay’s name) just nothing to say Yum… and make you want to return.

Gordon Ramsay London House
G5, Tsim Sha Tsui Centre, 66 Mody Road, TST East. tel: 3650 3333

Megabites: Portobello Burger

New on the Maya takeaway menu is the delicious Portobello burger – layers of either cashew truffle cheeze or spicy sunflower cheeze with lettuce and tomato sandwiched between two massive portobello mushrooms with some raw mash on the side ($88). And no I’m not one of those health food obsessed vegetarians, I’m a healthy meat loving hedonist, who isn’t put off by the raw, vegan, gluten free mumbo and just enjoys good tasty food, well prepared. That my body may benefit is pleasant a side-affect. Just as stress relief is happy side effect of a night drinking Jack Daniels with friends.

Maya Cafe
Shop G7, Nan Fung Tower, 173 des Voeux Road, Central. Tel: 2111 4553

Megabites: McWilliam’s Family Winemakers

There’s an amazing variety of vine growing regions spread across Australia and the McWilliam’s family owned winery, which planted its first vines in 1877, operates in most of them. They aim to produce good quality wine at specific price points for the Australian market.

Among these are the Hanwood Estate range A$10-12 (HK$50-60) and the Appellation Series A$20-25 (HK$110-130) and it does a pretty good job. The wines we sampled were nice to good and far better than most of the often barely drinkable wines by the glass offered in many local bars. The Evans & Tate 2014 Metricup Road Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and the Evans & Tate Redbrook Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 are both very drinkable and worth exploring.

Sadly local retail prices are triple those in Australia (remember we have no tax) and despite the increase in volume of local wine sales the price gouging of the Hong Kong consumer continues.

Megabites: Prego

Newly open in Soho is Italian restaurant Prego the latest outlet in Dining Concepts expanding portfolio. Head Chef Enrico Maritan cites his Mama’s cooking as the inspiration for the 50s-60s-70s ‘home style’ menu. At a recent media tasting we weren’t offered a ‘taste’ of the more interesting sounding ‘Chef’s specials’ of which Il Polpettone (beef and pork meatloaf with mash potato), La Sfoglia (baked pastry with eggplant, tomato and mozzarella) and profiterol (baked beignet stuffed with tiramisu cream and topped with dark chocolate) appealed.

Of the dishes sampled none were bad, but none were great. The Risotto Funghi Porcini e Tartufo was over cooked, watery and bland. The pizza thin and surprisingly flavourless with little cheese. The Salame di Cioccolato could have been good but lacked any memorable flavour or texture and was covered with that horrible artificial whipped cream from a can. There’s nothing bad about the food, just nothing that inspires a return or a recommendation to friends to give it a try. As for value, we were served tasting portions, so regrettably we can’t comment on portion size /price.

Prego: 43 Elgin Street, Central, Tel: 2651 5700