bc magazine

Wine & Dine 2016 – A Few Things to Enjoy

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It’s Wine & Dine! After a walk around under the blazing sun here’s a few things to enjoy. We can’t say it’s a ‘best of’, there’s over 400 booths to explore taste and savour. Have fun finding your own favourites.

It’s not cheap! While many outlets are offering discounts on their regular shop prices for buying bottles (with many happy to home deliver after the festival). Food is pricey, most places are averaging $50-75 per portion.

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In an attempt no doubt to break up the massive crowds this year’s Wine & Dine Festival is laid out in short blocks set at sharp angles. It’s not instinctively easy to find your way back to an outlet/booth so eat /drink what you want when you see/find it. This layout also makes it hard to direct friends to a spot they’d enjoy – take a photo of the booth number.

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Wine Whiskey and Beer

There are more wine companies and stands than you can possibly sample… decisions, decisions. Your wine tokens get a tasting portion – not a full glass. Ensure they rinse your glass first! Check out the Riedel tent, the glass manufacturer has an ongoing selection of talks and tastings.

There’s a large, essentially craft, beer area – towards the Admiralty end, far side from the harbour – with a wide range of local and international beers to sample. Several stands have special beers only available at Wine & Dine. Want a bite with your beer? Next to the beer stands at booth E814 you can find a mixed sausage platter of black cuttlefish and traditional German cheese sausages covered in melted cheese for $40.

If you like whiskey there are single brand whiskey stands, most are grouped in the middle of the festival. Except for the Jack Daniels booth which is in the American area. Celebrating it’s 150 anniversary, you’ll be able to taste a wide selection of Jack Daniels.

Food

It won’t mean much to many but one of the booths in the American street is offering a free drink to those who kiss Hillary and or punch Donald 🙂 For for a simple snack try Millennium Seafoods lobster soup.

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Enjoy a big tasty sausage? Opposite the stage the 30cm Mega Jumbo Wurst ($75) offers a nice meaty custom made German sausage. Cooked over a massive circular BBQ, the team is organised and ready for the rush, their target to serve you in 60 seconds. There’s also a 15cm version ($65) which is the same type of sausage but sold more like a hotdog in a bigger bun. Wash is down with some Fruh Radler (lemon beer).

Flavabomb (E506) has a lovely light refreshing Gelato di Moscato – a choice gelato ice-cream, topped up with moscato and we added in a few dried strawberry flakes (top photo). A light refreshing option perfect in the summer sun or after dark. They also have a range of bakery products including croissants and pain au chocolat and some tasty beef balls with truffle.

Seafood: Abalone more abalone plus a bit of shellfish. There several booths offering abalone from a variety of different locations, in different sizes and farmed or wild. On the harbourfront edge of festival The Gold Coast Hotel has a bowl of their signature tasty Sri-Lankan crab for $98 and a hearty German sausage with sauerkraut for $60. Both portions sized to be almost a complete meal in themselves. Next door the Panda Hotel has a lobster bun ($40) and salmon, crab, cheese tarts ($40).

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If want a change from seafood, U Banquet is offering Grilled Assorted Balls for $20 a portion

While you’re picking up your free cookies from Lucullus check out some of their other offerings the predominantly Kowloon side chain has a range of tasty bakery and desserts on offer including cheese tarts (original, durian or green tea, $30 for 2) and stuffed baked parmesan cheese rolls (chicken, Thai green curry, sichuan spicy pork $35 for 2) and some cute looking chilled offerings.

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There are lots of desserts on offer, one of bc’s favourites from last year returns at booth E507. A rich silky smooth egg custard served in a real egg shell. $40 for box of 4, it’s seriously delicious.

Other food booths to check out –pork knuckle specialists Golden Pig, K-Town, Butcher and Baker who are offering hotdogs ($40) and baked chocolate fondants topped with ice-cream $30. And for something a little different, next to the Admiralty entrance, Kwun Tong private kitchen Wines Buddy and Dining at Home.

Basic things: A reminder there is little shade! Sun cream and a hat or expect to boil during the day. Bring water, there’s lots and lots and lots of wine, beer, whiskey – but little water to keep hydrated. There are very few seats.

NO refunds on coupons! In fact, unless you want to sample wine, there’s very little point in waiting in the long lines to buy coupons at a rough estimate over 80% of booths accept cash.

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

Wine & Dine Festival 2016
Date: 27-30 October, 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: $30

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Megabites: Enjoy US Beef and Pork at Wine and Dine 2016

This year’s Wine & Dine Festival has over 400 booths split across 5 sections, where to start? How about the Tasty Bites section where, sponsored by the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF), you can find premium US pork and US beef served up by two local restaurants Frites (Booth C311) and Crft-Pit (Booth C317).

Located in Ap Lei Chau Crft-Pit specialises in American BBQ and their booth features a four item menu. The Texas Brisket Beef Dip ($60) is oak smoked USDA brisket with a peppercorn rub served with creole mustard in a baguette. The Pulled Pork Slider with Pickles ($55) has hickory smoked USDA pork served in a brioche bun withcrft bbq sauce and shredded cabbage. They also have Mini Burger Sliders ($55) and Jalapeno Mac and Cheese ($30). Add a drink to create a combo for $80

Frites the Belgian bar with four outlets locally will be serving mini versions of two of it’s popular menu items. The palm sized “US Pork Mini Good Wife Sausage with Mash Potato’ $60 is very tasty. Or get healthy with a ‘US Beef Protein Salad’ $80.

Go Cup Launch – 26 October, 2016

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Go Cup is a program to raise awareness of rubbish and encourage sustainability by offering people discounts on drinks if they bring their own mugs/cups.
Find out more www.gocup.hk
Click on any photo for more images of the Go Cup launch.

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American Cheese and Wine Evening – 24 October, 2016

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An evening of sublime flavours as the US Consul General hosted an evening of American wine and US cheese.

America is well known for it’s wine, but it might surprise you to know that the US is now the world’s biggest cheese exporter. And we’re not talking those synonymous processed cheese slices. A thriving quality artisanal cheese industry offers everything from award wining cheddars to sublime blue cheeses, ‘Parmesan’ wheels and ‘French’ bries and much more – there’s something for everyone to enjoy and explore. And soon to be, if the US Dairy Export Council and Schuman Cheese are successful, available in a shop near you.

Click on any photo for the full gallery of images.

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Megabites: Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held since 1810, and while the original and world’s biggest Volkfest is still held in Munich other cities across the world have joined in the celebrations. So if you didn’t make it to Oktoberfest in Germany this year, you can get your fill of German food, drink and fun right here in Hong Kong. bc takes a look at three quite different options.

Schnurrbart

Augustiner Bräu, is one of the most popular beers available exclusively at Munich’s Oktoberfest. Served in 0.5ltr mugs ($99) it’s now available only during October at Schnurrbart in Lan Kwai Fong. A special Oktoberfest menu which includes Munich style boiled white sausage with pretzel ($90); Braised pork in beer sauce with bread dumpling and cabbage salad ($168); Nuremberg fried sausages, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes ($138) and the Schnurrbart special pork knuckle with braised red cabbage and mashed potatoes ($228).

Schnurrbart: 29 D’Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong

Marco Polo

The 25th Anniversary Marco Polo German Bierfest runs from the 21 October to 12 November, 2016. The outdoor festival again features the Notenhobler band in their Oberkrainer outfits singing traditional tunes and hearty folk music. Beers available this year include Fischer’s stiftungsbräu helles lager ($90) and Erdinger Oktoberfest ($90), On the menu will be roast pork knuckle served with braised red cabbage and gratinated potato (HK$185); Pan-fried sausages “Nürnberger” style with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes (HK$150); Roast herb-marinated half chicken with carrot and potato salad (HK$160) and for dessert Apple strudel with vanilla sauce ($85) and Black forest cake ($85).

25th Anniversary Marco Polo German Bierfest
Date: 6-11pm, 21 October – 12 November 2016
Venue: Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, TST
Tickets: $280, $160 from HKTicketing
More info: www.gbfhk.com

Beerliner

With 5 locations – actually bc thinks there are 6 outlets, but only 5 are listed on the website. Maybe the Wanchai restaurant is only for those in the know? – Beerliner is the largest chain of German themed bars in the Hong Kong. Offering a range of German beers and dishes including roasted pork knuckle, sausage platters and Flammkuchen (German style pizzas). For Oktoberfest, running until the 31 October, Beerliner has added a range of special dishes and beers, perhaps the most uniquely Hong Kong Oktoberfest special is the Monster Shake.

For Beerliner outlet locations see here.

Megabites: Ocean Park Halloween Fest

This year’s Ocean Park Halloween Fest has a Ghostbusters feel as it looks to make you laugh and scream! The Park will feature Halloween themed attractions where visitors looking for scares and excitement can test their proton run skills as the they run from hordes of ghosts in New York’s subway and streets!

As well as scares there’s creepy food during Halloween Fest and this year Ocean Park will be serving haunted school themed dishes.

At Café Ocean the Mortuary Set Menu features the Ghostly Toilet of Death (Tomato Ox Tail Soup) served in a toilet bowl-shaped container. Opening the toilet bowl lid reveals a skull-shaped piece of toast floating in the blood coloured soup. Amongst the main dish is the Biology Class of the Damned, an assorted platter presented to look like the organs of a human being. A seafood vegetable pâté for the brains, deep-fried chicken breasts with brie cheese for the lungs, a triangular roasted chicken fillet for the liver, a pan-fried beef striploin for the stomach and finally chipolata sausage in tomato sauce for the intestines. For dessert beware the ‘Possessed’ Chalkboard Eraser (Charcoal Helvetic Rolls).

All these Halloween Fest set menus are only available until 31 October.

Halloween Fest
Dates: Until 31 October, 2016
Venue: Ocean Park

Wine & Dine Festival 2016

This year’s Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival returns to the Central Harbourfront from 27 to 30 October. The venue is 20% larger than last year and the festival features more than 410 wine and food booths in five distinct themed zones.

The ‘Tasting Room’ will host unique Master Chef Dinners ($1,688) prepared by Chef Gaggan Anand of Bangkok restaurant Gaggan in collaboration with three local Michelin-starred restaurants and other Hong Kong establishments.

From wine and whiskey to craft beers and cocktails, there is a wide variety of choices to suit different tastes. The range of gastronomical delights to choose is extensive, including street food and creations from some of the city’s trendiest restaurants and top hotels.

Wine & Dine Festival 2016
Date: 27-30 October, 2016
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: $30
More info:
27 October – 7:30-11:30pm
28-29 October – 12-11:30pm
30 October – 12-10pm

Brunch on the Terrace

Sunday brunch on the terrace, what’s not to like? This month The Envoy at The Pottinger Hotel in Central launched a new Sunday Brunch menu featuring a range of dishes designed to complement their delicious crafted cocktail menu.

The brunch dishes are solid, but the range of choices is very traditional. bc tried the eggs benedict (available with creamy spinach; parma ham and mushroom or smoked salmon and avocado) $188, traditional breakfast $178 and the milo lava toast $88. All were well presented and enjoyable, but nothing to have you tweeting, get here and try this… unlike the cocktails which are rather good.

And really you are here to relax,chat and enjoy the fine crafted cocktails created by Charlene Dawes and Antonio Lai – the duo behind the drinks menus at Quinary and Origin. There are over 25 to choose from and there’s quite literally something for everyone. Many of the most interesting feature twists on local dishes and ingredients and flavours range from sweet to sour and everywhere in between. Almost all are served in unique or interesting glasses and clever, but not extraneous garnishing is the rule of the day.

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What’s good about the current crafted cocktails trend is that they’re drinks designed primarily to be enjoyed – not to get you drunk. This allows for the tasting and enjoyment of several, where the only pain will be on your wallet as they not cheap costing between $128-$188.

There are lots of relaxed places to enjoy sunday brunch, The Envoy’s terrace with the sun out, cocktail in hand is certainly one to add to your list of options.

The Envoy: 3/F, The Pottinger Hotel, 74 Queen’s Road, Central
Tel: 2169 3311, Open: noon-1am www.theenvoy.hk