Posts Tagged Chinese Cuisine
Review – Hong Kong Wine Vault
Usually we don’t review private places, but this place is definitely worth mentioning. Owned by a friend of ours, The Hong Kong Wine Vault is primarily a wine storage facility. Located in an old warehouse building in Wong Chuk Hang in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, they occupy three floors, 5-7 with two more to come. But unlike other storage facilities like Crown Cellars, here you have full access to you wines 24/7 via smartcard access and state-of-the-art facial recognition security. With cellars starting at 40 sq. ft. (HK$2,650/month), it’s the best excuse to ship all the wines that were stored overseas…and to buy more. With zero tax on wines and no more excuse of no space, why not?
But their services don’t stop there. The owners fitted the 7th floor with a very nice function room named the Havana Room, equipped with card tables, a lounge area, a 60 inch flat screen TV for all the sports fans and of course a dining area. Tonight we enjoyed the cooking from one of the caterers, Cecile Lin. The full kitchen is catered for Chinese cuisine, however, they are also renovating another room downstairs for western food, which should be ready by Christmas.
Tonight we started off with some very delicious appetizers, pork neck cubes (粒粒豬頸) and prawn toast (蝦多士) served with 1996 Pierre Peters Champagne. These were so good we had to stop ourselves from eating too much as we knew there would be more good stuff to come.
The chicken (口水雞) was the most memorable, tender and juicy…mouth watering. That’s why it’s called 口水雞, literally ‘saliva’ chicken. The beef was a bit tough and the sea urchin fried rice was a bit dry. What would a dinner be in a wine vault without wine? Besides the Champagne, we were treated to 1995 Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos, 1990 Domaine Robert Ampeau Meursault-Perrieres, 1990 Chateau Lagrange and 1990 Chateau Gruaud Larose.
The ‘main course’ was a very good finish to the enjoyable dinner. A coffee jelly with milk (咖啡奶凍) topped off with a little Kahlua…smooth. The best part was the accompanying dessert wine, 1996 Chateau d’Yquem.
There are also several other recommended caterers on their list including French and Vietnamese. The best thing is that you would never run out of wine, as your cellar is just next door 
15/20 (for the food)
19/20 (for the ambiance)
Hong Kong Wine Vault
5-7/F Ha Lung Industrial Building
52 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Hong Kong
T: +852 2870 1800
F: +852 2870 1866
E: info@winevault.com.hk
W: www.winevault.com.hk
091107 HK Wine Vault - 7th floor entrance
091107 HK Wine Vault - Wall decoration
091107 HK Wine Vault - Table setting
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Review – Hairy Crab (大閘蟹), Hong Kong
This is a very private kitchen and only serves an extremely select clientele…well, actually, it’s our home Where better to have hairy crab than at home. You can get as messy as you want. It’s the season for hairy crab (大閘蟹) and this is our first try of this year’s catch. The crabs came from Lake Tai (太湖) and imported to Hong Kong by Wah Kee Wing Cheong Ho (華記永昌號).
The roe was golden orange and very aromatic. However, the best part was the transparent roe that is sticky and sort of like jelly but very interesting. Accompanied by nine-year-old Hua Diao wine (花雕酒), this is one dinner that is an annual ritual at our home.
Although already very good, it could be better. Since we had a long summer, the weather is not cold enough and we plan to have another taste towards the end of November. Will keep you updated.
17/20
Address: Confidential
091030 Hairy Crab - Still live
091030 Hairy Crab - Hua diao
091030 Hairy Crab - On the plate
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Review – Hing Kee Restaurant (避風塘興記), Hong Kong
Garlic lovers rejoice! Just make sure you don’t kill anyone with your breath afterwards. This evolved from those restaurants on the sampans in the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter in the 70s and 80s. Most have gone and only a handful have moved onshore and this is our favorite. Signature dish is the Fried Crab with Garlic (金沙炒蟹) and we mean garlic. Boy this is serious business…definitely no vampires here Order a bowl of plain congee and add a heap of garlic…WOW.
Side note: After dinner, for dessert, head downstairs and turn left for a street-side stall selling mini-eggs (雞蛋仔).
– 15/20 (16/20 after the mini-eggs)
Hing Kee Restaurant (避風塘興記)
1/F, Bowa House
180 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
T: +852 2722 0022
Hours: 6pm – 5am
090816 Hing Kee - Frequent visits by celebrities
090816 Hing Kee - Green Chives (韮菜花)
090816 Hing Kee - Poached Jellyfish (白灼海蜇)
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Review – 珍味館 (Zhen Wei Guan), Kunming, China
You won’t believe how we found this restaurant. It was recommended by the masseuse our friend used at Spring City! Famous for their wild mushrooms, this is not to be missed. Just tell the driver the restaurant name 珍味館 (Zhen Wei Guan) and all locals know this place. A word of caution though, either print the photos or be prepared to be lost in translation. We had problems communicating with the waitress in Mandarin. Order the wild mushroom chicken hot pot. It also includes some cousin of the Matsutake mushrooms that are very expensive in Japan. Dinner for four was about RMB200 (about USD30).
– 16/20
珍味館 (Zhen Wei Guan)
Wild mushroom chicken hot pot
Beef - very tender
