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Showing posts from December, 2011

Delectable / Wasteful vegetables at Spring Moon, The Peninsula

Spring Moon at The Peninsula in Hong Kong remains one of my favourite Chinese restaurants for lunch. The service is impeccable. The food is seasonal and of a high quality. And not over-priced. But sometimes, one encounters dishes that can be troubling. Pictured above is "Stir-fried hearts of Gai Lan with air-tried sausages". Yes it was very seasonal. Yes it was delicious. But I could not get over how wasteful it was - of the whole Gai Lan (Brassica oleracea - Alboglabra) only the heart of the plant was served: the delicious leaves, the green stalks and everything else were 'absent' from the plate. One dreads to think how much of the rest of the plant was re-used in other dishes.

Late night snacks at The Peninsula, Hong Kong

If you are stuck in Tsim Sha Tsui after a few drinks (in my case at the Ozone, Ritz Carlton Hotel), then The Peninsula is the place - not crowded, no wait, and reliably good food and service.  Here is the deep-fried pork-neck bum with a delicious relish.

Club Qing in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has many restaurants that are tucked away ... some are in far flung places, some are in big hotels, others are on upper floors of commercial buildings. Club Qing was one that, unless you knew, you wouldn't know. A friend of mine took me ther for their tasting dinner just after Christmas. The dinner began with a small helping of Long Jing Tea (龍井茶) which is supposed to aid appetite. The first three dishes came at the same time - which was a series of small bites consisting of a water melon shooter. water bamboo salad and a ham and mushroom roll (below right to left). I thought the "King Prawn Toast" (shown below) was particularly good - crunchy on the outside, good strong seafood taste on the inside. The foie gras on tofu was also interesting - though two "soft" textured ingredients needed a bit of a lift. A further serving of tea was offered. This time it was a Ti Kwan Tin Oolong tea that helped cleanse the palate. The Stir Fried Pumpkin with M

Eugene Onegin at the ENO

I was quite looking forward to see ENO's Eugene Onegin - as it's a co-production with The Met. The first disappointment was that Toby Spence (Lensky) had lost his voice, so did his understudy. So Adrian Thompson (originally Monsieur Triquet) stepped up to sing - but from the side (second disappointment) as Toby Spence was "acting" the part on stage. So there was this bizarre situation where in Act 2 Scene 2 (Duel) we had Toby Spence "acting" opposite Audun Iversen (Onegin, not bad - but a bit wooden in his acting) and a third voice coming off stage (third disappointment). The stage set was great (Tom Pye) and the direction (Deborah Warner) had enough details and finesse to make the whole story believable. Amanda Echalaz who sang Tatyana was on form and the letter scene was very well sung. The monologue of Prince Gremin (Brindley Sherratt) was grounded. Ed Gardner, once again, held it all together.