Shoot First Eat Later

Dinner at Spoon

I was excited to have dinner at Spoon since I’ve only eaten at their Sunday lunch buffet. I loved everything at the buffet so I had high expectations for dinner and since it was December 23, 2009 I assumed they would have even better food.

We were off to a good start. The amuse bouche was a clean and refreshing chilled broccoli soup.

broccoli purée w lemon cream caviar

Foie gras is one of my favorite foods. I thought there is no foie gras that I wouldn’t like. Well here’s one of them. The puff pastry and the sauce were very good. The foie gras and duckling were dry and overcooked. It tasted more like kidney instead of liver.

foie gras pie served in puff pastry

The soup was light and flavorful.

light chestnut veloute, fennel confit

Our table had an awesome view of the nightly light display of the buildings across the harbour in Hong Kong side.

Both of the main course choices were unsatifactory. The fish was bland, plain and very ordinary. I thought I made the better choice of beef until I tried it.

French sole yabbies/truffle/baby mushrooms

The beef was made up of chunks of pulled meat in a rich, ultra, mega, super salty sauce. There was a mound of mashed pumpkin under it. You were supposed to eat it together. Why? It didn’t improve the taste of the salty beef. We wanted to order rice.

braised chuck of French beef, pumpkin

Thank goodness for the delicious bread which filled our tummies and actually made us happier than the food.

Even though our dinner was a fixed set meal the service was excruciatingly slow. So slow that I started taking pictures of the salt, butter, flowers and the ceiling stuck with spoons.

They made it up to us by bringing all super yummy desserts. One after the other. It made me forgive them for the sub par food and service.

citrus fruits w/ fragrant jus, campari granite

praline/nougatine dome

coconut/carmel ice cream

cheesecake, red fruits marmalade, yoghurt sorbet

petit fours

chocolates

SPOON by Alain Ducasse
dinner from 6:00pm – 11:00pm
Sundays for lunch, from 12:00 noon – 2:30pm
telephone:(852)2313-2256
spoonbyalainducasse.hk@interconti.com

InterContinental Hong Kong
18 Salisbury Road
Kowloon, Hong Kong

I love Pokwang

Pokwang is the one to watch this year! I see a very, very bright future ahead of her. She is so talented and hilarious.

In this video Pokwang is spoofing the infamous Marlene Aguilar. This clip is from the tv show NNNN.

In this video she is spoofing mommy Dionisia, the mom of boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Pokwang as Anabelle Rama

Pokwang as Mrs. Kho (Hayden Kho’s mom)

The China Club, Hong Kong

We were invited for lunch at the China Club, a members only Shanghai-style club and restaurant located at the top 3 floors of the old Bank of China building in Central, Hong Kong.

I loved the elevator which was covered with prints of popular Chinese cartoon, Old Master Q (老夫子; Lǎo Fū Zi). My dad used to buy me these comic books when I was a kid. Not that I understood what was written but I enjoyed looking at the humorous pictures.

We got off at the 13th floor and had to walk up to the 15th floor where we were going to eat lunch. All the walls were covered with old retro Chinese art. It was incredible. I felt like I was in a modern art museum.

Here are some of the art works on the walls.

Yu Youhan’s Mao and Whitney Houston

Check out the giant shoes!

This was the famous Long March bar.

The library which houses several thousands of books is also a venue for small parties.

My favorite was this outdoor lounge area.

You get a view of Central’s financial district. This must be a popular venue for drinks a night.

We finally get to the function room which had two tables for our big group.

Even the glass was retro.

The food was served to us in small plates. Overall the food was just satisfactory. It was good but it wasn’t outstanding.

dim sum combination

roasted suckling pig w/ barbecued pork

clear chicken broth w/ seafood

sauteed prawns in sze chuan sauce

roasted Peking duck

sauteed pea shoot w/ garlic

yeung chow fried rice

egg custard tartlet

fresh fruit platter

I was shocked to find a bathtub in the bathroom of our function room. I later found out that the room used to be where the manager of the old Bank of China lived.

my assistant photographer

After lunch we toured the 13th floor where the main dining room was.

China Club owner, Sir David Tang and Princess Diana

Dining at China Club was a visual feast more than anything else. One goes there to soak in the atmosphere of old Shanghai, enjoy the artwork and the decor. Food was only secondary. If you have the chance to go to the China Club do so. It’s worth the experience.

The China Club
12/F, The Old Bank of China Building,
Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong,
telephone +852 25218888

Cafe Key West at iSQUARE

We tried another restaurant at the newest mall in Tsim Sha Tsui called iSQUARE. Cafe Key West is very similar to Pokka Cafe and UCC Cafe. These are all restaurants of popular coffee brands from Japan.

They sell their own brand of coffee called Key Coffee.

Their menu was typical of a Japanese coffee shop. They had Western, Italian and Asian dishes prepared the Japanese way. Everything was very good. I think I like this place even more than Pokka and UCC.

Japanese pumpkin cream soup HK$45

The Hokkaido sausage was mildly spiced and the flavor was subtle but delicious. The casing of the sausage had a snap to its bite.

Hokkaido sausage w/ garlic HK$55

Whoever thought of putting a barely cooked, quivering poached egg on top of risotto is a genius. It added creaminess when mixed with the rice. This risotto reminded me of paella.

Mushroom & chicken risotto w/
fresh tomato & hot spring egg HK$68

Why is it I only get to eat squid ink pasta in Japanese restaurants? The last time I ate this was at Capricciosa in Manila. The Japanese sure love squid and they make squid ink pasta very well.

Squid linguine w/ black squid ink HK$75

I never liked green tea flavored desserts but we decided to try this since it was on promotion and the waitress said it was special green tea soft serve ice cream from Hokkaido, Japan. Wow it was so good! The flavor was intense and tasted like real green tea. Other green tea ice cream or desserts I’ve tried tasted like artificial flavoring. This ice cream was so thick and creamy and wasn’t too sweet.

Green tea ice cream HK$12

I would definitely go back to this restaurant. The price is affordable and the food is well cooked. Next time I’ll try their coffee concoctions.

Cafe Key West menu
soup, appetizer, spaghetti, wafu spaghetti, rice,
steak, curry & sandwich, wafu dessert, ice cream, coffee

Cafe Key West (now closed)
Shop 606, 6/F, iSQUARE,
63 Nathan Road,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
telephone: 2722-0993

Follow me

Did you notice something new on this page?

I finally caved in got a twitter account for my blog. I’m new to this so if you twitter experts out there can help me get the ball rolling. You can follow my tweets by clicking either of those two. Follow me!

Pork chop?

In a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother’s cubs, perhaps she would improve..

After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species.. The only’ orphans ‘ that could be found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Take a look .. you won’t believe your eyes!

Caprice at Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong

For the life of me I will never understand how Caprice restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong got the number 16 spot in the Miele guide to Asia’s top 20 restaurants. I’ve written about of it here and here. None of them were any good except for the lamb chops in one of those meals. You may ask, “If it isn’t good why do I keep going back?” The simple answer is, “I was just a guest.”

Asia’s Top 20 for 2009/2010
(click to enlarge)

As I’ve written before, dining at Caprice was always hit or miss. Sometime you’ll get lucky and the appetizer or main course will be good if not edible at best. This meal was a total miss. And all 12 of us at lunch agreed.

The foie gras was mediocre as was the whole dish.

duck foie gras & chicken terrine w/ salsify in hazlenut dressing

I didn’t have the prawns but the comments I heard ranged from “bland, no shrimp taste, frozen shrimp” and other less flattering adjectives.

tiger prawn fricassee & correze chestnut in autumn emulsion

This was a total waste of wagyu beef. The beef was cooked to death. Granted the beef was very tender that you barely needed to chew it. But all the beef taste was gone. They should have used any cheap meat instead. All I tasted was undistinguished meat and the red wine sauce. The young carrot panache was good though. It was sweet and mousse like.

braised wagyu beef shoulder & young carrot panache in red wine sauce

The only sure thing with Caprice are their desserts. I have yet to eat a dessert I didn’t like at Caprice. This is another winner. Kudos to their pastry chef.

hazlenut dacquoise

The chocolates and sweets at the end of the meal were not bad at all.

petit fours

I haven’t tried their a la carte menu since we always order their prix fixe lunch menu. But from what I’ve eaten over the years the food is definitely not worth it. You have been warned. Eat at your own risk.

Caprice
The Four Seasons Hotel
8 Finance Street
Central, Hong Kong, China
telephone: (852) 3196-8888

Vapur The Anti-Bottle

I really like the Vapur collapsible and reusable water bottle made from BPA free plastic. It can be folded flat when empty. You can fill it up with water and freeze it. I would buy this and use it when I travel specially on domestic flights in the US. I’d put it in my bag empty and after passing security check I can just fill it up with water from the drinking fountain. That way I don’t have to shell out $3 for a small bottle of water. Vapur comes in 16 oz. size only and costs $8.95. Too bad it’s out of stock in their online store.

Unlike rigid water bottles, Vapur is completely collapsible. This means it goes more places and fits in tighter spaces than any other bottle. Whether you are hiking the trails, passing through airport security or visiting the museum with your family, Vapur makes water infinitely portable.

via Likecool

It’s my blog’s 1st year anniversary!

Woohoo! Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me… I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I started Shoot First, Eat Later.

This blog started with this post and my desire to shoot lots of pictures with my new camera the Panasonic LX3. I didn’t know much about blogging or taking pictures then. I thought my first entry’s pictures looked pretty good. If you look at them they’re actually not bad. Notice how small the pictures were.

Panasonic LX3

I was happy for a while until I felt the burning need to upgrade my camera to a Panasonic G1. It was a great camera and I had a lot of fun taking pictures in Australia and Singapore. It was heavy though and it can’t take videos.

Panasonic G1

I promised myself that the Panasonic G1 was my last camera until this beauty was unleashed to the world. The Panasonic GF1 was even smaller and lighter than the G1 and it could shoot videos. All the reviews were raving about this camera and it’s excellent 20mm fixed lens. So I caved in again. Thankfully my friend Raymund bought my G1 otherwise I wouldn’t have bought this beauty. And thanks to Jeanne and Anthony for convincing me to buy this camera.

I started using this camera last December. You can see the pictures starting with this entry. Did anyone notice the difference? I hope so! These cameras are such an important tool in my blog. Learning how to use them are a big motivation for this blog.

Panasonic GF1

The past year had 402 blog entries, 78,475 visitors from 154 countries (according to neocounter), 102,731 visitors (according to statcounter), 59 followers, restaurant pictures and reviews from Manila, Hong Kong, Western Australia and Singapore. Those numbers don’t mean much compared to the other blogs out there but I’m happy at least there are people who come to my blog regularly. I would like to thank all of you who drop by daily to check out what’s new.

What can you expect from me this year? Definitely more restaurants in Manila to shoot and eat at. I’ll also be conquering the restaurants in the USA soon. Watch out for that! Who knows where else my travels will take me this year but I’ll be sure to take my trusty camera and shoot everything I eat.

Leslie

Hang Heung’s Kitchen

Hang Heung’s Kitchen is our go to restaurant when we want good and affordable food. The place is very simple but the food never dissapoints us. We never fail to eat here at least once every tume we’re in Hong Kong. You can see other entries of Hang Heung here and here.

Every December they have a seasonal winter menu. Here are some of the dishes from that menu.

ginger stems & preserved eggs HK$16

Kailan is one of my favorite vegetables. I love the way they cook it by simply boiling the greens in stock and serving it with oyster sauce.

Kailan or Chinese broccoli

They swore it was good but I didn’t eat the turtle. I just ate the mushrooms and bean curd skins in the casserole. Those were yummy.

braised turtle casserole HK$98

Since the fried glutinous rice is only available in December I had to have my fix of the delicious but a bit greasy rice. It had all sort of goodies in it like Chinese sausage or ‘lap cheong’, liver sausage, mushroom and peanuts. The oil from the sausages made the rice dish very fragrant and decadent. I made sure to drink lots of hot tea with my meal.

fried glutinous rice w/ preserved meats HK$68

Hang Heung Menu

chef’s recommendation

Seasonal menu

set menus

full menu

Hang Heung’s Kitchen (branch now closed)
18-24 Salisbury Road
Shop 303, 3/F New World Centre
Tsim Sha Tsui
telephone: 2366-8628