Wahaca, Mexican Dining

I have to admit I was rather apprehensive at first when Philip told me he found a Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden that had pretty good reviews. Having eaten at La Tasca and the like (Chiquito’s anyone?) , I was terribly weary of the cheesy decor, lousy service and watered-down food that such places normally provide. And these places are a dime a dozen in London as we surely all know, especially in Covent Garden. So imagine my surprise when Wahaca turned out… alright. Well, more than alright actually, everything down from the starters to the desserts and the service was really quite satisfying and competent. I even liked the washrooms with their Mexican whitewashed doors haha. Being the greedy pigs that we are, we ordered like.. oh half of the entire menu between the both of us. The one dish that totally surprised me was the scratchings with guacamole. Scratchings are essentially pig’s skin with fat. Deep fried. You didn’t think you’d find this in London of all places would you, but here it is. Quite lovely as a substitute for my usual kway chap back home. The one starter that I would really recommend is the Mackeral Tostadas. Light, fresh with a kick of lime and spice. There is a generous bottle of Habernaro chilli sauce on your table. Use sparingly. Even though this is London, the land of the white suaku caucasian, the chilli is the real stuff. It’s spicer than eating raw chilli padi. Trust me, I love my chilli and this is the hottest shit I’ve tasted in a while. What else what else.. order the green rice, black beans and the chorizo with potato quesadillas. For mains… order the fish a la pimienta! It’s gorgeous, it’s how fish should taste like – not the usual crap you get at most London eateries like at Randall and Aubin (a place which serves mainly seafood for goodness sake)… so all in all, yes, please go. The decor isn’t irritatingly kitsch and at the end of the meal, your waiter comes with your bill and 2 cute little packets of chilli seeds for you to take home and plant. And think of your lovely time at Wahaca everytime you look at your chilli stalk. And hopefully go back soon again haha.

 

http://www.wahaca.co.uk/flash/main.html

Chingchong Hongkietong

I love HK. I think it’s the best place in the world even though I spent 10 weeks there working my ass off and didn’t have much time to play. The little playtime I had though, was enough to convince me that I need to make a trip to HK every year from now on, specifically in July where the sales are the BEST. BEST = 70 to 80% off everything you ever wanted. And it has its own Martin Margiela flagship. And Christian Louboutain. And Ann D. And Dries Van Noten. I mean come on, Singapore don’t have okayy. So here’s my top10-places-list in HK. Good for you if you read this and you’ve never been to HK but better for me since I will be going there every frigging yearrr!!! YAY =)

1. Gao Gei, off Jaffe Street, Hong Kong island: 

A local HK establishment, this dingy little miserable looking kopitiam sells the best beef noodles in the whole whole. I swear. Order the curry beef and tripe. I went back 5 times during my entire stay. And I think that’s saying ALOT. especially when you have the likes of Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse at your door step. 

2. Silvercord Shopping Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon island:

If like me you love shopping and cannot stop until you are giddy from exhaustion and dehydration, then you die die must come here. They have everything you want. Seriously. APC? Check! Tsumori Chisato? Check! Plus they house this pretty awesome I.T shop (stocks international brands from all over the world, CDG, Acne, Margiela etc) which I really love. 

3. Landmark Hotel, Pedder Street, Prince’s Building, Chater House, IFC: 

These buildings are all linked together by a sheltered walkway/overhead bridge so it helps to set aside one or two days to get all the shopping done in this area. This is pretty much where all the high-end brands are located, you get LANE BLOODY CRAWFORD (!!!!!), Harvey Nichols, Chanel, Miu Miu, Bottega, Prada, Tod’s, Bvlgari, Givenchy, Armani etc. My favourite place? Pedder Street where I can find On Pedder. This is not your pussy Singaporean On Pedder okayy, it’s about 2-3 times the size, has less annoying staff and as long as you can speak good English and can put on a slight American/British accent (cue Miss Chaiyee) then you’re good to go. Hongkies just love english speaking people. They just assume english=rich=more sales commission so there you go. 

4. Isola, IFC, Hong Kong island:

I’m just throwing this in for good measure since I already mentioned one good local place. This place serves decent Italian food at reasonable prices and has an excellent bar overlooking the Kowloon skyline. There are 2 Isola premises, one of the 3rd floor and another just above. I recommend the bar area on the 4th floor because you get great pizzas (truffles and cheese) with very good finger food (foie gras canapes) and a totally to-die-for mini wagyu burger (I had 3 in one night of mingling with some clients). The burger is dripping with oil but you really shouldn’t care because it is frigging gooodd. Wash it all down with a Bloody Mary. Good stuff. 

5. Zuma Bar and Restaurant, Landmark Hotel, Hong Kong island:

Zuma is really good in Hong Kong. Like seriously seriously awesome. The bar is excellent, I had a lovely apple martini and would have had more if I was with philip and not with a potential employer haha. The restaurant itself is filled to the brim with white people but that shouldn’t deter you from ordering the scallops, sushi, sea urchin (i love love love sea urchin and this was the best I had by far) and lobster salad. I for one don’t really like white people sharing my food premises but they are tolerable expecially when you overhear a pasty white 25 year old trying to impress his date with ‘oh.. i work in a hedge fund, what about you?’. it’s seriously hilarious and make for good dining entertainment. 

6. Wellington Street, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong island:

Mid-levels is where all the richer locals and expats stay. The one funny thing about HK people is that they love to ask about where you’re staying at. Mainly because this immediately helps them form an impression of how rich/poor/educated or not you are. Simply put, the richer you are, the higher up in mountains you stay. Jackie Chan stays at the Peak btw. Driving down from Mid-levels, you’ll pass by Soho and Wellington Street. There are a couple of fantastic places in this area that are really worth checking out and Wellington Street is where all the good HK food is located at. There’s Tsui Wah which serves local HK food (think thick french toast with honey, pork rib noodles, milk tea etc) 24 hours a day at very reasonable prices. Next to Tsui Wah is this pretty authentic Cantonese porridge and noodle house that does good zhou at 3 Singapore dollars a pop in air-conditioned surroundings. Opposite Tsui Wah is this dim-sum restaurant that is also famous for peking duck. The dim sum is alright and the duck is seriously oily but it’s still very crowded on weekends. 

7. Tokyo Joe/Kyoto Joe, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong island: 

I had lunch here with a client and couldn’t order as much as I wanted but from what I had, this place serves really decent Japanese food. The one dish that you absolutely must have is the green tea tiramisu. I would go back to HK just for this (and gao gei beef noodles, see number 1). There are 2 joints, Kyoto Joe and Tokyo Joe with the latter being slightly more expensive. But by all means, try either.. they are both pretty solid and I highly doubt you’ll get served with something you didn’t like. The lunch sets are quite value for money and you’ll emerge a happy little dumpling. 

8. Soho, Hong Kong island: 

Located opposite Landmark Hotel and up the road from Queen’s Road Central, you will spy a tiny little Balenciaga shop at the corner of this traffic junction. In a really blink and you’ll miss it kind of way, it’s located right between this huge ass M&S and a gargantuan Coach store. You’ll also spy Jill Sander, Rebecca Taylor and See by Chloe. Walk up the hill, turn left and walk down that stretch of road. You’ll find yourself in Mecca, as did I – Christian Louboutain, Ann D, Martin Margiela, Billionaire Boys’ Club.  You’ll need nothing more in life. 

9. Prive, Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong island: 

Touted as the club for rich HK teens, celebs and investment bankers, this club is supposedly highly exclusive and entry is limited to members only. If you fall into any one of those categories, access shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t really know what’s the big deal about it since it’s kinda small, but by all means check it out if you have the chance. My HK friends seem to adore this place. 

10. Pacific Grill, Elgin Street, Hong Kong island:

There are tonnes of good restaurants on Elgin Street. After having dinner at a few, I really like this one the most. It’s not too expensive, about 60 per pax and serves really good seafood. Order the scallops, squid, ribs and salmon. The scallops are huge and not the puny shit we get back in London. The staff are really friendly and nice and the only drawback seems to be the tiny toilet. 

There are plenty of fantastic restaurants in HK and the shopping is undoubtedly the best in the world ( i personally like it better than NYC) so not everything is covered in this list. I also really love Fashion Walk, along Paterson Street and Causeway Bay too. If you’re looking for bargains, there is always Kowloon island, with the likes of Mong Kok and the Lady’s Night Market. As for food, there are plenty of fancy places to go to, but you can easily find them online. A couple more recommendations would be Wako at Causeway Bay for wagyu beef barbecue, Archie B’s for excellent NYC style takeaway, Kaya at Causeway Bay for authentic Korean food, The Flying Pan in Wanchai which serves breakfast and bagels 24 hours everyday, Nicholini’s at Pacific Plaza and the famous buffets and brunches at Mandarin Hotel, Peninsula Hotel and the Grand Hyatt. 

For more local food places, I found a pretty useful website: http://www.worldfoodieguide.com/index.php/where-to-eat-in-hong-kong/ and I’m sorry for not having any pictures but I haven’t reach Chaipees’ level of thick skin yet. Heehee.

assaggi for italian!

for lack of a more imaginative title.

so i went to assaggi for dinner on monday which was such a treat because i think it was almost a year ago since i last ate there. and you know why i know its a year ago. because last year i had the figs. and figs being seasonal are in the menu now again. furthermore its because of THOSE BLOODY AWESOME figs that four of the five persons at my table ordered them even though we’ve all had it at least twice before.

ok we’ll talk continue talking about figs later. this restaurant is rather hard to find. situated in chepstow place it was quite a mission to find the tiny restaurant considering that its above a very ordinary pub and its entrance is on the left side of the pub. the restaurant is tiny. 11 tables mostly for four to be exact (yes i counted). its probably the size of a standard one bedroom apartment. very cosy.

problem is that the menu is all in italian. which many consider pretentious but i think its an intelligent ploy by its owner (who by the way takes our orders, runs into the kitchen to cook and oversee etc) basically assaggi = him cos he runs the whole damn restaurant singlehandedly. so he comes over and explains the menu slowly in a stereotypically italian way. you know hands all over the place, accent and all. and that my friends is the ploy. for the figs it went something like ‘ my daaarlings..it is fresh figs…nicely chilled …wrapped in the most exquisite prosciutto ham from (dunno where) ..i bought it myself..drizzzzzled with honey and a little truffle oil….fresh salad at the side with some balsamico …oh yes it is marvellous etc etc’

after going wax lyrical about his whole menu you literally want to die cos they all sound so good. it must be the accent. its a little over the top but what the heck its entertainment.

the figs are killer , so is the burrata starter, prawns chargilled , mushroom salad, …you get the drift. but if you can only order one starter. ITS GOTTA BE FIGS (to the tune of n’sync) hah!

SEE! i even added a fresh fig picture for good measure. on a side note. i’m gonna start experimenting with figs because they now trump papaya as my favourite fruit.

on top of the figs i had crab linguine which was fresh and only 10.90 quid.

you cant deny its value for money (if you don’t order the wine). the starters have never failed me every time i’ve been. the meat i’m not so sure plus they’re a lot more expensive. if you should go. just order 1 starter and pasta or 2/3 starters. well worth it.

OH YES. how can i forget. the dessert. alex swears by the chocolate cake (i think) and the dessert i had was amazing. i’m not sure what it was. but it was lighter than panna cotta so a little like foam in a cup with espresso poured over.

you either go budget or not at all

i’m utterly convinced that that has to be the mantra that i subscribe to. it applies perfectly to ALL things. you either have a short term passionate fling or opt for the long term stable lets-get-married-in-the-future type of relationship. I mean whats the point of a half hearted relationship where you’re only semi invested and yet it still manages to cause disproportionate heartache. not that fun coupled with pain and a degree of emotional attachment. same with clothes. high street mid range is really just crap (save for the occasional zara). quality is pretty shite and style obviously copied. H&M basics should suffice, vintage is fab and the rest of the cash should go to investment pieces that literally last your 10 years. honestly how many mid range clothing do you still wear after a year. ok better not digress too much, this post was supposed to be about food. which unfortunately i have no pictures of because i can’t for the life of me find my camera cable.

but yes. same with food. i just had ang-moh-fied chinese food at an incredulous price. (imperial city at royal exchange) ok the duck was good but erm incomparable to four seasons. the prawns, beef etc were all drenched in thai sweet chilli sauce which was edible and nice and all but just not bloody chinese doods. all for 30 quid per person. chinese tea was served in teacups complete with saucer. and i forgot to add that we were barely full. needless to say everyone eating there was white and wearing a suit. these bankers whole life get conned. i mean look at subprime. pay a fifth of the price to get a decent scrumptious plate of duck rice at chinatown. pay double that and you can stuff your face until your belly distends (the postprandial walk home always saves me from regurgitating my guts out and losing all dignity). That is how satisfied i am with budget.

So. on to the well.. the other extreme.

I had dinner at L’atelier de Joel Robuchon about 2 weeks back and it has taken me a while to decide whether it was worth the visit.

First. the food was definitely exquisite. Tasted great. presentation perfect. every bite literally caused an explosion in my mouth. I had three tasting dishes for mains and the best had to be:

L’ŒUF
cocotte à la crème légère de champignons des sous-bois
Egg cocotte topped with light wild mushroom cream

seriously. the egg was so yummy. it came in a really cute martini glass to boot. Dessert was excellent too.

I really the ambience of the place. it was far from pretentious. you could order tap water and not feel bad and even though i wore jeans i didn’t feel out of place. so kudos on that. the last thing you want from your dining experience is some Lord of stickupmyass-shire with his aquiline nose stuck upwards and speaking in some uppity-up language. of course i exaggerate but you get the drift. relaxed and casual. i’m just there for food.

I really like the open plan kitchen. right in front of us. the chefs immune to our persistent stares. calm and diligently working at their stations. wow the meticulousness of it all really does amaze me. that added some more brownie points to the experience and the kitchen island was so compact yet functional i immediately thought of how dax would love it in his home.

The issues i had with the L’atelier aren’t uncommon. Ridiculously overpriced for one. my three tasting dishes + dessert and tap water set my friend (lucky me ) back about 70 quid per person. indeed its a place reserved only for that special occasion. I wasn’t stuffed but neither did i need an after dinner snack to tide me till i slept.

the portions were also minute. ok yes i know i had tasting dishes but i mean only one 6 inch long langoustine fritter on a 20 inch plate. you have to give it to them that despite miserable portions for steep prices, the quality of food still satisfies. its a secret ploy i tell you. lure you in with one foie gras burger. you’re gonna come back for more.

ok SO i’m still undecided. the food was memorable and the service was great. all the staff were amazingly good looking by the way haha the french accent ooh…what can i say. this place is worth the visit for your birthday maybe?

for those who have a reason to :http://www.joel-robuchon.com/ or 13-15 West Street, London WC2H 9NE

time to KOONZ.