White Food in Yellow Land

First things first, congrats to Tufts Jumbo being mentioned in a sports column!

BSLW once commented that Hong Kong has no good white food, just like Chicago has no yellow food. I set off to prove him wrong.

First stop was Le Mieux Bistro, tucked inside an industrial building in Chai Wan. There are many restaurants like this now because of crazy rents in Hong Kong. Good chefs find a cheap location and set up shop inside and rely on word of mouth to get business. Unlike many HK restaurants, they rely on price rather than turnover to stay afloat.

Here's the menu: Sashimi of scallop, Japanese Angel Prawn, slow cooked salmon and sea whelk, seafood raviloi (their spelling mistake!) with tomato lobster sauce, roasted Australian beef tenderloin and sword fish loin, chocolate cake with raspberry sorbet. Coffee or tea. All for $33.

Definitely the best sashimi I've had in years. The shrimp beats (gasp!) Oishi's. Extremely fresh and well put together dish. The seafood ravioli had very good sauce... and I forgot what was in the ravioli. Beef was so so - threaded beef isn't my type of steak. But the swordfish and dessert were excellent. Okay, so I do realize that this verdict supports white food is no good in HK... but at least the dessert was on par!

Cooked shellfish, sashimi scallop, salmon, and shirmp

Second testing grounds was Caprice at Four Seasons. This French bistro opened not too long ago and has been touted as one of the best in Hong Kong. Indeed it was. In addition to the appetizer (escargot and warm foie gras) and starter (lobster and seabass) and dessert (Rasberry dessert) we (PNGF and I) ordered, we also got pampered with small food items in between.

The escargot came in soup form. There were some escargot in the asparagus-based soup and there were also three wonton-type escargot that you can dip into the soup. The asparagus soup was very well made and the taste of the escargot was better than most I've tasted in Paris, mostly because the flavor of the escargot was not overpowered by garlic oil. Rather, the asparagus soup brought out the ever faint flavor of the snails.

Warm foie gras wasn't bad. A bit too mushy for my tastes.

The seabass was a good dish. Most seafood dishes in Hong Kong are with the very high standards that locals have set up (not so much for Japanese food, I don't understand why). Fresh seabass cooked to perfection.

The star of the night was the lobster though. It was well cooked and served with a vanilla foam. The sauce was both from the lobster oil (in lieu of butter sauce) and a hint of vanilla. I thouroughly enjoyed this dish. Something was missing though: only one claw could be found! I know that the lobster tail is where all the meat is... but still... I'd like to see both claws. Given all my Boston experiences, I think this one comes damn close (Boston ones are old school and would never try anything adventurous like this).

Lobster was comparable to Boston ones

And the little dishes that they serve in between dishes wasn't bad either. The following is the last one served up after our order of dessert AND a free sample of chocolate.

Marshmallow dish was satisfying (I couldn't wait to take pictures...)

Last but not least, I also went to Cru, apparently a frequent visit for bankers in Hong Kong. I've been there twice and both times I was led there by someone working for a big bank. I remember the sesame tuna was good, as well as the prawn skewers (a bit on the salty side for me) and pumpkin salad. I ordered a seafood pasta dish that was quite well made. But the key to the night was the Mars Bar Cheesecake. I'll let the picture do the talking.

Mars Bar Cheesecake is evil

I'd say white food is quite good in Hong Kong. Now I am craving for a decent piece of steak.