Fish & Meat, Wyndham Street, Central

Fish & Meat (32 Wyndham St, Central, tel : +852 2565 6788) operates on a concept that has been picking up steam over the globe in recent years on the basis of fresh and seasonal produce, sustainable catches and probably some of that farm to table approach that trendy restaurants or their wannabes are doing. There is focus on the awareness of the ingredients that are being used. Nothing wrong with being that. 

bread

marinated sustainable blue fin tuna / compressed watermelon / soy sauce / basil vinaigrette / quail egg

This watermelon and blue fin tuna was appetisingly delicious. Until I hit the bits of cilantro and I started eating more slowly, enjoying it less as I had to scrap off the bits of the herb before I carefully popped them into my mouth. Otherwise, this was refreshing.

whole fresh Burrata / grilled peaches / basil vinaigrette / heirloom tomatoes

I thought this would be good but there were a couple of things that did not agree with me. The heirloom tomatoes were a little dry. And those peaches that they used weren't juicy or sweet. In fact they were sour. Does that make sense?  No, I thought it absolutely didn't. I would have expected something like white peaches which were juicier and possibly much sweeter. Why bother to grill a sour peach that was still sour after that?

For a restaurant that focuses on the quality of ingredients, some work on the choice of ingredient is still needed.

sustainable Canadian sea urchin toast / salmon roe / cauliflower cream / cress

Damn. This. Was. Bloody. Good.

So good that I've decided to put up another picture of it. Haha! What the ingredient on the menu did not to mention was lardo and the infusion of cumin(?) in the cauliflower cream. And then ikura. I haven't been impressed like this in a while. This was not just the regular party in your mouth. There was more elegance to the amalgamation of flavours. The toppings felt well thought out. I'd eat this again if I come back.

By the way, this would be on record - the most expensive toast I've ever eaten in my life. Bar none.

soft duck egg raviolo / ricotta cream / burnt sage butter / pecorino cheese

I had thought that the duck egg raviolo would be nice-r. Sure it was rich as it had been intended, but somewhere along the flavour train, salt was too little. Will not bother with this again.

But here I still reserve, a gratuitous molten yolk spillage. 

O’Connor Farm grass-fed 100% natural beef tartare / pickled jalapeño / duck yolk / Parmesan

The beef tartare from Fish & Meat was a beast of their own making. A Frankenstein if you're a purist, or boldly flavoured and textured if you're more open and experimental. This wasn't just hand chopped beef. It was probably hand cubed and that made a whole lot of difference in texture. It was also loud. A lot more sour and heat from the pickled jalapeño. And too little Parmesan to matter. Admittedly, this is also my first time having beef tartare with rockets. 

It's different and I will never order this again. I liked the French-y one from La Cabane much much better.

homemade Sicilian lemonade / blueberry jam / thyme

I don't generally do much cocktails (exceptions disclaimed here) or mocktails, but for some reasons, I felt like one today. This was a passable lemonade. That's all. The blueberry jam didn't do shit and the thyme couldn't get through as much as I tried to crush it into the drink. I need to learn to avoid this things as nice as they tend to sound.

Cafe&Meal MUJI, Hopewell Centre, Wan Chai

We stopped by (G/F, Hopewell Centre, 183 Queen's Road Central, Wan Chai, tel : +852 3971 3280) for something light. A tomato & bonito broth which was a perfect light meal for a break from all the recent good eating and a hibiscus & white peach mousse cake. The latter had a piece of real peach inside while the mousse was peachy, milky and lightweight.

A bowl of macaroni lunch from Wai Kee Noodle Cafe

I didn't even know how to order this so I had to use a picture from the internet to do it. The quantity of livers that they gave today was more than I had been expecting. Say, did anyone realise that the broth is noticeably less salty for the macaroni compared to the noodles?

A slice of pizza from Paisano's

I had seen Paisano's several times over the past few years and I got curious about their large sliced New York styled pizzas. We stopped by the shop at Mongkok (43 Dundas Street) for a quick snack and here's their bacon cheeseburger pizza slice. With bits of bacon, ground beef and cheddar cheese. The portions of those ground beef was pathetic.

How was it? This still had the dried oregano and canned/jarred tomato sauce flavour that I grew up eating which I don't quite like these days. And in spite of that orange cheesy look, the dominant flavour was still that tomato sauce. But otherwise it's a solid thin crusted pie that was quite edible. I wouldn't mind if I could get them for home delivery once in a while. 

The Ichiban Mega Don from Yoshinoya

Believe it or not, I had been wanting to check out Yoshinoya in Hong Kong from the last time I was at Yuen Long where noticed a particular outlet with a mountain of steaming beef in a cauldron destined for their gyudon. We managed come by one in Mongkok for a breakfast this time around even though we were kinda disappointed that the outlets here didn't feature that huge pot. But we did land ourselves a large bowl instead in the form of their Ichiban Mega Don. 

This has got to be the best Yoshinoya experience we've ever had by virtue of their beef bowl. The portions of the savoury sliced beef were generous and the meat wasn't dried out from all the cooking. I sure hope this is a permanent item on their menu.

La Cabane Wine Bistro, Hollywood Road, Central

I had read about this French hole-in-the-wall-ish bistro (62 Hollywood Road, Central, tel : +852 2776 6070) before and the name had registered because I had found them interesting. But it's been pretty much out of mind until we stumbled past their entrance while wandering around Central deciding on dinner. It was between Ho Lee Fook or this and since I'm writing this, it doesn't take Sherlock to figure out whoich place won.

While waiting for the food and people/vehicle watching, a lightweight floral French beer with a funny looking cat to pass the time. If you have had Kronenbourg Blanc, this bottle tasted pretty much like it.

We had a beef tartare with polenta fries. The tartare was deliciously spiced, nicely hand chopped and disappeared into our bellies in short order. There was just a good amount of different flavours going on from the spices and capers and sauces. While we were no experts on beef tartare, we knew this was good.

Next up was braised rabbit leg with nettle risotto. There was a pungent cheese that they had used for the rice and man it was good. I actually liked the risotto more than the rabbit leg which tasted much like chicken if you didn't already know.

And because we saw boudin noir (blood sausage) burgers on the board, we had to have it.

Savoury and unctuous with a pâté-like flavour, the blood sausages were sliced and fried before being tucked into toasted mini sesame seed buns.