Asia Flavours

Hutong (8.90)

My natural instinct is to dislike Hutong on the grounds that it seems, at first look, like a expensive tourist-trap. Time and time again, I have a good meal, yet I don't seem to be able to kick this feeling that it's all a bit of an overpriced affair. This time round, I think I've done it.

The meal, while far from credit-crunch friendly, was superb. We opted for the Michelin Award Set Menu which gave us the advantage of being able to try little bits of everything. One thing I've found about Chinese food is that it can be a bit much unless you have a big group with lots of different dishes you can pick'n'choose from. This tasting menu solved the problem perfectly. 

We started with a selection of fresh abalone and coriander salad, scallops with pomelo and green asparagus coated in white sesame. Proving that there is always an advantage to taster plates, all three of us predicted that the scallops would be our favourite item and all three of us decided that the scallops was the most disappointing dish. The abalone was stunning. 

Next came boneless cod with fermented beans and chili, and "Ma La" chili prawns fried with Sichuan dried chili and Chinese celery, both of which were superb. The duck with pancakes was equally stunning. Crushed salty fish with kale and "Dan Dan Noodles" with minced pork, peanut sauce and chili soup topped off a fantastic main course section. Normally I find the appetisers the highlight of any meal - they tend to be more interesting, more intricate - but in this case, it was the main courses that impressed. 

The only disappointment of the meal was the dessert course. The baked egg tarts were greasy and all rather bland, and the red-bean ice-cream was perfectly pleasant but a little boring. 

Was it worth HK$880 a head? Yes, but only for a special occasion. The view across to the island is stunning, the decor atmospheric and the food excellent. Credit crunch friendly it's not but sometimes you have to go crazy... 

28/F, One Peking Road

Tel: 34288342

Rice Paper (6/10)

It's official. Hong Kong makes you lazy. Reaching Rice Paper last week felt like a serious expedition and yet, in London, I wouldn't think twice about spending an hour sweating away on the tube to get to a restaurant. To be fair to my inner laziness, from Central, getting to Rice Paper involved a walk to the Star Ferry terminal, a trip across Victoria Harbour and then the trauma of navigating through the labyrinth that is HarbourCity. Still, it was a good meal - nice food, reasonable prices and a lively, noisy atmosphere (helped by the fact that, even during out mid-week visit, it was absolutely heaving with a queue of people standing outside). 

The consistent Vietnamese food is not going to amaze you with its innovation but it is nice, consistent food, perfect for a mid-week dinner. The scallop and mango roll was flavoursome and our mains of seafood yellow curry and a squid and prawn pad thai were pretty good. The wine options seemed to be rather limited in terms of choice (although I noticed a chilled wine cabinet on the way to the bathroom and so it may be that we failed to receive the actual wine list...). Definite brownie points go to the service which was efficient without being pushy. All in all, pretty good. 

Rice Paper

HarbourCity

Tel: 3151 7801

Felix at The Peninsula

The piece of advice you receive from everybody before going to Felix at The Peninsula is don’t forget to go to the toilet. A rather strange first comment, I thought, given that the view from the dining room is outstanding, the food stunning and the service excellent but to be fair, it’s a good point. The toilet is worth the trip in itself. Sure, the décor in the bathrooms - particularly the sink area - is interesting but the key is the view out over the harbour (if you’re female) or over Kowloon (if you’re a guy) which must make it a contender for the best bathroom with a view anywhere in the world (should there be such a competition).

My first impressions of Felix weren’t overwhelming. The restaurant area was empty when we arrived and so we went up into the bar area with its view over Victoria Harbour. It’s all a little weird up there - someone compared it to a futuristic airport waiting area with padded walls and a rather claustrophobic feel to it. Not my cup of tea to be honest - I’d probably do drinks at Aqua if I went again on the grounds that you’d get the same view and well, it would all be a little less orange.

However, things quickly improved. The atmosphere in the amazing dinning room was great, with a good noise level and phenomenal floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides providing superb views. The décor is interesting although the only thing that I can vividly remember are the faces on the chair covers - all apparently current or former staff at the Peninsula which is a lovely, unpretentious touch.

The food was excellent and incredibly well thought through, from the bread basket onwards - indeed I became somewhat addicted to the chocolate chip bread which J.Y. had recommended. My starter of foie gras with poached pear was delightful, with seared foie gras on a slice of toast and also cold foie gras pate inside the poached pear. The flavours were fabulous. I did try to take a photo but I’m afraid my efforts didn’t even slightly do the dish justice.

I really struggled to narrow down my choice of main course and eventually decided on the black cod with rhubarb and sugar snap peas. The fish was beautifully cooked and the sweet peas provided a good contrast to the slightly sharp rhubarb. To be honest, I prefer my sugar snap peas to have a little more snap to them but the combination worked well. The fois gras stole the limelight but only just.

For pudding, I was torn between the raspberry pavlova with dark chocolate and the pudding rather temptingly called “chocolate! chocolate! chocolate!”. Based on the fact that E.L. decided to raid my “chocolate! chocolate! chocolate!”, rather than eat her own raspberry pavlova, I guess I made the right decision. The pudding (which technically should have been called “chocolate! chocolate! chocolate! chocolate!”) consisted of four mini-chocolate deserts: sumptuous chocolate mint ice cream, a chocolate tart, hot chocolate with a lychee egg white puff thing and a really rich chocolate and pastry combo. All delightful.

The only downside to having dinner at Felix is that, unless you are going with work, you’ll probably have to re-mortgage your house first - easier said than done in this market. However, should you find yourself a little flush with cash, this is a very good way to spend it!

Felix
28/F, Peninsula Hotel
Salisbury Rd.
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 2366 6251

Tea at the Peninsula Hotel

Tea is a meal that really doesn't get enough attention. By and large, if you meet a friend for a cup of tea you go to a coffee shop, snuggle up on a sofa and perhaps indulge in a slightly dry muffin (well, at least in Hong Kong - what is it about over-dry pastries in this place?). In my book, that's not tea. What I'm talking about is the full meal that is afternoon tea - and after sampling Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula, I can tell you it is not overstating it to call it 'a meal'. The Peninsula's indulgent afternoon tea gives you the opportunity to have a sophisticated, relaxed and, well, civilised afternoon, drinking gallons of tea and righting the world.

We were warned that the queues on a Sunday can get quite lengthy so we skipped lunch and headed over at about 2.30. This was definitely the right decision because the queue was very short and we got a table relatively quickly. Having said that, it is actually quite nice spending a bit of time in the queue because it gives you a good opportunity to indiscreetly gawp at the hotel's opulent lobby - and, of course, at the other patrons sipping their darjeeling. Despite being huge, the lobby has a great atmosphere, enhanced by the string quartet that played throughout the afternoon. There is enough hustle and bustle to take away any uncomfortable formality but you are still left with a nice level of pomp and circumstance.

The food arrives on a three tiered platter and involves everything you could wish for from absolutely brilliant scones with clotted cream and jam, to dainty smoked salmon or cucumber sandwiches, to mini-quiches to cakes and truffles. Despite our best efforts - and we did try pretty hard - we didn't make that big a dent on the collection. Everything, as you'd expect from The Peninsula, was of a very high standard although C. and D. were particularly enthusiastic about the mushroom 'sausage rolls' (which naturally I couldn't verify because I think all mushrooms are intrinsically wrong!). In case we felt hard done by, the waiters also bought a 'pudding' of tiramisu. The tiramisu was not really tiramisu, it was a pistachio cream pudding. Sorry to jump back on my mini-bandwagon here but seriously, does nowhere do good tiramisu in Hong Kong - one with plenty of coffee and booze? I'm searching high and low to no avail.

I know that Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula tends to be something that you do when you have guests in town but I'm now a convert to a bit of indulgence just because. It was such a lovely, relaxing experience (they didn't rush us one bit, regularly refilling our silver tea-pots). Wonderful.