Tim Ho Wan Take 2 - Sham Shui Po Branch

A -

B -

C - steamed dumpling (潮州粉果)

D - char siu cheong fun(叉燒腸)

E -

F - fried carrot cake (煎萝卜糕)

G - barbecued pork buns (叉燒菠蘿包)

Yummy!  As good as the main shop in Mongkok, minus the queue!
Address:
G/F 9-11 Fuk Wing Street
Sham Shui Po
27881226
深水埗福榮街9-11號地下

It's all about food, again!!

Dad could feel numbness developing between his jaws and uncontrollable shivers being sent down the spine.
"Oh no! There must be lots of MSG in one of the dishes we ate.", he tapped on mum's shoulder and said.
As more and more restaurants in Hong Kong stop using MSG, dad has not had such a bad bout of "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" for a long time. The numbness just wouldn't go away.
At the end of the meal, a waiter approached the table and asked for comments on the dishes served.
"The food was quite average", granddad said.
"Your chef likes adding a lot of MSG!!", dad couldn't help interjecting.
"Oh no, we don't use MSG. We use chicken powder.", the waiter retorted.
Dad felt the powerful after effect for the rest of the afternoon.
......
So the above interchange happened a few days ago in a restaurant within one of the many shopping malls in Tsim Sha Tsui. Guess you just have to pick your eateries wisely and refer to a reliable restaurant guide. Perhaps referring to the 2011 Michelin Guide is a good start. After all, it is the latest version of the most authoritative restaurant guide in the world. Oops, that's where they went wrong! The restaurant was the third restaurant in Hong Kong that was awarded 3 stars by the Michelin Hong Kong & Macau Guide 2011, Sun Tong Lok 新同樂 in TST. You might want to refer to the following weblink on Michelin's justification for awarding this restaurant 3 stars.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-02/michelin-awards-three-stars-to-hong-kong-shark-s-fin-restaurant.html
Quote:
“We understand the controversy and we’re not trying to promote shark’s fin, but fine Cantonese cooking.”

If ignorance is defense, the waiter could be forgiven regarding his no MSG statement. But a Michelin 3-star restaurant is supposed to have waiters who are knowledgeable about food and especially the dishes that the restaurant is serving.

The Knorr's brand of chicken powder no longer put mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) as one of its ingredients. (It was stated explicitly in its label a few years ago.) Instead the label now reads, flavour enhancers (E621 and E635). E621 is the E number for MSG and E635 is disodium ribonucleotides. Quoting from the wikipedia entry for E635:

A mixture of 98% monosodium glutamate and 2% E635 has four times the flavor enhancing power of monosodium glutamate (MSG) alone.
So chicken powder is basically some super-charged MSG!!
Traditional Cantonese cooking does involve adding a lot of MSG, maybe this is what the Michelin Guide was trying to promote.

Given that they use the same additives in instant noodles and dad never has a problem with instant noodles, they must have added a ton of the stuff in!!

MSG wasn't the only problem. The beef ribs, which were ordered at the very start of the meal arrived just before the bill was paid, were over-seasoned (or put it simply too salty) with nothing to accompany the meat. They also added a twist to the traditional dish of braised pomelo skin with shrimp roe. You literally need to twist a pepper mill to add your own shrimp roe to the dish. But no matter how hard dad twisted, the dish remained tasteless. The shrimp roe looked like passed its sell-by-date. The best way to put it is perhaps the old Cantonese saying, "a French banquet - an extra piece of fish". (You need a Cantonese speaker to interpret this for you.) ［PS. - If you Google 法國大餐, the interpretation turns out to be the first item returned by the search.]

We doubt if mum and dad will ever go back there.

While on the topic of food, uncle Andy (who tried to take Scottie's food away when he was young), cooked some yummy white pepper crab last weekend. It looks like deep-frying the crab briefly before putting it through a bath of melted butter and crushed pepper. The crabs' shell were bright red and beautifully presented.

Also Freakonomics radio, a new podcast that both mum and dad love, has 2 recent episodes on food and wine. Like the 2 books with the same name, the eponymous podcast is a wonderful source of insights and fascinating stories. Enjoy!!
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/freakonomics-radio-waiter-theres-a-physicist-in-my-soup-part-i/

Tim's Kitchen 桃花源

Last Friday, mum and dad visited the only Chinese restaurant that was promoted from 1 star to 2 stars in the latest 2010 Michelin guide, Tim's Kitchen 桃花源. This used to be one of their favorite restaurants, when it was located in a smaller shop just next door over six years ago. The seats were cramped but the food almost always lived up to their reputations. At the time, if you did not reserve a table, you still had a fair chance to get a table for two as walk-in customers.

P.S. - Tim is probably the Christian name / nickname of the chef-owner, 黎有甜. And he was the head chef at Hang Seng Bank's kitchen before opening this restaurant.

The intervening years have made a lot of differences. Now the restaurant has a strict time table for two rounds of customers, the first round being from 6:30p.m. to 8:30p.m. and the second round the following two hours. This seating arrangement is strictly adhered to as more often than not, the customers who hold the second round table would often be patiently waiting outside before their time slot. Chances of landing a table as walk-in customers are not good either. The new address is more spacious but if you are looking for hotel style comfort, you would be disappointed. The restaurant still does not own a liquor license, so it is a BYOB arrangement and they now have different varieties of glasses for the different occasions, champagne, white wine and red wine glasses are all available.

Mum pre-ordered a few of their signature dishes several days in advance and was excited about organizing the dinner with her food loving friends. As it was Friday, people were held up at work and by traffic, but they still managed to start dinner shortly after 7:00p.m. Half the table decided to indulge themselves in an extra course of snake soup 蛇羹 and that was served before anything else. Snake soup is one of dad's favorite dish and Tim's kitchen is famous for its snake soup (or more appropriately to differentiate its own recipe of snake soup, it is known as 太史五蛇羹). Unlike some other places, the snake soup here was always less heavy and had a cleaner taste. The soup had kept to its standard and highly recommended for the less squirmish. Dad finished the whole bowl before mum realized no photos were taken.

The first course that everybody had was winter melon crab crawl 冬瓜蟹鉗. The fresh crab crawl was cooked in an essence of winter melon. The refreshing winter melon sauce was a great complement to the full flavored crab crawl. The seasoning wasn't overpowering and never masked the meaty freshness of the crab. This was the most expensive dish, HKD180 per claw, of the night and worth every penny of it. It was delicious.

The next two dishes, crab meat in bamboo pith with egg-white 蟹肉扒竹笙蛋白 and fried asparagus with garoupa were not bad but nothing to write home about. The deep fried chicken 炸子雞 was high standard with crispy skin and tender meat. You would expect nothing less from a 2-Michelin-star restaurant. In fact, you might even expect more if you like to be a "food critic".

The "eight-treasure" duck 八寶鴨 is another signature dish. Mum and dad never had the dish during all their previous visits, since they never bother pre-ordering. The deboned duck body was stuffed full of lotus seeds, green beans, salted-egg yolk, chestnuts and other goodies then deep fried before being slow-cooked in a broth for many hours. Just when you think it's ready, the duck is taken to the steamer for another 3 hours before it is served. The stuffing was flavorful but not heavy and the duck meat was very tender as you will expect with such a long, arduous cooking process. For less than HKD800, with the preparation worked involved, this was a great value dish and definitely worth ordering in advance.

Starting just after 7:00p.m. and finishing before 8:30p.m. was a bit of a rush, and they barely had enough time to order an extra portion of curry crab fried rice and finished the small portion of spareribs. It was an enjoyable evening and a reasonably priced dinner. Mrs Lai, the owner's wife, still remembered mum from the days when she visited the old shop. The "food critic" might cast doubt whether it deserved a second star, but as in the Michelin guide the world over, the star system is often controversial and can never avoid a degree of subjectivity. At the very least, it is a guide that can generate such heated debate that no other restaurant guides can achieve. Compare with many of the Michelin starred restaurants in other countries, the Hong Kong and Macau guide seems to have set the bar lower. The local backlash against the 2009 guide might have been a lot worse if Michelin used the same yardsticks to measure restaurants in Hong Kong resulting in no 3-star (or just one 3-star in Macau) and perhaps half the number in 1-star. Just imagine the righteous backlash that would have stoked saying there's no business in foreigners judging Chinese cuisines in Hong Kong.

Hung's Delicacies 阿鴻小吃

As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, dad might give Hung's Delicacy 阿鴻小吃 in North Point a try after the 2010 Michelin guide came out. Last week, he went to this small restaurant located in one of the quiet back streets of the eastern side of Hong Kong Island.

It was almost eight in the evening and it wasn't hard to spot the place, being the only restaurant with a small queue outside along a row of perhaps 4 or 5 small shops. The wait was short in comparison to the lunch time crowd in front of Tim Ho Wan and that's after the publicity generated since the Michelin guide. The setup was not unlike some of the more traditional restaurants in Hong Kong where the roast items were hung prominently at the front of the shop. The main chef / owner stood behind all these items with his head down focusing on carving the different parts and dishes being ordered. Occasionally, he would raise his head and offered his gratitude to departing customers, while his wife would either be at the till or directing customers to their seats.

Hung's Delicacies may never become as crowded as Tim Ho Wan, assuming that they persevere and only offer cuisine similar to its current menu. With signature dishes such as duck's tongues, duck's chins and chicken feet tendons are perhaps too niche even for the generally adventurous for the Hong Kong gourmets. But for people who enjoy such traditional dishes, Hung's Delicacies would not be a disappointment.

Momofuku

So what about the restaurants? Why's there no mention of any Michelin stars?
Mum was busy working during this trip in New York and dad survived on eating 2 meals a day. With the American serving sizes, he could probably do with 1.5 meals a day.

The exceptions were Momofuku and Daniel.

Momofuku is a chain of restaurants opened by the Korean Chef, David Chang. He started with Momofuku Noodle Bar in 2003 (Momofuku is probably a tribute to Momofuku Ando, the father of instant noodles). Upon its success, he opened Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Momofuku Ko and the Milk Bar afterward. And the latest restaurant due to open was Ma Peche inside the Chambers Hotel in 56th Street near 5th Avenue. You can read about it all in the wikipedia entry above.

Mum ate the Ma Peche menu 3 times during her trip and dad ate once. Yes, we did say, the restaurant wasn't opened yet. But they started serving the Ma Peche menu in the lounge of the Chambers Hotel before the restaurant was ready.

On Saturday, before they took off for Germany, they went for a trip exploring all the Momofuku shops before making a short visit to Soho.

Momofuku Ssäm Bar is a causal diner serving a mix of everything. Its latest claim of fame is perhaps being the first and only restaurant to make the Perrier Top 50 restaurants that takes no reservations. It ranks 31st. This is quite an accolade when you consider how many famous chefs there are in the world.

As Dad wanted to try the noodles with ginger and scallion, they went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar after having their starters in the Ssäm Bar. The place was not very well sign-posted and instead of entering the Noodle Bar when they saw the Momofuku sign, they went into Momofuku Ko, which was a tiny place and very quiet with only a few customers in there. Momofuku Ko, takes reservations online 6 days in advance and serve 2 fried chickens. And this is a Michelin 2-star restaurant. They were kindly told that the Noodle Bar was just next door and the restaurant was full.

When they entered the Noodle Bar, it was a completely different ambience. The whole place was buzzing with people and there was a 15-20 minute wait for seats at the bar. They ordered a sashimi and the noodle with ginger and scallion. The sashimi was fresh and the condiments refreshing. The noodle was cooked to just the right tension and still piping hot from the open kitchen. It tasted just like 薑蔥撈麵. If you use the ginger-scallion sauce from the best Hainanese Chicken rice store in Singapore, you might not be able to tell the difference. Such a simple dish, but the execution made all the difference.

Musings on Michelin stars, Tim Ho Wan 添好運 and more

In response to the criticism to the much-maligned 2009 Michelin Guide to Hong Kong & Macau, the 2010 guide, which came out last Thursday, featured two new entrants to the 1-star category who serve traditional Chinese cuisine to the hoi polloi. The additions were definitely well received by the local media and probably the owners / chefs of the two restaurants. But it may not be good news for the loyal customers, the queues are only going to get longer. One of the new entrants is Tim Ho Wan 添好運 which we have mentioned a few times in our blog.

Hong Kong restaurant offers Michelin-starred food for 78p

Michelin dishes available for 1 USD in Hong Kong

The other new 1-star entrant is Hung's Delicacies 阿鴻小吃 in North Point. Mum and dad never heard about Hung's Delicacies before even though it's closer to home. But then again, just can't imagine mum raving about such delicacies as duck's tongue 鴨舌 and chicken feet's tendon 雞腳筋. Perhaps this is for dad to go and try alone some day, once the Michelin's effect wears off a little, ie the Michelin induced queue becomes shorter.

A little of the Michelin's fame has also dusted on us. Our blog hit meter has shown a much higher hit rate since Friday. Initially, we thought there were a new bunch of people interested in our well being. The meter keeps registering higher numbers. We were perplexed until we found out that if you Google search Tim Ho Wan, our blog tops the list!!

Tim Ho Wan and Hung's Delicacies are not the only niche local restaurants featured in the 2010 guide. Tim's Kitchen 桃花源 has been elevated from 1-star to 2-star. And mum's ex-colleagues will tell you, mum used to organize take-away from Tim's Kitchen a few years ago. Those were the days!

And of course, another restaurant that's been elevated in its star status, is Fook Lam Moon 福臨門 in Wan Chai.

Bo Innovation, which mum doesn't particularly like, has been demoted to 1-star. Perhaps mum will write up on her take on the 2010 Michelin Hong Kong & Macau guide similar to this banter in Chowhound.chow.com. One day, when the guide becomes more established here, you might even see a chart similar to this for the New York guide from us. Enjoy eating, enjoy life!!


View Tim Ho Wan 添好運 in a larger map

San Francisco - Coi, Part 2

Here's a quick run down on what they could remember from the meal but, as in most food blogs or restaurants' reviews, words never do justice to your experience whether they were good or bad.

Summer, Frozen in Time - Plum, Frozen Meringue, Yogurt
The most memorable dish of the whole meal and perhaps the best dish during this trip. It was a literal explosion of flavors. Every spoonful of the icy pink-orange appetizer got a different part of your taste buds to work overtime. The frozen meringue kept the aroma of rose petals from coming out until it was melted in your mouth. The next dip into the appetizer you get the flavor of plum. It was best described by the now overused cliche, like a box of chocolate; you never know what you are gonna get. Only that, it was far better than any box of chocolate.

Melon and Cucumber - Aroma of Mint
After the spectacular first course, this continued to clean your palate while introducing you to a different set of flavors with green being the theme color.

Inverted Cherry Tomato Tart - Black Olive, Basil
Mum is not a fan of olives and she asked for the olives to be taken out. She didn't know what she was missing. The black olives were turned into a crispy top and added texture to the whole dish.

Chilled Piquillo Pepper Soup - Fresh Pole and Shelling Beans, Zatar, Nepitella
A gazpacho style soup which condensed all the natural flavors into another challenge to the taste buds. A quote came to mind:

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote in the Physiology of Taste, appearing in 1825, that Bertrand, the steward of the Prince of Soubise, used fifty hams for one supper, but only one ham appeared on the table, the rest being essential for his sauce espagnole, white sauces, and so forth.

A great dish should be something more than meets the eye. You just can't tell how many different ingredients that have gone into that simple bowl of soup. Mixing a lot of ingredients is the easy part, but creating the right mix takes years of experience and flair.

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter - Young Carrots, Burnt Rice, Cocoa Nib, Cilantro
Not their favorite. While there wasn't anything wrong with the dish, like most executions where the chefs tried to introduce the 4 (5 in the case of Cyrus's canapes, the fifth being Umami) basic tastes, they always tasted funny and never quite bring out the best of the food. Perhaps it's the natural human desire to enjoy the right mix.

Monterey Bay Abalone Grilled on the Plancha - Nettle Salsa Verde, Spicy Breadcrumbs, Lemon Zest
Pan-Grilled Matsutake - Potato-Pineneedle Puree
Both dishes were fine displays of bringing the natural flavors of the main ingredients. While the Chinese way of cooking abalone, fresh or dry, emphasizes on the sauces, grilling was a simple delivery. You can adjust the taste depending on how much puree or salsa verde you add.

Slow Roasted Lamb - Chard Leaves and Stems, Garum, Rosemary
Mum is not a lamb fan. She got a piece of beef instead. The lamb was perfectly cooked and very tender. But the most flavorful part was also the most unhealthy part, the lamb fat, probably shouldn't go into too much detail.

Cavatina - Sweet and Spicy Greens
PB&J - Niabel Grape, Pistachio Butter, Apple, Sorrel
Caramelized White Chocolate Parfait, Semi Frozen - Huckleberries, Anise
The cheese was tasty but nothing to write home about. Mum and dad liked both desserts. The Niabel grape tasted a bit like the Japanese Kyoho grapes.

Echoing the very first course, "Frozen in Time", it was well past midnight when they had their fresh chamomile tea to finish the night. The unhurried delivery of the dishes, sometimes by the chef, Daniel Patterson himself and the fading light through Japanese paper left you plenty of time to enjoy and decipher each dish. Time was frozen after all!!

Only when they left the restaurant and walked back to the hotel were they reminded the seedy surrounding area. Some zaftig blondes in super short skirt waiting outside the disco nearby waiting to be ushered in.

PS -
Foraged, the last item in the ingredient list, literally means picked from the forest. They were told, the small white alyssum flowers on top of the first course were hand picked by the chef from the forest.

San Francisco - Coi, Frozen in Time

The journey from Napa back to downtown San Francisco was much smoother on a Saturday and the only small mishap was Dad driving into the Muni bus lane. Oops. GPS was slow to correct its bearings but they still managed to find their way to the hotel. After unloading all the luggage with the hotel porter, they decided to keep the rental car for the night since meter car parks were free from 6pm Saturday. After a brief rest in the hotel watching NCIS back-to-back marathon, they headed out again to the final Michelin starred dinner of their journey. Dad was convinced that he could find the way to the restaurant without bringing a map. But then at night, every street looks the same in a foreign country. After asking a few people in the street including a bunch of Singaporean students, who were probably even more lost than dad, they arrived at Coi.

Coi, pronounced "kwa", is located literally next door to a strip club around the nightclub area along Broadway street. The restaurant opened its door in 2006 and got its first Michelin star in the 2008 which came out in October 2007 and its second star in the 2009 guide in October 2008 (confusing right?!)

They get ushered into their designated table, sat down and were shown the fixed price menu of the day. It was not the most desirable table as mum was sat facing the entrance which looked into a section where all the waiters and waitresses juggle for utensils. So they asked for a table change and was told that there was table that would be freeing up soon. And mum and dad decided to wait to start their dinner after they were reseated. It was 8:30pm and hunger started to set in, as the lunch they gobbled down in Taylor's Refresher was well and truly digested. They kept themselves busy by looking around at the people, the decor and at the menu. There was a menu of the dishes and then there was another page telling you where each ingredient came from. The emphasis was on the use of local Californian fresh produce. The restaurant was the probably the most informal among the Michelin 2 star restaurants in San Francisco and some of the guests were wearing jeans that night. The service was relax and unhurried and the decor reminded dad of Japanese clubs in the 70s and 80s, with the lighting covered by Japanese paper.

There's a limit to how much you could appreciate with an empty stomach. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, 3 tables asked for their bills consecutively and they got a table at a quiet corner of the restaurant. Their first course arrived and it was well worth the wait.

More to follow..........

Wine Country - Cyrus, Healdsburg

After a late afternoon swim and a shower, they felt refreshed and headed back out to downtown Healdsburg to have their third Michelin starred dinner in as many days. It was almost dusk and most of the shops were closed with not a huge amount human traffic. A woman went past and somehow they got into a quick chat with her. As soon as, she realized that they were going to have dinner in Cyrus, she started raving about the place. The Healdsburg locals are probably quite proud of their famous restaurant.

Cyrus is located inside Le Mars Hotel right at the heart of Healdsburg downtown and you can read all the rave reviews on its own web site. While not as fiendishly difficult to reserve a table as the French Laundry, it was full house the night they dined there. The dress code was not as strict either, but most of the diners dressed up for the occasion. The decor was a bit aloof but the staff were mostly approachable and very knowledgeable as they found out during dinner.

It's difficult not to make comparison between the two restaurants as they were dining there almost back to back. Perhaps, it was the season, some of the theme dishes, ingredients and even the style were quite similar between the two. You might care to compare the two attached menus. Of course, most foodies would not line up their restaurants visit in such a way.

Overall, all the dishes were delicious and perfectly cooked. The desserts were particularly good and so was the bread selection (but then Robuchon in Macau is still the one to beat in this category). The cheese trolley offered a mesmerized array of choices made easy only the "cheese sommelier". The "rare and fine" wine pairing was definitely a worthy education process and experience.

People debate if these expensive restaurants are worth visiting. If they know the number of ingredients that go into each dish and the number of steps in the production of each, their question might turn into, "How do these restaurants turn a profit?" Especially if you have tried making some of these concoctions at home.

Wine Country - Madrona Manor, Healdsburg

After the light lunch in Buchon Bakery, they decided to head for Healdsburg and looked for a place to stay for the night. Hotels in downtown Healdsburg, which is a tiny area, have rack rates which are challenging for the budget conscious. A simple room in the boutique Hotel Healdsburg is displayed at a rate of US$360. And the Relais & Châteaux certified Les Mars Hotel starts at US$545 and the only room left for the night was asking for US$775. And there wasn't much of a last-minute discount. After checking at a few places and thought they were not worth the price, they went outside downtown to Madrona Manor.

Madrona Manor is an hotel with accommodation in the main building as well as some small lodges outside it. One of the lodges, Meadow Wood East, was available and they managed to negotiate a good rate for it. The lodge was divided into a sitting room and a bedroom. The decor was very Oriental. The main door opened out a small porch overlooking one of the many gardens.

The weather was so good that they managed to have a swim before dinner. But to mum and dad, the best part was picking raspberries and toybox tomatoes from the garden which supplies produce to the Michelin one star restaurant within the hotel. Mum even took and ate a bright red heirloom tomato. Her excuse was she wouldn't want the tomato to drop on the ground and get rotten. Hmm.......

Located less than one mile away from downtown Healdsburg, Madrona Manor is definitely a lovely place to stay if you are looking for a sanctuary with peace and close to mother nature.

Wine Country - Bistro Jeanty

If you look at their travel itinerary, sometimes wonder where mum tugs all her excess fat away. Nothing seems to happen in between eating and drinking for them. Unless you count spending several hours in a factory outlet mall near Napa.

Even though Bistro Jeanty is also a Michelin starred restaurant, the atmosphere is completely different to the other Michelin starred restaurants during this trip. It is very casual and gives you a feeling that you have been transported to a bistro in the heart of Paris.

The menu is full of classic, simple French dishes. Definitely no over-engineered dishes, what you see is what you taste and what you get. But what you get is dish after dish of warm comfort food expertly cooked that you would love to get near your doorsteps.

They had soups as starters. The cream of tomato soup in puff pastry was definitely the most memorable dish of the day. The silky smooth soup was overflowing with flavors and would be the perfect start to any dinner especially in a cold night. If you can get the same fresh ingredients that they have you can even try making it at home. Here is the recipe. The onion soup was very good but the tomato soup was better.

Next they had a fried bone marrow, which was beautifully cooked and finger licking yummy. They were going to share a steak tartare but mum decided against eating more after one bite of what resembled raw beef burger to her. While dad kept stuffing himself with raw egg and raw beef, mum ordered an egg-white leek tart which was the special of the day.

This Michelin star meal came at a much lower price tag, really helpful staff and immensely enjoyable dinner. Highly recommended if you go to Napa Valley.

Wine Country - First meal, the French Laundry

Unlike the first meal in downtown San Francisco, their first meal in the wine country was much anticipated and the table was reserved 6 weeks in advance. And above all, strict dress code is enforced in the restaurant. If not for the suit jackets they have on loan, dad would have to bring one specially from Hong Kong.

The French Laundry sits at a quiet corner of a residential area along a quiet stretch of Washington Street. I will spare you with all the accolades but you can find it all in the attached link. Due to planning restrictions in the surrounding residential area, the restaurant's sign is inconspicuous and one would probably miss driving by. Despite the manic rush, mum and dad managed to get there on time. The restaurant's decor tried to impart a cozy ambience
but the formal greetings at the door took some of the warmth and ease away from the coziness. The jacket imposed by the dress code didn't help matters for dad.

The French Laundry serves 2 different fixed price menus of US$240 per person (service inclusive), one of them being the vegetarian. The two carnivores never considered turning vegetarian, especially not at this night. One wouldn't expect anything less than perfection in terms of presentation and flavors from each dish and it managed to live up to expectation with some sparkling display of cooking. Even so, the meal was missing the "wow" factor for them. Something that really challenges your taste buds and makes you remember for much longer than just the course of the meal.

Maybe having been to Per Se before took some of the novelty out, as both restaurants share some of the same signature dishes. The canapes, "Cornets" - Salmon tartare with sweet red onion creme fraiche, and the appetizer, "Oysters and Pearls" - Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Island Creek Oysers and White Sturgeon Caviar were both delicious and delivered intense flavors in two small packages. But they had the same signature dishes in Per Se just under 2 years ago.

Still it was a superb meal with some of the best beef (Snake River Farms whose cattle are crosses between Japanese Wagyu and US Black Angus) cooked to perfection and fish seared with a delicious crispy skin.

Another highlight of the night was mum continued her streak of encountering foreign bodies in Michelin top rated restaurants. The culprit was a small piece of black fiber. The prize for finding that in her dessert was she got a new one made at once and dad got a different one, since he finished his already and Guillaume, the waiter, didn't want mum to eat alone and dad to eat the same dessert twice!!

The final, final dessert was a doughnut and espresso semi-freddo, which had great presentation, but it was a bit too sweet for their liking. It's an all American dessert after all.