What to eat in Hong Kong? Tapas

What is it with Spanish chefs?  There seem to be more - including several with Michelin stars -  in Hong Kong than in Spain.   Well that's probably not true, but there's enough to form an Asian Spanish Chefs' Association,  the purpose of which is to "disseminate Spanish culinary techniques on the Asian continent".  

Cuttlefish, chorizo and broad beans

On my recent foray into the rice bowl of Hong Kong, I spent some time exploring some of the new tapas restaurants infiltrating the city.  

At 22 Ships I get lucky and a seat at the horseshoe shaped bar.  Here I can not only watch the bar staff, but also see into the tiny kitchen, and - added bonus -  the chefs plate up on the benches in front of me. Bliss! 

I  want to eat EVERYTHING on the menu, but settle for a couple of seafood plates and one of the most excellent desserts.  

Tuna tataki with yuzu and apple mousse

The Executive Chef is Jason Atherton, a Michelin starred chef who used to work for the Gordon Ramsey group, opening maze restaurants in the UK, Prague, Durban, Qatar and Melbourne.  He is now his own man and runs a stable of restaurants across the UK and Asia.  So as you would expect, the food is rather good. 

Everything is beautifully plated (the photos on the 22 Ships website are much better than mine) and have fresh and sometimes surprising - in a good way - flavours.  For example, regular readers know my aversion to sweet and savoury, yet the apple and yuzu (an East Asian citrus, something like a sour mandarin) mousse with the tuna is delicious.  Besides, this is subtle flavour, not chunks of fruit sitting astride unsuspecting fish.

Texturas de chocolate - heaven on a plate

Now, art on a plate.  As I watch the apprentice chef plate dessert after dessert, I have time to examine the components of each and make an informed decision - as if any dessert related decision is informed by anything other than greed.  

It is the Texturas de Chocolate that proves irresistible. 

 I wish this picture did true justice to the artful design:  so much like a little mushroom on a pebbly path through a leafy forest floor (well, that's my description). The mushroom is a perfectly formed meringue balanced on a vertical quenelle of ice cream, with tiny volcanoes of piped mousse and crunchy little bombs of milk, white and dark chocolate.  I can not begin to describe how divine it is.  All in all, a fantastic evening's dining and entertainment.

At the other end of the scale there are some very ordinary tapas bars cashing in on the trend, and we don't need to discuss those here. 

Did I eat any Chinese food?  Yes, I did, and I'll tell you about it shortly.

Back to the future in Hong Kong

Thirty years ago I was 27 and moved to Hong Kong to work for three years - long story.  With beautiful symmetry, 27 years later I  return for a week wandering down memory lane - or multi-lane highway, depending on where I am at the time. 

So what's different?  Aside from  now being a middle aged woman and not a party girl in my late 20's?  In Hong Kong quite a lot, and strangely enough, not much. 

It's still a growing city and is unashamed of being so.  It builds high rise towers, roads, bridges, pedestrian overpasses, underground (MTR) lines and stations with no apology.  I suspect "consultation with the community" is an unknown concept, but equally there's little "not in my back yard" wowserism either.  Everyone expects progress so progress happens - stuff gets done and as a consequence the infrastructure works.  

This means it's easier than ever to get around.  The public transport system is excellent. Since I lived here the MTR lines have crept under the city  in every direction, including a direct express from the new airport on Lantau island, linked to the city via causeways.  This somewhat removes the excitement of landing between the apartments and washing lines that squeezed the old runway at Kai Tak, but it's certainly efficient, delivering you to the city in 24 minutes.  Taxis are cheap, as is travel in general and an octopus travelcard makes it very easy. Over 6 days travelling all over the Island and Kowloon including return trips to the airport, I spent less than $70NZ - in London that might get you a couple of days in Zone One, or a dozen trips on a Melbourne tram.

I am amazed at how clean the place has become  - not Singapore clean but very, very clean: the streets have no litter; the air is clean - no need for industrial strength cleanser on your face at day's end, and when you blow your nose, the output isn't black!  Public toilets are a positive revelation - it is all no touch hand cleaning: soap automatically dispensed, water on a sensor.  

Smoking must also have been banned: I can count on both hands the number of people I saw with cigarettes.  

However, bureaucracy has gone mad and there are signs everywhere forbidding everything.   

In this case,  near Po Lin Monastery, no alcohol or meat

Filipino maids gather on their day off

Wanchai is still the Wanch, but becoming a bit less so with the advent of a cafe and restaurant culture (a separate blog on Hong Kong eating is forthcoming). There are still seedy looking bars and dens of obvious iniquity, but these seem to be confined to the north side of Lockhart Road.  I walk past a long standing institution, The Old China Hand, on a Sunday morning and observe sweet, faced Thai and Filipino girls in short skirts giggling with (or at) ruddy faced, paunchy white men drinking sweaty pints of beer.  Across the street on the steps of a place called Players, a fight breaks out between Chinese men. I don't see any machetes, but am motivated to move along.

There are well in excess of 150,000 Filipino maids working in Hong Kong.  On Sunday, their day off, they meet up around Central and spend the day picnicking and chatting with their friends.  Early in the day they stake out their space using flattened  cardboard boxes, filling the areas in public and squares along the overhead pedestrian walkways that connect high rise office blocks and shopping malls.  

It all takes on the appearance of a convention for the homeless, which in essence is what they are as they leave their families to earn a living, by shopping, washing, cleaning and cooking for ex-pats and more well off locals families.  Domestic workers have no residency rights. If they leave and employer (or any employer leaves them) they have two weeks to find another job before having to leave the country.  In a recent court case  a maid, resident in Hong Kong for 17 years, tried to challenge the law which allows other ex-pats (in non domestic roles) permanent residence after seven years uninterrupted residency.  She failed.

Strange as it sounds, there are now more Chinese in Hong Kong.  Visitors from the mainland are now the greatest proportion of visitors, and it seems the hot attraction is infant formula.  In March 2013 the HK Government set an export limit of 1.8kg on the product.   Clearly not everyone got the memo if the women in a supermarket foyer packing multiple large tins of baby food into a suitcase were anything to go by. 

Yes, but what did you buy I hear you ask.  A bar of soap and six spoons.  Seriously.  One of the beauties of no longer working in a corporate environment means there are none of the associated wardrobe requirements: that leaves more money for hedonistic pleasures.......food blog forthcoming.