Lunch @ Kam's Roast Goose in Hong Kong

So when I was looking up restaurants to try while I was visiting Hong Kong, one of the restaurants that came up on several lists was Kam's Roast Goose.  It's a family owned restaurant that has specialized in roast goose and other various barbecued meats for 3 generations.  The restaurant is so well regarded, that they even got a Michelin Star in 2015.

The restaurant is a pretty average looking restaurant in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district.  They don't take reservations, so you should expect lines during busy hours.  We walked by at noon and there were a ton of people there.  We came back around 2pm and the line was noticeably shorter.  It took us about 30-40 minutes to get a seat.  By the time 3:00pm-3:15pm, you could have walked in and gotten a seat without waiting.

The menu is basically broken up into their bbq specialties, which you can get alone, over rice, over noodles, or in soup.  They also have a number of sides you can get.  This is what we got.

1) marinated cucumbers with chili and garlic

We ordered this just so we'd have some vegetables as part of this meal.  Compared to other places I've had this dish, there was an extra hint of chili and garlic in the dish.  Better than the average I've had of this.

2) preserved egg with pickled ginger

We ordered this because everyone around us was ordering it as well.   I normally dislike preserved egg, but this was pretty good.  It was far more creamy than the typical stuff I've tried before.  The pickled ginger was also really good.

3) roast goose leg and bbq pork over rice

So we intended to order one dish of goose leg and one dish of goose breast with bbq pork, but we got confused about how some of the combos worked, so we ended up ordering one dish with just roast goose leg and one combo dish with roast goose leg and bbq pork.  So I'm only showing this one dish.

I've never had roast goose before, so it's hard to really judge it.  It didn't seem to have as strong a flavor as duck (which is what a number of others online agree with), but I did enjoy the crispy skin.

What surprised me about this dish was the bbq pork.  It was insanely tender compared to what I've tried before.  I believe it's a different cut of the pig than what most places do.  Perhaps tenderloin?

Overall, I would say this was a tasty meal.  Of the three dishes ordered, they were definitely a notch above the average.  Obviously the Michelin Guide decided, "notch above the average" meant it deserved a star.  Some people think they were too generous, but I'll let the reader decide if this is true or not.

Overall, the meal was $232 HKD (about $30 USD at the time of this writing).   We got the three dishes above, one extra goose leg over rice dish, and 2 non-alcoholic drinks.  It's a great deal for a 1 Michelin Star meal.

Dim Sum @ Shang Palace in Hong Kong

When we traveled to Hong Kong, we got there semi-early in the morning.  We had to grab lunch at some point, but given how tired we were and how hot it was outside, we wanted to pick something really close by.  By nothing more than chance, we found Shang Palace, a 2 Michelin starred restaurant in the Kowloon Shangri-La.  We were able to get a seat without a reservation for a late lunch (had to wait around 20-25 mins for a table).  This was a weekday lunch, so I imagine it would be harder on the weekend.

There is a set menu for lunch, but we were not in the mood for a 5-6 course lunch shortly after flying in.  So we just ordered a bunch of interesting looking dim sum off the menu.  There were many dim sum dishes that looked quite different / higher end than what you can normally get at most dim sum places.  Here's what we had.

1) Steamed minced pork dumplings with sea conch and black truffle paste

I pretty much ordered this only because it said conch was in the dumpling.  The picture on the menu showed a dollop of truffle paste, but this was clearly with a slice of truffle, which was nice.  Overall, pretty tasty.  Clearly different flavored than typical shumai with the mixed in conch and truffle.

2) Steamed diced scallop, vegetable, and bamboo fungus dumpling

I ordered this almost exclusively due to the picture on the menu, having never seen a dim sum like this before.  The dim sum we had tasted more like shrimp than scallop, perhaps it was a tad different that day (the "skin" was also a different color than in the picture, so I assumed a different recipe for the day).

3) Steamed bean curd skin rolls with chicken, fish maw, black mushroom, and ham

My +1 wanted this b/c she loves this dish.  Typically I think I've had this dish with some type of vegetable filling, but this was filled with a whole bunch of fancier stuff.  I felt like it was overstuffed though and could have been better without so many extras.  The chicken was really tender and the fish maw (fish stomach) was really interesting, super soft.  It had the consistency of something akin to the fatty part of pork belly.

4) Pan-fried turnip pudding in traditional style

I ordered this because the picture on the menu looked way different than the typical "turnip cake" dim sum.  I thought maybe the turnip cake was sprinkled with something like bonito, but it ended up being dried pork / pork floss, which was interesting.

But what amazed me about this was the consistency of the turnip cake.  It was very soft and very "smooth" throughout, not as thick and with turnip "chunks" in it like I've had at most other restaurants.  I'm not sure if its pureed in or what.  Sorry, the consistency is hard to explain, but was really good.  This was probably my favorite dim sum of the meal.

5) Stewed chicken feet with beans in abalone sauce

I've had the stewed chicken feet in black bean sauce many times, so I ordered this just because I'd never seen it served like this before.  First up, this is served with what I assume was kidney beans.  That was sort of interesting in and of itself.  In addition, when I normally ordered a chicken feet dish, it usually comes with around 3-4 chicken feet.  This one had like 8-10.  Way more than would be necessary for two people.  We struggled to finish this dish and ended up leaving one foot at the end of the meal.

I enjoyed this dish, as it was a different flavor than what I'm accustomed to, however I probably wouldn't order it again.  The chicken feet were harder to eat than what I was used to.  They didn't seem to have as much "meat".  I don't know if this is due to the cooking process, a difference in style of the dish, or a different chicken breed in Hong Kong with less fatty feet.

6) Steamed rice flour rolls filled with scallop and black truffle paste

Shang Palace offers several rice flour rolls (I usually see it as "rice noodle" rolls in English), including one with wagyu beef.  However, I picked this one because I don't recall ever tasting or seeing one with scallops before.  I know I've definitely never seen / tasted one with truffle paste.

I really enjoyed this dish, it was probably my second favorite of the meal.  It was simply a tasty combination.

Overall, quite fun to try new dim sum.  With some tea and tip, it was a little under $100 US for two people.  Certainly pricey for dim sum and tea, so perhaps not something most want to do.

Justice League Movie - Why a disappointment?

I was finally able to watch the recent Justice League movie.

Based on a reviews online, the film was disappointing.  After watching the film, while I agreed the film wasn't great, it wasn't horrible.  I was trying to pinpoint exactly why it didn't live up to expectations, and I've come up with my thoughts below.  I'm not going to nit-pick on issues such as Superman's mustache.

Needless to say:

SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS

1) Poor introduction of too many characters too late

So when you compare to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you immediately think, "I don't know these characters", so it has a disadvantage compared to the first Avengers film.

However, how is quick introduction of characters that different than the first Guardians of the Galaxy film?  In that film, the story collects five relatively unknown characters.  In Justice League, at least Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have been introduced in earlier movies.  Characters like the Flash have had their own TV series and should be familiar to viewers.

In my opinion, the problem is that the team had very little time to bond.

In the Guardians of the Galaxy, the team came together somewhat quickly, although in a somewhat comedy of errors.  They immediately interact and get to know each other in prison, escape prison, go meet the Collector, etc. etc.

In Justice League, that doesn't happen.  A fair amount of the time is Batman trying to put the team together.  Aquaman doesn't bother showing up until the end of the first battle.  Superman only shows up at the very end.  It just never felt like a team.

2) None of the heroes are known in the world

Exacerbating point #1 above is the fact that the heroes aren't "known" / "public" to the world as a whole and also aren't known to each other, with just a few exceptions.  So now time is wasted having the characters find each other instead of them just knowing each other.

As a counter example, lets take the forming of the Justice League in the DC Animated Universe and the direct to video movie Justice League: War.  In both of those animated tales, the heroes are relatively known to the world (with a few exceptions).  An alien invasion requires all the super heroes to come together for a greater purpose.  Generally speaking, they all know each other or know of each other (with a few exceptions), and so that immediately leads to the group working together.


(An aside, it's not entirely clear to me how Wonder Woman went from being in the shadows at the end of the Wonder Woman movie, but suddenly running around trying to fight terrorists in Justice League.)

3) Superman being brought back to life

Also compounding #1 and #2 above is the fact the team has to waste time bringing Superman back to life.  As the one "known" or "public" superhero in this DC movie universe, it would have made far more sense for him to be involved in forming the team.

4) The danger never seemed real.

Lets compare to the Justice League forming in the DC Animated Universe and the direct to video Justice League: War.  In those animated tales, the aliens have come to Earth and are wrecking havoc everywhere around the world.  So all the heroes come out to defeat the bad guys.

In Justice League, the battle is largely in the middle of no where.  The overall danger just doesn't seem as exciting.

On top of all that, Superman comes in the end to save the day.  No real climactic danger.  So forming the Justice League wasn't all that necessary, Superman could have handled it from the start if he were alive.

5) Steppenwolf sucked

My assumption is the movie studio is saving Darkseid for another day.  As such, they sent one of Darkseid's cronies instead. 

Boring.

The story in Justice League could have been much better served with a different random alien invasion.  Say ... Martians.

Twins signing Lance Lynn

The 2017 free agent off season has been one of the most surprising in recent memory.  When spring training broke, over half of most people's top ten free agents hadn't signed with a team.  That included J.D. Martinez, Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn, Alex Cobb, and Mike Moustakas.  As of this writing Alex Cobb and Jake Arrieta are both unsigned.  Moustakas and Lynn signed 1 year deals within the last few days.

I was surprised that Lynn had such much trouble reaching a reasonable mid-level deal.  Like, lets say 3 years for about $35 million.  For a pitcher that has a career record of 72-47 and a 3.38 ERA, I thought he would have a nice collection of suitors.  He's not an elite pitcher, but he's topped 200 innings pitched twice, made an All Star team, and has a healthy 14.9 WAR in his career.

He had Tommy John surgery in 2016 and is just over 30, but with a 3.43 ERA and 3.1 WAR in 2017, surely he could more interest than what he got?

Then I noticed the following in baseball reference.

From 2012-2015 Lynn had an ERA of 3.38 and a FIP of 3.39.  So nearly identical to each other.

In 2017, his ERA of 3.43 went with a FIP of 4.82.

From 2012-2015 Lynn had a strikeout / 9 innings rate of 8.6.

In 2017, it was 7.4.

From 2012-2015 Lynn had a strikeouts to walk ratio of 2.59.

In 2017, it was 1.96.

From 2012-2015 Lynn had a BABIP of .315.

In 2017, his BABIP was .248.

So in other words, all of Lynn's peripherals looked bad / trending down and he appeared to benefit from a lot of luck.

For Lynn, signing a 1 year deal was probably a great idea.  He can hopefully show more value another year removed from Tommy John surgery.

Update (10/24/18):

Here's Lance Lynn's stats line from 2018

10-10, 4.77 ERA, over 156 innings and had a collect 0.9 WAR. 

But look at these peripherals

FIP - 3.84 ERA, nearly a run better and better than 4.82 in 2017.

strikeouts per 9 innings - 9.2, matches his career best as a starter

strikeouts to walk ratio - 2.12, better than 2017 but still below career average

perhaps he'll do better on the free agent market because of his peripherals this year

Dining @ Lord Stanley in San Francisco, CA

Recently I was able to check out Lord Stanley in San Francisco with my +1.  I first heard of Lord Stanley when the Michelin star restaurant list came out a few years ago.  Then the San Francisco Chronicle gave the restaurant a 3.5 out of 4 star review.  So it seems like a place worth checking out.

The restaurant offers both an a la carte menu and a tasting menu.  As I'm quite lazy about selecting food, we selected the tasting menu.  This is what we got.

1) sourdough

Really good sourdough.  We debated if it was better than Aster's, which is our favorite.  It's really good, but we thought it was a pretty close second.

2) poached oyster with dungeness crab, sorrel and daikon radish

A great first course, a great combination of flavors.

3) warm cabbage, house buttermilk and uni bottarga

I was a little surprised when I saw this, as I mostly saw a pile of boiled cabbage.  But I ended up really enjoying this dish.  With the buttermilk, it gives it a much different flavor than I had anticipated.  I especially appreciated the fact that it wasn't a typical "salad" course, it's just a bit different and mixes things up a bit.

4) foie gras confit in kombu with celery root and black olive, seaweed madeleines

This was a supplemental course on the menu.  The foie gras was really good, although I wonder about the combination of the madeleines with it instead of a more average bread.  The madeleines were just a bit too soft for spreading.  But the madeleines were good by themselves.

5) hen consomme with confit yolk, trumpet mushrooms, english peas and bloomsdale spinach

Also included in this soup was also some lima beans.  The egg yolk was cooked to a very creamy consistency.  There was a little something in the soup that I couldn't quite pick up on.  Something a little "sweet and sour", unsure what flavor was added, although you can see the red dots in the soup above. 

At this point in the meal, I do want to say that I felt the meal was really healthy.  It just felt like I was eating a lot more vegetables than most tasting menus.

6) mount lassen trout with barbecued leek, almonds, and curry

This trout was clearly sous vided and very soft and tender.  I wasn't sure what the sauce on the upper left was, but there it appeared be some cream/mayo-ish sauce.  Overall, quite good.

7) wagyu sirloin with braised salsify, horseradish and red wine jus

Not much to say about this dish, as its a more traditional dish.

8) apple and fennel sorbet with a cider float

The staff offered the cider for this float as an option, in case you don't want the alcohol from it.  The sorbet was delicious.

9) mandarin pavlova with citrus gastrique

This was delicious, amongst the best desserts I can recall.  Underneath this meringue shell was mandarin origin slices and citrus "gastrique".  I didn't know that gastrique was, but online its a jam of sorts.  We found a gelatin/gummy like products mixed in with the mandarin slices, which is what I assume was the gastrique.  Overall, with the crunchy outside, this dessert was wonderful.

10) treats

And finally mignardise, this was popcorn macaron and salted caramel chocolate.  The popcorn macaron was interesting as I've never had that as a macaron flavor before.

Overall the meal was just over 2 hours long and I really enjoyed it.  We decided it was certainly in the upper half of meals we've had.

One thing that amazes me is how cheap this tasting menu is.  At only $97 (+ $17 for the foie gras), it has to be one of the cheaper tasting menus in the bay area.

Dinner @ Robin in San Francisco, CA

I recently had the chance to dine at Robin in San Francisco.  It's a relatively new sushi restaurant that's gotten some very good reviews.  The chronicle gave a great review, as did SFweekly.

One thing that's interesting about Robin is there is no set price for their omakase tasting menus.  You give the staff your price range (currently the options are $79 to $179) and they curate a meal based on the price.  The more expensive you go, the more courses you get and/or you get higher quality ingredients.  I suspect some of the dishes below would get extra truffle, extra caviar, etc.

Without any idea of what to go for, we just went with a $100 price per person.  Later on, we upped this to $120 to get a few more courses because we didn't think we'd be quite full by the end.  So this is what we ended up getting.  Because there was no printed menu, I don't remember the ingredients in every dish, so I list what I can recall.

1) sea bream sashimi w/ pomegranate, pistachio, and chile

Overall, a good starting sashimi dish.  A combo of flavors that I hadn't really seen before.

2) skip jack, trout w/ persimmon, and sea bream

The skip jack and trout were my favorites.  I thought the slice of persimmon on the trout was interesting.

3) nori chip, wagyu, uni, asian pearl, shallots

This was one of my favorite dishes of the night.  Lots of great flavors and textures all mixed together.

4) red sea bream, salmon with tomato & basil, hamachi with grapefruit & pepper

The salmon with tomato and basil was an interesting combination.  Sort of an italian take on sushi.  Not bad but not a favorite.

5) albacore tuna with ponzu sauce

Pretty good, although albacore is not my particular favorite fish.

6) crab dashi with sunchoke and Japanese greens

Overall really good, although there wasn't a lot of soup.  But it's a good break from all the fish.

7) blue fin tuna, seared big eye tuna with salsa, big eye tuna

The blue fin on the left was good.  The other tuna was pretty good, but big eye tuna isn't a personal favorite of mine.

8) sesame ramen noodles with chimichurri and truffles

I did not expect to see something like this on the tasting menu.  Sesame isn't my favorite flavor, but overall this was quite tasty.

9) uni donburi with uni whip cream and salmon roe

This was probably my favorite dish of the night.  The ikura & uni by itself was delicious, but the uni whip cream gave it this extra creaminess.

10) potato chip with caviar

I had seen pictures of this nigiri online and was not expecting much, but it was actually quite tasty.  I wasn't particularly fond of the texture differences between the rice and potato, but I can see why a lot of people would like it.  My +1 really liked the texture difference.

11) mackerel, toro, uni with emulsified egg yolk

I love mackerel and the mackerel on the left was delicious.  The emulsified egg yolk sauce on top of the uni on the right was basically pure umami.  With the uni, rich and creamy and delicious.

This is the point in the meal where the waitress said we were at our last savory course and we told her to bump up our omakase from $100 to $120.  So I suspect the $20 was for the next three courses.

12) uni with caviar

Basically more creamy umami goodness.  Only knock is that after the uni above, I felt this was too much uni back to back.  Something could have been put in between.

13) mackerel with ginger/ponzu foam

I'm not a big fan of foam, but overall quite good hit of flavors.

14) toro tartare with morel mushroom reduction sauce

This dish came with some bread to put the toro tartare onto.  The morel mushroom sauce at the bottom of the dish was particularly good.

15) wagyu with shaved frozen foie gras

This was really interesting and also really good.  Definitely in my top three for the night.  Michael Bauer called it a great way to mix fat with fat.

16) white truffle softserve with olive oil and hazelnuts

Not a big fan of nuts in general, but the soft serve with olive oil was interesting.  Tasty, but not my favorite.

It's important to note that five of the dishes above were shared for two people (#1, #5, #8, #9, #14).  I was expecting to bit more full after seeing photos online, but had not realized that so many dishes were shared.  So one should account for that when considering the amount of the food in the above.

Overall, a great meal.  My immediate thought is how does this compare to other omakases I've had, such as at Kusakabe or Delage.  Overall, I'd say it's only a notch below Kusakabe.  But it's not that much below.

Dinner @ Michael Mina in San Francisco, CA

Michael Mina has long been considered one of the best restaurants in San Francisco.  It held 2 Michelin Stars at one point, eventually lost both stars, but has been holding steady at 1 Michelin Star.  The last San Francisco Chronicle review gave the restaurant a 3.5 star review.

I finally got to try the place out with some friends the other night.  The restaurant currently offers a 5 course price fixe menu or a tasting menu.  We went with the tasting menu.  The tasting menu dishes are a secret before its brought out, although I saw the menu online before we went so it was only a half-secret. 

1) Amuse

I thought it was pretty cool to bring out three amuses out on one dish, which I don't believe I've seen before.  On the left we have kampachi with (I think) plum and popcorn.  Up top we have octopus with some sauce.  On the right we have oyster with some sauce I don't recall.  I especially liked the kampachi.


2) Bread

I often don't post pictures of bread, but I'll post this mostly b/c of the butter.  It's a butter, ricotta, and honey mixture.  It was delicious.

3) SPANISH BLUEFIN TUNA, OSETRA CAVIAR, YUZU

This was delicious.  Could have come from a high end sushi restaurant.  Also came with some fresh grated wasabi, which they did tableside for a few of us.

4) LIVE SANTA BARBARA UNI, KYOTO MISO, CUCUMBER

I'm normally not a fan Santa Barbara uni, but I really enjoyed this.  The staff said this uni was alive just before it was served.  The uni was more creamy than I am used to it being, unsure if it's due to the freshness.  Also included in this dish was tomato and trout roe.


5) HAY-SMOKED BUFFALO MOZZARELLA, HEIRLOOM TOMATO, NOBLE TONIC #5

I honestly did not expect to like this dish, as it appeared to be a fancy form of caprese salad.  I had to look up what "noble tonic" is, and it appears to be some maple syrup, which is their fancy balsamic in this dish.

However, I was pleasantly surprised.  Somehow everything really came together much better than I had expected.  Included were 4 different heirloom tomato types, some lemon verbana foam, a tomato crisp you see on top.  I'm unsure if it was dried or fried to create the crisp, but it was especially good.


6) SUGAR TOAD "À LA GRENOBLOISE", SMOKED BUTTER, FENNEL POLLEN

I had never had "sugar toad" fish before, but really enjoyed it.  The skin was particularly amazing, as it was a thick crust unlike any other fish I can recall.  Included on this dish was some citrus on the left and shishito pepper on the right.

7) HANDMADE TAGLIOLINI, MANILA CLAM, BURGUNDY TRUFFLE

This pasta was delicious, much stronger flavors yet not overwhelming.

8) TOLENAS QUAIL, FOIE GRAS, MOLE, FIG

From left to right we had quail with figs, some foie gras with fig, and finally quail with mole sauce and some mushrooms.  The figs were really good, but I felt it may have drowned out the quail & foie a bit.  The quail with mole sauce was the best part of this dish.

9) SALT MEADOW LAMB, MATBUCHA, WHITE EGGPLANT, GREEN OLIVE

I had no idea what matbucha is, but apparently it's a tomato & pepper sauce, which is the orange-ish sauce you see in the photo.  The waiter said it's a sauce with South America origins, but online they say it's got African origins.  Oh well.  Pretty good, although the tomato based sauce wasn't a flavor that met my particular taste preferences.  I really enjoyed the eggplant and the lamb-belly on the left.

10) Palette Cleanser - Shaved ice with Hibiscus and compressed watermelon

This was the off menu palette cleanser.  I think this is the first time I've ever had shaved ice as a palette cleanser as its normally sorbet.  But given the dessert below is sherbet, I guess they wanted to go non-ice-cream like.  Overall pretty good.  The compressed watermelon was hidden underneath of course.  I'm not sure what the crunchy red things on top were, but they were tasty.  Some dried fruit of some type.

11) AMBROSIA MELON, SHISO, MATCHA

This was a great dessert, one of the best I can recall having (although TBD if it'll get into my top ten).  Melon sherbet on the right, shiso cake & chunks of melon on the bottom, covered up with crispy stuff.  Delicious.

12) Mignardise

Obviously this is for the group and not just me :-)  I believe it was yuzu macaron, lemon pate de fruit,  and kaffir lime chocolate.  The chocolate was my favorite of the three.

One of the interesting things about this meal is that it was about 4 hours long from sit down to bill being paid.  That's really long given the relatively small number of courses.  As a random contrast, French Laundry was about 3 hours and 15 minutes, and Atelier Crenn was less than 3 hours despite 19 courses of food being brought out.  We were a group of 6 instead of just the typical two of us, so perhaps that was part of the reason for it taking such a long time.

Overall a good meal.  I will say that at $195 the price for the tasting menu feels a bit high for the bay area.  As a contrast, 1 Michelin starred Californios clocks in at $157 right now.  2 Michelin starred Commis in Oakland is at $159 now.  It's possible this price is due to being located in San Francisco's Financial District, which I'm sure has some premium attached to it.