Hong Kong and Japan - food, food and a bit of other stuff

[LadyC]

The gentlemen and I have some friends who live in DXB. They like to travel and eat, much the same as us. So last year, we decided to go on a trip to Singapore and Vietnam with them. It all went swimmingly, lots of delicious meals and fun experiences, no one killed anyone else, so we decided to do it all over again in Japan. A few other friends decided they would like to come along too, so we had a team of six ready to uncover some of Japan's most delectable meals.

There is nothing I love more than planning a holiday - well I do love taking them too! So the plan was around 10 days in Japan, in early April, for cherry blossom season.

After undertaking various combinations and permutations on the QFF portal, the plan ended up being
- 2 nights in HK, flying MEL-SYD and picking up 2 FASAs to HK;
- 8 nights in Japan, flying CX up and back and spending 4 nights in Tokyo and 4 nights in Kyoto;
- splitting up on the way home - the gentleman flying on from HK via SIN to MEL and me spending an extra night in HK before flying home on another FASA.

We had a great time, Kyoto is marvelous and we have already pencilled in another trip to Tokyo - better start planning!

 

[amaroo]

Oh yeah - loving this already!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG_6CopW9GQ

 

[LadyC]

MEL-SYD-HKG

We got up at OMG o'clock to get on a 7am flight up to SYD in the hope of some F Lounge time prior to the flight. I even got the call from the F Lounge the day before to organise a spa treatment if we wished - but they didn't think there would be enough time for anything

The flight from MEL to SYD was fairly uneventful, I had strategised on saving breakfast space for some F Lounge action, so didn't partake in much breakfast. The flight left and arrived on time or thereabouts, so all good to start.

Carrying HLO, we hadn't checked in internationally in MEL, so the transit bus gatekeeper was a bit confused when we didn't have international boarding passes. It wasn't a problem in the end, we were ushered through and only needed to wait a few minutes for the bus. Once at the international terminal, we checked in and were assisted by the lovely Shawn who called the spa and organised for the gentleman to get a massage before the flight.

After a quick detour via immigration, I was in the F lounge, ready and raring to eat. The gentleman went off for his massage and I grabbed a table for some breakfast action. Corn fritters, bacon, juice and coffee - all delicious thank you very much! 40 minutes later, the gentleman rushes up to the table, worried there was only about 25 minutes to boarding and he still needed to eat. After he had quickly scoffed down his meal, they announced the flight had been delayed!

Due to various nefarious technical issues, we had another 2 hours in the F Lounge, before boarding our 747 bound for HK.

On boarding, I must say I was a little disappointed. I knew the plane wasn't brand new but it had certainly seen better days (a long time ago) and looked very ratty and worn. Maybe I have been spoiled with flying on the A380

There was 6 of us in all, including our Rhodes scholar ex-PM who spent most Of the time doing either sudoku or the crossword.

After perusing the menu and deciding on the 8 course tasting plates (after my last experience of not a lot of food), Both the gentleman and I were very disappointed to be told it wasn't available. And the gentleman was further disappointed when told there was no more beef available! We seem to be followed by food issues on QF F! Having said that, the meals we did order were all nice and I did get sufficient serves this time. After a few hours sleep and some iPad action, the pilots did a wonderful job in catching up 1 hour of the 2 hour delay and we arrived with enough time to get to our first planned dinner in HK.

 

[LadyC]

So after reading this article
Four Seasons Hong Kong | Restaurants | World's greatest dumpling
the gentleman decided he wanted to stay at the Four Seasons in HK with dinners at both Lung King Heen and Caprice.

On arrival at FS, we were taken up directly to our room and checked in there- tick. Our room had been upgraded-tick. What a great start to our experience! Dinner was in one hour so time for a quick relax before changing for dinner.

Dinner was booked for 8.30pm HK time. Which made it 11.30pm Melbourne time. In hindsight, not such a smart thing. On arrival at the restaurant, we decided on the Tasting menu which was exactly the same as the one on the website currently. We also did some matching wines. Unfortunately, the lighting in the restaurant was terrible and as I only use my iPhone for photos, they didn't turn out very well so I don't have any to post.

Some of the stand out dishes were the appetizer of crispy suckling pig, barbecued pork and roast goose; the wagyu beef; and the Braised rice with chicken. The appetizers were so crispy yet succulent and tasty. The chicken rice dish was soulful, delicious and comforting - the type of meal you would like to eat when you are unwell. The service was excellent, always attentive and the sommelier was very helpful in changing some wine to better suit the gentlemans palate. It was a very good restaurant.

Unfortunately for us, we were so tired by the end of it we just wanted to crawl in to bed. And the other thing it made me realize was that even though I love Chinese food, I love French food more!

Chef's tasting menu

 

[Inver]

Thanks for sharing LadyC, I can't wait to read more.

 

[LadyC]

My only photo - the appetiser of pork and goose

 

[LadyC]

We rolled into our beds to get some shut eye before the strenuous day ahead of massages, manicures and a dinner at Caprice.

We went down for breakfast at about 10am. We went for the a la carte but there is also a separate lounge for buffet breakfast. Nothing to write home about but suited us. Lots of suits seem to meet there for breakfast meetings, so we heard a lot of talk on M&A, capital markets etc

Back to our room for a relax and quick surf of the internet before heading down to check out the pool. Too overcast and cool for my liking but I can certainly understand how it is impressive on a nice day. Located on the 6th floor outside, it overlooks the harbour.



Then it was off to the spa for some pampering. After a 90 minute massage and some nail treatments, I was ready for my next meal! The spa at FS is fantastic, so much so I went back on my return though HK. Highly recommend it

 

[LadyC]

Dinner at Caprice was booked for an early session as we we flying our early the next morning to Tokyo. After perusing the menu, the gentleman and I agreed on the tasting menu (this tends to be a recurring theme with us!). We also organised for the sommelier to match some wines for us, three glasses each in total. The tasting menu is as follows:

Langoustine Cannelloni, Marinated Salmon, Chilled Lemon Grass and Sologne Caviar
Chestnut Velouté, Colonnata Pork Cappuccino, Truffled Iberico Ham Tartine
Steamed Duck Foie Gras, Pink Lady Apple, Coriander Compote and Citrus Jus
Atlantic Scallops Papillote, Périgord Black Truffle, Buttered Savoy Cabbage and Crosnes
Pyrenean Milk Fed Lamb, Shoulder Pastilla, Poivrade Artichokes and Escabèche Vegetables

Or

Larzac Suckling Pig, Boudin Noir and Curried Green Lentils in Morteau Sausage Sauce
Caprice Cheese Cellar
Pomegranate and Raspberry Crémeux, Bergamot Foam, Peach Sorbet
Rochefort Trapist, Malt Mousse, Caramelised Peanuts and Crispy Araguini​

There was also a cheese plate served prior to dessert - more on that later.

The meal and the service was amazing! We enjoyed all the dishes except the last one, as it was beer flavoured. But otherwise, the presentation and flavours were fantastic. It is definitely in my top 5 restaurants - so if this sort of meal is your thing, then definitely go if you can. I could really see why the restaurant is 3 michelin stars.

Some of the highlights were

the langoustine cannelloni, beautifully presented with an interesting jelly 'broth'


the chestnut and pork cappuccino - the depth of flavour was amazing - so tasty!


The fruit dessert with sorbets and cremes, meringue and fruit ribbon - great textures




We couldn't help ourselves, we had to order some cheese too. Can you understand how hard it was to choose from this offering??


It took 2 people to carry it over to our table!!

At the end of the night, as we were leaving, our waiter came over and gave us a small bag of sweets made in house - nougats and candies. Little gestures like that always wrap the night up so well.

Again, we rolled ourselves into bed, ready for the next journey on to Japan. FS HK was a great hotel, I really enjoyed staying there. The food was fabulous, the rooms well appointed and the service excellent. Definitely a great treat retreat.

 

[LadyC]

The magnificent cheese offering at Caprice

 

[amaroo]

Fantastic choice of hotel & restaurants!

All three are on our fav list.

LKH does a crispy pork ribs in wasabi sauce - just special Caprice has a spectacular Fromage display and an even better room....was lucky enough to get a tour, talk & nibble in there

 

[LadyC]

Fantastic choice of hotel & restaurants!

All three are on our fav list.

LKH does a crispy pork ribs in wasabi sauce - just special Caprice has a spectacular Fromage display and an even better room....was lucky enough to get a tour, talk & nibble in there

Thanks! Would definitely go there again, no question about it

 

[Inver]

LadyC with your & Amaroo's trip reports you have enticed me to head to Hong Kong and Singapore this year.
The cheese selection is just stupendous. I also agree those little things go a long way in making sure customers do come back in the future.

 

[LadyC]

Inver, there is lots of delicious food in Singapore and HK and not all of it expensive either! Glad you are inspired

 

[amaroo]

LadyC with your & Amaroo's trip reports you have enticed me to head to Hong Kong and Singapore this year.
The cheese selection is just stupendous. I also agree those little things go a long way in making sure customers do come back in the future.

I have a feeling that you might need to add Japan to the list

 

[LadyC]

The next day commenced with an early start to get to Tokyo. We were booked on CX548 departing at 8.45am. We skipped hotel breakfast in favour of trying out the new CX Lounges, more specifically The Wing. An easy check-in and processing through immigration gave us lots of time to try out the lounge. The Wing has a restaurant with a menu and a buffet. There were a decent variety of breakfast options at the buffet, including HK style, Japanese, Western and Continental. The menu was small and only consisted of 3/4 different options, mainly Western and egg related. The food was good but not as good as QF F Lounge.

After some food, we lazed about in the lounge waiting for our flight to be called. Service staff wander around and will take a deliver drinks and snack orders. Just a coffee and some mineral water for me at that time of the morning, though I am sure there was someone enjoying the champagne bar. Due to some inclement weather (almost monsoonal for a brief point) and more aircraft issues, we didn't board the plane until just before 11am with take off a while after that.

The flight across was non eventful except for some heavy turbulence and soon enough we had arrived at HND. As we had HLO, a quick processing through immigration and customs and out the doors to figure out how to get into Shinjuku. We were staying at the Hilton Shinjuku. We quickly found the information desk - the attendants speak English which was a god send for us - and just behind it was the airport limousine bus desk. You just tell them the hotel and they will tell you which bus to get on - luckily for us one was leaving in 10 minutes, so we bought some tickets and headed down to bus departure area.

An hour ride in, or thereabouts, and we were at the hotel. Even though we hadn't done a lot, it felt like a long day so we ordered some room service and planned for tomorrow.

 

[LadyC]

We were staying at the Hilton and had an Executive room which meant that we went to the Lounge for breakfast and to tap into the free wifi. After breakfast our first stop was at Yoyogi Park to see the Meiji Shrine - a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji. Yoyogi Park is quite large and you feel far removed from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

The Shinto Gate


The hand washing basin, to be used before entering a Shinto Shrine


We also saw a few weddings when we were there

 

[LadyC]

After the park, we wandered around Harajuku in Shibuya and grabbed lunch from a small cafe. No english on the menu but there were pictures

A common mea, some gyoza followed by some rice, soup, fried chicken for me and sweet miso eggplant for the gentleman. About $20AUD and very tasty. We then headed across to Ginza, got lost, figured out where we were and then collected our tickets for kabuki that evening.

 

[LadyC]

We all decided to try and take in some Japanese culture and were lucky enough to get some tickets to a kabuki show at Kabukiza in Ginza. Kabuki is a style of Japanese theatre. It is performed only by men, has very ornate costumes and is a dance-drama in very exaggerated style. The show we saw was Moritsuna's Battle Camp, a story about loyalty and honour and at the end of which a little boy commits suicide?!

We didn't get an English translation which would have helped us understand it a lot more. To be honest, it felt like we were watching the TV show Monkey for 2 hours because of all the exaggerated singing and acting. I was pleased to escape at half time, as were the rest of our group. Happy to enjoy the experience but that was definitely enough!

After the theatre, we went out in search of some dinner. Using the TripAdvisor City Guides app (which I highly recommend btw), we ended up at Kyubei http://www.kyubey.jp/index_e.html

It was delicious! We had an omakase set and got to try lots of tasty sushi and sashimi. You sit at a sushi bar and the chefs speak a little English so can explain the different fish/seafood served. They explained the appropriate way to eat all the food which was great fun for a foodie eg you eat a piece of sushi whole, don't bite it in half. The owner came out and had a chat with us - he is in his late70's and has worked there for 60+ years! His father started the restaurant and his son worked there also.

It wasn't cheap but sushi and sashimi never is. I would definitely recommend if you are in the area.

 

[Inver]

It was delicious! We had an omakase set and got to try lots of tasty sushi and sashimi. You sit at a sushi bar and the chefs speak a little English so can explain the different fish/seafood served. They explained the appropriate way to eat all the food which was great fun for a foodie eg you eat a piece of sushi whole, don't bite it in half. The owner came out and had a chat with us - he is in his late70's and has worked there for 60+ years! His father started the restaurant and his son worked there also.

It wasn't cheap but sushi and sashimi never is. I would definitely recommend if you are in the area.

Is the sushi serving size smaller than here in Australia? Some of the sushi seems quite large to stuff completely in your mouth as one bite

 

[LadyC]

Just a normal size sushi - which for me is a bit big so it felt like I had to shove it in my mouth!