Do you sense a trend here? Michael and I have been going on a lot of date nights recently. Every week, in fact! On Saturday night we went to Fish & Meat because well, Michael was craving meat!
We were originally seated right at the front of the restaurant next to a rowdy game of foosball. We asked to be moved. Thankfully, the restaurant was pretty nice about it and complied pretty immediately. I would say that overall, standard(s) of service in Hong Kong, especially in the food and beverage industry, can be lacking. But Fish & Meat did a pretty good job from start to finish.
Their menu is quite nice - it had a few new additions from the last time I'd been there.
Michael ordered the summer negroni, which was very pretty.
He very much enjoyed it, despite the fact that it was a little sweet and not as strong as he is used to.
We ordered the duck egg, parma ham, frisee and artichoke salad with french mustard vinaigrette to start. This was quite tasty - I loved the contrast of the crisp frisee with the soft runny egg, and the saltiness of the parma ham with the sweetness of the artichoke. The french mustard vinaigrette cut through all of the fattier and creamier flavors with sparkling acidity.
I ordered a whole roast French baby chicken. The skin was perfectly seasoned and cooked to a nice crisp. It sat on a bed of orzo and brussel sprouts.
And yes, my fellow readers, I ate the whole thing clean.
Michael ordered a rib-eye that was accompanied with a watercress and fennel salad. I would just like to point out that the greens were wasted on him, as he did not even touch the salad. He thinks that the pat of garlic butter on the steak was "interesting," i.e., he would have preferred for it not to be there. But overall, he thought the meat was a quality cut and cooked to perfection (very tender and rare - apparently quite a hard achievement for a ribeye).
Michael also ordered a side of bone marrow flavored mashed potatoes, which were so, so good. They also contained a positively indecent amount of garlic...
After our very enjoyable dinner, we headed to the China Club, where we sat idly in the Long March bar and sampled Indian single malt whisky (for Michael) and a mojito (for me).
I highly recommend the mojitos at the China Club! They use generous amounts of mint and lime, and the result is a fantastic, refreshing, tongue-tingling beverage. The only danger is you drink it too quickly! Michael also loved his whisky.
It was a pretty quiet night in the bar, which was kind of fun because it made it feel like it was ours.
Michael loves the oversized, plushy soft chairs in this room.
When our friends arrived, we headed up to the terrace off of the library, to sit and chill for a few hours al fresco. The men each smoked a cigar. It was a great night, all in all.
The bouquet was so big that when I got home I had to split it into two:
I also finally went ahead and bought a d-SLR, which has always somewhat intimidated me (I do not really "do" manuals, as in, I don't really have the patience to read the stuff). I am really excited to use it on the Sri Lanka and South Africa trips. Given these amazing, exotic locations, it just seemed a shame if I didn't capture the experiences with something more sophisticated than my utterly crap Samsung phone camera!
I bought a Nikon D3300 which I thought was the right price point, size and capability for my needs (i.e., total beginner) and it just arrived in Hong Kong on Friday.
I really want to make use of the camera's manual mode, because, otherwise, what's the point, right? So I am patiently flipping through the user manual now, in perhaps my first ever attempt to learn "all the buttons." It has been really fun putting it together and learning all the bits and pieces. I'm trying not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of buttons and information on the machine. I hope better pictures are coming to this blog, soon!
