Adventure #174: 22 Ships

Finally, we made it to 22 Ships.  This tapas restaurant opens at 6pm and when we got there at 5 mins to 6pm, there was already a queue.

We got in and were seated at the bar which turned out to be rather fun eating and watching the chef prepared our food.

Menu is on the placemat.  Not too extensive. 

We started with their signature sangria.  We didn't like it.  Also too much ice, the drink gets diluted after a while.  Should have had a wine.

Salt cod brandade ortiz anchovy and herb paste. Delicious mouse-like paste.

Mussels with sherry and peas from the daily specials.  Mussels were fresh and juicy.  The sauce on the other hand was a bit bland.

Steak tartar, smoked egg dressing. Different from the ones we tasted in France and Thailand but G thought it was interestingly delicious. Presentation great.

Chorizo, clams and Jamon paella.  The chorizo were like rashes. Blended really well with the flavourful paella.  Must try. 

Goat cheese sorbet, nitro honeycomb, raspberry, oats. a very interesting dessert. The savoury sorbet (my first) went surprisingly well with the sweetness of the honeycomb and the sourness of the raspberry.

Other than the sangria, the food was generally delicious.  Lots more on the menu we haven't tried.  Will definitely be back again for seconds.

22 Ships

G/F, 22 Ship Street

Wan Chai

Tel: 2555-0722

Adventure #168: WTF

We have been watching Rick Stein's Spain DVD the past week and as such really wanted to try some tapas this weekend.  We had originally wanted to try 22 Ships in Wanchai.  22 Ships is one of the latest tapas bars to be opened in Hong Kong - the trend these days seems to be Spanish food.  Reviews were good but they don't take reservation.  At around 5pm today, the sky turned pitch black and started to pour.  Not wanting to risk having to queue up in the rain, we decided to try another tapas bar instead.

WTF came to mind.  Yes, WTF, the name of the Spanish restaurant.  It actually means Wine, Tapas and Fun! LOL!

We've been to WTF once before but were too busy catching up then and therefore didn't blog it.  But the food was good.  So here we were again.



Decor is modern and cosy



Interesting piece of art but don't know why Bruce Lee is in it.....

Soon as we ordered, we were given some bread.  The bread didn't taste too good (didn't like the texture) but at least the bread was warm.

Gambas Pil Pil - Prawns sizzling in olive oil, garlic and chili.  This was delicious. Simply dish but tasted great because the prawns were fresh (except for one) with lots of garlic.

Albondigas Con Salsa De Tomate - Beef meat balls with tomato sauce. This dish was ok, no wow factor, the tomato sauce tasted like it came from a can.



Chipirones Fritos - Deep fried baby squid with white aioli.  Nice but would be better if it was a bit more crispy. Not a bad dish though.



Sardinas A La Parilla - Grilled whole sardines. This was very good.

No Spanish meal would be complete without Churros!

This time there were only two of us and therefore cannot sample too many tapas.  We tried more tapas the first time and most of the tapas were great. This time round, we sampled fewer tapas but with greater details. Food still good although not all the tapas were excellent. 

Twice we came early around 7pm and the restaurant both times was relatively empty and hence the experiences were enjoyable.  It started to get crowded by 8.30-9pm. A whole difference experience by then. So if you want to relax, have a drink (BTW, their Sangria here is very good) and a bite to eat before movie or something (especially on a Friday night), this is the place for you.

WTF
G/F, 9 Elgin Street
Soho
Central
Tel: 2559 0218

Adventure #147: Sherry Tasting

Received an email from Amorosso Wines for a Finest Sherry and Tapas Experience at "Fofo Privat".  Not really sherry drinkers (usually drink port) but we have eaten at Fofo before and like the food there. So, for something different, I signed us up.

The invite said 6pm aperitivo, 7pm tasting.  We arrived at around 6.30pm and were told to go up to the roof.  Assuming this to be a normal tasting session, I didn't bring my camera with me and so no picture at the roof of a tiny building right in the middle of Central.  While at the roof, we were given each a class of very dry sherry from Tio Pepe (A brand we came across while in Madrid many many years ago, see below).  We only ever had sweet sherry, so a dry sherry came as a shock to our pallet! But with food the dry sherry tasted better.

An assortment of hams and tapas were served with the dry sherry.  Thinking this was all the food we were going to get before tasting, we lined our tummy as much as we could, not a difficult task as the hams were very tasty.  7pm came and we were invited downstairs to Fofo Privat which was a private dinning room for a sit down tasting!

 

Private dining room which sits about 20 people

Before the tasting, Maurico Gonzalez Gordon, the owner of Gonzalez Byass gave us an interesting history of the brand which also owns Tio Pepe (means Uncle Joe in Spanish).

 

The 5 sherry we tasted that night

The 3 sherry on the left were dry sherry (from left): Vina AB Amontillado Sherry, Leonor Palo Cortado Sherry and Alfonso Oloroso Seco Sherry.  And the 2 on right were sweet sherry (from left): Cristina Oloroso Abocado Sherry and Nectar Pedro Ximenez.

And the food to go with the sherry! Now we wished we didn't have so much ham.....

Instead of specific pairing, we were asked to try the different sherry with each course.  We decided to try the food with the dry sherry and kept the sweet ones for dessert.  And interestingly, each tasted very different with each course.

 

Confit bonito, White asparagus, Green peas and Piguillos. Very good and refreshing dish. A mixture of sweet and sour. Even the pea puree was wonderful.

Sardine fillets "A la plancha", Turnip cream and Cous Cous. The best dish of the night. The combination of the sardine and the fruits in the cous cous and the cream was excellent. Wonder if this in on their usual menu...

Once again, we were too eager to eat.  Iberico pork and chorizo paella.  This was a rich dish.  Not bad but we were told by some restaurateurs at the tasting that this is not the way paella is made. In Spain, they don't use iberico pork like this. 

Finally, churros for dessert.  I enjoyed this dish very much as well as the sweet sherry that went with it. In particular, the one called Nectar.  If you like extremely sweet stuff, this is it!

All in all, a wonderful experience. Interesting company, many of the participants who sat near us are restaurateurs.  Great food. And totally value for money at $280pp!

Adventure #145: Tapeo

Tapeo is a tapas bar on Hollywood Road.  The setting is very casual with only bar seats and customers can watch the tapas being prepared. So this is good for couple or a group of 3 at most. Any more than 3 would make conversation rather difficult.

I have walked past this restaurant a couple times and watch to try but could never get seats.  This Friday we were invited to attend at private concert, so we dropped by without reservation for an early dinner and got 2 seats.

To kick start dinner, we ordered sangria which tasted worse than my homemade ones. Very diluted. We notified the waitress and she was gracious enough to allow us to change our drinks without charge. Good service.



Squid a la Plancha - grilled squid with garlic, chilli and white wine.  This was very good. The squid fresh and very tasty.  Dish not over powered by the chilli.



Chorizo and tomato - sauteed in sherry vinegar, parley and spring onion. Another great dish.  I like chorizo.  The acidity of the tomatoes complemented the chorizo perfectly.



Stuffed piquillo peppers with mojo verde - filled with veal, pork and almonds.  this was also good, rich though.

Churros. A perfect end to a good (though very quick) meal.

I liked the casual setting although as I said before this is not a place for a large group.  The food quality is very good although the wine select not so good. But a good place for a quick bite.

Tapeo: Bar De Tapas y Vino

19 Hollywood Road

SOHO

Central

Tel: 3171 1989

Adventure #88: Fofo by el Willy

Tonight for a change, we decided to try Spanish food. Fofo by el Willy sounded rather interesting. Although we booked late in the week, we managed to get a table for 2, even if it was by the entrance.

The restaurant, at the top floor of M88 was beautifully decorated.  I particularly like the white penguins lining the walls and on top of the lightings.  Not to mention the pig above the leg of ham!

Instead of bread, we were given a Spanish version of bruschetta to start our dinner.

Worth mentioning was the service which was very good.  Waiters were polite and attentive.  When we ordered just 1 order of soup to share, they even split it into 2 bowls for us.

Gazpacho - traditional cold tomato soup with vegetables
The best gazpacho we ever had was at a restaurant in Cordoba. Although this was not as good, it was a very close second.

Gambas al Ajillo - saute prawns with garlic & lemon
Prawns were fresh and served with lots of garlic, couldn't really taste the lemon though

Organic eggs cooked at 63 degrees in crispy potatoes & onion nest with chorizo
This can be served either with Iberian ham 36 months, foie gras & truffle or chorizo. We chose chorizo because we think it would go well with the eggs and we were right! Remember not to order with foie gras & truffle.

Mixed before eating.  The runny eggs together with the salty chorizo and the crispy potatoes.  So much texture and so much flavour. Best dish of the night!

Cochinillo - crispy suckling pig with potatoes, onions & black truffle gratin
We are fans of crispy suckling pig and this was very well done. 

Montadito de foie gras - pan fried foie gras with truffle & confit onions
We were a bit disappointed with this dish.  I prefer foie gras with something fruity, I think it brings out the flavour of the foie gras.  Foie gras with truffle sounds good but doesn't taste as good - too rich.  We had to scrape every last bit of the the fine line balsamic vinegar on the edge of the plate to complement the foie gras.

I like the plates which they changed after every course.

Churros - Spanish crispy fried doughs with warm chocolate & vanilla ice cream
For the finale, it was a tussle between Fofo's special apple tart and the more traditional Spanish dessert, churros dipped in chocolate.  The churros won out and to us it tasted better than the renowned churos joint that we had in Madrid on or last trip there. This was a wonderful end to this wonderful dinner.

The food we had tonight was very good.  Definitely come again.  Would be better if there were 4 of us instead of 2.  Then we would have been able to sample more dishes.

Fofo by el Willy

20/F, M88

2-8 Wellington Street

Central

Tel: 2900 2009