Sunday, August 12, 2007

Xiyan - Chinese Fine Dining


After reading all about the rave reviews on Xiyan…..a whole bunch of us decided to just pop by and try it out. Lucky for us, we managed to reserve our table at this EXCLUSIVE RESERVATIONS ONLY restaurant in Duxton area although it was at quite short notice. Oh yes, despite our driver’s self-proclaimed familiarity with the Duxton area (no…NO……, not what you are thinking of!), we managed to NOT find the place easily because this exclusive eatery does not have any signboard on the outside. Anyway, thx to T2 and the rest in the first car, we managed to find IT!

Its located on the upper storey of a row of shop houses. If you follow the small staircase, you will be greeted by the red wall bearing the name of the eatery XIYAN – 喜宴。There is no fixed menu and each table just goes through a 12 course dinner whipped up by the chef. The menu changes daily and you need a min of 5-6 pax to make up one table. Our menu for the nite was:

Oh Boy!!!!!! Our first appetizer was a tomato dish. This genetically altered monster looking tomato the size of a huge persimmon is really GOOD! Even a meat lover like me took double-triple helpings. The tomatoes are extremely sweet and it goes extremely well with the wasabi & sesame sauce dribbled generously over it.

The next few appetizers were not that superb. Cold tofu pork floss – nothing to shout about really. Very similar to 冷奴,except this one had all the pork floss throw over it. I kinda prefer the Taiwanese version of 凉拌豆腐with century eggs included. The shishamo in my humble opinion was bad. The poor thing was neither plump nor tasty. Okra with red beancurd sauce turned our to be 腐乳四角豆!!!Well, very normal. I like my 腐乳thick and stinky, the watered down version here din really appeal to me.


The first main course of the nite was Oolong chicken. Its really a normal dish but I would say the chicken was marinated well and I could taste a hint of the fragrant tea in the skin.

The glutinous rice with spareribs was the show stealer (below). The glutinous rice was well simmered and sucked in all the flavorings…..死ぬほど美味しかった!トマトは勿論美味かった、でも、肉が大好きな私にとって、やっぱり豚肉はもっと好きだ!スパーリーブ最高!!!!!!

I have this thing against fried fish so I din really touch the grouper (which looked suspiciously like the gurami fish some Indonesian restaurants serve). According to those at the table, the fish was fresh alright. But what I liked about this dish was the generous dose of pomelo and lime salad that came along with the fish. Very refreshing and good for someone like me who adores pomelo but can never get around to peeling the damn thing. I left the next dish untouched – crabs!

The serving of sorbet midway (pic below) was a darn considerate act on the part of the eatery. Hail all things sour! Banzai to Sorbet! The basil was not overpowering, instead I could taste the kalamansi added in. I wished we had more of the sorbet. I could just stop eating here and have it for dessert.

The soup which followed was typical Cantonese fare – 老火汤。Not too bad, but I have tasted better soup. The last dish of the day was fried spinach ( ouch!!!!!!!). You cannot really go wrong with fried veg.

Desert was lychee ice-cream in osmanthus wine. Oh…thot the ice cream tasted more vanilla than lychee. I wished it was more fruity. The wine was fragrant and light. To top it of, we all had one canned lychee each!!!(Muahahahahahah!)

Quaint experience dining here really. Although not every dish was superb, they were usually above average. I really liked the basil sorbet and pomelo salad (冗談じゃないよ!). And the service staff were good, taking great pains to go through every single dish they served, explaining in detail the ingredients used and the cooking methods employed.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

もっとも神に近い!!!!!!!!!!

私にとって、もっとも神に近いバンド – X JAPAN!

最近忙到半死。。。。还好我家的太上皇出了个20000円的东西慰藉我那快干枯的心灵!
说到抢钱,太上皇出动,其他人都靠边站。你说J家厉害抢钱,看看我家太上皇,1994年两场巨蛋竟然出了3个版本DVD。内容差不多,还出了3个版本。。。而且推出当天竟然给他老人家抢滩成功,包了oricon前3名,莫非他已经修炼成精!压箱底的东西都能赚成这个样子。。。见鬼了!

1994年.。。。也不能算是巅峰期,不过我那时还是沦陷得很厉害。



Rose of pain 歌长10多分钟,是我很喜欢很喜欢的一首indies时代的东西。为什么觉得他们是最接近神的乐团, 这首东西是起因。。。。。搞摇滚他们当然出色,不过看rose of pain 里头的音乐性,就知道他们不只是一群局限metal的发烧友。Fugue in g minor是很多乐队玩过的东西,madeth’ll, mucc, nightmare。。。。。不过私心认为X Japan玩得最出色。Rose of pain根本已经和fugue in g minor混成一体,完全听不出个别乐曲。。。这是yoshiki高明的地方。当然曲子本身难度很高,弹奏技巧没有俩下子根本不能表演起来。体力和集中力也是一个问题。10多分钟,整首歌曲维持一个很高的tension,中间没有间断,体力和集中力稍微少一点也不行。

和orchestra一起表演。。。。。。10多年前太上皇们就玩过了。真正symphonic metal。。。最出色的还是他们。发觉和现下的vkei比较,原来X Japan表演时候都很正经, 没什么装饰。。。。因为是很有实力的团体,所以就变得没什么注重表演的形式了(最showy的可能要数toshi的发型了)。

为什么现在已经没什么兴趣追vkei的原因。。。。因为很多东西都本末倒置了。

Rose of pain – X Japan with Orchestra (this is not the current DVD release)


Fugue in G Minor (this is how it sounds like, the original organ version by Bach)

Sunday, July 29, 2007

ゆにガーデン

ゆにガーデン - 日本少数的英国风庭院。除了种植各式各样的花草,庭院还开放给观光客参观。



院子里头贩卖各种用干花和药草制作的小摆设和杂货,还有farmer's market贩卖各种有机食品和北海道道地食品 。

这里环境非常漂亮。我们在院子里面吃了午餐(普通的日式便当),虽然简单,不过果菜都很新鲜。

有时很佩服日本人,你可以说它是个包装的社会也好,很流于表面的社会也好,不过有几个地方能做到像他们一样。一个简单的花园,把它弄得干净漂亮,看准了都市人向往大自然的商机,在庭院里面开办以香草为主的烹饪课,园艺讲座,手工公房,吸引了大批附近的居民。他们根本不用靠外国旅客,已经能自足的经营下去。

虽然院子不大,不过就小巧玲珑,让人很舒服。

Friday, July 27, 2007

にしかみ

一日一更新!(爆。。。看看我的热情能持续多久!)



にしかみ - 北海道一个颇有规模的农场。最著名就是1个钟头任采任吃草莓活动(いちご狩り - 840yen)。农场还有其它活动如荞麦面/豆腐/奶油制作公房。收费不贵,大概1000yen左右。农场设立于昭和50年,62年获得朝日农业赏受赏。平成3年才开始开放给外人观光,并在草莓结果季节(5月-11月)举行很受欢迎的いちご狩り。



我长这么大第一次看到草莓果树(说是树,其实也不对,矮矮的草莓丛就那么一排一排的排在地上,很漂亮。)那天去刚好有个小学生团在园里参观,孩子们采草莓真是上手!每粒都又大又红。原来这个采草莓有窍门。园里的负责人说如果是喜欢吃甜的草莓,就要专门选在叶子下没有受到阳光直晒的草莓。被阳光晒过,果实就有点微酸。我生平第1次1次过吃了整40多颗草莓。。。。甜到漏!






看草莓大到,她的小手都快握不住了 - 这孩子笑起来太幸福了!