Ham & Sherry Hong Kong

Straddling the East and West as we do in Hong Kong, you get pretty pro when it comes to celebrating a new year. At the start of the month we all tipsily toasted the start of the new Gregorian calendar year and now as we slither towards the end of the Year of the Snake and canter into the Year of the Horse, we’re  merrily looking forward to welcoming the start of the Chinese New Year. 

Of course, the end of January will also be our cue to raise a glass to Tet in Vietnam and Seollal in Korea. And then before we know it, it’ll be April and we’ll be busy ringing in Sonkran in Thailand, Thingyan in Myanmar and Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia…

Frankly it’s impossible to keep up. Which is why we’ve cunningly devised a calendar of our very own… A calendar based around what we’ll be filling our glasses with when we toast each of the many anniversaries filling up our diary… The Great Booze Calendar.

Last year was the Year of the Gin (Origin and G&T opening within a couple of months of each other can only be down to Hong Kong’s collective thirst for the juniper juice). And this year is… drumroll please… The Year of the Sherry.

Yes, you heard right, sherry’s shrugging off its granny shawl for 2014, and will be filling up the glasses of all the most beautiful people around town. Of course Michelin-starred Jason Atherton, and Entrepeneur extroaordinaire, Yenn Wong, are ahead of the rest of us on this one, and have just unveiled the perfect spot to get your sherry fix, the very aptly named Ham& Sherry…

Set a few doors down from its elder brother, 22 Ships, Ham & Sherry looks perfectly at home on uber-cool Ship Street decked out as it is in a patchwork of blue and white tiles and mirrored walls wrapped around a large stainless steel open kitchen.

The menu is pretty Sherry heavy, with over fifty types to work your way through, complemented by a short but sweet selection of tapas to soak up all that fortified wine. If you feel slightly overwhelmed leafing through the weighty tome of Sherries, fear not there’s a super helpful section which neatly guides you through the list. We figure finding your perfect Sherry is sort of like finding your prince, if at first you kiss a frog, try and try again, we guarantee Mr Charming is just around the corner (ours is the super slinky La Cigarrera Manzanilla FYI…).

While there’s just a handful of tapas dishes to nibble while you sup your sherry, food definitely isn’t playing second fiddle here. Just think of the Ham & Sherry menu as a carefully curated selection of Spain’s Greatest Hits. All the big boys are represented, think: Paella Arancini (chorizo-spiked balls of risottoey heaven), jamon and goats cheese croquettes, salt and pepper baby squid and bright green, salty, fried padron peppers. Oh, and did we mention the ham?! Sherry’s soulmate, the salty, buttery Jamon provides the perfect partner to your tipple. We can’t get enough of the 48 month-aged Jamon Iberico de Bellota, and the Chorizo and Lomo and pretty great too.

Sherry got you revved up and ready to party like it’s 1999? Maybe mention to your friendly waiter that you’d like to shake things up with a little something in the Back Bar... We’ve been sworn to secrecy so we’ll leave it at that, but rest assured you’ll leave a few hours later feeling like all your New Years have come at once…

Ham & Sherry

1-7 Ship Street

Wanchai

Hong Kong

Catalunya Hong Kong - Hell Yeah, I'd Tapas That...

Yeah, I'm not sure about the pun in the title either. It made me snigger when I first came up with it though, so I'm sticking with it....

But, one thing I am sure about is the subject of the pun - new(ish) Hong Kong restaurant, Catalunya. So certain in fact, that as I left after my first visit, I attempted (without success) to book straight back in again for a week later... This was love at first bite (my word play is definitely veering dangerously into bad-Dad-joke territory today, I apologise).

Opening in a blaze of mega-hype backed up by brilliant reviews back in May, I've heard countless great things about the food at this modern tapas hot spot and have tried and failed to book a few times. When you consider that Catalunya is spread over a colossal 8,000 square feet space and is still perenially packed you have to figure that they're doing something right...

So a few Saturdays ago, having made sure that I'd reserved a table a few weeks in advance, I headed out to deepest, darkest Morrison Hill with two of my best girls to see what all the fuss was about...

We started off with a round of cocktails. I opted for the Stairway to Heaven - bacardi, vanilla syrup, pineapple puree, celery, a slug of lime juice and a dash of egg white all topped off with coriander leaves. Unlike any cocktail I've ever sipped before, this was sweet and savoury with a very delicate flavour - absolutely delicious!  You've also got to love a cocktail that comes with its very own dry ice supply...

Which also helped to make everyone else's cocktails look pretty darn awesome...

While we gossiped over our cocktails our first nibble of the night arrived - the spherical olives. Catalunya's executive chef, Alain Devahive Tolosa, spent a decade honing his molecular wizardry in the kitchens of El Bulli, but this is the only molecular dish on Catalunya's menu. What may look like any old regular olive, turns out to be a little bubble of olive juice which bursts on your tongue - fun, innovative and not to be missed.

We followed our faux olives up with a delicious spread of dishes to share. The tomato tartar...

...the avocado and lobster roll...

...the Tortilla de Trampo - to quote from the menu: 'also called the "Sin Tortilla", this is the perfect example of lust in gastronomy'... all at once creamy, spicy and familiar yet decadent...

...the calamares with lemon mayonnaise...

... the gambas al ajillo...

...and last but not least - the ham, cheese and truffle bikini. 

Nope, we're not talking an itsie bitsie swimsuit, this is the grilled cheese sandwich to end all grilled cheese sandwiches. It may not look like anything particularly mindblowing but seriously, this is the sort of dish that changes your life. After one bite this went straight onto my last supper menu.

In fact it was so good that as we fought over the crumbs we decided that there was nothing for it but to order a second round of truffly, cheesy deliciousness... Total piglet behaviour but we were three VERY happy little piglets!

A jug of sangria later and before we knew it, the lights had gone up and the waiters were sweeping around us. Nothing for it but to bid a sleepy adios and head off back to Lang Kwai Fong for a nightcap.

For delicious cocktails, fingerlicking great tapas or actually, even just for one mouthful of ham, cheese and truffle bikini, Catalunya is a total smash!

Catalunya

G/F Guardian House Morrison Hill,

Oi Kwan Road,

Wan Chai,

Hong Kong.

+852 2866 7900

Tasty Tapas : Iberica Review...

After being back to the daily grind for nearly two weeks Mini Mouse and I are still suffering quiet significantly from the post-holiday blues. The worst shade of blue possible if you ask me! To lift our spirits and give us a reason to carry on (!) there really was only one direction to turn ... to food and of course a little booze...!

Our cuisine of choice was Spanish tapas and our restaurant of prey was Iberica on Great Portland Street. Mini mouse had heard good things and we'd recently spotted a couple of the girls from Made in Chelsea dining out there, so we thought we'd give it a whirl! 

 

The restaurant's interior is white, spacious and texture laden... Mary Poppins-esque carpet bag high stools, blue and white authentic Spanish wall tiles and bronze and glass low hanging statement lights...

We eased ourselves in with a bowl of green olives stuffed with anchovies - tasty with a delicious after tang! 

 

I opted for a solid Hendricks and tonic and Mini went for a large glass of the house wine. Suitably relaxed and ravenous, it was time to tuck into the food on offer - we had discussed en route how we were going to eat light and order picky mice-sized portions but that went out of the window as soon as we laid eyes on the menu! Instead we ordered up... 

 

A portion of the half and half which is a selection of different cured meats and cheeses...

 

 

The tosta de asparagus, Manchego cheese, onion confit and my fav truffle oil...

 

 

A traditional Spanish omelette...

 

 

And Serrano ham croquettes - crispy on the outside, oozing in the centre...

 

The dishes came from the kitchen in staggered intervals which was lovely in the sense of allowing us to take our time to savour every dish and each and every bite. After the last scrap was devoured, we asked each other 'if you had to pick just one dish to eat for the rest of your life which one would you choose' - we both blurted out in lightening fashion - OMELETTE - the clear winner overall!

With full bellies, and snoozy food coma eyelids we asked for the bill and were both pleasantly surprised when two sloe berry aperitifs arrived on the house to soften the blow... 

 

In addition to the superb food, Iberica also has a cuter than cute delicatessen based within the restaurant boasting an impressive range of Spanish foods and produce, including a collection of over twenty different olive oils and one of the largest selections of Spanish cheese and cured meats available in the UK - pretty impressive! The perfect opportunity to taste test during your meal and then purchase your favourites to take away as an indulgent sofa treat...

 

Iberica Marylebone

195 Great Portland Street

London

W1W 5PS

020 7636 8650

Pix up Sticks - Tapas Style...

Tapas for me brings back memories of the long summers spent as teeny, tiny Mice in a sleepy Menorcan fishing village, Macaret. We would go once or twice a year and spend three super fun weeks playing on the beach, collecting shells and making new local friends who we couldn't speak a word other than 'Hola' to!  

 

Our love for food dates back to those days and may even have been ignited in Macaret. While all the other children demanded burgers and chips, we would be happily tucking into rich, tomatoey Menorcan soup served up in traditional clay oven bowls, crispy baby squid complete with miniature tentacles, slabs of Spanish omelette and plate upon plate of Iberian ham!  

 

Since then, I've been on a constant hunt for calamari to live up to those napkins piled high with baby squid gobbled down on the beach as a snack! But chewy squid rings from La Tasca never quite cut the mustard! Food is a big deal to me, and in my opinion, good tapas outside of Spain is a hard thing to find!  

 

Pix however may be just what I've been looking for... this is Tapas with a twist! Not your standard little sharing plates of potato bravos, soggy paella and wizened olives but instead a station at the front of the restaurant laden with miniature pots of all different tapas deliciousness on a stick! You're seated, you order a drink, and you're then handed a plate, told to pick whatever you want from the front and to make sure that you keep your sticks. Pricing's simple, big sticks are £2.75 and small sticks are £1.95, when everyone is done the pot of discarded sticks are removed and cashed up for your bill.  

 

Beware it's very easy to get carried away... especially when seated right by the kitchen door where you're first to witness all the new trays of delights emerging! It's just so very easy to grab a little stick as the waiter walks by, you don't even need to get up from your table...!  

 

We feasted on the following delights.... 

 

 

 

 

And as you can see, this made us very happy girls!

 

Tapas on a stick - an upgrade from the dry, generic tapas chains we've all tried hopefully thinking maybe this time we'll be wowed, only to leave disappointed a couple of hours later with lighter pockets and rumbling tummies... Pix however serves up genuinely tasty mouthfuls of culinary heaven! Everything is thoughtfully put together and presented beautifully plus the small batches of each stick avoid food sitting out and going cold but, fear not there is never a shortage of options! 

 

A super tasty, fresh and fun way to do Tapas in London! We like! A lot!

 

Pix Soho

16 Bateman Street

London

W1D 3AH

0207 437 0377

Pix Covent Garden

63 Neal Street

London

WC2H 9PJ

0207 836 9779

 

Ahoy There! 22 Ships Sets Sail

Last night I hopped on down to Ship Street in Wanchai to try out brand new Hong Kong Tapas restaurant, 22 Ships. 

New restaurants seem to be opening in spades in Hong Kong at the moment, but for the last few weeks Ship 22 has ranked pretty high up on my new openings radar. Brought to us by Michelin starred chef, Jason Atherton (protégé of Gordon Ramsey and El Bulli's Ferran Adrià), Ship 22 clearly has stellar cooking credentials. Buzz has steadily been building in recent weeks - interviews and articles and frenzied Twitter excitement - I knew from the moment that I saw the hoardings, that this was one to check out the second that it threw its doors open. 

And so last night, on the second night of the restaurant's soft opening, I was perched at the bar sipping a glass of sangria and perusing the menu while nibbling on wafer thin slices of ruby red Iberico Bellota. In fact that little wooden board of jamon was so incredibly delicious - meltingly tender with a rich, nutty flavour - that even if Ship 22 had been solely serving ham, I'd be writing a rave review.

The restaurant is a cosy 35-seater tucked away on the strip de jour from which it takes its name, Ship Street. Whitewashed exposed brick walls are hung with framed black and white photographs and big blackboards with the day's specials chalked across them. The atmosphere is laid-back but buzzy; a neighbourhood restaurant with a bit of sparkle. Settled on high stools at the bar, we had a front row view of the blur of action in the open kitchen as the white coated army of chefs whipped up our supper. The tables by the open front seem the prime spots to bag though, ideal for spilling out onto the pavement with a group of friends while tapas grazing and working your way through a couple of bottles of wine.    

Ship 22 doesn't officially open until Thursday, and while in the soft opening phase the restaurant is offering 50% off your food bill, the perfect opportunity to go a little bit crazy and order everything on the menu twice....

Unfortunately I left my camera at home so had to make do with my pathetic little Blackberry camera (roll on the arrival of my brand new iPhone), the photos below don't even vaguely do the food justice but they do at least give you the general gist.

First up a couple of Para Picar, the Tuna tartar "DIY" and Salt Cod Brandade Ortiz. We loved the tuna - gleefully piling rounds of toasted bread with finely diced tuna before adding generous sprinklings of sesame seeds, chives, shallots, sea salt and olive oil. The DIY element meaning that we could customise each mouthful to our specific preferences. The brandade, a dip of salt cod, anchovies and herbs blended with olive oil wasn't quite so good - a little too overpowering and fishy - we pushed this aside after a couple of mouthfuls in a bid to save precious space for the rest of our feast...                                                 .

 

The next dish was one recommended by our waitress, the Spanish breakfast. A soft boiled egg with chorizo and potato - creamy and rich with a touch of lazy, smoky spice from the chorizo. A cosseting, comforting dish - we scraped up every last morsel.

The scallop ceviche with yuzu dressing, soy, cucumber and apple was the dish that I'd heard most about and its not hard to work out why. The delicate scallops given an Asian zing from the soy and yuzu and a crunchy, freshness from the radish and apple. So many flavours and textures - a total triumph. 

The Gambas with chilli and garlic looked incredible - three plump juicy pink king prawns, shells flecked with parsley, scarlet chili and plenty of garlic. Sadly looks outweighed flavour here. Slightly overcooked, the prawns had a bit of a wooly texture and as always with seafood cooked in the shell, all the amazing flavour from the marinade was discarded in the peeling. The solution? A good squeeze of lemon and a greedy scoop of the herby, chilli, garlicky goodness rescued from the shells.

Vegetable dishes so often end up being forgettable and bland nothing more than a bit of greenery to assuage your healthy eating guilt. Not so at Ship 22. The Heirloom tomato, red onion, sherry vinegar salad was fragrant and summery - the sweet, juicy tomatoes were dressed with a light anchovy foam for a bit of punch. 

And then there were the peas, broad beans, goats curd and Iberico ham with mint dressing - one of my favourite dishes of the night. I already knew that anything featuring the ham was going to be a winner, but adding creamy mild goats cheese, sweet peas and spiking the lot with a scattering of mint and a glug of olive oil created a truly sublime salad that's definitely not to be sniffed at.

By now we were pushing the realms of ridiculous food consumption, but the char grilled Iberico pork and foie gras burgers had been billed as a must-try and I never like to ignore a good food tip. Two mini buns arrived stuffed with pork, foie gras and pickle together with a small pot of creamy avocado dip and extra pickled cucumber. The total knock-out dish of the evening. Just try them, I defy anyone not to agree that they're heaven in a bun.

And while we were at it, it would have been rude to have left without sampling the steak... The char grilled, 40 day aged, grass fed US rib-eye no less. Succulent, tender slices of flavoursome meat, cooked to perfection and topped with a liberal helping of chimichurri. A carnivore's dream.

We really didn't need anything else but the peanut ice-cream reeled me in and I was powerless to resist. Fresh and juicy blue fruit sorbet, just the right side of tart was the ideal plate mate to the sumptuously creamy peanut butter ice-cream. A layer of salted peanut caramel provided a bit of salty sweet crunch while individually frozen segments of raspberry and blackberry gave a jewelled finishing touch to the dish.

The overall verdict? An exciting new addition to the Ship Street dining scene; the hype was more than justified. Keeping in mind that this was only Ship 22's second day of service, the majority of dishes were beautifully executed and lipsmackingly delicious with a couple of stellar stand outs that alone could carry a lesser restaurant. Service was friendly and efficient and we weren't hurried or hassled despite the restaurant being packed to the rafters with queues snaking round the block. The perfect spot for a Friday night fiesta with a bunch of your best pals. 

Hasta Luego Ship 22, it won't be long before I'm back...

Ship 22
22 Ship Street,
Wanchai,
Hong Kong.
www.22ships.hk
(+852) 2555 0722
No Reservations