Archive
HK: Amber (Jan. 2013): White Truffle Tasting!
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Amber
Exec Chef: Richard Ekkebus
Website: http://www.amberhongkong.com/
Date: January 4, 2013
Notes:
-I’m in Hong Kong for a few weeks, and I decided that I should eat at some good restaurants if I have the lucky opportunity to. I looked around online to see what different restaurants were serving, and I saw that Amber was doing a white truffle tasting. Alarm bells went off (I LOVE truffles), and, before I knew what had happened, I had a reservation for two!
-While I was waiting for my friend to arrive, this guy proposed to his girlfriend! He brought out what seemed like 100 roses, talked to her for a bit, and then got on his knee and proposed. The girl seemed shocked (in a happy way), and she happily accepted ^_^.
-In this pic, you can kind of see the guy holding the roses, and the girl is behind the server. A lot of people were also clapping after she said yes (as you can see from the pic). It was pretty amazing and heartwarming to watch, and it was the first proposal that I’ve seen live!
-They used one white truffle for our meal, and it was HUMONGOUS. Here’s the pic!
-A few of the dishes were misses, but the rest were amazing. White truffles white truffles white truffles whoohoo! For the most part, everything was executed really well.
LA: Mélisse (Dec. 2012)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Mélisse
Exec Chef: Josiah Citrin
Date: December 22, 2012
1st Dinner
Notes:
-My friend Simon was in town for a day before going to San Diego for a short vacation, so we decided to make some plans to eat! We made reservations for a first dinner at Mélisse and then a second dinner at The Bazaar. (We figured that we might as well eat as much as we could while he was here!)
-Overall, it was an enjoyable meal with solid service and very well-cooked food. Thankfully, we weren’t too full after. We finished at about 9:30 p.m., 30 minutes before our Bazaar reservation, giving us time to prepare our stomachs for more eating!
LA: OOtoro Sushi (in Walnut, CA) (Dec. 2012)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: OOtoro Sushi (in Walnut, CA)
Chef: Kai Wei “Kurt” Chen
Date: December 19, 2012
Notes:
It was my first meal in SoCal since August, and I wanted to go with some friends to try this sushi place I’ve heard about. I don’t know why they have wagyu from Kobe, Japan (what people know as kobe beef), or kama toro (the collar bone of the bluefin tuna). It’s basically in the middle of nowhere—I’m not sure how they’ll be able to sustain business at this place haha.
After finding out that this place had kobe beef and kama toro, though, I knew I had to try this place! Finals just ended, so it was a nice excuse to go eat delicious food and drink a bunch of sake haha.
The menu has four omakase options, and the names are basically different grades (C, B, A, and A+), with each option rising in price and quality. The menu lists the food in the C, B, and A options. There’s a fourth option, A+, that’s just described as “best in season” haha. Anyway, we went with the “Omakase A+” option. (On another note, I wonder if the omakase options are named like that to target Asians…)
The fish was really good (especially the kama toro—but, then again, you can’t really go wrong with any kind of toro haha). The rice really wasn’t too great, however. At times, it was warm but a little too hard; at other times, it was cold and very hard. Overall, I think it qualifies as a pretty solid/good sushi restaurant with really high-quality fish/meat. Unfortunately, the rice could definitely improve a bit. For now, it might not be worth the price.
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 