Bo Innovation

Bo Innovation was the 65th best restaurant in the world, voted by World's Best 50 Restaurants by Restaurant magazine, in 2010. It holds one Michelin star in 2011.

Chef Alvin Leung looks like a Chinese rock singer. He wears a black t-shirt that says "The Maverick Chef" under his highlighted blue hair. He spends most of the time in the open kitchen, overlooking line cooks and the service in the dining room, as well as explains the dishes proudly to the customers who choose to sit at the bar in front of the kitchen.

The restaurant has a Chinese name, 厨魔, which literally means kitchen demon. It serves Chinese cuisine in molecular gastronomy. It sits in a semi-residential building, on the second floor. The dining room isn't big, there is patio seating.

I had the 13 course Chef's dinner menu. Food was more interesting than tasty. It was definitely more of a playful experience, by learning how Chef Leung reconstructed the traditional Chinese ingredients into the creative dishes.

For example, instead of bread, they serve egglets (the egg-shaped pancake) with a blend of Iberico ham.

Tomato cooked in the traditional soy vinager.

"Xiao Long Bao", the famous Chinese steamed dumpling with meat inside, has turned into this warm gello in Leung's hand. Same ingredients are used: flour, meat, vinager, ginger, but totally in different form. Funnily, after I put it in my mouth and crush the thin skin, the thick sauce inside is indeed the same taste of Xiao Long Bao.

Century Egg is the traditional Chinese pickled egg with pickled ginger. The presentation is the ginger liquid with dry ice, that generates the bubbles and foam.

Chef Leung must be the pioneer of molecular gastronomy in the Chinese world. I admire his creativity. Some of the dishes are nicely crafted and are very fun to eat, others need some polishing. Dessert (Chinese petit four) needs more thinking - what is served is the chinese candies bought from supermarket.

I had chosen the wrong season to be there, a night of temperature of 95 degree. The dining room itself isn't the most comfortable one, especially under the extreme weather, it has negatively impacted my appetite.

However, it's a fun and eye-opening restaurant. If you travel to Hong Kong, be sure to try it.

Here are some other pictures:

El Bulli closes today (7/30/2011)

So it's true. El Bulli has served its last supper and has officially closed its doors. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14352973

Voted as the world's best restaurant by Restaurant magazine, for 5 years (2002, 2006 - 2009), El Bulli located in Roses on the Costa Brava (2 hours away from Barcelona, Spain) has been on Michelin red guide with stars since 1976 (3 stars since 1997).

Head chef Ferran Adria is going to teach his molecular gastronomy in the new culinary academy that replaces the restaurant.

Jean-Georges Shanghai 7/22

Located on the Bund (No 3 the Bund), there was a great view of Huang
Pu river and Pu Dong. Food was traditional French, service was very
good.

Bernardaud - made in China

We had a dinner buffet at Shangri-la in Guilin. The food was okay. Many surprises, including authentic Indian dishes, and fine china plates - Bernardaud, made in Jing De Zheng (the famous pottery town in China).

Bo Innovation

Molecular cooking with Chinese root.

To be continued.

Caprice - Michelin 3-star French restaurant

Viola! Four Seasons hotel at Central, with the view of Victoria harbor. Better yet, it's the home of 2 Michelin 3-star restaurants - Lung King Hien and Caprice. As a big fan of French cuisine, Caprice is clearly my cup of tea.

A foody friend told me that Pierre was probably overrated as a 2-star, and it doesn't like children under 12 years old anyway, so Caprice seems to be a natural choice. Oh yeah, it likes children. In fact, it has the children's menu, with many many many choices. The last 3-star restaurant I have been to that had kids menu was Paul Bocuse in Lyon. My son had struggles in deciding between his traditional Mac n Cheese or finger sandwiches. Since we really ate too much, finger sandwiches was a refreshing alternative.

To be continued...

Pre-breakfast in HK

Yesterday was the first full day in Hong Kong. I had eaten too much. Pre-breakfast at Pacific Coffee (hey I still had jet lag), breakfast buffet at Conrad, lunch at Yung Kee, dinner at Caprice. I owe you the posts on Caprice.

This morning (7/7), again, we woke up earlier than most restaurants, had pre-breakfast at Starbucks, picked up some traditional Chinese sweet donuts on the way back to hotel.

first day in Hong Kong

I am definitely too old to travel long distance. the 13 1/2 hours flight was tiring. Jet lag has just kicked in at 4am this morning. Cathay Pacific was nicer than United Airlines for sure, but even with personal entertaiment system, being stuck in the economic class seat was not fun.

These in-seat personal entertainment seats are probably the best investment a cross-ocean airline can have. Without them, flight attendants have to walk around and keep passengers occupied. I urge UA upgrade their 13 inch overhead TVs to cover their poor service.

Hotel is tiny. We are staying at Butterfly on Morrison, a boutique hotel in Wan Chai. I was reading Predictible Irrationality on the flight here. It talked about how human is terrible at making complex comparison. It was evident in my hotel selection process. Pennisula cost 4,000 HKD, some other unknown hotel is 1,000 while this boutique and stylish hotel is 1,200. so which one would you chhose? No brainer, eh? Thanks to the 1,000 dollar helper to make the decision easier.

Some of the old restaurant posts

I was a FREElance blogger for my wife's blog on restaurant reviews, now that I have my own, I am linking them here:

Don Giovanni - Napa

Acadia Steakhouse San Jose

Saul - NYC

Adour at St Regis - Washington DC

Astor Court at St. Regis - NYC

Jean-George - NYC

Aqua - San Francisco (closed now)

Brunch at Navio at Ritz Carlton - Half Moon Bay
Quattro at The Four Seasons - Palo Alto

Amber - Hong Kong

The French Laundry