Weave with Words: An appetite for Hong Kong

On our recent trip to Hong Kong we hit up a few different restaurants and eateries.

On Saturday night, I nabbed two seats at Liberty Private Works. It used to be a test kitchen for the Liberty Exchange restaurant, but now it's a stand-alone restaurant. With only 15 seats at the chef's counter with a set eight-course menu, you're in Canadian executive chef Vicky Cheng's hands. Having worked in Toronto and New York (under Daniel Boulud and Jean-George Vongerichten) before moving to Hong Kong, he knows his stuff.

This was one filling meal! The menu is changed every month and consists of eight courses, plus two amuse bouches and a petit four. And there was no scrimping on the serving size nor the quality of ingredients - caviar, truffles, fois gras. At HK$1400 for two people, it was pretty great value. And even better, it was BYO!

With just one waiter, two sous chefs and 15 guests, the mood was intimate and very relaxed. And actually very theatrical. We watched each dish being plated. Some of the dishes took so long to plate up that I was almost sorry to eat them. I'm glad I did though. There were some pretty amazing flavours on offer.

Chef Vicky Cheng stands in front of the blackboard that gave a simplistic teaser for the ingredients in each course.

The amuse bouche. The one on the far right was my favourite: a fiery bite of pomelo, lobster and chili.

The first course was delicious. Raw tuna with radishes and caviar surrounded by dehydrated rice (a texture not unlike some fancy Rice Bubbles) which added a crunch. To the far right is a fruit I'd never encountered before, called a bayberry, which acted as a palate cleanser. It was like a blackberry mixed with a boysenberry and strawberry. Delicious.

The second course was abalone with white asparagus and leeks. Very tasty.

I loved this third course. The stick-thin model seated next to me asked for the creamy parmesan foam to be left off the plate. (WTF?!) It was rich, but man oh man. Yum. Whole egg ravioli with truffles and caviar. Heaven.

Grouper with crab, chili and lemon. I'm having trouble remembering this course but I do recall that the lemon sauce was very tart and lifted the dish considerably.

Then the rich ingredients really started coming thick and fast. Duck with a fois gras foam. I loved this.

I loved the next course too, but was fit to bursting by this stage. The presentation was very whimsical, what with a daikon pretending to be a bone (back right) and filled with slow-braised oxtail.

This dessert was a surprise package. The blackboard said "coconut, pineapple, hazelnut and rum". If I hadn't watched this plated up in front of me, I wouldn't have known what to expect. But hidden under that coconut foam was roasted pineapple with hazelnuts. It tasted exactly like a Coconut Rough, a chocolate I often ate as a kid, but Chef Chen had never heard of it. I told him to run out and buy one when he was next in Australia.

And who doesn't love a chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream? This was elevated a notch with caramel and smoked salt. A. Ma. Zing. Sweet and deliciously salty at the same time.

Then I rolled home and fasted for a month. Not.

FIND IT:

Liberty Private Works

3/F 12 Wellington Street, Central

Tel: +852 5186 3282

www.libertypw.com

As it was close by our hotel, we visited Classified Cheese Shop twice. It's a great spot to park for a while and sip wine, nibble on cheese or order something more substantial. And it's always packed. You can sit inside or outside (curiously, due to local regulations the staff cannot serve customers outside so you need to pop inside and pick up your wine and plated meals). I prefer sitting outside. It's a lovely spot when the sun is shining and the wine is flowing.

Ricotta and spinach ravioli with a burnt butter sauce with sage and walnuts. Come to mama.

Delicious lasagne! So cheesy.

I love the Virginia Woolf quote they have on their fabric bags: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." Amen to that.

We only had a snack the first day. Goat's cheese and radicchio salad.

FIND IT:

Classified (Sheung Wan)

108 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
T 852-2525 3454 F 852-2525 3455

www.classifiedfoodshops.com.hk

I also ate a great woodfired pizza at 208 Duecento Otto (just around the corner from Classified).

My favourite pizza: Diavola but with ricotta instead of mozzarella.

FIND IT:

208 Duecento Otto

208 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

Tel: 2549 0208

www.208.com.hk

Saturday morning, we caught a taxi to the seaside town of Stanley for brunch/early lunch. We ate at Rocksalt which is right on the promenade next to the markets.