New Eats: Chop Chop claypot rice, Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel pies and more autumn season specials

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Will the weather cool down already? Someone said it was supposed to get colder this week. Who? When? Where? We dressed in our favourite sweatshirts, unearthed fluffy UGG boots and … have you stepped outside? This is August weather. While we wait –– foot-tapping impatiently –– for the real autumn to arrive, here are some menus to get you in a cosy mood. Pumpkin pies? Claypot rice? Gamey stews? All that and more in this week’s New Eats.

Chop Chop claypot rice

With the forecasted dip in temperatures this week; it’s hopefully time for the warm, crackly, sizzling casseroles of claypot rice. To which Fortress Hill siu mei restaurant Chop Chop enthusiastically welcomes with its seasonal claypot menu. There are some familiars for traditionalists –– black bean pork ribs with preserved sausage; waxed duck leg; and minced pork with salted fish and water chestnuts — and new brand new specials ideated by chef Dai Lung: white eel and black bean and frog leg with ginger and scallion. Of course, chef Dai’s iconic “Sorrowful” char siu and fried egg serve will also be refashioned in a caramelised claypot edition made especially for the season.

Chop Chop, Shop 3, G/F, 18 Wang On Road, Fortress Hill, Hong Kong, +852 3618 7718

New izakaya-style dishes at Roji

new eats 7 november

A new selection of izakaya-style serves joins Roji’s menu, which exchanges light flavours for hearty dishes like crispy fried chicken skin and lotus root chips. There’s also a new udon dish that come generously coated in a tangy ginger-garlic dressing and a swirl of mentaiko, and a menchi-katsu sando that sandwiches a minced pork and beef patty, deep-fried and gelled with tart tonkatsu sauce in between. What’s most telling of the seasonal menu, however, is the katsu madai –– a highlight on the Japanese winter fish, sea bream, that is butterflied, coated in panko and flash-fried for just a quick minute.

Roji, G/F, 20A D’Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong

Festive Pies at Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel

Just before you’re caught in frantic holiday prep, here’s one checkbox to tick off your long, looming list: Dessert. Pies! Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel launches three warm, gooey delicious pies in beloved flavours. All-American classic Salted Caramel Apple Pie with tart Granny Smith apples spiked with a dash of bourbon; Classic Pumpkin Pie, the very perfect end to all Thanksgiving meals; and, a personal favourite, Caramelised Pecan Pie, filled to the brim with chopped and caramelised pecans, heavily drizzled in maple syrup with an additional dash of whisky.

Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel’s pies are limited. The Salted Caramel Apple Pie (HK$288; HK$238 for early bird) and Caramelised Pecan Pie (HK$288; HK$238 for early bird) will be available from 11 November to 2 January, while Classic Pumpkin Pie (HK$268; HK$238 for early bird) from 11 November to 28 November. Early bird prices only available until 10 November.

Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel, various locations including Shop 2, G/F, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong, +852 3482 7735

“Fur, Feathers and Iode 2021” at Écriture

Two-Michelin-star Écriture returns with its annual “Furs, Feathers & Iode” menu that highlights fresh game scoured from around the globe served alongside fresh seafood bounty caught in Japan. Curated by executive chef Maxime Gilbert, the nine-course tasting menu (available until January 2022) showcases Écriture’s exquisite French fine-dining finesse in a series of beautifully photogenic plates: Mini pithivier, “Bouchee de Pithivier“, of baby deer and hare; “Partridge“, where the medium-size bird is dry-aged in butter for 12 days, oven-roasted, then served with smoked herbs, confit legs and mushroom tart; “Galinette“, Red Gurnard, a bottom-dwelling fish, is recreated in traditional French galantine wrapped in its own skin and served with clarified jelly of pheasant, galinette carcass and white truffles; and a renewed take on chef Maxime’s infamous hare “a la royale” –– “Wild Duck ‘a la Royale‘”, slow-cooked in rich canard and served with umami-rich companions of sea urchin, gorgonzola agnolotti and sabayon.

Furs, Feathers & Iode 2021 (HK$2,880/ person) is available from now through early January 2022. Reservations can be made via +852 2795 5996 or ecriture@lecomptoir.hk.

Écriture, 26/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong, +852 2795 5996

“Noodles at Noon” with Club Rangoon

All bundled up cosy and warm in a chunky knit, huddled over a hot, steaming bowl of noodles –– that’s the kind of November we thought we’d be having. But no, you’ll probably have to don a soft cotton T-shirt this week. No matter, since Club Rangoon noodles are always a treat –– no matter the weather. The Burmese restaurant rolls out with a new lunchtime menu “Noodles at Noon”, starting 16 November. The HK$158 set comes with a dessert, a drink and a noodles, of course, with a choice from four venue favourites. Mohinga, rice noodles in lemongrass catfish broth; Ohn No Khout Swel, coconut noodles with chicken thigh; Shan Khout Swel, a riff on the Shan noodle soup with flat rice noodles, garlic oil and chicken thigh; and lastly, Shan Tofu Hnway, Shan tofu and Grandma’s gravy over rice noodles –– inspired by Northern Myanmar flavours.

Club Rangoon, 33 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong, +852 2503 3077

Header image courtesy of Dang Wen Li by Dominque Ansel.
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