The Exquisite Year of the Monkey Chinese New Year Menu at HKK

Name: HKK (Chinese New Year Menu)

Where: 1 Snowden Street, London, EC2A, http://hkklondon.com/

Cost: The Chinese New Year menu is available from 25th January until 20th February 2016. The food menu costs £88 per person with an option of £48 per person for drinks pairing.

About: One of my favourite Chinese restaurants in London, HKK is one of just a handful of restaurants I visit regularly whenever I crave top quality Chinese food.  

February is a great time of the year to visit such restaurants, as most will devise some exquisite menus to celebrate their most important calendar event of the year – the Chinese New Year. With that in mind, I hastened along to HKK for a sneaky peak at their 2016 Year of the Monkey menu and what is on offer until late February.

What We Ate and Drank: We kicked off with the Prosperity Platter which included a very refined version of the traditional prosperity salad. Typically served to start a family New Year meal, all the guests stand and toss the salad high in the air with their chopsticks while saying auspicious things to bring good luck, health and prosperity in the new year. HKK's version combined julienned pumpkin and daikon, crispy salmon skin, green and red seaweed, peanuts, pomegranate seeds and olive oil, all topped with some real gold leaf.

The second element of the platter was the 'fortune wrap' – this was a delectable dried Japanese oyster in Chinese leaf, with a scattering of black moss. The third and final item was a lovely little cube of Welsh organic pork belly, with a thin, crisp layer of fat, grilled and lightly spiced with sea salt, mustard and goji berry.

We opted for the drinks flight at £48 per person to partner each course. The Prosperity Platter was partnered with a glass of Japanese Mio sparkling sake. I love Mio sake and often serve this at my supper club - it made a deliciously refreshing, low-alcohol start to the meal, with delicate stone fruit and brioche on the nose, and an off-dry finish. 

The Tai Ji supreme seafood soup was served yin and yang-style, with one side consisting of crab roe and vegetarian shark fin, the other of egg white in broth, with winter bamboo, scampi and scallops served separately in a spoon. To eat, all three components are mixed together. This was warming, with delicate flavours of freshest seafood, and a refreshing crunchy texture from the winter bamboo.

To accompany, we had a glass of Clos la Cariziere Muscadet Sevre et Maines 2014. I'm not normally a huge fan of Muscadet, but this was a fine example, with a nose of green apple, lemon, and some luscious pineapple and tropical flavours on the finish. 

The Chinese believe that it brings good luck and happiness in the coming year to eat dumplings just after midnight - shaped like ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they are believed to bring prosperity. And who am I to argue, just give me the dumplings, please! HKK's dumpling trilogy included white (deep fried dumpling of chicken and abalone), orange (steamed dumpling was of scallop and Chinese chive) and green morsels (steamed dumpling of Dover sole with Imperial caviar).

Cleverly, the pastry cases were naturally coloured with gai lan juice (for the green dumpling) and carrot juice (for the orange). These were very well made, with finely textured cases and delicate, well flavoured fillings.   

We had a 'bitter fortune' cocktail with Tanquery Number 10 gin, Aperol, rhubarb liqueur and fresh grapefruit juice. Deliciously astringent, this was able to cut through the diverse flavours and textures of the dumplings.

Next up was HKK’s wonderful roasted cherry wood Peking duck - the signature dish of the restaurant. The duck is prepared over 2 days, with a complex, multi-stage process that ends with skin as crisp and thin as caramel, with the flesh still utterly succulent. Served with a delicious little salad of micro-herbs and fragrant pea shoots, this was as wonderful as I recall from an earlier visit. If you would like to try this amazing duck over a four-course lunch with a bottle of Champagne thrown in, the restaurant offers a special Peking Duck menu on Saturday lunch times only, reviewed here.

The duck was matched with a glass of Tsarine brut rose Champagne, that had refreshing strawberry and redcurrant notes.

My favourite course of the evening was HKK’s lobster noodles with an XO sauce, dried prawns and scallop, Parma ham, garlic and shallot. It was served with 'longevity noodles', symbolic of a long and healthy life. The lobster was magnificent - a generous serving, tender and with many layers of umami flavours from the dried seafood and XO sauce.

To accompany, we were served a glass of Chablis, Domaine Bernard Moreau et Fils, 2012. Full bodied, and aged in French oak, this was a rich, creamy wine with gentle tropical fruit on the finish. It had more than enough depth of flavour and complexity to match the richly flavoured lobster. 

To finish the mains, we were served an outstanding dish of Welsh lamb with Sichuan mala sauce (spiked with toban jan, a fermented soybean chilli sauce) that came with rice and pumpkin cakes, shiso leaves, and romanesco broccoli.

With the lamb, we were served a glass of Ribeira del Duero from Dominio de Atuata, Spain, 2011. Made from Tempranillo grapes, this had intense mint, black cherry and vanilla notes, but was well structured with plenty of tannin to balance the rich sweetness of the fruit. 

For our pre-dessert, we had vanilla and mandarin 'Tangyuan dumplings', with osmanthus and orange infusion. The round dumplings, and the bowls in which they are served, are said to represent family unity. With a crisp white chocolate shell and mandarin glaze, surprisingly filled with vanilla ice cream, this was wonderfully refreshing, served with pomegranate, lime caviar, an orange and osmanthus infusion, micro-coriander and a glass of orange and osmanthus iced tea.

To accompany, we had a glass of Diplomatico Reserva 8 year old rum from Venezuela which had plenty of spice and vanilla and made for an unusual but interesting pairing.  

Dessert proper was a green apple parfait, with cardamom cake, crispy apple noodle, apple sorbet and puree. This was an inventive, chefy with a surprising mix of textures and apple flavours, not so sweet or heavy as to overwhelm our palate at the end of the meal.

We were served a glass of luscious Samos Grand Cru 2014, Muscat Petit Grain, from the Greek island of Samos with our apple dessert.

To round off, we were brought the 'Tray of Togetherness' - these were a selection of delectable petit four, including grapefruit jelly, lime marshmallow, pandan choux, almond financier, white chocolate and passion fruit truffle, red bean choux, smoked salted caramel and dark chocolate truffle and yuzu jelly. I am not sure we were meant to have them all, we were asked to choose the ones we wanted, and of course I had to try the lot! They were all exquisite, but the salted caramel in particular was the star of the show in my opinion.

Likes: All the dishes were cooked with great skill, and were gorgeously presented. For me, particular highlights were the Peking duck and the lobster dish, but there wasn't a weak dish on the menu.

Dislikes: None

Verdict: For a great way to see in the Year of Monkey in 2016, I can't think of many other places I would rather be than HKK. This special Chinese New Year menu runs only until 20th February 2016, so hurry along if you fancy a fix of brilliantly cooked celebratory lobster, cherry wood roasted Peking duck and a selection of fine wines and Champagne. Highly recommended.

Top Notch Dim Sum, Champers and Cocktails - My Kind of Sunday Lunch at Hakkasan Hanway Place

Name: Hakkasan Hanway Place (Dim Sum Sunday)

Where: 8 Hanway Place, London, W1T 1 HD, 
http://hakkasan.com/locations/hakkasan-hanway-place/

Cost: Dim Sum Sunday menus at Hakkasan Hanway Place are priced at £58 (‘Signature’ menu including ½ bottle of Champagne plus 2 cocktails per person) and £48 (Classic and Vegetarian menus – includes no Champagne, but offers unlimited Taiwanese tea plus 1 cocktail). The food offering is the same between the two non-vegetarian menus, the only difference being the drinks.

About: Regular readers will know I've long been a fan of Hakkasan's dim sum, so I was chuffed to return to try their new Dim Sum Sunday Signature menu, launched in October 2015.

Served from midday until 6.45pm, Hakkasan’s ‘Signature’ set menu includes a pre- and a post- dinner cocktail, and a ½ bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne per person. The food menu features a salad starter, a range of 8 different dim sum (4 steamed and 4 baked/fried), two main courses with an accompanying vegetable dish and fried rice and a dessert. For the Sunday dim sum service, the restaurant employs a DJ who selects a range of lounge- style music well suited to the day after a late Saturday night.

What We Ate: The menu started with a refreshing salad of crispy duck served with pomelo, pine nuts, shallot and a mix of green leaves and cress. Seasoned with a sweet and lightly tart dressing, with warm slivers of duck meat, it made for a delicious start to our meal.

Next up was the dim sum. This included the steamed morsels har gau (shrimp dumplings), scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumplings (a personal favourite), and duck and yam bean dumplings. The pastry was light and delicate as only top quality dim sum are. They were freshly made using great ingredients, and well seasoned.

Equally good were the roast and baked dim sum which included royal king crab and truffle roll, a sumptuous buttery baked venison puff, smoked duck and pumpkin puff in a beautiful pumpkin-shaped pastry case, and golden radish with crab meat pastry.

For our mains, there were two – a delectable lettuce wrap of finely cubed seafood and water chestnut in XO sauce, and also a stir-fry of black pepper rib eye beef with an unctuous merlot sauce. The beef, a Hakkasan signature dish, was meltingly tender and very richly flavoured and as good as I remember from when I first tried a few years ago.

To accompany we had a platter of tender green asparagus, with ginger and spring-onion fried rice.

For dessert, we opted for the apple tatin, with vanilla ice cream, caramel and calvados. I love serving a traditional French tarte tatin at my supperclub, but Hakkasan’s version was something else.  With the lightest of pastry topped with layer after layer of fine caramelized apple slivers, this was a very refined interpretation of a French classic.

The Jivara Bomb was another beautiful dessert combining a praline of hazelnut encased in rice crispies and topped with a warm milk chocolate sauce.

What We Drank: We were chuffed to meet the charming Jefferson Coltro, a fellow Brazilian and Hakkasan’s head bartender, during our visit. Jefferson took his time explaining to us, the various cocktails on the menu (all alcoholic options are priced at £12.50) and below are some of his suggestions.

The Morello Collins blended cherry, almond, Tanquery No. 10 gin, lemon and Peychaud's bitters, and was light and refreshing. The Hakushu Crush had a bracing combination of one of my favourite fruits, the kumquat, with Japanese yuzu, Suntory Hakushu 12 year old whisky, Drambuie, ginger and cardamom bitters. I really enjoyed this cocktail, generously laced with whisky and some wonderful citrus notes.

Jefferson Coltro recommended a third cocktail which we found hard to resist - the Amer l'Orange. Made with Grey Goose l'orange vodka, Amer Picon (a French aperitif combining orange, quinine and cinchona and genetian), lemon, cinnamon and cranberry – a magnificent cocktail, it had a good hit of alcohol with bittersweet citrus flavours. I loved it. The menu also includes 1/2 bottle of Louis Roederer per person, and as there were two of us, we shared a full bottle!

With our desserts we had two other cocktails - the Mayahuelo was made from Del Maguey Vida mescal tequila, Antica Formula vermouth, apricot brandy, almond syrup and lime. Strong, smoky and flavourful, this was a great cocktail to finish our meal. The Charantais Toddy, ordered to accompany the tarte tatin, was served warm, combining Hennessy Fine de Cognac with cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, it sent us into the chill November late afternoon with a soothing glow.

Likes: Dim sum of the highest quality, stunningly presented, cool vibe courtesy of the resident DJ, great cocktails, generous Louis Roederer Champagne offering. Excellent value.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: The Dim Sum Sunday Signature menu at Hakkasan offers excellent Chinese fine dining at one of the most glamorous venues in London. A personal favourite, and at £58 including two cocktails and half a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne per person thrown in, as well as plenty of delicious food, it is probably the best value for money menu in London right now. I can’t wait to return. Very highly recommended.

The Fabulous Ling Ling Menu at Hakkasan

Words and Photography by Caroline Ghera and Luiz Hara

Name: Ling Ling at Hakkasan

Where: 8 Hanway Place, London W1T 1HD, http://www.hakkasan.com

Cost: The Limited Edition Ling Ling Menu is available throughout the summer at £35 per person and includes a welcome Ling Ling Collins cocktail, 3 dishes, Jasmine rice and macarons. There is a choice of 3 menus that cater for different dietary requirements and can be ordered by the same table providing a great opportunity to savour an exciting range of dishes. The Ling Ling menu is also excellent value when compared to the a la carte menu where starters average £13.90 and equivalent main courses range from £19.90 to £39.90.

Hakkasan serves a comprehensive and imaginative selection of drinks. Most cocktails at the strikingly long bar average £12.50 while wines can be ordered by the glass, with 175ml ranging from £7.10 - £33.70 and 250ml from £10.20 - £19.60. Bottles of wine are £29 - £80 and above. 

About: Opened in 2001, Hakkasan quickly built its reputation as one of the top Cantonese fine dining destinations in London. Its innovative menu is accompanied by an award-winning interior decor, designed by Christian Liaigre, immersing diners into a darkly mysterious dining room enclosed by dark wood screens and surrounded by the subtle blue glow emanating from the cocktail bar on one side, wine cellar, and a translucent wall concealing the kitchen on the other. 

The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 2003 and has successfully maintained its achievement since then, going on to open other restaurants in locations across the globe, from San Francisco and New York, to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Shanghai, as well as a second restaurant here in London, in Mayfair.

Without a doubt, this is one of my all-time favourite restaurants in London and one of very few I return to regularly (reviewed here and here).

What We Ate: On this latest visit, we tried the limited edition Ling Ling Summer menu which celebrates the group’s latest opening this summer, Ling Ling in Mykonos– a new concept where a list of innovative cocktails and an izakaya-inspired menu of smaller Cantonese dishes take diners on an evening of drinking, dining and dancing. In keeping with that idea, the London restaurant is offering a signature cocktail and 3 choices of menu, “Fish and Seafood”, “Meat and Seafood” or “Vegetarian”.

The Fish and Seafood Menu

We started with a trio dim-sum platter that showed some of the kitchen’s classics - the har gau was a perfect combination of the freshest rice pastry packed full with plump prawns. The Chinese chive dumpling was equally delectable with its open chive-coloured rice pastry, fresh prawns and garnished with a single goji berry, while the scallop shumai offered a tender scallop encased by an egg-based wonton ribbed cup, topped with tobiko caviar – the simple combination of textures and prime ingredients was spot on.

We were then presented with our next dish, a crispy aubergine and shiitake salad. Pramesh, who was helping us on the night, explained was a vegetarian version of their signature crispy duck salad. We loved this dish - crispy battered strips of aubergine and shiitake mushrooms served with a mix of lily bulb and four types of cress: affilla, sakura, rock chive and tahoon, topped with pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, a deliciously sweet vegetarian hoisin sauce. It was so enjoyable that it should definitely be incorporated into their a la carte menu!

Moving on to the main course, a finely textured grilled Chilean seabass with a honey glaze was served on a bamboo leaf and garnished with deep-fried battered strips of mushrooms. The sweet glaze gave the fish an attractive presentation that complemented the buttery fish. Steamed jasmine rice was served as an accompaniment to all three menus.

The Meat and Seafood Menu

Like the fish and seafood menu, the first starter of the Meat and Seafood option was the trio of dim sum described above. So let me skip straight to our second plate, the jasmine tea smoked organic pork ribs coated in a delectable barbecue sauce and garnished with an edible flower. The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and had a delicious smokey character from the Jasmine tea. It was absolutely moreish.

One of my favourite Hakkasan dishes followed – a magnificent curry of spicy prawns with lily bulb and almond – this was an utterly delicious plate of large butterfly prawns, fresh lily bulbs, spring onions and flaked almonds all immersed in a creamy sauce topped with curry leaves. The sauce oozed freshness, aromatics, spiciness, and a good amount of heat. Simply put, Eastern-Asian curries do not get any better than this!

The Vegetarian Menu

For me, the vegetarian menu was the greatest revelation of the evening and one I would thoroughly recommend ordering. The salt and pepper homemade pumpkin tofu had a crunchy peppery coating with a silky smooth centre flavoured with pumpkin, and was topped with savoury fluffy soybean flakes that were an extraordinarily successful vegetarian version of Chinese pork floss. The flakes melted on the tongue and were mixed with crispy finely sliced seaweed, chopped chillies and sesame seeds, imparting texture and heat to the dish.

The main course was equally intriguing. Stir-fry black pepper vegetarian chicken cubes made of yellow soy beans (tofu) had not only the appearance but also the texture of real chicken and were served with fresh sugar snap peas and red pepper. We loved this.

The main course was accompanied by steamed jasmine rice and stir-fried baby broccoli and preserved olives with crispy seaweed and pine nuts.

The meal came to an end with a stunning selection of macarons. The shells had a perfectly crumbly skin with a chewy centre and were generously filled. The crunchy sesame seed and milk chocolate macaron was superb, while the tangy yuzu macaron offered a sharper contrast to its chocolate centre. The rose and raspberry macaron was fragrant, delicate and accomplished.

What We Drank: As part of the Ling Ling menu, we started the evening with a Ling Ling Collins cocktail made of Beefeater gin, cranberry and grapefruit juices, Chartreuse Green liqueur and garnished with a Shiso leaf. This was a refreshing drink with contrasting fruit and herbal notes.

To accompany our main courses, we decided to order white wine by the glass. Hakkasan’s head sommelier, Tobias Brauweiler, whose previous experience includes working at the Ritz and the boutique wine shop Hedonism, has put together a comprehensive wine list which includes some unusual varieties. Luckily, the choice offered by glass spans a good spectrum so we were curious to try the 2014 Avesso “Cazas Novas”, Quinta de Guimaraes, 13% vinho verde, made from 100% avesso grapes from Portugal (£11.90 for 250ml). Dry with a round limey acidity, but without the spritz found in vinho verde, this wine also had lovely notes of apricot and peaches and a flavoursome weight that stood up to the fish.

Our second choice to match the spicy prawns was a 2013 Chablis 1er Cru “Les Fourneaux”, Alain Gautheron, 13% Burgundy, 100% Chardonnay grapes from France (£19.60 for 250ml). Dry with fruity hints of apple and citrus and a creamy roundedness, we also found this wine matched well with the spiciness of our dish.

Likes: We thoroughly enjoyed the spicy prawns, a dish so fresh and fragrant that its memory lingered for days. Equally memorable were the vegetarian versions of well-known dishes such as the crispy aubergine and shiitake salad, pumpkin tofu with vegetarian floss and stir-fry vegetarian chicken. They were a revelation and proof that vegetarian choices can be just as satisfying as their meaty counterparts.

Dislikes: None

Verdict: At £35 per person the Ling Ling summer menu offers excellent value and is a great opportunity to try old Hakkasan favourites and exciting new dishes created specially for this menu that will blow you away. Highly recommended.

The Sommelier’s Table at Hélène Darroze

Hélène Darroze at The Connaught is without a doubt one of my favourite restaurants in London. I have visited it on a number of occasions and written about it in The London Foodie, here and here.

Hélène Darroze’s cooking is exquisite – her use of outstanding ingredients (she works very closely with all her suppliers as seen here), the flavours and presentation she conjures up in her dishes are some of the reasons why I go out to eat or write this blog. 

From Landes in Southwest France, Hélène Darroze has held her 2 Michelin stars for years; she is the 4th generation descendent of a long line of chefs and was the right-hand woman for Alan Ducasse in Monte Carlo where she worked. Since adopting two Vietnamese children, her French cooking has taken inspiration from the flavours of the East – Vietnam, Japan and other Asian cuisines. I still dream of her steak tartare flavoured with yuzu ponzu, and caviar!

As much as I love getting stuck in some great burgers and street-food, Hélène’s cooking is something only a handful of chefs in the world can put together – it is unique, very highly skilled and something truly special. 

I recently returned to Hélène Darroze’s Sommelier Table. The Sommelier Table is a beautiful private room in the underground cellars of The Connaught Hotel where you will find some of the hotel’s 6,000 vintage wines. For groups of up to 8 people, you can enjoy a private 4-course lunch with wines included for £150 per person or perhaps a 6-7 course dinner for £1,200 (for up to a group of 8 diners, not including wines).

As the name suggests, there is a great focus on wine-pairing at the Sommelier’s Table, and the night we were there, sommelier Mirko Benzo did not disappoint. Guests are not told the identity of the wine in advance, and this blind tasting focuses the concentration on its taste, nose and harmony with the food – unconstrained by preconceptions relating to region, vintage or value. At the end of each course, the wine is revealed.

And now onto the wonderful, 7-course dinner that Hélène Darroze prepared for us. We started with a Champagne reception and a few delightful morsels of French ham and croquette canapés which got us off on a very good note.

Hélène’s focus on ingredients really showed on her menu – the dishes’ names were given by the use of the main ingredient in each dish. So next up was “Caviar “– crab, radish, Hass avocado. This was the most exquisite dish served that evening and the flavours were fresh, clean but still super intense, it was like having a private garden on your plate!

This was followed by “Foie Gras” - wild strawberry, rhubarb, and lemon verbena. The creamiest foie gras, with a crystal clear rhubarb jelly and wild strawberries, another fantastic dish.

The “Coco Bean” – eel, shimeji – this was yet another great dish with a coco bean emulsion, well eel and shimeji mushrooms.

Next up was the fish course - “Lobster” - asparagus, bottarga, and seaweed.

The meat course – “Sweetbread” - asparagus, morel, and vin jaune was also one of my favourites. I love sweetbreads, it is such a delicacy and deliciously creamy when well cooked, like the one pictured.

I love the concept of pre-desserts and Hélène’s Baba “Armagnac” - with strawberry and banana, doused in her own family’s Darroze Armagnac was the lightest and most wonderful baba I have ever tried.

Dessert was a torte of “Chocolate” – ginger and Bourbon vanilla, which was followed by a tier of mini choux buns filled with cream and macarons.

This was a splendid dinner and one I will remember for years to come. For a special occasion or if you would like to enjoy some of the best French cooking and wines that London can offer, there are very places I can think of rather than The Sommelier’s Table at Hélène Darroze. I highly recommend it.

For reservations, email: helenedarroze@the-connaught.co.uk or call:  +44 (0) 20 3147 7200. 

For more information about The Sommelier Table at The Connaught Hotel, visit their website:
http://www.the-connaught.co.uk/mayfair-restaurants/sommeliers-table/