dine•o•crat

It was another cold and gray February day in Paris. Scarves were out and my dining companions and I were wrapped up like babies in a manger. However, to make up for the gloom, we were on our way to a three-star Michelin restaurant. A block away from the Musée Rodin, in the quaint yet posh 7th arrondissement of Paris , L'Arpège blends in with its surroundings, in an almost nondescript building if not for the restaurant's sign, to which you would have to look up to see. It's not exactly hard to find if you're on foot, but I can imagine that if you were driving, you might miss it. The neighborhood looks very uniformly shabby but chic, with the occasional visual shock of brightly colored doors. Inside the restaurant itself, the decor is minimal and understated, with warm wood walls to emphasize an inviting and refined dining area which was simple and quietly elegant and which gave a white-tablecloth impression sans the stuffiness. I understood the location and decor m...

Jean-François Piège was one of the most difficult reservations to get for the Paris trip. You must call ahead exactly two weeks before your desired date. Dinners are almost instantly filled up. Fortunately, they have lunch, which was fine by me. I wanna be in bed by 10 p.m. (22h to the French)!  Piège, together with Les Bouquinistes, probably has the chicest clientele that I saw in our food adventure. The lunch crowd was definitely more casually dressed but Lanvin/Prada casual. Anyway, the Top Chef France judge is quite a presence in the country at the moment. How hardworking is he, though, that he was also present in the kitchen for our lunch? Overall, a virtuoso meal from the Michelin-starred restaurant: technically proficient without sacrificing taste. Go! If you're there, get his book " Best of Jean-François Piège ," which the restaurant sells near coat-check. Beautiful pictures, Piège recipes, hardcover--at €10, it was the true bargain of the ...

Here's a short video I made of some of the Paris dining highlights, with some scenes of the city thrown in (for context and atmosphere). I've already posted pictures from Agapé Substance and Akrame , while those from others will be up on the blog soon.

Hong Kong is a great food city. I can't get enough of this place's cuisine, particularly its roast pork. It does vegetables right and in very interesting ways, surprising my palate with unexpected techniques and tasty sauces. So, it was with much excitement that I went to L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon , situated within the posh Landmark mall, to see how the famed Michelin-starred establishment would fare against the local food. The Hong Kong outpost of the Robuchon empire is what you would expect of such a fine-dining establishment of French pedigree: floor-to-ceiling glass walls of  Domaine de la Romanée-Conti , a hallway to the dining room lavishly lined with orchids, low light (bring your reading glasses), dark wood and velvet. I ordered the degustation, hoping for a nice wine pairing to go with it. But when I asked the sommelier, he said it was not officially offered but that something could be put together. But he couldn't wait to leave so my waiter and I ended up ch...