Index:

• Introduction, Positioning Flight to New York, and the Hilton JFK
  
• British Airways First Class Lounge, New York JFK
  
• Cathay Pacific First Class, New York JFK – Hong Kong
  
• The Pier First Class Lounge and Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City
  
• Park Hyatt Saigon
• Lunch at Pho Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City
  
• Vietnam Airlines Business Class, Ho Chi Minh City – Danang
  
• Hyatt Regency Danang Resort & Spa
  
• Vietnam Airlines Economy, Danang – Siem Reap
  
• Park Hyatt Siem Reap
  
• Angkor Wat and Other Temples
  
• Dragonair Business Class, Siem Reap – Hong Kong
  
• Turbojet, Hong Kong Airport – Macau and the Sheraton Macao Hotel
  
• The Venetian, Fernando’s, and the Ferry to Hong Kong
  
• Grand Hyatt Hong Kong Harbor View Suite
  
• Bo Innovation, Hong Kong
  
• Amber Restaurant, Hong Kong
  
• Cathay Pacific The Wing First Class Lounge, Hong Kong
  
• Cathay Pacific First Class, Hong Kong – New York JFK
  
• American Airlines JFK Flagship Lounge and New York – Washington National

I had the most interesting meal I’ve eaten in a long time, lunch at Bo Innovation, a Michelin 3-star restaurant in Hong Kong.

I’ve tried some of the best examples of molecular gastronomy — I loved El Bulli when it was open, and thought the Fat Duck was more style over substance.

But Alvin Leung’s Bo Innovation was interesting because it’s Chinese molecular gastronomy. He calls it ‘X-Treme Chinese,’ refers to himself as ‘the Demon chef,’ and earned his third Michelin star this year.

It wasn’t hard to make a booking several weeks out. It was actually harder to find the restaurant than it was to get a table.

You need to go through a non-descript entrance to get to an elevator up to the restaurant, and that entrance is actually on Ship Street.

It’s a small restaurant inside with an open kitchen. There’s outdoor seating but it was on the chilly side in early February and they weren’t seating guests outside (not that we’d have wanted to). It’s also not a luxurious dining room.

(Note that that’s a tattooed image of the chef on the outside of the restaurant)

We selected the chef’s tasting menu for lunch, which is ~ US$100++ (780 HKD). Click to enlarge:

They also have a ‘set lunch’ for ~ US$37++, you get 2 mains, a starch, and a dessert. Click to enlarge:

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The first item on the chef’s menu was ‘Dead Garden’.

Underneath was almost a fluorescent green-colored foam flavored with lime. It went amazingly well with the morel and enoki mushroom.

Next up, the scallop.

It was only slightly seared Hokkaido scallops served with ‘crispy woba’ (burnt rice, this was the leftovers in rice pots prior to the invention of rice cookers) and peas. The dish was in ‘jolo’ sauce which is fermented red rice vinegar, it made for a dish that was salty, sour, and sweet.

Then the foie gras ‘mui choy’.

Mui choy is sweet preserved mustard greens. The foie gras had a caramel fragrance, and we were told to eat it with the ice cream that brought out the foie’s sweetness.

Then the ‘Har mi’ course.

This was lo mein in a har mi oil, dried baby shrimps infused in the oil for 3 days prior to distilling. It was served alongside extra oil, although there was likely enough already in the dish but I did try it both ways and it was surprisingly spicey as well.

Molecular – ‘Xiao Long Bao’

This wasn’t actually xiao lung bao, it was encased in a gelatinous shell with a strip of red vinegar on top. We were instructed to eat it straight from the spoon in a single bite. The gelatin broke easily, releasing a warm pork broth in the mouth.

Langoustine

This was the first of two dishes with truffle.

The langoustine was tasty, and contrasted well with the cauliflower foam and went well with English mustard. The black truffle was seriously intense.

Saga-Gyu Beef

Saga-Gyu is a top wagyu beef brand of Japan, and it was certainly a good piece of beef but not the best that I would have during my short two night stay in Hong Kong. I thought it worked with the black truffle but two courses in a row I had become used to it, so fortunately the truffle wasn’t overpowering of the beef.

Dessert was less memorable.

The restaurant is controversial, at least according to opinions I found online, and frequently not what one expect in terms of a Michelin 3-star in terms of formality or refined service although the service was certainly fine. The food is also not what one usually expects either, of course.

But it was good food, reasonably priced at lunch (for what it was, the ingredients and number of courses), and it was actually interesting so rates very well in my book.

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