Last Week Continued

So far behind, so very far behind.

Basically last week was filled with more wine tastings for work, school, and just for fun!  Wednesday I hit up Bower's & Wilkins for an exceptional tasting.  Mostly exceptional not because of the wines, but the fantastic food and friends! I went alone, saw some pop stars and wine friends, and was joined by Paul toward the end of the evening.  Read all about it HERE.

Ahi Tuna with Chili!

Then Thursday I hit the Flying Winemaker for the first time for an Australian tasting. The FWM is Eddie McDougall, a young winemaker born in HK but raised and educated in Australia.  He brought his love of wines (along with his own label) back with him to HK where he worked at the 8th Estate (I know, I know) and then just this year opened his own wine shop cum wine bar.  It's a great space in the heart of LKF with a variety of wines and rumors of a second location in the next few months.  Impressive for such a young dude.

Swag

The tasting was nice with some Sauv Blancs and Pinot Noirs, but the rain was coming down and I had a date!  Paul and I decided to grab a drink at our favourite haunt, Linguini Fini, and turns out there was a Me Girl fashion party!!  We had been to the same party a month prior, so we figured why not join this one.  Too bad I had eaten because they had a spread of all the things that make me love LF; bruschetta, pizza, meat, cheese, oh and free beer.  But not to be outdone, my man Wahid was there, and as always hooked up nothing but world class treatment.  'Lauren, I know you can't do beer.  Let me get you a glass of Prosecco.'  Yes, sir!!  Wahid is just nothing but smiles and positive energy, I hope he has a nice girlfriend.

Brooklyn Band!

Friday in class we discussed (and drank) the Loire Valley and the Rhone Valley.  All of the wines were superb!  Post class I meet up with Paul, who had been at a Sassyhk shopping event (our friend Alicia was playing and he didn't realize it would be ALL girls- ha), and our friend from Find Wine, Rex.  Rex's friend was having his birthday party at the Central Wine Bar, so we all partook in the fun!  There was an amazing live band from Brooklyn, bottles of Rhones wines (at my insistence), and plenty of people rocking out.  Good times.

Paul and Rex at Central Wine Bar

But rest is for the weary.  Paul went to his LAST DAY AT TUTOR TIME and I hit up the Pet Fair for a couple hours before meeting with Paul for our first solo wine tasting.  The pet fair is exactly how you picture it.  Loud.  Ridiculous.  And totally hilarious.  There were stalls for doggie hair dye ($2k), doggie life insurance, doggie outfits, doggie backpacks, doggie prams, doggie everything.  Thank god I only had to go for 2 hours.

Paul manning the food table

Paul and I had an awesome time pouring wines for the Find Wine clients.  This is a month tasting that we do in TST with Find Wine and 8 or so other vendors, and it's always a nice afternoon.  It's only 3 hours, a bunch of the people know about wine, and for this event, we were allowed to keep 10% of what we sold.  Paul's commission.  We did OK depsite the lowest turnout I've seen to date, and the afternoon hit a high when James Beatty, my collegue from Pepco showed up for a glass!  He's in town for a week as part of his graduate school.  I haven't seen James since I left PES three years ago!

Duck Tongue!

James came back with us to drop everything off in Kwun Tong.  Kwun Tong is not exactly the centre of the culinary world, and after we got shot down from a reliably good dim sum restaurant we tried the new Spicy Crab restaurant.  Despite the fact that it has a 'celebrity' chef (HK famous perhaps), the food was awful!  Oily, flavorless, and just outright not good.  We did however agree that it was a worthwhile dining experience because we got to try duck tongue.  Not something I ever need to eat again, but I'm glad I can add it to this list of bizarre.

Post crap we hit up another reliable favorite in Central.  Good old Globe, where we enjoyed excellent beers and Jenga.  But you know how I roll, 11 pm and I turn into a pumpkin.

Somewhere in the woods

Sunday Paul, James, Derek and I meet up at Dim Sum Master for some really excellent dim sum.  All the classics with the standout being xio long bao.  Always is.  Then we hiked 8 or so kilometers from Quarry Bay to the Tai Tam Resevoir (my morning hike but longer) where we got stuck on a road with no shoulder.  Typical in the middle of the island.  We quickly grabbed a cab and hit the beach in Shek O where Laura joined us.  The water was less than refreshing, warm and filled with garbage (typhoon reminants), so we grabbed a table and some Thai and beers and called it a day....