I cooked at home last Sun, preparing a Fish Minestrone with Pesto soup and a Grill Chicken with Grape Sauce. Again, to make the perfect soup, the ingredients and the stock is critical so I went to the wet market to buy fresh small fish. It is a healthy soup as there are a lot of vegetable in it, and adding the Pesto really bring out the flavors and dimensions. The chicken was also tasty, buying the live one in the wet market instead of the frozen/chilled ones in supermarket. Detailed recipe can be found in the blog. 
Quite surprising maybe to some of you, but I in fact have not been to Taikoo Shing for a long time. This week went to Ashima, a Yunnan restaurant in Cityplaza, to try something special. Originally we planned to go to the one in Mongkok, fortunately I checked before going and found it was already closed. We ordered Crispy Bee Cocoon, Wild Mushroom and Chicken in Special Pot Soup, Prawn with Wild Mushroom, and Fried Rice with Pine Mushroom.
The bee cocoon looks scary but is in fact nothing, apart from a bit of starchy on the feel it did not taste weird.
The soup is a bit salty for me, though the chicken is tender and obviously the soup had been stewed for a long while to make the meat completely separated from bone. 
As to the prawn it is acceptable, I would not complain on the size of the prawn but think it would probably look better and more appetizing if bigger ones can be used. But the colour is certainly nice.
The rice is the best of the dishes, and the finely chopped pine mushroom did bring a good aroma to the rice.
Overall it costs $370 (with tips), a reasonable price and the thing I recommend is the mushroom. Apparently the ingredients are coming from Yunnan and it is worth trying.
With VinExpo coming to town soon there are a lot of activities in the wine industry. I also made myself busy wine tasting. I joined the Weingut Brundlmayer wine tasting organized by ASC, a good Austrian wine producer. The most memorable for me were the Gruner Veltliner Auslese and Cabernet Franc.
I then attended the Diamond Creek wine dinner organized by One Red Dot, which was held in the Chinese restaurant in Hotel Icon. The view and food is gorgeous (a restaurant I want to revisit again very soon), and able to meet and chat with the Ross family was highly enjoying. It was not a big group with about 7-8 VIP so we all got to interact closely with the family, learning their philosophy and wine making practices. Of course trying their three labels, Red Rock Terrace, Volcanic Hill and Gravelly Meadow, on 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2007 vintage were simply exceptional. Got invited also to visit their vineyard which is not opened to public, and really looking forward to that!
Yesterday was our monthly wine party, and this time the theme is Cote de Nuits. We had a total of 6, all very good:
- Domaine Geantet-Pansiot Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 1995
- Domaine Robert Arnoux Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Clos des Corvees Pagets 2004
- Georges Lignier et Fils Chambolle-Musigny 2004
- Mongeard-Mugneret Vosne-Romanee 2002? (forgot the vintage...)
- Gros Frere et Soeur Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Musigni 2006
- Serafin Pere & Fils Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Les Millandes 2002
Today is Mother's Day, and here let me finish by wishing all mothers forever healthy and happy!!
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