Yum Cha - the most Instagram ready food in Hong Kong

http://yumchahk.com/

I love that Hong Kong is a central hub for many flights coming from Europe to Australia (or vice versa). It means that we often have friends stopping by, sometimes for a few days and other times for just 24 hours.  One of the girl's great friends and her family were coming back from a family holiday and managed to spend a fun filled day in our new city.

We're no strangers to having meals with Fi and Kev, with the girl and Fi having regular get togethers in the Indian restaurants of Brisbane.  I'd even bumped into Kev in the UK one time and we shared an interesting dinner at Two Michelin starred Hibiscus (see post here).  For this short trip, we'd arranged two dining extravaganzas, the first of which was at one of Hong Kong's most interesting and fun Chinese restaurants, Yum Cha.

Now, yum cha is both the name of a restaurant and also a style of cuisine, which roughly translates to  'drink tea' and/or 'going for dim sum' - small, bite sized portions of Cantonese cuisine.  What makes Yum Cha the restaurant so incredible is the fun and unique manner in which they present their dim sum.  In fact, some of the dim sum is so interesting to look at, it's almost a shame to eat!

Covering a massive 6,000 square feet on the fringes of Central, Yum Cha distinguishes itself with it's high ceilings that are reminiscent of a New York style loft.  With it's high ceilings and large windows, there is a bright and airy feel to the dining area.  What I loved as I wandered up the escalators to the entrance of Yum Cha was the full scale truck that dominated the entrance and was used for displaying the restaurant's opening times (of course, seems legit!)

AMMO - home made pasta, simple flavours and deliciousness

http://www.ammo.com.hk/

Tucked away behind Pacific Place shopping centre at Admiralty and a part of the HK Asia Society Centre is AMMO, an amazing little restaurant that specialises in homemade pasta.  It's a little difficult to find, but well worth the effort.

As you walk past the Banyan tree, which was stuck by lightening  during a typhoon in 2008 but continues to grow, and round the cultural court of the Asia Society, you're instantly taken aback by the shiny, shiny building that houses AMMO.  The heritage listed site, which was once home to a 19th century explosives compound, has been transformed into what has to be one of the funkiest restaurants in Honkers.  

The most striking element of the Joyce Wang designed interior was the liberal use of copper throughout, which gives off a luxurious yet industrial feel, that with imagination hints at the site's military history.  Especially the design and pattern behind the restaurant's bar.  The restaurant itself is almost entirely enclosed by floor to ceiling glass, which enhances the modern feel of the dining room. Surrounded by the lush tropical jungle you find throughout Hong Kong, it's impossible to believe that civilisation is only meters away.

Private Dining - The Popsy Room

http://thepopsyroom.com

There is a saying, I know you've heard it before; 'Art is in the eye of the beholder'.

But what is Art?  Contemporary wisdom tells us that it's a painting on a wall, a sculpture in a park or an exhibit in a gallery.  But is that all?  Over the last few years, artists have been using a new canvas for their pursuits - the plate.  The advent of the blogger, the food photographer and Instagram have helped transform gastronomy to arguably the most popular of all art!

This was never so evident than when I recently visited a private dining room that is an art gallery by day and gastronomic gallery by night.  The Popsy Room is an art gallery in Sheung Wan, an area that is rapidly transforming into the hippest of Hong Kong areas.  So it's fitting that such a juxtaposition of contemporary art and dining art start to bleed into each other.

Rotating exhibitions through the Popsy Room every two months keeps things fresh, but it is their approach to marrying the visual arts together that's so interesting.  The dining room takes direct inspiration from each exhibition, creating a menu that's in perfect harmony to tell a compelling story.  At the time of our visit, the gallery had a tribute to Madame Helena Rubinstein's legendary life, outlining her audacity and passion for creating a beauty empire.

Bibo - where art and food combine

http://www.bibo.hk

Fine dining has often been compared to contemporary art, food displayed immaculately on a plate that is often (almost) too beautiful to eat.  I've eaten in restaurants where the Chef could only be described as an artist, and I'm sure you have too.  I've even had beautiful food in Australia's GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art), where the award winning GOMA restaurant produces food that would be better placed on the walls of the gallery.  I'd never been to a restaurant that would be more appropriately called a gallery of contemporary modern art, that was until I visited Bibo.

In a sign that bohemia is alive and well in Sheung Wan, Bibo is quite unlike any restaurant you are likely to encounter, at least in this part of the world.  Bibo is short for 'bilingual bohemian' and is a mix of contemporary art and fine dining French restaurant.  Reminiscent of the speak-easy style of New York, the entrance to Bibo is a secret gold door on Hollywood Road and while you don't need a secret password to enter, you do need to get past the burly bouncer on the door. Once the Star Trek like sliding door opens, you descend steps that hint of what's to come.

An assault to the visual senses is probably the best way to describe those first few seconds in the restaurant, which was quite breathtaking.  Every spare inch of space in Bibo is taken up with contemporary art, visually stunning, it's not until you hear the story of some of the pieces that you understand the importance of Bibo - more on that later.

ManMo Cafe - interesting but pricy dumplings

https://www.facebook.com/manmocafe

When we were looking around Hong Kong for a place to live, Sheung Wan was on a relatively short list of areas that I wanted to live.  We had a pretty demanding list of requirements, and as new residents to Hong Kong, didn't really have the right requirements on the list.  As it turned out, we  didn't move into the area, which in hindsight is a shame...  I really love the vibrancy and energy in Sheung Wan, oh, of course I love all of the the little laneways that are full of funky little cafes and restaurants.

It's not as if we live a long distance from Sheung Wan, in fact, we live just up the mountain in the Mid Levels, so it only takes us ten minutes to walk down the hill (up the hill is another matter). We spend a lot of time wandering around the area, just soaking up the vibe and last weekend, we checked out the Portobello Markets (unfortunately not the same as the Notting Hill version). Apart from meeting some really cool peeps (that we will be hanging out with for dinner soon), we found a little dumpling cafe that looked the goods.

ManMo Cafe bills itself as a 'contemporary dim sum with brilliant flavour in Sheung Wan' and serves up a contemporary mix of fusion and eclectic vegetarian friendly Chinese.  Normally, with a title like that, I'd run for the hills, but given we were pretty hungry and the cafe really did look inviting, we went in to check it out.

ManMo is an interesting name, and is labeled after a famous neighbouring temple and was conceived by Swiss-born Nicolas Elalouf to serve a burgeoning crowd of East meets West foodie.  Throwing everything into the menu, Nicholas has scoured the dining scene looking for input from chefs with pedigrees that includes Robuchon and Din Tai Fung.  As a result, ManMo boasts a menu that is contemporary and quite different from any other dim sum place around.