Celebrity Life

Whether you are celebrating with your better half, with friends or want to treat yourself to a great meal, there are plenty of Valentine’s Day menus in Hong Kong to honour the season of love.

From lunches, to afternoon teas and take away Michelin-star dinners, here are our top picks for 2021.

The Ritz Carlton

This February, The Ritz Carlton Hong Kong and Chinese fine jewellery brand Qeelin are joining forces to present an exclusive afternoon tea for Valentine’s Day and Lunar New Year. Housed in an gourd-shaped tea set that pays homage to the jeweler’s Wulu Collection or in a longevity lock-shaped stand inspired by the brand’s signature Yu Yi Collection, the set features gourmet items like the Marinated Abalone and Mushroom Tartlet and the Lychee and Red Date Cake.

St Regis

L'Énvol, the St Regis' French restaurant which was recently awarded two Michelin stars, will be offering two exclusive Valentine’s Day menus featuring delicacies like the Poached Brittany Langoustine with Jerusalem Artichoke Broth and Oscietra Caviar Terrine and Blinis Toast. To celebrate the season of love, the St Regis Bar will also offer a limited edition Valentine’s special cocktail: La Vie En Rose.

The Diplomat x Yardbird

This February, The Diplomat is joining forces with Yardbird to present The Broken Hearts Club, a Kushiage free-flow menu by Chef Matt Abergel, along with Sunday’s Whisky and flagrant Hot Sauce. The popular modern Japanese izakaya recently awarded with one Michelin star, will be taking over The Diplomat for one day only on February 14.

Kerry Hotel

Hong Kong’s popular alfresco cocktail lounge Red Sugar at the Kerry Hotel has launched a cocktail pairing menu to celebrate the most romantic day of the year. The decadent selection features six courses, including the Pearl of Turnip with Lobster Mousse and Carabineros Sauce, along with specially crafted his-and-her cocktails, like the Sweetheart Margarita and Rose Spritz.

Date by TATE

Date by TATE, Chef Vicky Lau's lifestyle concept, has prepared a takeaway and delivery experience fully tailored to the unique needs of one person. The 8-Course Gastronomy Box is a sophisticated - and impeccably presented - option to treat yourself at home. For lovers, Date by TATE has also fashioned a Michelin-worthy takeaway meal for two, which starts with TATE Dining Room’s famous bread basket and followed by refined starters of Caviar & Obsiblue Prawn and Honey Passion Fruit Entremet.

The post Love on a Plate: Best Valentine’s Day Menus in Hong Kong appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Executive chef Michael Wilson combines intruiging ingredients and techniques to create a breezy yet refined dining experience.

The post There’s a duck neck sausage at Pollen appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Executive chef Michael Wilson combines intruiging ingredients and techniques to create a breezy yet refined dining experience.

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Chef-owner Andrew Walsh draws from his heritage to present a series of refined, produce-driven dishes.

The post Cure’s new menu is a playful expression of Irish cuisine appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Chef-owner Andrew Walsh draws from his heritage to present a series of refined, produce-driven dishes.

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Included: a fine-dining experience with dishes created by renowned chef Yannick Alleno.

The post A pop-up of the historic luxury train Orient Express has rolled into town appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Included: a fine-dining experience with dishes created by renowned chef Yannick Alleno.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

Included: a fine-dining experience with dishes created by renowned chef Yannick Alleno.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.

In his waders, Stefan Astner checks on the albino sturgeon: Almost two decades after they hatched, they're ready to be gutted for their white caviar to be shipped out for New Year's celebrations.

"The fish have already been through the ultrasound so we saw that they are full (of roe) and they will go into production soon," Astner says, dipping his net into a small pond teeming with the rare, white sturgeon.

Deemed the most expensive food in the world, demand for caviar -essentially, salted roe - has driven most sturgeon species to the brink of extinction in the wild.

But fish farms like the one where Astner works in the village of Groedig, near the Austrian city of Salzburg, offer a more sustainable alternative. Owner Walter Gruell is one of about 2,500 sturgeon farmers worldwide that produce a combined 415 tonnes of white caviar a year, according to the World Sturgeon Conservation Society's most recent figures dating from 2018.

But patience is imperative for producers. The required investment is high and doesn't pay off for years until the sturgeon begin carrying roe -- that's if they aren't stolen by gangs hoping to skip the arduous breeding process.

The albino female that Gruell slices with surgical precision is 16 years old. Slowly, he removes, rinses, and weighs the cream-coloured roe, which, like the fish, lacks pigmentation.

There are no more than 40 sturgeon breeders specialising in albinos worldwide, according to Thomas Friedrich, an expert on sturgeon at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna.

Though there's no research suggesting that lack of pigmentation affects white caviar's taste, Gruell is convinced of its superiority, asserting that "it's even sweeter, even smoother than the traditionally black one."

Consumers are willing to pay for the difference. The female that Gruell just cut yields 600 grams (21 ounces), worth 8,000 euros ($9,750) -- more than three times the price that black caviar fetches.

Sturgeon rustlers

The coronavirus pandemic has curbed demand as upscale restaurants, like all eateries in Austria, have been closed, but retail is booming, partly because people still want to treat themselves, Gruell believes.

"People want to savour the present moment," he says, between the many phone calls ahead of the end-of-year celebrations, when he makes close to 40 percent of his annual turnover.

While AFP visited his farm, Gruell spoke to a luxury automaker, and shortly before had been in contact with an airline hoping to serve first-class travellers caviar "Made in Austria".

Demand for white caviar remains high, and not just from paying customers, but sturgeon rustlers, too.

A year ago, 400 kilos of sturgeon were stolen from a farm less than two hours away from Groedig. The eviscerated fish were later found in a reservoir. A year before that, 400 individual sturgeon worth 50,000 euros were stolen from another farm.

At Gruell's farm, the fish, which include sturgeon native to the Danube, are protected by surveillance cameras and high fences with heavy padlocks.

Outliving dinosaurs

Though sturgeon breeding in countries like China, Italy and France started as a purely financial venture, it is now also seen as a sustainable alternative to wild sturgeon.

Having survived the demise of the dinosaurs, some sturgeon species have recently gone extinct, while others are on the brink.

In Russia and Iran, production of wild caviar collapsed in the 1980s due to overfishing as well as pollution in the Caspian Sea.

Most countries along the Danube now protect the local sturgeon species, though experts worry that conservation might have come too late.

Official government data in Romania, where the Danube empties into the Black Sea, show that catches of Russian sturgeon plummeted from 3,725 kilos (8,214 pounds) in 2002 to just 37 kilos (82 pounds) in 2005, indicating that overfishing had gravely diminished their numbers.

Though the country issued a moratorium in 2006, impoverished fishermen continue to try and catch the fish, as the dozens of kilos of roe that one sturgeon can carry are worth as much as a fisherman's annual income.

Some fans of the delicacy still believe that the taste of wild caviar eclipses that extracted from farmed sturgeon - though Gruell says his albinos are in a taste category of their own.

The post In the Alps, White Caviar Offers an Exclusive Alternative appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Singaporeans are replacing travel with eating out – better start making those reservations now.

The post Where to eat in Singapore: new restaurants and menus for January 2021 appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Singaporeans are replacing travel with eating out – better start making those reservations now.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.