It is the year ending get-together again and this time around, we hosted it at Xi Yan Shaw - the casual dining restaurant of their private dining sister restaurant in Craig Road. And the theme? Grand Seiko or any Seiko as well as any purchase in 2014.
Xi Yan Shaw is a spin off of the successful Xi Yan Private dining featuring Hong Kong Celebrity Chef Jacky Yu. The restaurant at Shaw Centre is located on the 3rd level and spacious enough to host probably 50-60 pax.
Unlike in the private dining restaurant, this is an open concept casual dining place.
The theme was around Grand Seiko, Seiko and purchases for 2014 so I brought these - my Grand Seiko SBGM003 and my purchase for 2014 being the De Bethune DB9. What about the Parmigiani? Well another friend had recently acquired a similar piece and I promised to let him do a comparison.
6.30pm was when the folks started strolling in and by 6.45pm, quite a group had already assembled.
And by 7pm?
Then the food started rolling in… First up the Salivating Chicken. As I have told many friends, prior to this dish, I never liked century egg - this dish changed it all. Depending on how hot you want it, they can increase the hotness of the dish. Take a bite at the chili padi if you like.
Pork patty with salted fish and water chestnut. Pan fried just nice and the salted fish not over-powering. Sorry I had missed the photo of the radish pizza in XO sauce. Busy mingling.
Deep fried shrimp paste fish fillet with pomelo salad - another winning dish for me. The fish fillet was well fried and still soft on the inside. But actually could not recall the shrimp paste taste. But that is actually a plus for me. To return and try it again another day. But the pomelo sauce complemented the fish well.
This is perhaps the most sinful dish of the night - Sake Dong Po pork with mei cai (seasoned vegetables). The pork is braised till soft to the bite and the mei cai is not the salty type - rather it is slightly sweet. Perfect with a bowl of rice or porridge. So good was the pork I missed taking picture of the next dish - the Yunnan Ham Niang Dou Fu in special broth. This is another must-have dish when visiting Xi Yan Shaw.
More dishes like the Kai Lan with Crispy Olive Leaves, Black truffles pasta with roast chicken - but by then, I was fully into the food. No pix to show for. Except for the last dish - the black truffles fried rice.
And how good was the food? Well everyone was tucking in. You sneeze you lose. You come late… sorry!
And very soon, it was time to display the timepieces for the evening. Seen here are Prof Harry Tan and Sean Wai - custodians of the timepieces on show.
On the left table, Grand Seikos and Seikos on display. And on the right, 2014 purchases.
The Grand Seikos and Seikos are an interesting lot - many anniversary pieces on display. Take a look at the top row. The GS SBMG003 and the various variants including two blue dial Limited Editions. Bottom right features two LE Tunas and one LE Monster, all anniversary pieces. And the bottom left, the LE Enamel dial Seiko Anniversary piece.
And now to the purchases of 2014 - one De Bethune, 2 Parmigianis, one Speake Marin, two MoVas (Bronze Diver and the T2 Tourbillon), one AP Royal Oak ultra-thin, one Jurgensen and JLC, Swatch Sistem 51 and Rolex GMT II make up the rest. No prize for guessing who brought the IWC pocket watch along. And then there is the Sony smart watch 3.
And very year end GTG, we have a special treat. Harry brought the fruit cake baked by Suzanne. Nicely made and delicious too.
Another nice GTG to round off the year. Thanks guys for showing up early! CNY coming up next!
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