When stars align

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HKTB presents a four-hands dinner in the run-up to HK’s Wine & Dine Fest

TWO culinary stars from Hong Kong (HK) and Manila joined forces for a dinner at the top floor the Grand Hyatt Manila, making for a dinner that was truly unique.

Chefs and restaurateurs Margarita Forés and Vicky Cheng cooked together for a dinner — When Stars Align: A Four Hands Dinner and Culinary Showcase — on Aug. 7 that showcased unique ingredients from Hong Kong and the Philippines. Ms. Forés is the restaurateur behind the Cibo chain of Italian restaurants (among others such as Grace Park and Lusso), and Asia’s Best Female chef of 2016. Mr. Cheng, meanwhile, is behind Vea (with one Michelin star) and Wing (No. 5 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2024) in Hong Kong.

The Forés-Cheng dinner was a prelude to Hong Kong’s Wine & Dine Festival in October, which will see over 300 participating merchants. The annual celebration attracts food and wine enthusiasts from around the world and showcases Hong Kong’s food scene and its reputation as a dining destination.

Liew Chian Jia, the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s (HKTB) Regional Director of Southeast Asia, said in a speech before the dishes started coming out of the kitchen that in the first half of 2024, they received 500,000 Filipino tourists. “We put this very special showcase together to showcase the culinary scene of the Philippines together with Hong Kong. Really, it’s to celebrate the special bond between the Philippines and Hong Kong,” she said.

COLLABORATIVE MENU
Dinner began with “snacks,” actually quite a veritable spread, starting with Mr. Cheng’s hand-pulled noodles and a mala chili sauce, topped with something we’d never seen before: a transparent, crystal-clear century egg. This was accompanied by bowls of smoked eggplant, ukoy (shrimp fritters), and banana heart salad (taken from a childhood recipe from Ms. Forés home with her Araneta forebears). All these were served in bright celadon bowls. The noodles were perfectly sharp and spicy, contrasting with the surprisingly mild century egg, while the smoked eggplant was perfectly earthy. Ms. Forés’ ukoy, battered shrimp on top of a blue marlin kilawin (raw fish dressed in citrus and vinegar), had a subtle, sparkling brilliance, most definitely contributed by the delicate fish. The banana heart salad provided a sweet, unexpected ending.

The soup course — courtesty of Mr Cheng — was a White Pepper Virgin Mud Crab soup, with slabs of fat still floating in it. This was perfumed with tonkin jasmine (requested by Mr. Cheng and obtained by Ms. Forés from the Ilocos), providing green delicacy to the already-delicate and creamy soup. The next course was a solo piece by Ms. Forés’ — a large Bulacan river prawn with Hong Kong noodles (brought over by Mr. Cheng in his luggage), and the Cordilleran smoked meat etag. It was an interesting game of contrasts: the prawn was wild and creamy, while the noodles were fiery and earthy.

Mr. Cheng urged us to eat the next course, a Sea Cucumber Spring Roll, with our hands — it was deliciously smoky, but very messy.

After the brilliance of the preceding dishes, the Pomfret Fish Pares with Abalone sauce rice was a bit of a letdown, showing off mild, timid flavors, but wÍe guess everybody needs a little break from all the spectacle of the preceding courses. Desserts were an ube (purple yam) gelato with snow gum and osmanthus flowers, and mochi filled with Cebu mango.

“I went [to Hong Kong] for the first time when I was eight,” said Ms. Forés. “When I lived there and worked there in 1982, that was the first time, actually, that I started to cook in a kitchen, a few years before going to Italy. That’s because Hong Kong is so inspiring.” — JL Garcia