Reflections on Rebellious causes

Being invited to a rebellious cause will stir emotion in most of us, as we all have dreams of lashing out our creative energy into our passions. I suspect that the reason why most of us fail in this endeavor is our inherent need to often seek the approval of others. 

En masse globalisation is standardising value systems and the mega brands increasingly seem to have the same look and feel despite their best efforts to instill the ‘disruptive mantra’.  Maybe it’s a symptom of the fact that corporate marketing departments like to play it safe by developing watches the current trends suggest rather than taking a risk creating a potential object of desire.

Now and then there are glimmers of hope, like this year’s Patek Philippe Pilot Watch controversy which got the world talking, but more on that later.

It was with particular joy to find out that I was invited to join in the celebrations of three rising independent watch brands, namely, De Bethune, MB&F and Urwerk.

I have to say that watch events in Singapore are of a different league in terms of standard and level of sophistication not just from the organiser but also the end collectors.

The knowledge base is astounding, as is the uncompromising critique when a new piece is launched. The HM6 Space Pirate is one watch that manages to spark in instant reaction from people, the initial reaction is confronting which is then followed by fascination and a deep respect of the craftsmanship and design complexity.

Ironically even Max thought that I would never buy a HM given that my watch collection is very classic. Intriguingly I’m drawn more to the Horological Machines now despite my earlier and most would think more rational preference for the Legacy Machine particularly given Kari Voutilainen’s input into the movement.

The HM2 is my personal favourite machine I just had to have one.

A true mechanical sculpture unique, technically complex and with strong elegant lines. I suspect that even H.G Wells and Leonardo Da Vinci would approve.

A good friend of mine remarked on the fact that, “for a watch to have true inherent value to the collector, it must be an object of the highest quality, rare and relevant”. The last point is of particular interest as the vintage pieces that achieve auction records are all historically ‘relevant’ icons.

A large number of these now considered ‘ classics’ were not that popular when first produced as they were often ahead of their time. This makes it even more exciting to be part of these pioneer’s journey and watch them create the horological icons of the future.

Vacheron-Constantin Harmony Chronograph and Champagne Lunch at Black By Ezard

In a lucky roster rotation, Vikki got another Sunday off. Making the most of it, we decided to head into the city and stay at the Hilton again. After checking in we headed over to J Farren-Price to have a look at a new arrival from Vacheron Constantin, the rose gold Harmony Chronograph. This is a limited edition of 260 pieces in celebration of Vacheron’s 260 anniversary. Taking inspiration from a historical Vacheron Doctor's chronograph from 1928, this piece is certainly vintage inspired with its cushion shaped case, mono-pusher activation, and pulsation dial.

This watch is a beautiful piece and well finished. The 42 mm cushion case that houses the caliber 3300 movement is very elegant and not too large on the wrist, yet has a nice weight to it. The white dial features blue hour markers, and the chronograph markings in black and red. I love an oversized crown and this was a nice example without being annoying when moving your wrist around. 

The rose gold case is paired with a brown Mississippi alligator strap and rose gold deployant clasp.

While the Vacheron-Constantin Harmony Chronograph is a lovely watch, it sadly doesn’t quite fit with the other pieces in my collection.

After our visit  it was time for lunch. A quick discussion, found us heading across the Pyrmont Bridge to Black by Ezard, at The Star. 

Sunday at Black by Ezard is Champagne lunch day, with three courses and free flowing Moet and Chandon Champagne for $125. There are a couple of options that attract an extra charge but that is to be expected when you get such a great offer. Sunday lunch crowd is always buzzy and makes for good people watching.

There is nothing like a view of the city, water and luxury yachts while you dine. A sunny but partly cloudy day also helps.

After being seated, ordering and having our first glass of champagne poured a delicious mini loaf of house made brioche was bought to the table with Pepe Saya butter and Hawaiian black sea salt. Hawaiian black sea salt seems to be making an appearance everywhere as we also had it when we dined at Il Ristorante Luca Fantin in Tokyo.

I ordered the open ravioli of ox tail, smoked potato, walnut gremolata, bone marrow and watercress salad. A huge but tasty entrée that had me asking if it was my imagination or had food in Sydney improved a lot?

Vikki ordered the sautéed Spencer Gulf prawns, sweetcorn puree, watermelon, red onion, tomato, coriander, jalapeno peppers and crispy pancetta. Very colourful and Vikki said it was very tasty.

For my main I ordered the grass fed Angus fillet, roasted cauliflower and pearl onion salad with gremolata. A selection of mustards, sauces along with café de Paris butter accompanied the steak. Of course we had to order some chips with garlic, parmesan and rosemary salt.

Vikki ordered the roasted duck breast, Dutch carrots, spiced fennel chutney, Sichuan pepper sauce. I enjoyed this immensely. Vikki was very happy with her main, and slipped me a little taste,the fennel chutney was amazing with the duck, and the Dutch carrots done two ways was also very tasty. The fennel salad went well against the fattiness of the duck skin. Vikki was happy to see nasturtium leaves being used in a meal.

When the desserts came out we were really happy with our choices. I chose the cheesecake, lavender honey, blueberry sorbet and sable crumble.  The colour of the sorbet was astounding!! Deep and dark it looked like a jewel sitting on the cheesecake.

Vikki chose the coffee parfait, mascarpone mousse, orange crumble and spiced caramel. Vikki and I swapped plates for a bit so we got to try each other’s desserts.  The flavours were amazing and the dried orange pieces, a real textural and flavor loaded sensation when you popped one in your mouth.

We know Sydney has some great restaurants and many have had a long reputation of greatness, but somehow in the past year or two things seem to have really stepped up a notch or three.

We really enjoyed visiting Black By Ezard again, and look forward to returning for another visit in the future. 

Kazahana, Conrad Hotel, Shiodome, Tokyo

While we were staying at the Conrad Hotel, we made a return visit to Kazahana for lunch. This year we were a little earlier in the summer season which meant there should be something different on the menu than our visit last year.

We decided to have the lunch course “MAI”, one of the 6 set course options available for lunch. Lunch set “MAI” consists of: Appetizer, Soup, Seasonal Delicacies, Main Dish, Rice, Miso soup and Japanese pickles, Dessert. We love the mystery aspect of the sets and the fact they ask if you have intolerances or things you don’t like.

We have tended to avoid uni (sea urchin) this trip, the appetizer had uni but they were happy to swap it out and it was replaced with abalone (my first time to try it). Braised white Taro stems with abalone was our appetizer.

Second course was soup with tofu, a very interesting seaweed and fish cake. The seaweed was a new one to us and very slippery. It reminded Vikki of the stamens in a lily but with a gelatinous bubble around the ‘stamen’ part.

Our third course was the seasonal delicacies. A selection of cold and hot dishes. Left to right tempura conger eel with braised eggplant, braised octopus and daikon radish, sashimi of squid and seabass, chilled soba noodles with accompanying sauce.

For mains we were able to choose which meal we wanted I chose grilled scallops and salmon which was accompanied by roasted vegetables with a Japanese pepper sauce. The sauce was quite mild but went really well with the seafood. The scallop was huuuge!

Vikki opted for the pork stew dish (kakuni) which included a softly poached egg topped with truffles, rice with perilla seasoning, Japanese pickles and Miso soup.

For dessert I had the brown sugar cake with caramelized banana served with ice cream.

Vikki ordered a pumpkin pudding with ice cream and a white cherry. Not a cakey pudding, this was more of a custard style. Vikki said it was quite dense and creamy.

Got to love a view while you are dining and in our case the view for lunch was Hama-rikyu Onshi Tien and Tokyo Bay. 

Hanasanshou, Park Hotel, Shiodome, Tokyo

While we have eaten in the Tateru Yoshino run restaurants at the Park Hotel several times in the past, we have never tried Hanasanshou, the Japanese restaurant.

We did not realise how popular Hanasanshou is. On several of the days we were there it was always full and not just with hotel guests. Thankfully, as we were going out one morning, we managed to make a reservation.

Located on the side of the hotel that faces east, the room has a main dining area along the window and then to each side of the bar a curtained area for a more private dining experience. Lots of dark woods are utilized throughout the room with trendy lighting around the bar.

Hanasanshou had a special menu for house guests so we chose to have that. 8 courses served Kaiseki style for around A$50. The other menus were also Kaiseki style with the difference between each being the number of courses.

First courses out was a bowl of boiled taro stem from Kyoto served simply with a bonito and soy sauce. Very light and refreshing.

The appetizer was a plate of seasonal specialties. Fresh thin wheat noodles, sushi of conger eel, Chinese lantern fruit, fruit fed sweet fish salted and dried overnight with boiled octopus, young corn, grilled eggplant with sweet miso sauce.

Clear soup with a steamed pike conger eel dumpling. Very tasty and the dumpling was light and fluffy. Those little bits floating in the soup are seaweed.

Tuna sashimi was next, it was meant to be yellowtail but they had run out so they gave us tuna. Any kind of sashimi is alright by us. The wasabi was super fresh and grated just before serving, a taste revelation!

Next up was our grilled dish of black cod baked in magnolia leaf, accompanied by edamame and ginger shoot.

Second last dish was rice cooked with barracuda and burdock along with miso soup. One of the best miso soups I have tried.

Finally seasonal fruit and green tea. Simple but refreshing end to a very flavoursome meal. Bright green Maple leaves seemed to be the garnish of the season

Now we have sampled all the food offerings available at the Park Hotel and they are all fantastic. Sometimes hotel dining can be a bit ho hum but we have enjoyed each meal we have had there.

Patek Philippe, ARIA and The Celestial Dance

It seems like all the stars have aligned this week as we found out we will be attending a Patek Philippe factory tour in September. To celebrate we decided to have dinner at ARIA. As an avid and passionate Patek Philippe collector for around 10 years, this was a welcome surprise. Vikki and I felt like we won a trip of a life time, that only fellow watch enthusiasts would appreciate the significance of.

The evening was crisp and clear, with a stunning full moon illuminating the night. We were also lucky to look up and see Venus and Jupiter doing their celestial dance and appearing close together even though they are hundreds of millions of miles apart. At first I thought one was a plane until Vikki remembered it was the celestial rarity that she had quickly read about on FaceBook. A rarity because most of the conjunctions between the two planets happen during daylight hours.

Enough of the stars, and on to dinner. We decided to have the pre-theatre menu, which offers great value. But first things first we had to choose a wine. After perusing the wine list we decided to have a 2009 Linnaea Rhizotomi Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. We like our Napa Valley Cabernets and this did not disappoint. Great flavour without being too heavy and a fabulous aroma which opened more during the evening.

A concise menu of 5 items per course, plus an entree extra, made choosing easy. After ordering, an amuse bouche of house made lavosh, topped with broad bean and ricotta purée topped with a little dot of lemon curd was presented to us. 

A waitress came with a basket of bread from which we both chose a sourdough roll (From Iggy's Bread) which was accompanied by salted butter and a black garlic and porcini butter (both from Pepe Saya).

Vikki ordered Yamba Prawns with smoked eggplant, pickled radish and finger lime (the entree extra). The prawns were roasted with the little bubbles of finger lime pulp and then stacked on the pureed smoked eggplant. Slices of pickled radish and herbs were placed around and on top of the stack.

I ordered Southern calamari with Iberico jamon, dashi custard, and shiitake mushroom tea. The dish was topped with an intriguing squid ink and tapioca crisp.

 Vikki chose the lamb rump, globe artichoke barigoule, green olives, eggplant and capsicum ajvar. Cooked medium rare, with the small amount of fat on top salted just the way she likes it. We also ordered our favourite side truffle mash, (mash potato finished with truffle oil) so creamy and delicious.

I ordered the Cervena venison loin and sausage, farro, parsnip, grapes  and rosemary. The parsnip came as a finely shaved crisp and puree. This was my first experience with farro on a menu and it is an ingredient I look forward to having again.

Initially we were only going to have two courses but we decided to go for broke and order dessert. Possibly not a good judgement call as we realised later. An interesting sounding tart caught Vikki’s eye and I chose the cheese plate.

The tart was caramel and cep,  accompanied with mandarin wedges and espresso ice cream. The tart had a good depth (about 2cm of filling) and was quite light. The flavour of the cep mushrooms was delicate but was not overpowered by the caramel. The mandarin gave a refreshing burst, and the espresso ice cream was enhanced with the addition of ground coffee, which gave it a bit of grittiness. Cracked hazelnut kernels and a hazelnut ‘soil’ finished the plate.

The cheese selection consisted of Munster and St Agur from France, La Luna from Holy Goat in Victoria and Manchego from Spain. The cheese was accompanied by crackers and fresh grapes.

 A plate of varied petit fours was delivered to the table and was duly consumed.

We practically waddled out the door into the chill night air and headed home.

And to round out a special day I had a delivery all the way from Scotland, a bottle of Laphroaig Cairdeas 200th Anniversary Whisky.