Tuesday, September 06, 2011

An exclusive sneak peek into LKF Festival of Wine..Robata Zawazawa

(**This is the epilogue of a long night: click HERE, HERE or HERE for the prologue and previous scenes**)


After having the delicious Italian and French courses at Goccia and La Perouse, we made it (still able to walk in straight lines after having so much wine, thank god) to Robata Zawazawa, literally around the corner along Wyndham Street, to enjoy our final pairing of dessert and cocktail. Ichi-ban!

 

Robata Zawazawa is in the same group as g.e., a 'progressive dining' restaurant at The Luxe Manor; a foodie friend of mine had also been at Zawazawa. Zawazawa means 'noisy' in Japanese and i guess that precisely depicts how the small bar would be like when packed; there are around 20 seats in the 2-storey place. 


It's also 'noisy' in terms of its decor; the wall at the back was bright red in color with Japanese patterns on it, and with the red lanterns hanging from the celling and Japanese acoustic music playing in the background, the place might not be good for romantic, private dates but perfect for a bunch (not too big) of close friends to drink, chat and laugh.


We were led to the bar area on the 2nd storey, our seats facing the robata station. After a briefing by Zawazawa's Kenji Sato san, we were to have our dessert - finally the last course of the night! - paired with a sake cocktail. Perfect!


Dessert: Houji-cha Pudding with kuro mitsu honey and pon rice pop
I love drinking tea, but one thing i hate about tea-based desserts is that they usually taste awfully diluted. I mean, if I were to eat something like a Green Tea cake, it's the genuine, strong, bittersweet, aromatic matcha flavour that I would be expecting. That's not always the case however, especially in Hong Kong where people have this mentality of adding a LOT of sugar to the dessert to suit the local taste. 


This pudding at Zawazawa, however, had not been tainted by the local mentality; the silky smooth and yet full-bodied pudding had a strong flavour of the Houji cha, it was so strong that you would thought for a second or two that you were actually sipping the tea instead of scooping the pudding; simply delicious, and what I like. There were also kuro mitsu honey and pon rice pop that you could add to the pudding; I like the wheaty and chewy texture of the rice pops, while the honey would be too strong and overwhelms the honji cha flavour in the pudding. The texture and taste were largely enriched if you eat the puddings and rice pops together in one bite, and i was more than delighted to find black sesame at the bottom of the pudding cup. A big credit to the pudding! :)

The hot tea they served was also worth noting as it was not very sweet, but it was aromatic and could cleanse your tastebuds very well, refreshing your soul - perfect after an busy evening of eating and drinking, literally around Soho.


Pairing Wine: 'Haku Bai' - Plum Sake Cocktail
There were actually two different cocktails but I only got to try this: the plum in the cocktail was a delight to chew and eat, while the cocktail might be more to the sweet side (with a little saltiness from the plum and the salt), it was quite strong and I couldn't manage to drink to much - I would have difficulties walking in a straight line had i finished the drink entirely! :P 


But it was simply delicious, so simple and yet so hearty and special with an Asian twist (using sake in the cocktail), and with that we concluded the night in the 'Zawazawa' way with chats, laughs and snaps with our cameras. Perfect!


A big thank-you hug again to ilovelfk.hk as well as Goccia, La Perouse and Robata Zawazawa for giving me this wonderful night, I was so happy to have met you guys and the other bloggers you invited. A busy night it had been, yet a wholesomely scrumptious (and tipsy!) one. Thanks!


So readers - thanks for reading my record(s) of the night. Remember I mentioned the free ticket to Festival of Wine that I mentioned in the Introductory post? How you're gonna win the $350/$400 worth ticket that allows you 8 wines paired with dishes around 10 participating restaurant is simple: send an email to panpansang@gmail.com stating your name, email and contact no, and ONE reason why you think you deserve the ticket. I will pick the one who explains in the best way, and the ticket is yours. Cut-off time: 12 midnight of 10th September, this coming Saturday. Blame me not if you email me for it would be disregarded. Remember: the Festival is going to be on 24th September from 2pm to 7pm.

For more information please refer to: http://www.festivalofwine.hk/

Robata Zawazawa
41 Wyndham Street, Central

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