Date Night @ HKK

On Saturday night my other half and I decided to have some us time and go for dinner. The chap is rather a connoisseur when it comes to good restaurants and he wanted me to try what he described as “the best peking duck ever”. A massive accolade but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and see if he was right. I got all dressed up in my Lipsy dress and new Swarovski necklace and was feeling pretty great! We headed to HKK in Worship Street.

We got into a cab and headed to East London. HKK is rather understated, there is no sign outside the door, the only thing giving it away is a pair of shrubs and a menu. The inside of the restaurant is also subtly and beautifully simple.

We had decided to go for the adventurous 15 course tasting menu along with a Full Flight drinks menu, both a first for me so I was rather excited as I was going to be trying red wines, which I am not a massive fan of but I was determined to learn to like good reds!

We started off with a cocktail each, Blue Wanda for me and a Rhubarb Margarita for him. Mine was made up of red grapes, Ketel One Citreon vodka, apple and lychee liqueur and prosecco. His was made up of Tapaytio Reposado tequila, rhubarb, lime, vanilla and Falernum liqueur, vanilla and chilli rim. I enjoyed my cocktail, but I have to say his was better!

We were then presented with our first drink for the first two courses, Nechi Otokoyama “White”, Ginjo from Japan. It is a type of sake. I’ve only ever drunk hot sake and that has only been when I have been rather inebriated so I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was pleasantly nice.

1st Course: Scallop salad and Shaoxing wine jelly

2nd Course: Roasted Poulet de Bresse, foie gras and mandarin confit

Our 2nd wine of the night for the next two courses was a 2013 Pinot Noir from Germany.

3rd Course: Double-boiled chicken soup with whelk and goji berry

Our waiter then came up to us and told us that our 4th course was being prepared in the middle of the dining room. We looked over to see a chef and another water preparing the Cherry wood roasted Peking duck!

The dish was then bought over to us and we were told that the chef recommended that you eat the duck skin dipping it in sugar first then eat the duck piece dipping it in sugar and sauce then eat the pancake. My chap wasn’t wrong, this course was fantastic, all the flavours just melted into my mouth.

It was about here that I was thinking that I wasn’t going to make it! 15 courses seemed like too much and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through it all. Our waiter sensed this and asked if we would like a short break which we both readily agreed to!

Once we were ready we were presented with a Bitter Fortune cocktail for our next course. Pink grapefruit, lime, Tenqueray No. Ten gin, Aperol, rhubarb liqeur, grapefruit juice and peach bitters

5th Course: A dim sum trilogy “art course”. We were given a paint brush to paint the soya sauce onto our dim sum. I can’t remember exactly what each were but my favourite was the white one which had lobster and caviar on top.

Our 4th glass of wine was a 2013 Rosa dei Frati from Italy.

6th Course: Grilled Canadian lobster with garlic and Parmigiano-Reggiano

7th Course: Garlic shoot, lily bulb and water chestnut

Our waiter then informed us that our appetisers were over! To cleanse the palate our 8th course was Da Hong Pao (a type of Chinese tea) with a Glutinous rice ball and custard layer cake. It was really yum and light giving us a good rest and allowed us to get ready for the remaining 7 courses!

We were starting to feel better about getting to the end of our monster 15 courses! Our next wine was a 2011 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru “Les Embrazees” from France. This became a proud moment for my other half who has been trying to teach a hapless me about wines our entire relationship and I finally recognised this wine as being a lot like a Mersault, his face lit up like a kid at christmas!

9th Course: Australian green abalone in royal sauce. I later discovered abalone is snails… another first for me as I had never eaten snails before since I can’t bear the thought of them but the dish was lovely! Who knows I may even indulge in escargot next time I am in France!