Further Mainlandization of Hong Kong

The mainlandization of Hong Kong continues with whole office buildings being snapped up by mainland companies.

Evergrande Real Estate has agreed to buy Mass Mutual Tower in Wan Chai from Chinese Estates Holdings for a record HK$12.5 billion. The happy seller? Joseph Lau Luen-hung, who snapped up the $48 million blue diamond for his little Josephine a day earlier.

On the same day as the Mass Mutal Tower sale, Chinese insurer China Life bought an office block tower with a two-storey retail block at One HarbourGate in Hung Hom from Wheelock & Co. for HK$5.85 billion.

Experts say this trend will continue as more mainland companies expand their presence in Hong Kong, snapping up office space in prime locations...

So it looks like we will have more mainland landlords... is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Economically Hong Kong needs the money, but in the long term surely this just accelerates the pace at which the city integrates with the motherland?

In the meantime, tensions between mainlanders and locals continue to simmer.

This afternoon I went to the Body Shop in Times Square to buy something before going back to the office and a young mainland man was shouting loudly and angrily at one of the staff there. She looked completely unfazed even though he sounded threatening.

He was already shouting when I arrived, and thought he would stop soon, but he kept on his tirade in a very demanding tone. Another staff person was trying to sell more things to me, but this young man's loud voice was so disconcerting that I almost left.

When I went to the cashier to pay, he stormed off, and it seems he was annoyed he couldn't get a discount on something he wanted to buy. A mainland woman who was shopping in the store apologized for his behaviour, but the shop assistant who was shouted at was polite and said it didn't matter, and that he only wanted to buy something that wasn't expensive.

Then this evening my friend and I went to Caprice Bar in the Four Seasons Hong Kong for drinks with another friend we hadn't seen in ages.

However a young mainland family walked in -- and the child was whining in Mandarin. We are in a five-star hotel where a room is over HK$6,000 a night and a boy is making loud noises in a bar.

The parents try to quieten him down, but he keeps going. When we were misbehaving, our parents immediately took us outside to make us quiet. But why is he allowed in a place like this?

Eventually they are seated in the restaurant where dandan mian is not on the menu.

I know that Hong Kong people can treat mainlanders badly, but the two above examples are bad form too.

Money is what drives our relationship, not mutual respect.

And as long as they keep throwing money at Hong Kong, staff will have to put up with outrageous behaviour, while the landlords -- more and more mainland ones -- will be raking it in... What do they care?

Stars in Their Eyes

International Director of the Michelin Guides Michael Ellis with Bibendum

Today the Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau 2014 was released at Hotel Icon and international director Michael Ellis was pleased to note the region was the first in the world ever to include three, three Michelin-star restaurants to the list in one year.

Joining stalwarts 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Lung King Heen was Sushi Shikon, a super exclusive Japanese restaurant in the Mercer Hotel in Sheung Wan, Alvin Leung's Bo Innovation and The Eight in the Grand Lisboa in Macau.

Caprice in the Four Seasons Hong Kong lost a star from three due to the departure of chef Vincent Thierry, and Ming Court went down to one also because its chef left.

Finally places like Petrus and Man Wah got their first stars, while Pierre gained another star to make it two, while favourite value-for-money dim sum place Tim Ho Wan's North Point location has gained a star, which may mean higher rents in the area as well as more customers.

But why are the restaurants in the Peninsula Hong Kong shut out? Why does Bo Innovation, which presents inconsistently-conceived fusion dishes gets three stars? And why do brand-new dining establishments less than a year old like Duddell's gets one star?

Ellis stresses the Michelin inspectors are looking at the quality of the ingredients, personality of the restaurant, preparation and flavours, consistency and value for money.

Some of the choices have Hong Kong foodies shaking their heads, while restaurateurs and hotel general managers are rubbing their hands with excitement, as Michelin stars means higher prices.

But should they really just be chasing the Michelin star status? Or should they focus more on serving their customers?

Gourmet Treats

All nine cheeses waiting to be savoured with passion fruit jam and bread

My friend Marc from Singapore is here for a few days and since he loves cheese, I thought I'd take him to Caprice Bar in the Four Seasons Hong Kong which has an amazing cheese selection.

As the bar doesn't take reservations we arrived just around 6pm and managed to get one of the prime seats looking over Victoria Harbour. It was great to see the ferries coming in and out of the terminals, while also seeing the digital display on the ICC building.

The main event was the cheeses and we chose the menu item "A little bit of everything". Caprice manager Jeremy Evrard asked us what our preferences were (goat cheese, soft cheeses, blue cheese) and then they were paired with three wines for Marc and a Riesling from Alsace for me that was crisp and had a lot of minerality.

After a bit of a wait our cheese platter arrived on a carved piece of wood and Marc was instantly transported to fromage heaven.

Evrard took time to explain each cheese for us, from left to right, telling us stories about each cheese, its provenance and a hint of each of their tastes. For example Pave de la Ginestaire and Le Colagne were from south west of France near Toulouse, both very creamy, though the latter didn't have much character.

The Prerail had a strong animal flavour from the sheep, and Comte (aged four years) was salty and complex that went well with white wine made like a Sherry to balance the flavour. We liked the Munster cheese, but to finish the platter, the blue cheese of Fourme D'Ambert had a clean finish -- creamy with a slightly harder texture, and the blue cheese taste.

The cheeses were complemented with a yummy passionfruit jam and an assortment of breads and crackers.

Needless to say Marc enjoyed the entire experience -- not only learning more about the cheeses, but also the pairings and savouring each taste. He would go back and forth between the cheeses, deciding which ones he liked best.

Indulging in seven flavours of macarons from Pierre Herme

After our fill of cheese, Marc felt we should have a bit of sweetness, so we headed to Pierre Herme for some macarons.

We were obliged to buy a box of seven for HK$210 and fill it with whatever flavours we liked. The array of macarons was so mesmerizing it was difficult to decide which ones to try.

In the end we chose: salted butter caramel; Mogador -- milk chocolate and passion fruit; green coffee and refined Bourbon coffee from Reunion; Envie -- vanilla, violet and blackcurrant; rose, lychee and raspberry; chocolate and smoked salt; and lemon and flaky hazelnut praline.

We took them home and they were safely, but they were packaged such that it was difficult to get the macarons out without ruining their shells! The shells were too delicate to handle -- we preferred if they were a bit harder and crunchier, but the flavours of each of them were unique and memorable.

Our favourites were Mogador with the strong passion fruit flavour, the black currant in Envie, salted butter caramel goes without saying, and the various textures in the lemon and flaky hazelnut praline. The green coffee did had a subtle coffee after taste, though we couldn't really taste the smoked salt in the chocolate one.

Marc had wanted to save a few macarons for the morning, but I couldn't wait -- why wait?! I couldn't imagine them lasting overnight in the fridge. So we finished them, enjoying every bite.