Anthony Bourdain, Mak's Noodles and Bordeaux, etc

George Washington slept there, yeah, so what! Lincoln and Douglas debated there, ok, whatever. Anthony Bourdain ate here! Now you've got my attention! 

Just across Leitghton Road from my hotel is a little hole in the wall noodle shop. Most restaurants and shops in this area are little hole in the wall kind of places. I had walked by it several times without giving it much attention. But today, after Skyping with Nancy and listening to her tell me about the risotto she'd had at Bacaro, and watching her eating sweet potato chips, I realized that skipping lunch had not been a good idea. Self, I said, we need some noodles. So, of we went to Mak's Noodles. I stopped outside the door to take a quick look at the menu and who stares back at me? None other than foodie icon and all around jerk/gift to mankind, Anthony Bourdain. Yes, the TV food guy my son says is most like me ate here. Well, if it's good enough for Anthony... 

I had the beef brisket and tendons with "dry" noodles, meaning not in broth, which is served on the side. What you see pictured above was about $50 HK, that's less than $6 US and was absolutely incredible. The Brisket and tendons were tender, without being dried out, the noodles toothsome and delicious and the broth was both meaty and herbaceous with hints of onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass all coming through. After polishing this off, I wanted to ask for the menu back to order something else, but as the only gui lao in the place, I didn't want to make a glutton of myself. Do you think they'll recognize me if I go back for dinner?  

After eating, I was taking a little exploratory walk around the area. I mostly wanted to find Yiu Wa Street, which I had read is a trendy little road (about a block and one half long) where young chefs are doing their own thing. I found it, and will be back to check a couple of places out before I leave. At the end of the street was a shop that was at least three or four times larger than most and the front window was filled with wine bottles. Of course I had to go in! Bordeaux etc is one of two shops owned by a local server programmer turned wine nut. He loves Bordeaux and Champagne, so has two stores, Bordeaux etc and Champagne etc. I'll let you guess what he sells in each. It just so happened they were doing a tasting, four reds, pictured above and one white, all, of course, Bordeauxs. However, it was made clear to me that some were left bank and some where right bank. Yeah, ok, I know that mean's something. I'll have to ask Nancy. The red's were nice, but subtle in that French way that makes me prefer Italian wines. But, the white, a 2011 Moulin De Gassac Sauvignon, was really wonderful, and I'm not usually a white wine drinker. The reds ranged in price from $315 to $1190 HK, at an 8 to 1 exchange rate, you can do the math, not cheap. The white was $108 HK. Lucky me, I like the cheapest one, so I bought a bottle.

The coolest part was that the guys in the shop were just so into the whole thing. I love passionate people. As we tasted, we sat around and chatted enthusiastically about the flavors, the pluses and minuses of French, Italian and California wines and whether sweet and sour pork is really Chinese food. They said it is, I said it isn't! They also were totally into all the cool wine accoutrement, decanters that coiled like snakes, corkscrews that looked like insane stick men, you get the picture.

Anyway, the afternoon was a wonderful break from a frantic week. Now, while my bottle chills, I need to write some visit reports and prepare for two meetings I have tomorrow (yes, on a Sunday). Did I mention I tasted five wines? And, that the guys at the shop apparently liked me because the pours for each got progressively larger? Maybe I'll take a nap before getting to those reports.