On Lot 10

Last night, I had the chance to join a rather large group of foodies (including quite a few professional ones...) for dinner at On Lot 10. This place had been on my "to-eat" list for a while, and I had been eagerly looking forward to that dinner. Our friend who kindly organised the gathering gave carte blanche to the Chef (David Lai, aka Boss Man), with the exception of one item which we requested he squeezed somewhere in the menu: foie gras, of course, as this is one of the signature dishes. The place is rather small and quite pretty, and frankly I find it astonishing that the Chef managed to whip up such a feast in such a tiny kitchen! The whole meal was a faultless (and seemingly endless...) succession of classic French comfort food, sometimes with a slight fusion twist, and earned quite a few grunts of happiness from the animals around the table. Bones were grabbed with bare hands and gnawed at, prawn heads ripped apart by greedy teeth and mercilessly sucked clean, plates were mopped clean with fingers, and the last bit of juice avidly licked from predatory fingers (before you ask - yes, we only had adults at the table, and well into their 30s at that...). I shall certainly return to this wonderful little place to taste both the lunch and dinner options. Merci beaucoup, Boss Man, for all the happiness you gave us last night... chapeau bas.

Artichoke - anchoïade

.. and by artichoke I do not mean one of these tiny fancy purple artichokes or poivrades, no... I mean a good old solid and rustic globe artichoke, with chubby fleshy leaves and a chunky heart. I saw them landing on the table and I knew immediately we were in good hands.  These were accompanied by an anchoïade sauce, which had the creamy texture of a diluted mayo, and was pleasantly infused with the fragrance and taste of salted anchovies. I think I also tasted a faint garlic aroma, almost roasted or smoked. Delicious.

Breakfast radish - tapenade

Another point scored here. Long radishes like these are very typically French (other European countries tend to produce mostly the round red variety), so kudos for managing to source these in HK! (mission almost impossible, I tried...) They came with a home-made tapenade dip (which I think included some finely pounded fresh basil leaves and possibly other herbs) which was just delicious. I would however give an energetic kick up the backside to the commis who cleaned the radish (you are supposed to scrape off the little red skins around the stem, kiddo...). Yes I know, my fault-finding is exhausting...

The bread basket - cute and quite good



Tourteau crab

The meat from the legs and body had been perfectly removed (not a single bit of cartilage left) and added to the roe (which is not very fragrant, as is normal for this variety of crab), mixed with some spices and stuffed back in the shell.



Tourteau crab

The crab was served with tiny slices of crispy toasted bread for each of us to make their little tartines. The addition of chilli (or chilli sauce ?) to the crab meat gave a very pleasant kick, while some citrus provided a bit of fruity sourness to balance the sweet crab (I think lime or some very tart lemon, and possibly some orange - or was it grapefruit ??). Heavenly.

Fried baby croakers

Delicious, perfectly fried and yet not greasy, with a moist and tasty meat. Mind the bones though, not as "chewable" as one would think (one of them ended up firmly planted into the tip of my tongue... aouch - serves you well for grabbing the biggest fish on the plate, greedy Froggie...)

Salt-baked red prawns

Succulent, juicy prawns, perfectly cooked, very sweet and fragrant. Simple and beautiful. These were Spanish red prawns - we are still debating whether they belong to the gambero rosso family...

Rice birds, wrapped in poitrine fumée

Judging by the ecstatic reaction of the other guests, I would assume that this Chinese delicacy ranks about as high on the rarity scale as ortolans... These tiny little birds were wrapped in a thin slice of poitrine fumée (French smoked streaky bacon), which kept them moist during the baking process. You are supposed to eat the whole thing, head included (I chickened out on this one, don't do heads, sorry guys...) - the rest of the bird tasted delicious, with a very tender and slightly gamey meat and a pleasant foie after-taste (the insides, I suppose...). Quite a treat.

Home-made gherkins

On Lot 10 is the kind of place where even a humble pickle deserves some attention. These gherkins tasted very obviously home made. While slightly crunchy, they did not have this unnatural "raw" crunchiness that additives give to the mass-produced ones - same comment applies to the colour, which the absence of additives had made a darker shade of green. They tasted slightly saltier too, and had some very light fizziness on the tongue from the pickling process. These were so good that a friend and I split the 2 bowls on the table and had them packed with the leftover food.

Moutarde

I would swear it was a white wine version...

Pot-au-feu

How much more classic can you get as a French homestyle dish ?? This decadent version was made with beef brisket, ox tail, tenderloin, short ribs, ox tongue, goose meat and beef shank, with the addition of broiled marrow bones and goose foie gras. Delicious.

Gooseberry jam

One of the guests was just back from Taiwan and had brough back some delicious locally made jams. I tried the goseberry with the foie gras - delish. The jam had just the right balance of sweetness and tangyness and was pretty fragrant.

In true Froggie fashion, the pot-au-feu was served with the vegetables used to cook the meat, and the stock itself, which was intensely flavoured with the juices of the many different meats that had simmered in it for so long. This was lapped up in no time...

Japanese white peach, raspberry coulis, vanilla ice cream, roasted almonds

Fresh, fragrant, fruity - and light!! Just what we needed after such a feast. The giant white Japanese peaches were succulent - very sweet, extremely juicy, and intensely fragrant. What an elegant way to end a meal :-)