Great food and company

I just had one of the best birthday dinners ever, at Zuko, a new restaurant opened by an enterprising ex-colleague. It was good seeing everyone again. You could spout absolute nonsense and everybody would know what you were punning about.
Anyway, it’s worth checking the restaurant out for good Modern European fare. One of the chefs worked in Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen, and he was also part of the original Les Amis. You can find it along Upper East Coast Road, after the Starbucks and Gelare Cafe.
[Excuse my blurred photographs. As you can see, the 02 mini isn’t much use in dim light.]

He made an excellent foie gras, crispy on the outside and absolutely melting on the inside. Served on a bed of mushrooms.

I also sampled the scallops with spinach leaves and the seared tuna (above). Nice bits of chilli padi, if you like the spice (I do).

For the main course, I had the Hokubee beef, air-flown from Australia and reared by the Japanese, and if you bite into it (medium rare’s best), you can tell why. It’s leaner than Kobe, and much more affordable, but still quite succulent.

For dessert, I had the apple crumble and ice cream, good warm and cold combination. Even the crust was tasty. I sampled a bit of the tiramisu, which is the house special.
I also got what I wanted – strike 3 items off my Amazon wishlist! I had such trouble finding Sweetback’s Stage 2 at my usual haunts, That CD Shop and HMV, I was relieved that my ex-colleagues chose to give that to me. I think the video of Aya in the song, ‘Lover’, got me hooked despite the fact that most fans feel their first album was better.
Next is Erykah Badu’s Live album. First track, Rimshot, begins with a super-chilled out version of Miles Davis’s So What. Maybe I should let my band members hear this version before the concert! Great album.
Lastly, Thievery Corporation’s Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi. I loved their other album, Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi, a compilation of latin jazz tracks. A quick skim through Thievery Hi-Fi tells me that this album would fit well in Habitat (cool furniture chain I frequented in the UK). In fact, the track ‘Scene At The Open Air Market’ was used in a previous Flash intro of Wallpaper Magazine. At least now I know the name of the song!
My colleagues also got me Zero 7’s Simple Things remix album. I think I have to get used to this one. There are a lot of ideas in here, to soup up my own productions.