Awa Awa
Awa Awa is a bustling bar and eatery on Peel street, serving up culinary delights and drinks from Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa. With influences from Chinese and American cuisine, expect dishes like taco rice and fish collar with sea grapes alongside pickled bites and the island’s infamous bitter melon. Awa Awa is no stranger to satisfying drinks given the region’s buzzing bar culture, with the team behind Sake Central alongside two other F&B veterans joining the venture for an international convergence of tastes and ideas. “The versatility and diversity of Okinawa cuisine is definitely a highlight – as such, it’s also underrated as it may not appear as focused from the outside”, says Elliot Faber, Awa Awa co-founder and also of Sake Central. The octopus salad is zesty and refreshing, seasoned with a sweet chilli dressing while pickled cherry tomatoes add a refreshing bite and Mozuko and Wakame seaweed bring brininess and oceanic flavour.
42 & 44 Peel Street, Central; awaawahk.com
Margo
Helmed by Chef Mario Paecke, Margo presents modern European fare imbued with bursts of German influence. This is Paecke’s first solo creative venture after formerly working as Sous Chef to Richard Ekkebus at Amber and then helming the kitchen at SOMM as Chef de Cuisine. Dishes at Margo are warm and comforting – reminiscent of hearty European fare, but elevated with thoughtful, creative twists. The Celeriac with Boudin Noir & Ercolini Pear is exemplary of this, paying homage to a typical German countryside dish called Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth), updated with Paecke’s innovative touch. While the traditional German dish features black pudding, fried onions, mashed potato and applesauce, Paecke’s version sees sliced and pan-fried celeriac used as a base for the boudin noir, a French-style blood sausage, and embellished with Ercolini pear which has been preserved in-house with sugar and a dash of vinegar. The resulting dish is savoury and complex from the boudin noir, while celeriac and pear add a textural crunch and balanced sweetness and acidity.
Shop 6, 9 Queens Road, Central; margohk.com
Chuan
Chuan promises “authentic traditional Sichuan cuisine”, with Executive Chef Yip Yuen Leung and Deputy Executive Chef Chi Kwong Lee leading the way with 20 years and 17 years of experience in Sichuanese cuisine respectively. Using primarily locally sourced ingredients alongside imported Sichuanese peppercorn, the duo bring a fresh taste of Sichuan with heightened dimension and complexity. “A notable difference between Cantonese and Sichuanese is the mouth-numbing (麻) quality. This, combined with spice, is what brings that captivating, addictive taste.” The prawns with pepper in casserole is a more unconventional Sichuan dish – certainly less recognisable than Sichuan boiled fish (水煮鱼), the Sichuan style stewed dish dowsed with heavy handfuls of red Sichuan peppers and chilli oil. Instead, the prawns are fried and then engulfed with white Hainan peppercorns, resulting in fragrant prawns that are all at once hot, spicy and flavourful, with crunchy prawn shells giving way to tender meat.
Shop 1102, Food Forum, Time Square, Causeway Bay; @chuanhongkong
Photography: Samantha Sin
Styling: Ella Wong
Editor
Carina FischerCredit
Lead image: Photography by Samantha Sin with styling by Ella Wong
