25 best food things in 2016 - Hong Kong edition

Oyster tartare at Belon

I started with 31 and tried really hard to cut back to 20 as I normally do, but this year, I've included some things that I think are worth noting that aren't specifically dishes, but definitely worth talking about, so cut me some slack! Promise I won't go over 25 next year! 

1. Belon, especially the bread and oyster tartare
2. Serge et Le Phoque
3. Kin's Kitchen, especially the Yi O collboration
4. Godenya
5. Gaddi's Chef's Table
6. Yardbird's rice cakes, and new cocktails from the Okinawa collab
7. One Harbour Road's steamed toothfish with preserved vegetables
8. Beef Bar
9. Samsen, especially the Son In Law eggs
10. The Bottle Shop Central's pandan pancakes
11. Second Draft's flower crab noodles
12. Cobo House's desserts
13. Caprice bar, especially Nicolas Lambert's desserts
14. CRFT-PIT's pecan pie
15. Kaum
16. Pak Loh Chiu Chow's mooncakes
17. Cookieboy peanut butter cookies
18. Grom
19. Redback Peel Street Espresso Bar
20. Seafood Room rooftop bar, my top pick for visitors these days 
21. Buenos Aires Polo Club's sidecar
22. Camp cooking on wood fires
23. Green Common's amazing expansion
24. Online shopping: Cork Culture, Coffee & Tales, Ztore, HKTV Mall, Sunday's Grocery
25. Pop-up culture: The Landmark Mandarin Oriental's pop-ups, The Mandarin Oriental's Cafe Central collaboration, Birds and Bubbles' fried chicken and biscuits, Filipino feast by Cross Cultures, Roca brothers' visit to Hong Kong, Test Kitchen

Addendum: Hong Kong restaurants and bars I have been to more than once in 2016.

I mentioned in my blog post about Kin's Kitchen that I'd been thinking about which restaurants I've been to more than once this year. As my job is to try as much as possible, choosing my own meals is actually less common than you'd think (hard life, I know). Here's the list. It's not a list of this years' "favourite" restaurants per se - some I've been back to simply because of convenience, for work, friends' and family's choices, or, indeed, because I like them. I guess I'm just using this as a notepad for myself...

Kin's Kitchen
Mercato
Hoi On Cafe
Shui Kee
For Kee
Lin Heung Kui
Caprice Bar
VEA
Kaum
Beefbar
Le Bistro Winebeast
FCC bar
Foxglove
Spring Moon
Maison Libanaise
Okra
18 Grams
Peel Street Espresso Bar
The Cupping Room
The Globe
Seafood Room (rooftop bar)
Buenos Aires Polo Club
The Envoy