bc magazine

Megabites: Sushi Sei

Sushi Sei
There are a surprising number of restaurants in IFC, one of the more recent arrivals is Sushi Sei. Offering two quite different menus at lunch and dinner the food we sampled at lunch was fresh, full of interesting flavours and well presented. Head Chef Kaoru Mitsuhashi said his style was based around the traditional Edomae Nigirisushi.

In truth we’re not well enough versed in Japanese cuisine to comment on it’s authenticity, but beyond having a very enjoyable lunch we did learn two interesting things. We’ve been eating our sushi incorrectly for years, instead of picking a piece up and placing it in our mouths we should actually turn each piece so that the fish rather than the rice touches the tongue first so as to appreciate the subtle flavours of the fish before the rice dominates the tastebuds. Very obvious, when you think about it….

In many modern Japanese restaurants the rice is squashed tightly together making more of a block to bite into. Chef Mitsuhashi claims the traditional method is to have the rice loser and served warm so that it ‘crumbles’ in the mouth. Unsurprisingly this creates a completely different flavour experience, again allowing the flavour of the fish to remain on the palate longer.
Sushi Sei: Shop 2016, IFC Mall, 8 Finance Street, Central, Tel: 2387 3377

Megabites: 17 August, 2015 – Hattendo

The bridges from Wanchai MTR station to the Convention Centre almost 800m away are a solid heaving mass of sweaty humanity… and why not for what waits inside the HK Food Expo 2015 are discounts galore and a wide range of new food and drinks not yet (and maybe never to be) available in Hong Kong. Halls 1 and 3 of the Food Expo are the public halls, where new and old products are for sale at attractive discounts. Hall 5 is the trade/media closed to the public until lunch time on Saturday.

Within minutes of the trade hall opening to the public, there’s a crowd 10 deep surrounding the small Hattendo stand. These whipped cream filled buns are massively popular in Japan with shops recently opening in Korea and Manila. The bun is made from a blend of bread and cake mix and has a lovely soft feel and texture which never lets the creamy filling drip out. There’s a range of fillings custard, whipped cream, matcha, sweet bean and chocolate. In Japan, you’re only allowed to sell soft serve ice-cream in restaurants, but no such rules exist here in Hong Kong so take your regular Hattendo and fill it full of ice-cream. Delicious, hopefully we’ll see the first store open in Hong Kong soon! http://hattendo.jp/cream-buns

3 September 2015, One-off Public Holiday

An extra one-off public holiday on 3 September 2015 has been approved by Legco. Local lawmakers approved the controversial ‘political’ holiday a few months after Beijing announced that September 3 will be a holiday to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the World War II.

Lee Cheuk-yan of the Labour Party said: “It is sad to see that the Leung Chun-ying government must follow Beijing’s order even over a holiday.” While Dr Kwok Ka-ki of the Civic Party said: “It is a political holiday. It is a product of the bad relations between Beijing and Tokyo, and Beijing wants to make use of the opportunity to do something to embarrass and criticise Japan. If the Hong Kong government cares so much about Chinese history, why does it not designate the birthday of Dr Sun Yat-sen as a public holiday?”

While millions of Chinese died fighting the Japanese during World War II, China itself did not exist and the CCP itself did absolutely nothing to end the conflict. Japan surrendered unconditionally on the 11 August 1945 after the US dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

To create a new public holiday to celebrate the surrender seems nothing more than Beijing having a dig at Japan and looking to keep open wounds which the rest of the world closed years ago. To create a new holiday to remember the rumoured 14-20 million who died and the many millions more who became refugees would be respectful, but that doesn’t fit in the CCP’s China is great narrative which stirs the fires of patriotism when it needs to distract attention from a failure.

Asia Rugby Championship 2015: Japan 41-0 Hong Kong

Hong Kong didn’t win the war, leave alone the battles, yet head coach Andy Hall was pleased that his side had made progress by claiming “mini-victories” over Japan in the Asia Rugby Championship in Tokyo on Saturday.

“This was a much-better performance than against South Korea last week. We won quite a few mini-victories unfortunately we didn’t have enough of those mini-victories to affect the outcome,” Hall said.

Japan ran in seven tries and kept a clean sheet to register a 41-0 victory over Asia’s number two team, Hong Kong. After keeping their unbeaten record intact Japan stormed to the top of the three-team standings with 12 points. South Korea is second with six points while Hong Kong are in third place with two points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2cYH6a0Kc&feature=youtu.be

Japan v Hong Kong Highlights – ARC 2015 week 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui2cYH6a0Kc&feature=youtu.be)

All three teams have played two matches with South Korea travelling to Fukuoka, Japan for Round 4 next Saturday (9 May).

“We wanted a reaction from last week’s (poor) performance against Korea and we got that today. Unfortunately we didn’t have a platform to exert pressure on Japan. We didn’t win enough ball and when we did, we failed to keep hold of it. When this happens it makes life difficult,” Hall said.

Hong Kong, who began with lock Adam Butterfield making his debut, troubled Japan in the scrum but couldn’t hold their own in the lineouts allowing their opponents to dominate.

But it took 17 minutes for Japan to breach the line against a determined and dogged Hong Kong defence with winger Akihito Yamada completing a quickly taken tap to cross over by the left corner flag.

It didn’t open up the floodgates with Hong Kong slowing the game down cleverly in a stop-start affair resulting in a large crown of nearly 9,000 at the Prince Chichibu Stadium remaining subdued.

Japan led 19-0 at the break with two more tries from centre Karne Hesketh and lock forward Luke Thompson with fullback Ayumu Goromaru converting two.

Hong Kong lost openside flanker Matt Lamming to the sin-bin soon after the game resumed and in his absence Japan scored twice with centre Yu Tamura and Yamada completing his brace.

Midway through the second half Hong Kong was reduced to 14 men again when winger Charlie Higson-Smith failed to roll away from a breakdown. Japan again capitalised with No.8 Ryu Holani scoring from a five-metre scrum before substitute winger Yoshikazu Fujita completed the victory-march by dotting down near the right corner flag.

“We showed good intent today,’” said Japan head coach Eddie Jones. “But our handling let us down”.

Source: HKRTU; Editing: bc magazine

Suishou No Fune @ The Empty Gallery – 9 May, 2015

Emerging from the fertile Tokyo experimental scene centering on Setagaya based PSF records Suishou No Fune, who comprise Pirako Kurenai (guitar, vox) and Kageo (guitar), have been playing together since 1999. Their musical style is rooted in the post-war psychedelic rock of The Velvet Underground and Les Rallizes Denudes, while also calling to mind the sound of more contemporary “shoegaze” acts like Slowdive and Grouper.

Their name, which translates to “The Crystal Ship”, has its origin in a classic song by The Doors, and their sound also shares in that song’s sense of exquisite melancholy. However, unlike many of their contemporaries, Suishou No Fune manage to take the basic elements of “psychedelic” music appropriated by so many bands – long-form guitar jams, layers of shimmering feedback, heavily processed vocals – and forge a music which is at once utterly personal and evocative of the present. Although the basis of their music lies in Western rock, Suishou no Fune display a distinctly Asian sensibility in their melodic phrasing and use of aural space. Hearing their languidly swirling guitar melodies, bathed in fluorescent clouds of feedback, one is transported to a realm beyond time and space.

Suishou No Fune’s musical aesthetic is yet another example of the “Mono No Aware” popularized by authors like Murakami Haruki, but their music transcends the “Japanese-ness” of this aesthetic category to communicate something more urgent and universal. Like an aural analogue of Wong Kar Wai’s films, Suishou No Fune’s music poignantly expresses the feelings of futility, melancholy, and longing experienced by those living in Asia’s “modern” economies who must daily submit to life under economic and political stasis.

Suishou No Fune will perform a duo guitar set to open the evening, followed by a full set as a four-piece band with the addition of a bassist and drummer. Tea and snacks will be provided for all ticket holders.

Suishou No Fune
Date: 8pm, 9 May, 2015
Venue: The Empty Gallery
Tickets: $100 from www.theemptygallery.com/ticket
More info: live@theemptygallery.com

The Prince of Tennis 3rd Season Seigaku vs Fudomine – 7-8 March, 2015

2015 is the year for major musical productions adapted from original manga, which includes Takeshi Konomi’s Prince of Tennis. The musical adaptation, titled Tennimu, enters its third season this year and the musical centers on “Seigaku vs. Fudomine” story arc in the manga with tours of Taiwan and Hong Kong after a series of well received preview shows in Japan.

The Prince of Tennis musicals – also known as “TeniPuri Musical,” “Tenimyu,” or “GekiPuri” (Stage Prince) – are a series of live action stage musicals directed by Yukio Ueshima based on manga series The Prince of Tennis created by Takeshi Konomi and serialized by Shueisha in Weekly Shonen Jump. The musical premièred in 2003 and the first season featured 22 musicals and ran for seven years until May 2010. The second season finished in 2014 and Seigaku vs. Fudomine is the first musical of the third season. There’s a video digest of the first two seasons here www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtn8wtiJt9M#t=98

The Prince of Tennis uses the theme of scholastic tennis and centers on talented tennis prodigy Ryoma Echizen as he attends Seishun Academy. Echizen makes friends and rivals, but ultimately contemplates what the sport of tennis really means to him.

The Prince of Tennis 3rd Season Seigaku vs Fudomine
When:
7 March 2015 (Sat) at 1pm & 6pm
8 March 2015 (Sun) at 1pm & 6pm
Where: Jockey Club Auditorium, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Tickets: $500, $400, $200 from HKTicketing