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2017-02-19
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Mon Dieu! The first time I had raclette was actually here in Hong Kong. I think it may have been at Weinstube, but I'm not sure. The second time I had it, and the first time I had all-you-can-eat raclette was in Geneva at a very corny touristy restaurant, where we also had fondue, and my wife (probably an "alternative fact") estimates that we ate 1lb of cheese each. That's of course what vacations are for, making you question your life-decisions during your non-vacation hours. Anyway, Mr. Chatte
The first time I had raclette was actually here in Hong Kong. I think it may have been at Weinstube, but I'm not sure. The second time I had it, and the first time I had all-you-can-eat raclette was in Geneva at a very corny touristy restaurant, where we also had fondue, and my wife (probably an "alternative fact") estimates that we ate 1lb of cheese each. That's of course what vacations are for, making you question your life-decisions during your non-vacation hours.
Anyway, Mr. Chatte has an all-you-can-eat raclette deal going. It's only on Thursdays and you have to book in advance. Seating is limited, but not quite as cramped as they make you believe when you talk to them beforehand. I don't know if the French in general like to lower your expectations before punching you in the jaw with something awesome, but that's how it played out here. There's no byob, but you can buy wines from the shop at their normal prices, and they're happy to chill them in ice water if you buy white. They have a wine from the region the cheese is from, if you're that big on pairing, and I can't recall the price for sure, but it's around $150. Water is free, but not sparkling water.
If you don't know what raclette is, let me fill you in. "Raclette" is a French word meaning "scraped." The dish is of Swiss-German origin, and, at least in Mr. Chatte's incarnation, involves a half-wheel of cheese, placed below a broiler. The top of the cheese is roasted and then scraped off onto a plate, and then you eat it with salad, potatoes, pickles, and meats. One thing that I love about Hong Kong is the endless amount one learns about cross-cultural communication. As difficult as I find communicating with locals sometimes, one thing that helps is that they are willing to see my crazy requests as crazy. French people always assume I'm rational and give me what they think I should want, rather than what I in fact asked for. Exhibit A: I kept asking for no potatoes, just cheese. You see, I had pegged potatoes as dead weight, what with my goal being to gain as much weight from cheese as possible, and wind up dead sooner. I never once succeded at communicating this idea. As the French say, oy vey.
The cheese is very good. If you've had raclette before, obviously it's like that. I like it better than fondue, it's nice and creamy and smells better, in my opinion. The potatoes are, as I've said, dead weight. I also think they're rather bland. They are meant to be covered in cheese, so that partly counts against their blandness counting against themselves, but *to be completely fair* fries meant to be covered in cheese are meant to be covered in cheese, and they aren't bland. The pickles are cornichons and pickled onions. They are relatively inconsistent: not everyone got onions and most of us asked for "more pickles" the second time around and got wildly different amounts. The meat was of three kinds: a French ham, a salami-thing, and a prosciutto-thing. The latter things weren't called 'salami' and 'prosciutto', so we had trouble articulating what we want more or less of (to be clear, they say you can have more or less of anything you like. This is true insofar as you can communicate).
All in all, this was one of the most fun meals I've had in HK. One time I did the eat-in-the-dark thing, that might have been more fun, and maybe the time I ate on a boat (not Jumbo!). But the staff is really nice, they're more-than-prepared for your personal decadence, seeing as they see sweaty-cheese-eaters on a weekly basis, and the wine just keeps goin' 'round. Everything I do or eat or meet at Mr. Chatte is great; it's the best part of the Frenchification of Sheung Wan and I hope they never go out of business.
張貼
