Food & wine
Sopexa, a French food and wine promotion company, will hold its annual French Wine Festival tonight and tomorrow in the Happy Valley Stand of the Happy Valley Racecourse. Guests can taste wines from more than 100 vineyards and chateaux in France. Tickets are $98, and include a $40 coupon redeemable on wine purchases of $120 or more. Ticket holders can also attend free seminars on the art of French winemaking. Tickets are available at the door. For information phone Haze Wong of Sopexa on 2866 7636 or Gladys Hau of Sategy Communications on 2881 5256.
Until the end of November, guests at Margaux restaurant at the Kowloon Shangri-La can enjoy wild boar, pheasant, venison and other game dishes. The game menu includes wild boar tournedos with Brussels sprouts and bacon and sage rosti on port wine glaze, venison loin with creamed sweet corn and galette potato on morel sauce, and warm salad of roasted quail breast with young asparagus and garden herbs in black truffle vinaigrette. For reservations call 2733 8750.
The Balcony restaurant at the Royal Garden Hotel is serving Singaporean cuisine, cooked by guest chefs from the Marina Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. The special dishes are available until November 25 and include laksa, chili crab, nasi lemak and fish-head curry. Call 2733 2033 for details.
Benoit Gouez, winemaker for Moet & Chandon, and Lau Chi-sun, editor of Wine Now magazine, will host a winemaker's dinner at Lippo Chiuchow Restaurant in Admiralty, featuring champagne paired with Chinese food. The three champagnes at the dinner are the Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial, the Brut Imperial Rose, and the Moet & Chandon Vintage 1995, while the dishes include a selection of warm appetisers as well as steamed fresh sea whelks with abalone sauce, king prawns in two styles with creamy sauce, and steamed whole garoupa with dried conpoy and black olives. The dinner on November 22 is $638; for reservations phone 2976 1212.
Zeffirino Ristorante at the Regal Hongkong Hotel in Causeway Bay will hold a special Antinori wine dinner on November 23. The six-course meal features red Trevisan radicchio risotto with duck breast and 'wine merchant's' sauce served with the Nobile di Montepulciano La Braccesca 1998, pan-fried beef tenderloin with porcini mushrooms, paired with Badia a Passignano Chianti Riserva Antinori 1998, and with the cheese course, the Sassicaia 1998. The dinner is $680 plus 10 per cent. Reservations are recommended on 2837 1799.
Portofino in Sai Kung has introduced a new Mediterranean-style Sunday brunch. For $195 plus 10 per cent the meal includes two glasses of sparkling Prosecco or house wine per person, or a pitcher of Mimosa or Bloody Marys per group of four. Guests can feast on soups, frittata or Spanish tortilla, breakfast-style pizza or focaccia, and choose from a selection of main courses. Call Portofino on 2791 5818.