Famous gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who wrote The Physiology of Taste (published in 1825) and has a delicious cheese named after him, is often quoted as having said: "The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star." In the same vein (although in reverse), the demise of a favourite restaurant can throw some of us into a deep depression that might seem extreme to those who are less interested in food. When the Manor Sea Food Restaurant, on Jaffe Road, in Causeway Bay, put down its shutters about two months ago, my foodie friends and I had hoped it was simply undergoing a renovation. A friend called to find out when it would reopen, but was told it had closed and that there were no plans to reopen in a new, perhaps less expensive, location. When he posted this on Facebook, none of us could believe it - it was so unexpected and sudden. I had eaten there only weeks before and Wendy, the manager, had not mentioned it was closing. On the Facebook thread, my friends and I wrote of the dishes served there that we loved and would miss: the eggplant with salted egg yolk; goose intestines with bean sprouts; the delicious suckling pig served in two courses (the crackling skin first, then the meat); steamed flower crab with chicken fat and rice wine; and - most importantly - our favourite version of gum cheen gai (gold coin chicken), which (at the Manor, anyway) is composed of char siu, roast chicken liver, a thin layer of pig fat and a layer of taro, all sandwiched between two steamed buns. The Manor was the restaurant I booked whenever I wanted to impress a visiting foodie. I've taken many food writers there, including Nicholas Lander and Fred Ferretti; cookbook authors Fuchsia Dunlop and Eileen Lo Yin-fei; chefs such as Mark Ladner, of Del Posto, in New York, and Pierre Hermé; food bloggers; and many other friends visiting from other parts of the world. It was one of the few restaurants I ate at so frequently that I had its number programmed into my mobile phone. The closure of the Manor means I need to find a new favourite Chinese restaurant to take out-of-town guests to. I also have to find out which dishes the restaurant makes best and develop a friendly relationship with the staff - at the Manor, they greeted me by name. I am game for the task, but I will always have a soft spot in my stomach for that Jaffe Road hot spot.
