Straddling the East
and West as we do in Hong Kong, you get pretty pro when it comes to celebrating a new year. At the start of the month we all tipsily toasted the
start of the new Gregorian calendar year and now as we slither towards the end of
the Year of the Snake and canter into the Year of the Horse, we’re merrily looking forward to welcoming the start of the Chinese New Year.
Of course,
the end of January will also be our cue to raise a glass to Tet in Vietnam and
Seollal in Korea. And then before we know it, it’ll be April and we’ll be
busy ringing in Sonkran in Thailand, Thingyan in Myanmar and Chaul Chnam
Thmey in Cambodia…
Frankly it’s impossible to keep up. Which is why we’ve cunningly devised
a calendar of our very own… A calendar based around what we’ll be filling our glasses with when we toast each of the many anniversaries filling up our
diary… The Great Booze Calendar.
Last year was the Year of the Gin (Origin and G&T opening within a
couple of months of each other can only be down to Hong Kong’s
collective thirst for the juniper juice). And this year is… drumroll please… The
Year of the Sherry.
Yes, you heard right, sherry’s shrugging off its granny shawl for 2014,
and will be filling up the glasses of all the most beautiful people around
town. Of course Michelin-starred Jason Atherton, and Entrepeneur
extroaordinaire, Yenn Wong, are ahead of the rest of us on this one, and have
just unveiled the perfect spot to get your sherry fix, the very aptly named Ham& Sherry…
Set a few doors down from its elder brother, 22 Ships, Ham & Sherry looks
perfectly at home on uber-cool Ship Street decked out as it is in a patchwork
of blue and white tiles and mirrored walls wrapped around a large stainless
steel open kitchen.
The menu is pretty Sherry heavy, with over fifty types to work your way
through, complemented by a short but sweet selection of tapas to soak up all
that fortified wine. If you feel slightly overwhelmed leafing through the weighty
tome of Sherries, fear not there’s a super helpful section which neatly guides
you through the list. We figure finding your perfect Sherry is sort of like
finding your prince, if at first you kiss a frog, try and try again, we
guarantee Mr Charming is just around the corner (ours is the super slinky La
Cigarrera Manzanilla FYI…).
While there’s just a handful of tapas dishes to nibble while you sup your
sherry, food definitely isn’t playing second fiddle here. Just think of the Ham
& Sherry menu as a carefully curated selection of Spain’s Greatest Hits.
All the big boys are represented, think: Paella Arancini (chorizo-spiked balls
of risottoey heaven), jamon and goats cheese croquettes, salt and pepper baby
squid and bright green, salty, fried padron peppers. Oh, and did we mention the
ham?! Sherry’s soulmate, the salty, buttery Jamon provides the perfect partner
to your tipple. We can’t get enough of the 48 month-aged Jamon Iberico de
Bellota, and the Chorizo and Lomo and pretty great too.
Sherry got you revved up and ready to party like it’s 1999? Maybe mention
to your friendly waiter that you’d like to shake things up with a little
something in the Back Bar... We’ve been sworn to secrecy so we’ll leave it at
that, but rest assured you’ll leave a few hours later feeling like all your New
Years have come at once…
Ham & Sherry
1-7 Ship Street
Wanchai
Hong Kong
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