Willy Trullas Moreno is the sparkplug that brought the Diage Happy House to life. He swiped the serious "el" of "" to graft to his name and create the casual "", his wildly popular Spanish restaurant on the first floor of the Diage house. In the last year, he's opened a related restaurant in Hong Kong, Fofo, and helped give Shanghai what many consider its best cocktail bar, the Spanish-Japanese hybrid, . Moreno keeps one foot in the Shanghai's Spanish community, one in its Japanese community, and both arms swinging around while he talks at lightning speed -- you know?
Here, he tells me about five things he's liked recently.
1. Cocktails
I like the cocktails from , in Gubei Lu. You know, it's a bar called The Untouchables? It's this Japanese bartender -- you know, shaved head, and everything. I like the classic cocktails, man. And the fresh fruit cocktails, you know, they have several fresh fruit ones that I like. Couldn't tell you specifically the name, you know, but they have a lot of fresh fruit cocktails, and the classics, they are very good. They do classic cocktail making. I mean the place is just, like, it's like a bar in Japan, you know, but the product is very good -- from my point of view. It's not a cheap place, but to be honest, I don't know exactly the price, you know, but I think, the prices there are above for the drinks... But I really like the product there, man. The classics, martinis, all that stuff, they do it very well. The look of the guy, you know, the main guy with the shaved head? He's a very good bartender. Good product.
2. Brownie
I really like the chocolate brownie from the , from . They use very good quality ingredients, and the brownie's very well executed... very unique. Very creamy. I like the coating outside that's got like, this ganache that is shiny, it's very creamy inside, and it's got a little bit of crispiness. I don't know if it's like this type of..... ? How do you say that? You know, that is like crispy little layers inside? Very, very nice. But I mainly like the quality. Of course, it's not the typical brownie, with the typical nuts and stuff, and a little bit dry inside -- no, it's shiny on top with the ganache, and very creamy, and a little bit with the crispiness inside. And I really like the quality of the chocolate. He uses very good chocolate....
3. Smoked Egg and 'Smoked' Fish
I really, really like, from , the smoked egg with a little bit of caviar. I know that dish was also in the but that guy over there -- I mean, I've only been one time -- but over there [at Fu 1088] it's really good. It's a creamy yolk inside, very nice and smoky, with some casual caviar, you know. I really like that, man. Really, really like that. I also like from there, the 'smoked' fish with the sweet sauce -- the sugar, with soya, very Shanghainese... You know which one I mean, right? They do it very well there. That's very nice, man. I really like those two dishes there, very much.
4. Black Truffle and Pork Xiaolongbao
We go alot to for the dumplings, man, it's comfort food, man, but I think it's a great place. I really like it. Kinda like a fast food, or semi-fast food. I really like it, and I really like the pork and truffle xiaolongbao. They're pretty good, man. For being a semi-fast food place, it's very... more than good, I think. It's Chinese truffle -- of course it's not the same flavor you get if you use a real truffle, but it's good.
I know the guy that did that, the first time I tried that, was, um, this Singaporean guy at -- Justin Quek. His are much better, you know, more powerful and stuff, but those, man, for like kinda semi-fast food place, it's good. Me, I like Din Tai Fung, man. I think it's a great concept. I think it's a great scaled business of F&B. I think they do a great job, these people... And the food quality is very consistent, very consistent. Bap, bap, bap, bap, bap!
5.
You know that ? So on the back of it, on the same complex, you know, there's that they open til like one-thirty or two am. It's good to go for very late sushi, man, you know. It's a Japanese sushi guy, super crazy guy. In the same building (as Obama) but on the back, the same building, exactly the same. Maybe, like, fifteen to twenty seats, you know, it's like a long bar, and a little room there. It's the same guy that used to be the sushi chef of Sushi King before. It's a Japanese guy, a little bit long hair, like, very crazy -- super insane, the guy -- used to be the chef of Sushi King. Sushi King used to be in Hongqiao, now it's an izakaya place -- it was quite ok, actually.
But it's the good place to go for sushi til like one-thirty, two am, the guy's got uni, he's got toro, he's got eel, he's got akagai, he's got all the proper stuff. I mean, it's not the best sushi in your life, but it's good, because you can go to a place that they make you proper sushi -- let's put it that way -- and until late at night, you know. We order a lot of eel, a lot of uni, a lot of tuna, some tuna belly, a couple bottles of white wine, so we pay like, around, 6-700 [per person]... Five-plus, for sure, you know... So, I mean, it's not cheap, but of course you pay for the fish. I mean, it's not the price from upstairs [], but it's not cheap. He's got some Japanese fish. Not all of it, but he's got some stuff from Japan. He had some fresh fishes from Japan, from the season and everything. You know?
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