Yum Cha Chats: Gastro-touring in Asia with Gabriele Poso

Sunday’s are hard but can be made easier with unexpected delights — so here’s some fluff to get you through it. Inspired by a recent jaunt for dim sum with Miss Yellow in Hong Kong, allow us to deliver a new edition of Yum Cha Chats — which means let’s go eat dim sum and drink tea in Cantonese. The series will dig into the obscure and tasty 'fillings' you never knew about your favourite DJs and have nothing to do with music — every Sunday. Best enjoyed from bed…

Hailing from the beautiful coastal town of Lecce in Puglia, Italy, Gabriele Poso is a musician with plenty of humble bragging rights. From his profound work as a leading percussion-based artist to being one of the most sought-after session musicians for dance music and Afro-Latin music producers out there. His most recent album was taken on by BBE, and his dance floor hit with Osunlade ‘You Don’t Love Me’ is still a firm favourite amongst soulful house DJs. He’s toured Asia several times now, constantly being brought back to his ever-growing fan base in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali and Kuala Lumpur. When off stage, his vibrant energy is most noticeable around food and people, so for this week’s Yum Cha Chats, we sat down down him to take a gastro-trip down memory lane of his tours in Asia.

“Korea has to be my favourite country in Asia for food! From the BBQ to the kimchi, everything is so flavourful and so comforting. Mr Crab isn’t the most traditional compared to a lot of the other places I went to, but I would get taken here every single time I went back, so it became a regular thing. We would then go and wash down a big meal with tasty cocktails at Tongro, a really nice bar with smooth cocktails and live music.”

“I love spicy food! This was a late-night meal with my good friend and promoter in Hong Kong, Arun. We’d just finished my show at his venue MyHouse, and after a lot of dancing...and a lot of wine, we were starving. He took me to this roadside place where we had deep conversations over bowls of spicy fried rice till the early morning. It has to be one of my favourite memories of touring in Asia.”

“Singapore has this strong mix of Indian and Chinese culture, and it was just a spectacular experience for me. Of all the amazing things I ate, I have to say thanks to my good friend and promoter there, Ramesh Krishnan (from Tropika), took me to this special Chinese restaurant that was cosy with a nice family vibe.”

“A beautiful Balinese restaurant that surprised me because of the selection of Asian teas they had. The amazing company I had for this meal was even more memorable. There was a birthday amongst our group which included people involved in my show and some local musicians who became my close friends very soon after. The staff at the restaurant performed a beautiful, traditional Balinese birthday song for us, it was definitely a special moment to share with my Bali family!”

“A Spanish Yakitori bar is not something I would expect to come across in Kuala Lumpur, but wow, I was blown away! My friend Alison Christ took me here, who I first met in Hong Kong. We also tried Hana Kizakura Junmai Ginjo, which is a pink sake! They use yellow cherry blossoms to make this one, and I still remember it till today.. it was delicate and smooth, and I wish I could go back just for this stunning bottle.”