China

Monday, 23 March 2015

Pork Belly - Popo's way

Pork belly has become increasingly popular in recent years particularly with the new generation of youthful foodies who are not cholesterol shy.   I recall from when I was growing up in Hong Kong that the best kind of pork belly was the "five layered belly" (五花腩) and this was especially a treat when you saw this cut on the roast pig sitting in the BBQ shop window.  These days, it's not as difficult to find this cut in North American supermarkets as it was 30 years ago.  When my mother (my children called her Popo) made braised pork then, she was stuck with pork shoulder if she wanted skin.  Now we have the luxury of choice.

I was thrilled to find a perfect sample of this "five layered belly" at the supermarket the other day - skin, fat, meat, fat, meat in five thin layers.  The way I cooked it is a combination of my mother's method and Mr. A's method of using Le Creuset in the oven.  My mother would let the pork braise on the stove for a couple of hours, turning it every half hour or so and in general fussing over it.  Mr. A's use of Le Creuset is more streamlined.

Start by dipping the pork in dark soy to colour the skin.  Then brown the skin in a heavy pan over medium high heat. Remove from heat when slightly brown.  Pour off any pork fat that has been rendered.  Heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil in the Le Creuset pot and sauté garlic and a large chopped up onion.  Add red bean curd for flavour.  

Red bean curd comes in a ceramic jar as you can see below and easily available in Chinese markets in North America (and yes, even in San Jose). One and a half squares of this red bean curd, mashed up with a little bit of sugar added would be sufficient for this piece of pork belly.  Finally add high quality fermented soy sauce, dark soy and rock sugar. When the mixture is boiling add pork belly. Put the covered pot in a 300 degree oven for approximately two hours.  Flip over the pork belly at the half way mark.  It's done when you can easily insert a chopstick.  

For cholesterol shy people, cook the pork belly the day before so you can peel of that solid layer of fat over the sauce the following day.  Like most braised meat, the pork belly tastes better overnight.

"Five-layered" pork belly

Dipped in dark soy

Red bean curd

Braised in Le Creuset pot

The finished pork belly - five layers still visible

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Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Memories of Macau

The most memorable food experience I had in Macau was having the good fortune of tasting the best Portuguese tart ever.  We were doing our own walking tour of Macau and basically followed our noses to this bakery.  It was not in a touristy area, just on a side street we happened to be walking along but I smelled it a block away.  And when I paid for just one to try, it turned out to be the best I'd ever tasted.  Could be it's hot and just out of the oven, could be that I was hungry, but I've never had such flaky pastry and the custard centre with exactly the right consistency.  I gobbled that one up on the street and bought another one to take with me to wherever we were going to eat lunch.  Then on the return trip on the way to dinner, I bought another one.  I was surprised that I didn't get indigestion from all this indulgence!  The store called itself a "bread specialty" store, an unusual name for a bakery in this part of the world and the closest thing I could think of was "artisanal" - which indeed it was.  By the time we got to Senado Square where there were lots of Portuguese tarts but no enticing aroma, I knew I didn't need to try them - they just didn't look as good as this one.

The store was on Rua do Padre Antonio, for anyone who would like to find it

Much of this trip was for us nostalgic and the almond cookies from Macau were fond childhood memories.  The local bakeries had taken advantage of this general nostalgia and created a store with a history display of the evolution of the cookie.  Lots of food sampling - in fact, we tried so many we didn't have to buy any!  The  best was still the almond cookie with almond chunks in them.

Beef and pork jerky galore

We walked off most of the calories from all these samplings so there was still room for dinner.  This was at a small cozy, purportedly authentic Portuguese restaurant A Lorcha - fish cakes were good but the best was the grilled sardines. The "Portuguese" chicken was okay.  It was a fine end to a long day.  SeeTravelswithrarecat for the rest of our day.

Fish cakes

Grilled sardines

"Portuguese" chicken

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Eating in Hong Kong 2 - Updated Sichuan and nostalgic food

We hardly ever ate Sichuan at home but the day after we arrived in Hong Kong, a friend took us to Yun Yan, reputedly the best Sichuan food place in Hong Kong.  The updated Sichuan style food was indeed very tasty and there were a couple of things that were new to us.

This is a famous traditional dish  燈影牛肉 "Light filtering beef" being a rough translation and self-explanatory.  The beef was so thin light filtered through.   It must have been baked and fried among other things but it was delicious - crisp, crunchy but still retaining the meat texture and flavour, a real treat and a great start to the excellent lunch. 

We've had pork dumplings before of course but never had them "injected" with soup at the table.  A fun novelty dish but also quite "sensational" - I guess the "injection" ensured the meat was swimming in soup and the first bite into the dumpling was an explosion of sensations.

It was a bonus too that the restaurant is in a glitzy mall in Times Square, Causeway Bay - us country bumpkins were gawking at the longest mall escalator ever and the curved escalator, another first for us.

This visit to Hong Kong was partly a nostalgia trip with the accompanying search for nostalgic food.  One of my childhood memories was weekend trips to the New Territories, Fanling in particular where one of my dad's friends owned a photo studio.  This is where we regularly took our family photos.  On the way to Fanling, we always stopped at Luen Wo market and ate at a food stall there that served supposedly the best fish balls.  The old Luen Wo Hui market was no longer open but we found this fish ball place which had a name close to the one in the old market - 水上人魚蛋粉 "Boat Dwellers Fish Balls"   The fish balls were very good,  fluffy but with texture, and the fried fish skin was so crunchy and tasty  we couldn't stop at one order - afterall, fish skin is healthy food, discounting the oil it's fried in...  It's also surprisingly not greasy!

After we finished the fish balls, we crossed the street to the famous 群記 Beef Balls and Pork KnucklesShop.   It was jam packed with both locals and non and there was quite a lineup.  We were lucky to get a table.  I didn't find the pork knuckles particularly flavourful but it's possibly because we were already full with the fish balls and skin. 

Pork Knuckles

I believe I'm not the only one chasing nostalgia.  The restaurants must be catering to a whole generation of boomers who are at that stage of their lives.  Deep-fried shrimp toast, which used to be popular on restaurant menus when we were growing up but disappeared with the healthier food trend, reappeared on some restaurant menus.  Twice on this trip, we were invited to try this "unhealthy" but yummy dish. - the challenge was of course in deep-frying the toast without allowing it to get soggy with oil.  Dish below was served at the Securities Institute Club House, members only.  And like the rest of the food there, well-prepared and tasty.

This brought up another trend I noticed - "club" dining.  Different institutions run thriving clubhouse members only restaurants downtown, usually with excellent food and attentive service, which together with their exclusivity made them special for their regular customers. The two we were invited to were both packed on weekday evenings.  The other one was the Ning Po Residence Club restaurant, exclusive to members whose ancestors were from Ning Po, China.  

The pork aspic and the "drunken" chicken were two of my favourite dishes.  The pork aspic, in particular, was reminiscent of the ones my mom used to make for Chinese New Year.

The search for the past continued with a trip to Lamma Island, where I used to hike with my dad always finishing up with a good seafood meal on one side of the island or the other.  The memory of  poached fresh shrimp remained vivid all these years, including what fresh shrimp should look like (see below).  It was also an interesting process, the search for the right restaurant to eat at.  They all posted their prices on the tanks of seafood but when you started talking to them, they would offer special deals depending on how busy they were.  We had crab, shrimp, abalone and squid - all fresh-tasting as we were eating beside the fishing boats.

Fresh shrimp, with the head shell removed should have the skin over the "neck" in tact.  It was quite a sensation biting into this almost slightly bitter part of the shrimp when it's fresh.

We also headed to the south side of Hong Kong island to check out old haunt Stanley and was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful Blake Pier moved here from old Central.  Even more of a surprise was the King Ludwig Beerhall in Murray House where we had lunch.  The pork trotters here tasted even better than the ones in Berlin - and they were huge.  

One trotter was more than enough for two and tasted great with German Bier.  

Next post:  Eating in Hong Kong 3 - Private Room Dining, this time, it's the real thing!

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Sunday, 14 September 2014

Eating in Hong Kong 1 - Stumbling into Michelin

I am a little leery of talking about eating in Hong Kong because it is almost impossible to do justice to the topic in a few lines or even a few posts.  But I would just approach it from my own limited experience in the two weeks we were there.  There were restaurants at every corner and they could go from very cheap to very expensive within that block, with not necessarily corresponding quality.  In general though, the food was good but not cheap. This was particularly noticeable after we've spent the previous two weeks eating in Vietnam, one of the most incredibly inexpensive travel destinations we've ever been to apart from Cambodia. 

According to Open Rice, the 2014 Michelin Guide to Hong Kong restaurants listed 62 starred restaurants, including five 3 stars and thirteen 2 starred restaurants.  In addition, there are 69 "Bib Gourmand" restaurants listed and explained as "good value" restaurants.  We were quite surprised when without looking for any, we stumbled into three of these on our last weekend in Hong Kong when we stayed in Sheung Wan, just west of the Central district.  Since we only had three meals that weekend, we could say we dined Michelin at every meal.  What a scoop!

The Sun Yuen BBQ Restaurant (新園燒臘店) - hardly a restaurant, rather a takeout place with a few tables.  I had scouted out the place in a walkabout earlier in the afternoon and tempted by the BBQ goose in the window had thought we'd come back for dinner.   Unfortunately by the time we showed up for dinner, they were sold out of both geese and ducks.  It seemed that you have to book ahead if you really wanted one - that's how busy they were.  We had to settle instead for soy sauce chicken (done just right) and booked half a goose for the following evening.  

It would have been interesting to compare it to the one we tried at Yung Kee Restaurant which we visited the day we arrived.  The Yung Kee goose did not disappoint - it was very juicy and tasty with crispy skin (you can see the evidence below).  But the price was exorbitant and that may be one reason why the restaurant had been dropped from the Michelin list - no longer a "good value".  It had also reportedly fallen out of favour with the locals.  

Yung Kee goose (half) served on a white plate...

Brunch the following day was at nearby Lin Heung Tea House (蓮香居). I remembered this restaurant from my childhood and thought I'd just visit to see what is was like.  I was surprised to see it on the Michelin list.  While it was a bit of a novelty for me to see how they have maintained the old style restaurant with communal tables, a separate big bowl at the table for customers to rinse their cups in hot water, waiters walking around with a large kettle of hot water - the food was not particularly good.

Be prepared to share a table, no questions asked

Interesting table with shelf underneath for the cup rinsing bowl and newspapers.  The man we shared the table with was a regular who came for brunch every day.  It was an interesting cultural lesson to hear his social commentary, but I wouldn't do that every day...

A short block from Sun Yuen, we came across Chan Kan Kee Chiu Chow Restaurant (陳勤記) famous for its brine-cooked goose and yet another Michelin recommendation.  Since it was slightly more comfortable than Sun Yuen, we cancelled our BBQ goose reservation at Sun Yuen and ate here instead.  The goose was very good as was the fried oyster pancake, the latter a little on the greasy side.  It was a good enough meal for our last day in Hong Kong.

Earlier on our trip, we were wandering around Mong Kok district in Kowloon at lunch time and found ourselves looking into the window of this one specialty restaurant, likely a gentrified former street food stall - Superior Rice Roll Pro Shop (第一腸粉專賣店) - another Michelin recommendation although that was in 2012.  

The steamed turnip pudding, one of maybe ten items on the menu, was very "turnipy" and tasty

The rice rolls, their specialty, were perfect - just the right thickness and texture.  They came with different kinds of stuffings, some of them quite unusual.  Their house specialty, preserved vegetables and pork stuffing was a little too salty.  But the greens and mushroom stuffing was very good. 

And here's the chef!   

Each roll individually steamed, rolled and stuffed.

We didn't try the Three Stars L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon but checked out their café.  The almond croissant was marginally better than the one at the Mandarin café but still not as good as the one at thePatisserie la Cigogne in Toronto.  The Patisserie has the distinct advantage of being only a 20 minute drive from my house and I could time my arrival with the almond croissant's emergence from the oven - you've guessed it, I made a special trip this morning to get mine, and was it ever the best!

Pastries at the Café Robuchon

Next post:  Eating in Hong Kong 2 

Friday, 19 September 2014

Eating in Hong Kong - Private Room dining

I wrote about a private room dining experience in Toronto a while back and it sparked some discussion among friends about this increasingly popular trend.  This spring, when I went to Hong Kong, I was shown what private room dining is really like in this foodie heaven.

Celebrity chef Jacky Yu runs a few private dining rooms in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The one we visited, Xi Yan (囍宴), was somewhere on the road to the south side of the island in a sketchy industrial unit which was quite deserted and dark by the time we arrived.  This seemed to be typical of private dining rooms as they probably need to take advantage of cheaper rents in these areas.  We climbed a few stairs and the whole ambiance changed - we were in a warm contemporary dining room that I could see would be great for a private party.  It was almost like eating in one's own home.  In this instance, there was another larger private party but they were in another room and completely secluded. 

Jacky showing us the dining room

The menu (translation in sequence below), custom ordered by our gracious hosts.

We started with three appetizers -

"Drunken" Jumbo Mantis prawns - the wine enhanced the shrimp flavour without overpowering it - nicely done!

Crispy "light-filtering" lotus root slices and fish roe over perfectly seared scallops - the lotus root was garnished with crab roes, Canadian uni and chopped black truffles - my mouth is still watering when I think back on the complex toppings

Bitter melon peel with pepper, sesame, among other things together with a pretty intense sauce. It's the first time I tried bitter melon peel - love it!

"Saliva" chicken - don't know why the name but the chicken is suitably crisp, the way it's supposed to be and the sauce went well with it.  Notice also all the other ingredients in the dish - what a refreshing combination of tastes and textures!  

Steamed crab with coconut egg white sauce which perfectly highlighted the tasty crab meat

Giant grouper belly (very tender) steamed with black garlic and ham.  The dried orange peel really gave the dish a distinct flavour.

What a delicious soup!  And look at the ingredients:  chicken, pork bones, arrowroot, peach, sweet dates, black fungus, polygonatum (玉竹),  almonds, ginger, and snow fungus!

Love this dish - okra and baby oysters with dried shrimp in a broth.  I didn't know that okra could taste so good (it's very fresh).  This is something I am going to try and do at home.

My thoughtful hostess knew I have a craving for almond sweet soup - this was a perfect ending to a perfect meal.

What I really enjoyed about this meal (other than the company) was the very unique dishes. It introduced me to new tastes and combinations of textures as it is not the usual fare you encounter in regular restaurants.  Add to this the creativity behind the design of the dishes and the care taken in their preparation down to the minutest detail, it made for a very special meal. Highly recommended!

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Saturday, 18 May 2013

A Custom Non-traditional Chinese banquet (私房菜)

Typically, banquets at Chinese restaurants have set courses that are pretty standard - two first courses with seafood, shark's fin or other seafood soup, chicken, lobster, fish, rice and noodles.  Some restaurants are willing to prepare custom dinners made up of non-traditional courses with special orders.  And you would order that if you want to try some specialty dishes that you wouldn't normally be able to try if you don't have enough people at the table.  So you organize a group (ten is the magic number) and place a special order for a 私房菜, literally translated as "private room/home dinner".  Historically, the "private home" would sometimes be the home of the cook and not necessarily in a restaurant.*  We did this at Delicious Restaurant, a very small restaurant with only 6 - 7 tables.  All ten courses were prepared by chef Patrick Chuang and they were all consistently excellent! 

We started with a tasty soup that was steamed in a ceramic pot.  There were goji berries, conch, chicken feet, mushrooms and other Chinese herbs in the soup.  Next came the appetizer, three different kinds of fish and taro deep-fried in a light batter.  My favourite was the taro.

This is nappa cooked with Chinese ham - the vegetables soaked up the taste from the ham

Deep-fried prawns and squash - almost like a tempura - cooked just right and so crispy you can eat the shell

Shanghai bokchoy with abalone mushrooms - lots of greens to balance off the fried foods

My all time favourite - the best Hainan chicken in town - even the breast meat is tender

HIghlight of the evening - steamed dragon eel - a really special dish done to perfection (more on this in the next post)

Braised pork trotters with dried vegetables served with Chinese steamed buns (see an earlier post on this melt-in-your-mouth specialty)

Fried dungeness crab - flavoured with lots of fried garlic and shallots

All these followed by home made red bean sweet soup (not the gooey kind standard in most restaurants) and the house special chrysanthemum gelatin.  The most amazing thing was there was hardly anything left over at the end of this - just some rice!

*A contact in Hong Kong indicated that this type of dinner was very trendy when there was an economic downturn in the late 1990's.  Some operate illegally in residential buildings but not much was done about them due to the economy.  They came in different grades, ranging from reasonable to pricey but it was not easy to keep up and many did not last very long.  

This was typical of the traditional 私房菜 which, according to the Chinese Wikipaedia originated from the late Ching Dynasty, again resulting from people falling on hard times and trying to make a living from their home.  Many of these were not chefs by profession (and in fact often came from formerly well off families with high positions in court) but were obviously good enough at it to make a name for themselves.  

TUESDAY, 5 MARCH 2013

Chinese New Year Eve Family Dinner in Shanghai

Our good friend Arufa was in Shanghai for Chinese New Year.  He sent me pictures of his New Year Evedinner.  It was a feast of traditional Shanghai home cooking.  All together there were twelve dishes of fish, meat, vegetables and dumplings prepared with various cooking techniques.  They were served family style, which meant all dishes, both cold and hot, were placed on the dinner table at the same time, to be eaten in no particular order, though it was usual to eat the hot dishes, especially seafood, before they got cold.

清蒸大閘蟹 Steamed hairy crabs – Hairy crabs, an expensive delicacy and a favorite of Chinese and Japanese, come from Yangcheng Lakeadjacent to Suzhou, about 100 kilometers east of Shanghai.  Japanesecalls them “Shanghai crabs”.

海蜇 Jellyfish – A cold dish of crunchy jellyfish with a dipping sauce of dark soy sauce and crushed garlic.

紅燒圏子 “Hong shao” rings of pig intestines – “Hong shao”, sometimesalso called “red-cooked”, is braising with soy sauce and sugar.  The finished dish takes on a red-brown color.  The pig intestines are called “rings” because of the shape of the cut pieces.

老筍 Braised “old” bamboo shoot – “Old” here refers to the lower part of bamboo shoot, as opposed to the young tender tip.  

燒蝦仁冬筍 Stir-fried river shrimps and diced bamboo shoot.

紅燒鴨子 “Hong shao” whole duck.

炸鷄翅 Deep-fried chicken wing.

Three dishes clockwise from top:   

- 紅燒帶魚 “Hong shao” beltfish – Beltfish (帶魚, 牙帯), long and narrow, is cut into pieces and braised.  The fish is known to Japanese as tachiuo (太刀魚). 
- 芹菜拌腐竹 Chinese celery and dried soy sheet (yuba) – Chinese celery has very narrow stalks.  It is more intense in aroma and flavor than the western variety.  The dried yuba was rehydrated and stir-fried with celery, and cooled down to be a cold dish.  It was seasoned with light soy sauce and sesame oil.
- 芹菜炒木魚 Stir-fried Chinese celery and squid.  

油爆蝦 “You bao” river shrimps, and餃子 homemade dumplings in the back – The key is to use fresh local river shrimps which are superb in taste and texture.  The cooking technique was “Yao bao 油爆“, rapid stir-frying in a large amount of oil at very high temperature, in this case with ginger and green scallion.  The dish was served hot at this family dinner, though it could be served either hot or cold.  The dumplings were filled with pork and chopped celery.  They were cooked two ways: boiled in water and pan fried (a.k.a. pot stickers). 

Arufa and his family gathered around the table for the feast, chatting and eating, enjoying the reunion at the festive time.  After dinner, married members gave the children “red packets” which they put under their pillows for good luck.  It was a wonderful way to bid goodbye to the old year and usher in the new one.

*   *   *

Shanghaiese like their river shrimps.  Besides the afore-mentioned “you bao”, two popular preparations are “plain stir-fried (清炒蝦仁)”, and “stir-fried with tips of longjing tea (龍井蝦仁)”.

龍井蝦仁 River shrimp with longjing tea leaves at Jin Xuan (金軒), The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong (courtesy of Arufa).

清炒蝦仁 “plain stir-fried” river shrimp at Yi Long Court (逸龍閣), The Peninsula Shanghai (courtesy of Arufa).

As restaurant food goes, both dishes are plain looking, but don’t be fooled by the appearance.  They are incredibly delicious.  River shrimps are small, about the same size as rock shrimps from the Gulf of Mexico when shelled, each piece just big enough for one bite or two.  The small size makes them perfect for stir-frying, resulting in a crispy firm texture.  A plain stir fry is the perfect way to bring out the umami or the “savory sweet” flavor of the shrimps.  Stir-fry with longjing tea leaves adds a delicate fragrance without distracting the natural flavor of the shrimps.  These dishes are best in the area around Shanghai and environ.  It is impossible to find river shrimps of the same quality outside that area.

FRIDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2012

Family Li Imperial Cuisine (厲家菜 Reikasai)

Our good friend Arufa visited Shanghai.  One of his favorite dinner was at Family Li Imperial Cuisine(Reikasai 厲家菜) in Huangpu Park (上海灘 黄浦公園).  He sent us his dinner menu and a set of photographs.

10 SMALL DISHES 手碟

Stir-fried fresh green bean paste with fresh scallops 翡翠豆腐

Deep-fried bean cake炸咯喳

Sweet and sour rib糖醋排骨

Stir-fried mung bean paste with pork 炒麻豆腐

Crisp-fried prawns wrapped with egg 鼓板大蝦

Beijing smoked pork 北京熏肉

Boiled Chinese cabbage with mustard seed 芥末墩

Fried beef with chili sauce 麻辣牛肉

Deep-fried duck meat and shrimps paste with sesame 芝蔴鴨子

Mixed vegetable (Shredded carrot, pickled vegetable, bamboo shoot, coriander) 炒咸什

6 MAIN DISHES 熱菜

Deep-fried fresh scallops 青松鮮貝

Braised abalone in sesame sauce & Julienned braised abalone and cabbage & Braised abalone soup 麻醬鮑魚 + 鮑魚絲拌白菜 + 鮑魚湯

Steamed snow frog with egg 清蒸蛤什螞

Fried grouper with soy sauce 焌油石班魚

Stir-fried eggplant with soy sauce and minced pork, served with white rice 小炒茄子 + 米飯

Double boiled “fish lip” thick soup 三絲魚唇湯

3 DESSERT 点心

Baked fresh milk 宮廷奶方

Walnut kernel 琥珀桃仁

Fried egg custard 三不粘

                                                                                  

Five small dishes (Clockwise from top):

·         * Deep-fried bean cake炸咯喳 – A traditional Beijing snack.

·         * Stir-fried fresh soy bean paste with fresh scallops 翡翠豆腐– Minced fresh Australian scallop and green soy bean are mixed together and stir-fried; served with red chili pepper specks.

·         * Sweet and sour rib糖醋排骨 – Tender and fat free, sweet and sour without the neon orange red sauce.

            * Stir-fried mung bean paste with pork 炒麻豆腐 – Another Beijing specialty; it is the left over after separating the “milk” and “juice” from fermented paste of ground mung beans and water.

·         * Crisp-fried prawns wrapped with egg 鼓板大蝦 – Flaky crispy egg pancake wrapping around tender prawns.

The second round of small dishes (Clockwise from top):

·        *  Boiled Chinese cabbage with mustard seed 芥末墩 – Crisp Napa cabbage spread with mustard, rolled up into a cylinder and topped with sesame seeds.

·         * Fried beef with chili sauce 麻辣牛肉

·         * Beijing smoked pork 北京熏肉 – Pork belly braised in special broth, colored with natural vegetable juice and slow smoked with wood of fruit trees.

·         * Deep-fried duck meat and shrimps paste with sesame 芝蔴鴨子 – The white layer between the sesame “skin” and the meat is shrimp, not duck fat.

·         * Mixed vegetable炒咸什 – Shredded carrot, pickled vegetable, bamboo shoot, and coriander.

 

Deep-fried fresh scallops 青松鮮貝 – Australian scallops in a special batter, and pickled green vegetables, are both deep fried.

Braised Japanese abalone in sesame sauce, Julienned braised abalone and cabbage, and Braised abalone soup 麻醬鮑魚 + 鮑魚絲拌白菜 + 鮑魚湯

Steamed snow frog with egg 清蒸蛤什螞 – The English name of this dish is misleading as it contains no frog meat.  “Snow frog” refers to the Fallopian tubes of a kind of frog from Manchuria that hibernates under frozen ground, lakes and rivers (thus the name).  It is a Chinese delicacy with a reputation for being  beneficial to women’s beauty.

Fried grouper with soy sauce 焌油石班魚 – Fish cooked in very hot oil.

   

 

Stir-fried eggplant with soy sauce and minced pork, served with white rice 小炒茄子 + 米飯

 

Double boiled “fish lip” thick soup三絲魚唇湯

Dessert (Clockwise from top right):

·         * Baked fresh milk 宮廷奶方 – Smooth and fragrant sweet and sour yogurt.

·         * Walnut kernel 琥珀桃仁

·        *  Fried egg custard 三不粘 – The ingredients are thoroughly mixed and then whipped over 600 times before it is cooked. The resultant mass does not stick to the plate, the spoon or the teeth of the diner, thus the Chinese name of “Three Not Sticks”.

                

 

“Petits Fours” 菓品

From Arufa’s photographs, I can see that the service at Family Li is similar to that at high-end Chinese restaurants in Japan.  To those expecting a “family style” Chinese meal with large plates of food serving at the same time, the individual portion size of each dish looks awfully small.  I wrote “looks small” because I think it is a perception issue for people not used to being served Chinese food in this fashion.  You may see my point if you consider how much food one gets if a dish at a Chinese banquet is equally divided among the 10 or 12 people at the table.  Anyway, with the large number of dishes on the menu, even just a few bites per dish should keep most diners well fed yet not uncomfortably stuffed.  Of course for those with the appetite of a sumo wrestler or a growing boy, it would be a different story.  

Most of the dishes look deceptively simple.  One often does not realize how much work is necessary to deliver those simple looking dishes.  The restaurant claims that it does not use artificial coloring and flavor enhancement.  Instead it relies on careful sourcing of quality ingredients, careful blending of seasoning and sauces, painstaking preparation and perfect cooking.  However, delicate and balanced flavors could be interpreted as bland to diners whose palate has been conditioned to liberal use of MSG or strong flavored sauces and spices.  So I suppose Reikasai is not to the liking of everybody.  Our friend Arufa has a refined palate.  He says that the dishes at Reikasai were very good and I accept his verdict.  

An obvious weakness of Reikasai is its presentation of food.  For a restaurant that charges as much as a Japanese ryotei or an haute-cuisine restaurant, putting a slice of meat or a glob of custard on a plate without appropriate garnishes is lackluster.  Plain white plates, bowls and cups do not help either.  It is an area that not only Reikasai, but also most Chinese restaurants, can work on.   

Reikasai is expensive.  As far as value goes, I cannot say since I have not eaten there.  I would like to taste the food first hand one day to judge on that myself.

NOTE:  For the story of Family Li Imperial Cuisine, visit this link www.theworlds50best.com/a-chat-with-chinas-only-grand-chef-ivan-li-of-family-li-imperial-cuisine/12385/