Dim Sum Sunday at Hakkasan London

Mr. A’s friends, A&M, sent him food pictures from London.  The two travelers had the “Dim Sum Sunday” at Hakkasan.

The meal started with a cocktail.  A bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne was served with food.  The first course was a crispy duck salad:

which was followed by steamed dim sum -- har gau (shrimp dumpling), shumai (pork dumpling) with scallop and fish roe on top, Chinese chive dumpling (the green ones), duck and yam bean dumpling (the orange ones):

and baked dim sum – (from left to right) golden radish crab meat pastry, smoked duck and pumpkin puff, royal king crab and truffle roll, baked venison puff:

Three main dishes - (clockwise from top) XO seafood and water chestnut lettuce wrap, asparagus, stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot – were accompanied by ginger and spring onion fried rice:

The meal ended with a selection of dessert and an after dinner cocktail.

All for £58 per person, which was surprisingly reasonable for a high-end London restaurant. 

Japan Has Good Chinese Food

One expects the best Chinese food in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.  Would one be surprised that Japan has excellent Chinese food as well?  

I hope my photographs, taken in some restaurants in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, will convince you that it is indeed the case.  The five dishes, in order, are whole crispy skin chicken 炸子鷄, braised abalone 蚝皇鮑魚, scrambled egg with shark fin and crab meat 蟹肉桂花翅, roasted pork belly 焼腩, and braised suppon (soft shell turtle) 红焼国產山瑞.  

           

 Not all Chinese restaurants in Japan deliver such refined dishes.  Most places serve up Japanese-Chinese cuisine that has been modified to suit the Japanese palate.  Some dishes are particularly popular – shumai 焼売 and shouronpou 小籠包 for dim-sum; banbanji 棒棒鶏 and kurage (海蜇頭 jellyfish) for appetizers; mabo-doufu 麻婆豆腐 for main dish; and of course chahan 炒飯.  Champon ちゃんぽん, a noodle soup topped with stir-fried seafood, pork, vegetable, is also well liked.  Ramen 拉麵, another version of Chinese inspired noodle soup, together with gyoza 餃子, are probably the most popular cheap fast food around Japan.  Yes, Chinese restaurants are everywhere and Japanese likes them.