Cantonese "White-cut" Chicken 粵式白切鷄

My all time favourite Chinese dish is the “white cut chicken” (白切鷄), which comes in many guises, the popular HaiNan chicken being a variation on the same theme.  When I was in my twenties, my roommate and I could easily polish off a whole “white-cut” chicken between us.  Now, I still couldn’t pass the dish by; whenever I go to a new restaurant, if they offer it, I’ll try it to see if it meets the “standard”.

As the name suggests, it is actually a poached whole chicken, chopped up and reassembled, and served with ginger and scallions.  The chicken itself is not hard to make, it’s just difficult to perfect so that the chicken is thoroughly cooked but stays tender. That is not easy because of the anatomy of the chicken and the difficulty of having to cook white breast meat the same length of time as the dark thigh meat.  The true test of a well-made white-cut chicken is in the tenderness of the white meat and the ‘crispness’ of the skin.  There is also a technique to making the ginger-scallion sauce.   A friend of mine, Mr. Anonymous, has the method down pat.   I can vouch for that as I’ve tried his homemade edition - yes, he prepared a takeout special for me last time I visited the west coast!  He had picked up the method from talking to a few experienced chefs.  Here are his instructions:

1.     Cook with the best whole chicken one can get:

Whenever possible, buy a freshly killed, never before frozen, organic, free-range chicken, found in poultry shops that handle their own processing.  The perfect size is a bird between 2.5 and 3 pounds.  Chinese cochin, the so-called “yellow-feather chicken” (a misnomer as the feathers are actually bronze in color) is preferred because it is leaner and has more flavor; the meat is firmer and the bones harder. 

2.     Poaching the “Easy Way”:

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the whole chicken.  Add a couple of slices of ginger, a stalk of green onion and a teaspoon of “sha-ginger” powder (沙薑粉 more on this powder later).   When the water is boiling, hold the chicken by its neck or feet and dip it into the water in a slow up and down motion a few times to fill and refill its body cavity with hot water.  This brings the inside and outside of the chicken to the same temperature for even cooking.  The water at this point will be below boiling point, so bring the pot to a boil again.  Submerge the chicken, cover the pot, turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes.  Bring the water to a simmer, turn off the heat, and poach for another 15 minutes.  Take the chicken out to cool. 

3.     Alternatively, for the best results, poach with two pots and finish the cooking with a cold bath:

Fill two large pots with water.  Add a couple of slices of ginger, a stalk of green onion and a teaspoon of “sha-ginger” powder into each.  Bring both pots to a boil.  Hold the chicken by its neck and dip it into the first pot in a slow up and down motion a few times to fill and refill its body cavity with hot water.  Bring the water to a boil again.  Submerge the chicken, cover the pot, and turn off the heat.  After 15 minutes, move the chicken to the second pot of boiling water.  Again, submerge, turn off the heat and poach for another 15 minutes.  Violà, the poaching is done. 

While the chicken is being poached, prepare a large body of cold water with some ice cubes and season it with some “sha-ginger” powder.  Drop the poached chicken immediately into the cold water until its skin is cool.  The cold bath (過泠诃) stops the internal cooking, firms up the meat, and crisps the chicken skin.

(Optional step: Rub the chicken all over with some chicken fat from the pot to give it sheen.  For a healthier option, use sesame oil)

Note: a large chicken may have to be poached for another 15 minutes.  Exact cooking time depends on how much water in the pots, the size of chicken, etc., try it out and make appropriate adjustments.

4.     To make the classic Ginger-Scallion Dipping Sauce:

Grate a large piece of fresh ginger.  Chop finely a bunch of scallions.  Mix the ginger and scallions in a bowl.  Add a couple of teaspoons of “sha-ginger” powder and some salt.  “Sha-ginger” is the secret ingredient; it adds a unique aroma and complexity to the sauce.  To finish, pour very hot cooking oil over the mixture and mix it well.  

A few notes on making the sauce:

·       Chop the scallions and ginger by hand instead of using a food processor for better texture.

·       Be careful when pouring hot oil over the ginger-scallion mixture.  It will splatter and can be messy.

·       Another option is to add room temperature salad oil to the mixture and let it steep.  This method works but the sauce will be less aromatic and the scallions stay raw. 

·       Do not use microwave to make the sauce; the ginger and scallion will most likely be burnt.

·       For the brave ones, use rendered chicken fat in place of cooking oil.  Delicious!

·       The proportion of ginger and the white and green parts of scallions affects the color, texture and flavor of the sauce.  Adjust the amount to suit your taste. 

 –  ˜

Finish eating the white-cut chicken preferably on the day it is made.  Chicken spoils quickly even with refrigeration.  That is one reason why so many Chinese bbq delis and restaurants nowadays sell “kwei-fei chicken” (貴妃鷄) instead.  “Kwei-fei chicken” is white-cut chicken marinated in light colored spicy brine (白鹵水) for a savory flavor.  The brined chicken lasts longer.   

So, what on earth is 沙薑粉 (pronounced  Sha Jiang Fen)?

–  ˜

  The Chinese name literally means “sand-ginger”, and according to Google, the spice name is Zedoary. It is a rhizome, ginger-like but not regular ginger, galangal or turmeric.  I have seen it only in powder form in the spice section of Chinese markets.  The Chinese use it for cooking certain chicken dishes besides white-cut chicken. 

White cut chicken with Instant Pot

Cantonese White-cut chicken was the most popular post on this blog in the last six years. I have been following the recipe diligently with some minor modifications.  A few months ago, I was persuaded to purchase an Instant Pot by a dear friend and has since discovered this to be the best equipment for the best ever white-cut chicken.  You will see why once I have shared with you the recipe.

I suggest you review the earlier recipe before you start on this one because many of the explanations still apply.  Rather than repeat myself, I will just start with the Instant Pot recipe here. 

Use the best chicken you can buy (around 3 pounds), either free-range chicken, organic or antibiotic-free chicken would do. It is best fresh and not frozen but if you only have frozen chicken, make sure it is properly and completely defrosted.  You can't defrost the chicken in the cooking process - you may end up with a half-cooked chicken, which is not recommended.

Fill the Instant Pot up to the 2/3 mark with hot water, turn on sauté and bring water to a boil.  Cut a stalk of green onions into two inch pieces and add to the water with half teaspoon sea salt, 3 slices of ginger, and 1 heaping tablespoon of Zedoary 沙薑粉 (see Cantonese White-cut chicken if you don't know what this is).
 
After you have cleaned the chicken with salt, use a chopstick to go under the skin near each of the thighs and pierce the thickest part of the meat near the joint several times.  I learned this technique watching the video on Peter's Chicken. Master Bill also massaged the chicken legs several times. Following his method, hold the chicken by its neck and immerse it into the hot water three times, letting the water drain out each time.  This brings the inside and outside of the chicken to the same temperature for even cooking.

Immerse the chicken breast side down into the pot and bring the water to a simmer with the sauté function. Then turn off the sauté, put the lid on the pot, lock it and turn on the Keep Warm function for 30 minutes.  

At the end of the 30 minutes, prepare a large pot of cold water. Remove the chicken from the Instant Pot and immerse the chicken into the cold water.  Add ice cubes to the water to keep it cold.  Leave the chicken in the cold water for about 20 minutes to half an hour so that it is completely cooled down. This is to crisp the skin. Remove the chicken from the water, drain,and dry with paper towel.  Apply sesame oil to the skin with a brush. Cut up the chicken. Serve with ginger and onion dip. 

The Instant Pot keeps the water hot without overcooking the chicken.  There is no need to use any pressure at all because this is a poached chicken, it just needs to be maintained at a hot enough temperature to cook it.  This method is less fussy than the stove top method because you don't have to worry about keeping the pot hot, it is built into the Keep Warm function of the Instant Pot.

Below is a video showing how to cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces with scissors without using a chopping board.  

Soy Sauce Chicken

I was utterly surprised by the popularity of the post on how to make "white-cut chicken" (June 23, 2013), a very basic but ever popular dish in Chinese cooking.  In the three years that the post was up, it has had 3,481 page views, almost ten times the average for this blog (364).  So I turned my thoughts to the other basic chicken dish - soy sauce chicken, done with very similar technique except with soy sauce.

The key to a good soy sauce chicken is obviously the soy sauce.  Get a good quality naturally fermented soy.  I use the 美味棧古法頭抽, available in larger Chinese supermarkets (in Toronto) but other brands of quality will work too. Thanks to my dear friend MC for introducing me to this brand and to the Rose Wine which truly enhanced the taste of this chicken.   MC's ratio of soy sauce was 3 tablespoons of premium soy, 3 tablespoons of dark soy (also get a quality dark soy) 3 tablespoons of Rose wine, 2-3 tablespoons of rock sugar.  This small amount of liquid is barely enough to cover half the chicken and will only work if you have a heavy cast iron pot like a medium sized Le Creuset pot that will hold the chicken snugly and retain heat even after the stove is off.  MC used a specially made heavy cooker but any heavy heat retaining pot should work.  I have gradually changed the recipe as I accumulated the sauce each time. Here's how I did it.

Ingredients: rose wine, premium soy, dark soy, rock sugar

Use the so-called "butter free-range chicken" available in Chinese groceries.  First time, use the basic recipe of 3 tablespoons each of the three liquids - soy, dark soy and rose wine plus 3 lumps of rock sugar.  Add lots of fresh ginger pieces and green onion.  Bring liquid to a boil in a heavy enamelled cast iron pot and quickly immerse chicken, breast side down.  Cover pot.

When the liquid boils again, turn off the heat. Cover pot.  Leave chicken in pot for 15 - 20 minutes (depending on size of chicken) then flip to the other side, bringing liquid to a boil again then turn off heat.

Because of the heat retention properties of the enamelled cast iron pot, the liquid would still be very hot even after the stove is turned off.  Leave chicken in pot for another 15 minutes.  At the end of the 15 minutes, bring liquid to a boil again and use a ladle to pour hot liquid over the parts of the chicken that were not fully immersed for a few more minutes.  Remove chicken from pot and let cool before applying sesame oil to the skin.  Then cut into serving pieces.  I like to put mine on the dish with the chicken pieces lined up.

Keeping the sauce for the next time -
After removing the chicken, bring the liquid to a boil again then let it cool.  I keep the liquid in the freezer and reuse it for the next soy sauce chicken.  Every time I add the 3 tablespoons of each of the liquid in the recipe and adjust the rock sugar as needed.  After cooking a couple of chickens, there should be enough liquid to cover at least half the chicken and there will no longer be a need to ladle hot liquid over the chicken, which makes the recipe even easier.  I sometimes add a couple of shelled hard-boiled eggs to the liquid with the chicken.  This will produce tasty soy sauce eggs without any extra effort.

Still Delicious!

We paid a visit to what used to be Delicious Restaurant on Hwy 7 tonight and was pleasantly surprised to find that after a month of renovations and a total revamp, including a new name, White Orchid is still delicious!  But it really shouldn't come as a surprise as the chef is still the same Patrick Chuang and if anyone can cook, he can cook anything.  In this case, even though the menu has changed, the same expertise and care is applied to the new dishes.  It is a double bonus that the "old" favourites like HaiNan chicken are still there and still the best in town.  So it is now not just a Chinese restaurant, but a Malaysian Singaporean restaurant, making the menu all the more diverse.

We made a point of trying something new on the menu - roti and curry chicken.  The roti are the best ever - I've never tasted them so crisp and light.  The curry chicken is tender and just the right amount of curry flavour.

The Pad Thai, another new dish here, is perfectly al dente and the flavour just right.  I hate the sugary sweet ketchupy red sauce often used by some Asian fusion chains on noodles that are usually too soft. I made a point of using the pad thai dish as the test piece with which to rate an Asian fusion restaurant and very few passed.

And to my utter relief, the Hai Nan chicken is still the best in town.  You wouldn't find a more tender yet firm and tasty white-cut chicken anywhere else in the GTA.   What made this now "Asian fusion" restaurant different from all those other ones out there is that they still serve good old Chinese greens, tossed in ginger and wine.  That little dash of wine made all the difference to the greens. You wouldn't find anything other than "salads" at other Asian fusions.

Dinner finished with a lovely dessert - coconut tapioca with fruit.  The perfect end to a perfect meal.

Chef Patrick Chuang said he is still game to do "private room dinners" for customers.  So this renovation is certainly a bonus.

Southern Fried Chicken

I like fried chicken, a lot.  Most people would say that it is unhealthy.  I don’t think that is necessarily the case.  If the ingredients are of high quality, if excessive fat has been trimmed from the chicken, if the cooking oil is not saturated, hydrogenated or deteriorated from overheating or reusing, then it is not that bad in my book.  The key is to eat only good fried chicken and in moderation.

There are quite a few restaurants doing fried chicken right, and I eat in them.  I also make it at home, where I have more control of the ingredients and the cooking process.  The free range chicken, egg, and unbleached flour are organic.  Ritz crackers (or Hi Ho crackers) and cooking oil are not.  I cook with blended corn and canola oil simply because I have not figured out a better alternative.  

I do not deep fry.  That uses too much oil and deep fryer is hard to clean.  I prefer using a cast iron chicken fryer (basically a large skillet with tall walls) for making southern fried chicken.  It requires a relatively small amount of oil, just enough for it to be at mid-level of the chicken pieces in the pan.  

I made some southern fried chicken and a tomato corn salad the other night.  

My not-so-precise recipe:

1.       I use chicken thighs and drumsticks because I do not like eating white meat.  Leave the skin on, but trim off any loose skin and globs of fat on and embedded in the thighs.  Season the meat with a little bit of salt and black pepper.  Coat the pieces with flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper (go easy on the salt) and let them rest.

2.       Finely grind the Ritz crackers, add to some flour and mix well.

3.       Beat an egg, and thin it with some water.

4.       Add less than an inch of oil into the cast iron chicken fryer.  Set the burner to medium. 

5.       Coat a small batch of chicken with the egg wash and then the cracker-flour mix.  When the oil is hot, fry the chicken pieces.  The oil should come up to the mid-level of the chicken pieces.  (I do not use a thermometer to check the oil or the chicken; very unscientific, I know).

6.       Turn the pieces over after ten minutes to check the color of the thin coating and to fry the other side.  Adjust the heat level if necessary.

7.       Continue to turn the pieces every ten minutes to cook both sides and to make sure that the pieces are not burnt.  Total cooking time: about forty minutes.

8.       Rest the cooked pieces on a rack to cool and to drip off excess oil.

9.       Place the pieces on paper towel to soak off remaining oil before eating.

For the salad:

Cut tomatoes into bite size chunks.  Sprinkle gently some salt over them.  Add some freshly cut raw corn kernels and basil leaves.  Dress with extra virgin olive oil.  Let it rest for a few minutes.  Some tomato juice will form a pool at the bottom of the bowl.  The juice has a nice balance of acidity, sweetness and saltiness, and the aroma of fine olive oil and basil.  The salad is a lovely manifestation of summer.  It is easy to make, the hard part is to find flavorful tomatoes and corns.

Chicken in red wine (Instant Pot or Le Creuset)

Isolation has allowed me more time to revive some timeless recipes in new formats.  This has always been my favourite dish both as a child when my mom or dad were cooking (yes, they both cooked!), when I had a family of five to feed, or now, when I am cooking for myself.

As in the curried chicken, I used air-chilled skinless, boneless, chicken thighs (8 pieces) but bone-in chicken parts would do just as well although I've found that because of the different textures and thickness of the different parts, cooking may be uneven. For example, the breast may get overcooked while the thigh was just right.  So I've found it easiest to stick to chicken thighs which is not as easy to overcook.

The other key ingredient for flavour is dried shitake mushrooms. Fresh shitake doesn't have the same intense flavour as the dried so I wouldn't substitute - I'll cook another dish if I don't have dried shitake at home.  Red wine of course is needed and if you believe the star chefs, you only put the best in (if you can afford to). I just use what I have handy and it was never an issue.  Two onions each cut into 8 pieces.

Remove the stems from the dried shitake and soak thoroughly, overnight or for about 5 hours. Remove from water, dry, marinate with pepper, sprinkle of sugar and sesame oil.  
Cut the chicken thighs into two inch pieces, marinate for a few hours with cooking wine, soy sauce or Maggi sauce, and fresh ground pepper. When ready to cook, add corn starch and mix thoroughly.  In a non-stick pan over medium high heat, brown the chicken on both sides with a few slices of ginger.  Add a cup or more of red wine and some soy sauce to taste when the chicken is browned.

Meanwhile, in the Instant Pot or Le Creuset pot, sauté the onions and the shitake mushrooms.  When slightly browned, add the browned chicken with the red wine.  
For the Instant Pot, turn off sauté, put the lid on, seal, and turn on high pressure cook for 10 minutes. Quick release at the end of the 10 minutes. If the sauce is not thick enough, remove the chicken to prevent overcooking, turn off pressure cook and sauté until it is thick and able to coat the chicken.  This is important because this sauce coating is essential to the flavour of the dish.  If it is too watery, it won't work.
For the Le Creuset pot, put the lid on and stick in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven. Sauce is usually just right, if not, reduce on the stovetop after removing the chicken so as not to overcook.  The sauce should be just thick enough to coat the chicken. This is essential to the flavour of the dish. If it is too watery, it won't work.

Serve with rice.  Also flavour intensifies overnight. Leftover sauce is also super good on ramen or other white noodles.

Veal and Chicken Stew, an Italian Recipe

Mr. A received in the mail the gift Arufa & M got him in Italy.  It was a box set of four cookbooks on Vegetables, Fish, Meat and Desserts, Cakes, Cookies, the “1,000 Recipes From the Cooks and Restaurants in the Slow Food Osterie d’Italia Guide” (edited by Bianca Minerdo and Grazia Novellini).  

He browsed through all four books immediately.  Right away, he found an interesting recipe titled “veal and chicken stew”.  He conjured up an image of a casserole of boiled chicken, chunks of veal breast and shank, root vegetables, all in a rich stock.  As he read on, he knew that he was way off the mark.  

The leading sentence of the recipe set the tone.  It read “Clean and wash the brain, sweetbreads, marrow, testicles, and cock’s crests in cold water.”  For sure this was not for the squeamish eaters, he thought.  

The brief recipe continued: 

“Blanch separately in boiling salted water for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool, and cut into small pieces.  Chop the veal fillet and calf’s liver to pieces of the same size.   Melt a knob of butter in a skillet with bay leaves and, in separate batches, brown the meat and liver, the offal, and diced porcini mushrooms.  Melt more butter in a large pan, and add all the ingredients.  Pour over the dry Masala, white wine vinegar, adding a little broth if necessary.  Cook for another 10 minutes, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve hot.”

This recipe comes from Ristorante Sotto la Mole in Turin.  It was devised in the 19^th century for bankers and financiers of Turin, thus its Italian name “Finanziera”.  The English name “veal and chicken stew” is totally misleading as it is not a stew, the only chicken part is cock’s crest, and the veal is mostly offal.  This old-fashioned local dish sounds delicious to Mr. A.  He has eaten all but one of the ingredients before in separate dishes as roasted marrow bones, pieces of crispy sweetbreads as well as whole creamy ones, sauced cock’s crests and mushroom in a pastry puff, and so on.  But having all of them on a single plate is a culinary tour de force, a masterpiece of Italian cooking.   

Unfortunately Mr. A won’t be able to cook this dish at home as many ingredients are not easy to come by where he lives.  Besides, this is not Mrs. A’s “cup of tea”, so to speak.  He has to wait for the day that he and Mrs. A can travel to Turin to eat it at the Ristorante Sotto la Mole.

(Note:  A picture of the dish can be found on the Tripadvisor site under “Sotto la Mole, Turin”; look for “Finanziera alla Piemontese” posted by Senor blunotte79 in Nov 2013 in the section of visitor photos).

Korean Dinner at Houba 韓菜酒家 ほうば in Osaka

Our friends invited us to a dinner party in Osaka.  We arrived at a humble Korean restaurant on a side street in Kita-ku, not far from an arcade of restaurants, bars and pachinko parlours.   Despite the lack of glamour, we anticipated an evening of great food because the host and the other guests were food experts.  

It was a family restaurant.  The young chef, in his thirties, and his mother worked in the semi-open kitchen.  A young woman worked the front.  There were only two long tables, one for six and another that seat probably ten as it extended to a tiny counter by the kitchen.  The eleven of us were comfortable in the small dining room since the host had booked the whole restaurant for the private dinner.      

The meal started with earthen crocks of makkoli, house brewed unfiltered Korean rice wine, which had gained popularity in Japan.  The first cup was the clear liquid skimmed from the top.  It tasted mildly sweet and not that alcoholic.  Subsequent cups were scooped from the bottom.  The drink was milky white with a different texture and slightly fizzy.  Both were pleasant drinks.   

Soon into the meal, the lady server brought cold oksusu cha (corn tea), a Korean tisane made from boiling roasted corn kernels in water.  It was most refreshing, with a clean mild toasty taste and a bare hint of natural sweetness.  It went very well with the dishes.  I switched from makkoli to the corn tea for the rest of the meal.  The other folks finished their makkoli and moved onto beer and Jinro (眞露), the best selling Korean soju (燒酒).

It was a ten-course dinner.  Many courses were served in communal style, with a plate of food for every four people.  The other courses were in individual portions.

The first course was an array of namul (seasoned vegetable dishes) which were usually served as banchan (side dishes).  The serving lady brought out a few small plates at a time, arranging them into a group of parallel straight lines.  All together, there were 23 small plates, each made with a different seasonal vegetable.  Some ingredients were common, such as soy bean sprouts, spinach and celery.  Most were leafy Kyo yasai (Kyoto vegetables).  One special item was thin slices of white makomotake (真菰) about the size of a mahjong tile.  I recognized it when the serving lady showed me the raw ingredient.  It was the swollen stem of a kind of wild rice grown in swamps of China and Japan (known as 茭白 in China).  The word “take” was in the name because the stem had been infected with smut fungus.  There were also three traditional kimchee.  The portion of each plate was small, with just enough for each person to have a bite.  Together, the small plates made a lovely course.  I was impressed by the fine knife work and the delicate seasoning.  The group of namul was incredibly satisfying.  I would not mind to have them as a meal.

Next was an individual serving of grilled oysters on top of yuzu “chawanmushi”.  The texture of the two oysters was impeccable; they were firm and moist.  The taste was intense and delicious.  The citrus was used as a bowl for the savory steamed egg custard.

This was followed by a plate of two long golden brown omelets, each cut into four pieces.  One was filled with shirako (白子 cod milt) and the other with nanohana (菜の花) and ebi.  I liked the shirako omelet more (yes, I am a shirako fan).  The pan fried nanohana was a little hard.

Then came awabi gohan – sautéed awabi (abalone) slices on top of rice enriched with the dark green awabi kimo (abalone liver).  It was very well prepared.  The abalone slices were tender, and the rice picked up the“earthiness” of the liver.  Delicious and very Japanese.  

The fifth course was deceptively simple – a small piece of tofu in a small amount of broth, topped with finely sliced greens and a slice of Japanese lime.  The tofu was incredibly silky.  The clear broth was made with suppon (Japanese snapping turtle), a delicacy and a luxury.

At that point, the chef came out from the kitchen with a large stock pot in his hands.  He walked around the room and showed the pot to everybody.  Inside was an aromatic clear broth, a whole chicken and a whole fresh Korean ginseng the size of a baby’s arm.  He took the pot back into the kitchen after the parade.  And I expected a bowl of chicken soup anytime soon.

 Next was a light meat course – thin slices of cooked beef cheek, mizuna (水菜, a Kyoto leafy green) and mustard.  We rolled the meat around some vegetable to eat.

A vegetarian dish followed – thick harusame (春雨 cellophane noodles made from potato starch), soy bean sprouts, carrots, wood ear and some greens, gently dressed with sesame oil.

The eighth was deep fried chunks of bone-in fugu (blowfish).  I had the largest piece with the collar attached (bones made the fish tasted better).  The seasoning was slightly spicy hot, making the fish even more delicious.  Oishii!!

The ninth course was pork belly slices cooked in Korean hot bean paste on a hot plate.  It was accompanied by lettuce, something that looked like arugula, and ggaennip (Korean “sesame leaves”).    We wrapped the belly pieces with the leaves to eat.  The sesame leaves looked like oversized ooba but its aroma and flavor were different.

The chicken soup never came.  Instead the lady served us porridge in individual bowls.  The flavor of chicken and ginseng came through loud and clear.  There went the soup that I was waiting for. 

After ten courses, the dinner ended with “dessert” – a piece of dark green kusamochi (草餅) cut in halves.  Kusamochi is a rice cake made with yomogi (蓬, 艾草, mugwort, wormwood).  The mochi was plain, not filled with red bean paste.  Its taste was mild with a hint of bitterness.  A satisfying way to end the dinner.

The restaurant was 韓菜酒家 ほうげ (Houba), the first Korean restaurant in Japan awarded a Michelin star.  In my opinion, the food deserved at least two stars.  But the location and the decor did not meet the Michelin inspector’s expectation for luxury as it was an ordinary people’s restaurant.  My dinner there was not only my best Korean meal but also one of my most memorable meals of all times.