I had the most fabulous meal last night. Kelly and I (and our men, both of whome couldn't make it of course) were invited to an acquaintance's birthday dinner. He is the Hong Kong wine rep for Gallo and is very "hip"....he knows all the cool restaurants and all the cool people associated with the Hong Kong luxury food and beverage industry. For his birthday we went to a private kitchen, meaning that it is not an official restaurant, but the home of a a couple. The couple that owns the private kitchen are from China, and the food is very spicy Schezuan style. The husband is an oil painter from Shanghai, and the walls were adorned with his paintings, which were very modern and intense. He had little round glasses, a mop top and a dark turtle neck -- the effect was very much like a Chinese John Lennon. The wife, who is also the chef of the nine course meal, was a Beijing opera singer before relocating to Hong Kong. The private kitchen has no name, no sign in front, it is just a door in an alley in Central. The only thing differtiating it is that the outer door is open and there is a lighted statue of a dragon near the entrance.
The private kitchen only has five tables, and two seatings a night. We were there for the first seating at 6:30, which I am grateful for since it takes a long time to get through 9 courses! There is no menu, you eat whatever the kitchen is serving that particular night. I love set menus, because I am so indecisive, and the chef will usually choose items that they are good at making and different courses that work well together. Now, I knew in advance that this would be nine course meal, and I am usually good at pacing myself so I still have room for the last courses. This time however, I wasn't warned that the four plates of appetizers brought out in succession when we got there were not included in the 9 courses of the meal! So I ate way to many appetizers, thinking they were the meal! I was so bummed...and the last courses we had, when I was completely stuffed, were the best ones.
So here is how the meal progressed:
For appetizers, there was sweet and sour cucumber, cold spicy jelly fish with carrot, and cold spicy glass noodles and a clear soup with spinach and tomato. I way too much of this stuff, thinking it was the meal.
The first real course was "saliva chicken", because it is so good that it will make your mouth water kust thinking about it. It wasn't muy favorite...it was still on the bone and had lots of squishy skin and fat still on it. But, the chicken meat I managed to salvage from between the skin, fat and bone was moist.
The second course was a spicy beef and chili soup seved over rice. Everyone kept warning me how spicy it was, but I didn't find it to be overwhelmingly spicy. Maybe it is spicy in comparison to Northern Chinese cuisine? I don't know, all I know is tat it wasn't as spicy as they made it sound to be. The beef was extremely moist. I was told that this is because the beef was oiled hours, and then marinated for hours, and hen cooked for hours. I tend to think it is also because there was so much fat in it! In addition to my delicious pieces of beef, I also had huge hunks of fat! Gross. The beef was good though.
The third course was a pork and cabbage soup. It was good, but I wish I hadn't wasted room in my stomack for this!
The fourth course was one of the most delicious flavour combinations I have ever had. It was right up there with peanut butter and chocolate or whipped cream and strawberries. And, this dish was made with food I don't normally like. It was a paella-like creation of rice, pork spare ribs, and sweet potatoes. It sounds sort of strange, but it was perfectly flavoured! The three main components melded together into a moist paella or rissotto-like consistancy and each bite was heaven in my mouth. I used alot of my stomach space on this dish, but it was worth it. I think I will remember it for a long time! I wish I knew the name of it.
The fifth course was a platter of steamed fish. Normally, this is one of my favorite dishes, but the pork spare ribs/sweet potato combo was a tough act to follow. I just took a few bites of the fish, since that is something I order all the time at Chinese restaurants.
The sixth course was another soup...it had clear broth and it looked like kale or spinach or something. I took a few slurps, but I didn't waste my precious stomach space!
The seventh course was Man Po Tofu, served over rice because it was so "spicy". Again, it was spicy enough to be delicious, but not excessively so. The British people at our table were very dramatic about the spiciness of the tofu. It wasn't that bad. It was excellent though, I love tofu, but I was getting so stuffed at this point.
The eighth course was one of my favorite items, I was so bummed that is came as the last of the savory dishes! It was homemade spicy pork dumplings. They were so yummy, and it was great because the pork in the center consisted of whole pieces of pork, not the minced pork that usually comes in dumplings.
The ninth course was a delicious and refreshing sweet soup. It was like a typical sweet tofu soup, with silken tofu in a bath of slightly sugared broth. But, this soup also had wonderful preserved lychee nuts and some sort of spongy root vegetable (maybe a turnip or something like a jicama? Or maby quava?) that soaked in the sweet broth. So yummy, and such a god variety of textures.
With all of this food, plus a glass and a half of wine, I was stuffed! Then, they brought out a birthday cake! It was made of mango, sago and pomelo. It was good, but I definitely had no room left. If it was chocolate, I may have made room...but it wasn't.
At the end of the meal, the chef came out from the kitchen, was introduced to everyone by her husband, the Chinese John Lennon, and then she proceeded to serenade us with a Chinese opera song. It was a phenomenal end to the night.
It was a very exciting dining experience. Anyone that comes to visit me will be taken there to sample some authentic Schezuan cuisine! It wasn't too expensive either, aside from the wine. You just have to make reservations far in advance. The only thing about the night is that we were there with a bunch of people in the food and beverage industry, and they went through SO MANY bottles of wine. They were all drunk. I only had a glass and a half but I still had to split the charge for the wine! The wine was ALOT more expensive than the meal itself. Bummer.
1 comment:
That sounds amazing!
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