The best Peking duck in Taipei

Tonight I finally did it.  I returned to Song Kitchen (宋廚菜館) after almost 8 years.  The place is legendary among Peking duck lovers, which means the restaurant is always packed full of hungry diners.  It is quite possibly the hardest reservation to secure in Taipei.  The reservation "system" is open once a month on the first of each month, where diners can call in to reserve a table for a date in the next calendar month.  So our table tonight was actually reserved on February 1st, just over a month ago...  Now why does this remind me of the reservation system for El Bulli?

Chinese cabbage salad (松柏常青) - on the house.  Nice and refreshing, with crunchy peanuts and a little Chinese parsley for kicks in addition to cabbage hearts.

Another WTF Michelin moment

I was running an errand at lunch today, and decided to check out Lei Bistro (利小舘), a cheap eatery run by the Lei Garden Group that somehow got themselves a macaron from the obviously delusional Bibendum.  I haven't given Lei Garden a dime of my money since my disastrous meal a year ago, and I was curious to see what this place was all about.

Not exactly Giant's Causeway

I got up this morning for a photoshoot of 3 generations' of BMW M3s, as Tigger got all excited about his new toy.  After a couple of hours of sticking my camera out of the sunroof of a car while traveling along the winding roads around town, I left the guys to meet up with Froggie for my second photo expedition of the day.

We'd been talking about going to explore the Hong Kong Geopark (香港地質公園), and wanted to check out the East Dam section of the High Island Reservoir (萬宜水庫), including Po Pin Chau (破邊洲).  This area is home to hexagonal columns of rock, which evokes images - in my mind at least - of the Giant's Causeway.

Froggie and I took a long bus ride from Diamond Hill, and got dropped off just inside Sai Kung West Country Park.  We began our trek along the Sai Kung Man Yee Road, which also happened to be Stage 1 of the MacLehose Trail.  This 10km section winds its way around the High Island Reservoir, where the water was surprisingly clear and reflected a beautiful shade of blue from the sky.

A happier birthday banquet

Hopefully this will be the last dinner connected to my birthday... Anyway, I had dinner with a few friend tonight where I was one of two birthday boys.  Yes, my birthday was actually 3 weeks ago, but we've both been busy...  We met up at Xi Yan Sweets (囍宴 甜·藝).  After my disastrous meal at another branch of the chain 2 months ago, this place would not have been anywhere on my list...but I kept my mouth shut and decided to see how it would go.

Greenhouse tomatoes in wasabi sesame sauce (芥末胡麻醬拌日本溫室蕃茄) - one of only two dishes that tasted good last time, and still tasted good tonight.

Cold tofu with preserved duck's egg and potherb mustard (皮蛋雪菜涼拌凍豆腐) - soooo thankful that we didn't order the other tofu with shrimp and crab relish... Simple is best here.

Dried scallop and choi sum salad with Chinese dressing (瑤柱涼拌油菜花) - not bad.  A very different way to take in this veggie.  But what exactly is "Chinese dressing"?!

Sichuan spicy chicken (招牌口水雞) - the other dish from last time that tasted alright.  Still tasted OK, and we asked for medium spicy.

Shrimps in salted egg yolk and basil satay sauce (金不換沙爹蛋黃蝦) - can't say this was anything special but it's not bad.

Zhenjiang spareribs (密制鎮江骨) - this type of spare rib is always popular... since the sauce is kinda sweet.

Poached radish with baby bean sprouts (浸湯蘿蔔豆苗) - very young bean sprouts were used here, and almost look like radish sprouts (which would have been another funny 親子丼 combo...)  Very refreshing and good for the summer.

Dan dan noodles (招牌擔擔麵) - this was alright.

Since we are at Xi Yan Sweets, we definitely had to order some desserts.  I was already pretty full, but the Okinawa black sugar with glutinous rice balls (沖繩黑糖白子) looked interesting.  Besides the typical red bean sauce and mochi balls, the black sugar did not come in the form of the typical liquid syrup, but was made into cubes of jelly instead.  I really liked that.

I'm glad the meal turned out well.  After all it was supposed to be a "birthday dinner" or sorts.  Very thankful for my friend treating us to the meal.

Definitely not a happy meal

It's iPad day, and I went to pick up my new toy from friends who were staying at the W. As they just came back from a grueling few days at the Shanghai Expo, we decided to find somewhere close to the hotel for dinner.  For one reason or another we ended up at Xĭ Yàn Flavours (囍宴 滋·選).  What a mistake it turned out to be!

Cold tofu with shrimp and crab relish (蝦兵蟹將凍豆腐) - I took one bite and knew instantly it was gonna be a disaster.  I was thinking to myself that the dried shrimps (蝦米) were some of the toughest I've ever chewed on, when my friend blurted out the exact same thought.

Greenhouse tomatoes in wasabi sesame sauce (芥末胡麻醬拌日本溫室蕃茄) - one of two dishes that tasted OK.

Sichuan spicy chicken (招牌口水雞) - the only other dish that tasted OK to me.  Nice chunks of cold chicken marinated with spicy vinegar, served with mung bean pappardelle, century eggs and some peanuts.

Crispy stuffed duck with glutinous rice (香酥糯米鴨) - this was so bad but somehow I ended up having two pieces, and I had to ask myself why I bothered with the second piece.  These were really hard as bricks... the duck was tough, made into blocks with glutinous and deep-fried.  My friends were smarter...they refused to eat a second piece.

Radish patty in XO sauce (囍宴XO醬炒蘿蔔糕) - another dish when it took one bite to know we're heading into disaster territory.  The cubes of radish cake - stuffed with mushrooms and sausage - were hard.  I ended up eating everything else but the radish cake.

Fried spring rolls with radish and dried oysters (原隻蠔豉蘿蔔絲春卷) - the only dish I ordered, and wasn't great either.  While I liked the flavor of the dried oysters, the thing was just too salty.

This really was a disaster.  I remember a time when a meal at Xĭ Yàn was something to look forward to.  Has the franchise over-expanded to the point where quality control simply  went out the window?  After this meal, I can't imagine any of us wanting to come back.  Ever.

Another couple of good meals in Singapore

I'm eating my way through Singapore, making up for all the time that I've been away. Besides the usual street food and supper, I did have another couple of memorable meals after the great start I had on Friday.

On Sunday, I got together with some friends for brunch at Braise, with a beachfront location on Sentosa. This seemed like a great location for a relaxing Sunday brunch, as the weather was beautiful - for the most part. Turns out the food was pretty good as well.

We started with a whole selection of starters - which one can have seconds, thirds, or however much one desires! These were:

Caesar Salad - pretty decent I must say
Scallop wrapped in Parma Ham with Rocket Salad, Honey Balsamic Dressing - the only dish I did not have, but the crowd liked it enough to get seconds
Pan Seared Foie Gras with Caramelized Banana - actually done pretty well and the banana was a nice touch
Poultry Consomme - this came with a foie gras ravioli and I definitely had seconds
King Prawn Cocktail Salad - pretty large and sweet prawns
Sundried Tomato and Spinach Olive and Parma Ham Escargot with Herb Crust - nice to nibble on
Pan Fried Crab Cake with Curry Aioli - really cute and delish

Next was the egg course, and I had mine done Benedict-style over an English muffin, with sausages. Not bad. While the ladies chose not to have a main course, I decided to have


Cod Fish and Chips. The batter was pretty good, and the cod was pretty tender and juicy, but I must say that the fish was a little bland. It could definitely use some more salt. The chips were thin wafers of taro, potato and sweet potato chips, very different from what I was expecting.

My friend who had the Angel Hair Pasta with Lobster Oil and Sauteed French Crevettes seemed to have enjoyed it, and it really did look delicious with those tiny shrimps.

For dessert, I had the Cheese Platter with a combination of hard and soft cheeses. Pretty good stuff.

While we could drink all the juices we wanted, I wanted to drink a bottle of the 2005 Cloudy Bay Te Koko. The price charged by the restaurant was only a slight premium to what the wine sells for retail in Hong Kong, so it was a no-brainer for me. The wine was delicious as I remembered, with notes of muscat grapes, green apples, honey and minerals. I really loved this wine, and it's such a different expression of the Sauvignon Blanc grape.

The restaurant has an excellent wine list, including a couple of vintages of Le Pin... which you would not expect from a restaurant with this location.

We spent about 4 hours just eating, chatting and generally enjoying ourselves. I thought the price was very reasonable for the quality as well as the quantity of the food. I think I would go back for another visit if given the chance.

For Monday night, I went for a totally different experience. I had tried the very yummy crab bee hoon (米粉) from Sin Huat Eating House some time ago (thanks again, Tony Bourdain), although the dishes were so expensive that my friends and I never went back. Three of us spent around SGD 300 for dinner, and at this at an open-air hawker stall establishment in Geylang!

Anyway, there have been recommendations floating around the net for a similar restaurant nearby, where the dish to order was crab tang hoon (冬粉), and apparently for much cheaper. So the original crew set off to find Ya Kwang (亞光), just down the road from Sin Huat in Geylang.

We started with kway chap (粿汁), flat noodles in sauce with a plate of braised pig intenstines, duck meat, tofu and egg. This was OK but not especially outstanding.

Next came a nice plate of Penang fried kway teow (炒粿條), which was full of flavor and, at a mere SGD 4, the best value of the evening.

The sambal sotong (calamari) was not as spicy as I expected, and it was OK.

The chicken wings were just finger food, but could have used a bit more marinating as it was a bit bland.

So what about the crab tang hoon? Well, it was pretty good. We had two Sri Lankan crabs which were big enough but not huge. The crabs were sweet tasting and good. There wasn't a whole lot of tang hoon, but since one of us decided not to partake too much of the dish, there was plenty to go around. Chef Jason does still use the Korean version of the tang hoon (used in chap chae) which were thicker and as a result less soggy. However, initially the tang hoon wasn't able to absorb a lot of the flavor from the crab, and it was only towards the end that I tasted the full flavor in the tang hoon. So the lesson here is to eat the crab first, and do the tang hoon later.

One thing that marred the experience was actually at the end, when we asked Chef Jason for the bill. I had read over the internet that the crab tang hoon costs SGD 25 and came with "two small crabs". A sign at the restaurant also confirmed that the dish cost either SGD 25 or 28, so I didn't bother asking for the price of the dish. When the bill came, the dish came to SGD 60.

Admittedly, this was still a bargain considering we just had two nice Sri Lankan crabs. But we decided to make an offhand remark (in jest) that while the food was delicious, it was a little expensive. If you want to see how fast you can piss off the chef, this would be the exact comment you would want to make. The mood changed instantly, and Jason said "You're kidding, right? You can complain that my food doesn't taste good, but don't tell me that I'm expensive!" He walked off, and was pissed enough to send someone after us to give us back the change/tip that we left on the table. I guess he really wasn't amused, and didn't exactly have a sense of humor...A word of warning to future potential diners...

Peking duck

It's been almost 7 years since my last trip to Beijing, so I was really looking forward to attending our Access China conference this year. While I spent a lot of time inside the hotel/mall, I did manage to get out and finally have some Peking duck...

I didn't do much homework on where to go, so when my friend suggested that we go to Duck King (鸭王), a popular chain, I happily went along with it. At least it was going to be better than Quan Ju De (全聚德)... We ended up at the branch next to Saite (賽特), across the street from the St. Regis, as it was the closest location to the Grand Hyatt. Since this was going to be my only chance to eat outside of the hotel/mall, I didn't mind over-ordering.

We started with duck feet with mustard sauce (芥末鴨掌), which was nicely de-boned and served cold. The mustard sauce, however, didn't do much for me.

The other starter we ordererd was deep-fried duck tongue with salt and pepper (椒鹽鴨舌). This was pretty yummy. Usually I only eat duck tongue at Shanghainese restaurants, so it is normally braised with soy sauce. This is definitely another take which would go down well with some alcohol (like beer).

What followed was the classic whole duck done three ways (一鴨三吃) - the traditional crispy skin and meat wrapped in pancake (脆皮肉分片), diced meat fried with pine nuts and wrapped in lettuce (鴨松)，and finally the duck soup cooked in claypot (沙鍋煲鴨湯). The skin was excellent - crispy on the outside, tender and juicy (or should I say oily) on the inside, but without too much of the yellow fat under the skin. The meat was also lean but juicy and tender, full of flavor. Both are sliced evenly in small pieces for ease of wrapping in pancakes.

The diced meat was also nice, with bits of Chinese crullers (油條) and pine nuts. The lettuce leaves adds a refreshing balance to the otherwise oily/fried texture.

The soup, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. But then again, I was never a big fan of this.

We left the restaurant very stuffed and with doggy bags for about half the duck... It was good to finally have had duck in Beijing after such a long absence, but next time I'll look for the smaller operators.