Suddenly Shunde

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I was expecting a simple and casual dinner with Foursheets tonight when I got the call to join her and a few others at a completely different venue. I have never been to Shunde Cuisine (順聯薈), and in fact I'm not sure I remember ever hearing about it. But we are dining with regular who know the place, so I guess that counts for something.

It's still a casual dinner, just with a few more mouths... which meant we could try out a few more dishes. Thankfully our host went easy on the ordering.

Traditional shrimp toast (懷舊鍋貼蝦) - this was pretty good. the piece of toast on the bottom was relatively thin compared to other versions elsewhere, but dry and crispy to deliver a high level of satisfaction.

Pan-fried eel medallions (煎焗金錢鱔) - I'm not a fan of local eel, as Chinese restaurants tend to serve it cut as cross-section medallions and all the tiny bones are still left in the fish. And I always taste the mud. Having said that, this was one of the better versions I've had, as the fish was thin-cut and served crispy.

Stir-fried scallops with peanut sprouts (花生芽炒帶子) - nice to see peanut sprouts again, and this dish came with some diced scallops, shrimp, peanuts, and other veggies. OK la.

Crispy baby pigeon (脆皮妙齡乳鴿) - I gotta admit that the half of the pigeon I had was pretty tasty. Wonderful, flavorful juices were plashing down the side of the pigeon as I ripped the leg away from the body. The skin was crispy, the seasoning on point, and the flesh was succulent. The only problem? The pigeon was a little small, and there wasn't enough meat to make me want this more. Still loses to the pigeon at Stellar House.

Stir-fried crab meat and conpoy with egg (蟹肉桂花炒瑤柱) - happy to see that they don't use real shark's fin but glass vermicelli and shredded conpoy (瑤柱) instead. This was fried at high heat to deliver wok hei (鑊氣), so the execution was great. I felt they used way too much conpoy, though, so the flavors were much too salty.

Stir-fried rice flour rolls with X.O sauce (XO醬豉油皇炒陳村粉) - always happy to have these stir-fried rice flour rolls (陳村粉), and of course it's perfect when it's seasoned with soy sauce and X.O sauce.

Fried pork ribs with aged mandarin peel and preserved olives (欖角陳皮骨) - these pork ribs were really, really crispy... In fact, I would say they were crunchy, as the batter and glaze hardened more than expected. Definitely tasted the flavors of the aged mandarin peel and also the preserved olives. Very nice.

We had just a couple of casual bottles for a casual dinner.

2013 Branaire-Ducru - good amount of fruit, with some smoke on the nose.

1995 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon Special Selection - drank after around 1 hour in the decanter. Very minty, a little smoky, much more fragrant and complex. Amazingly, the tannins are still here and still coating the tongue. Nice and woodsy nose. Sweet and ripe on the palate.