Rush, rush

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My friendly neighborhood prime broker wanted to take me out to lunch in order to celebrate my new job, and also as an early celebration of our birthdays. She was rambling about some restaurant she'd never been to... when she suddenly lamented that she hadn't been back to The Chairman (大班樓) in a long time. Well... I decided to grow some thick skin and begged for a table - which was how we ended up here today.

Lunching at The Chairman is something I have seldom done, unless it's a weekend or I'm not working. Imagine showing up here today and immediately recognizing people at a few neighboring tables. I guess I don't live the same leisurely life as those people... but that's OK.

I left the choice of dishes entirely in the hands of my broker a.k.a. the Landlord. I thought she would consult with her colleagues before making the choices, but I was wrong. There were a few dishes that I would not have picked, that I didn't care for, but I bit my tongue. This lunch was about making someone else happy, and it had nothing to do with me.

Cold squid noodle and lily bulbs with pine nut gazpacho (魷魚涼麵百合配松子凍湯) - no, this isn't Cantonese cuisine. It's more Japanese and Korean, and that chilled pine nut cream is just so refreshing on a warm day. Those petals of 9-year-old lily bulb from Lanzhou (蘭州) is just so crunchy with incredibly high sugar content.

Crispy pig tails with plum sauce (山楂梅子脆皮豬尾) - always so satisfying to suck on the bones and try to get all the collagen and fat off. And the skin was so tasty with the sweet and sour flavors from the plum marinade.

Smoked baby pigeon with Longjing tea and chrysanthemum (龍井菊花煙乳鴿) - it's been a while since I last had the pigeon here. I normally don't order them since they're too small for my liking.

Pretty tasty, and I was a little surprised by the doneness... as I could still see some shades of pink.

Steamed catch of the day (清蒸本灣海魚) offered to us was a star snapper (金石蚌), and they had 3 of these for the day.

It's always a good idea to say 'yes' when there's a daily catch offered to you. Just fantastic.

Steamed fresh flowery crab with aged Shaoxing wine, fragrant chicken oil and flat rice noodles (雞油花雕蒸花蟹配陳村粉) - we had someone coming here for the first time, so OF COURSE we ordered the most famous dish. Very enjoyable as always, but I didn't get to drink as much of that sauce as I normally would.

Crispy skin chicken with red bean curd marinate (南乳麵醬炸子雞) - this came while we were still working on our crab, and unfortunately got a little cold by the time we got to it. Still very tender and succulent, and that skin! The red fermented bean curd sauce was as tasty as ever.

Beef quartet in chilli sour broth with sweet garlic (大班樓酸辣甜蒜牛四味) - not one of my favorite dishes here, as I don't really care for the mala (麻辣) and sour flavors.

Stir fried jicama, snap peas, water lily seeds and gordon euryales seed (蜜糖豆仁沙葛炒雞頭米) - OK so someone copied the TRANSLATION FAIL... It's not "Gordon Euryales". The waterlily plant is named euryale, after the Gorgon in Greek mythology. Some idiot started calling it "Gorgon Euryale" and it's been widely (mis)copied ever since. Anyway... this was really, really delicious thanks to tiny sugarsnap peas, and the finely diced jicama.

Crispy aged eel and salted pork belly claypot rice (瑤柱咸肉燒鱔煲仔飯) - always impressive to lift up the lid of the clay pot and look at what's inside...

Unfortunately the rice was much too dry today. The aged eel was still very tasty, though, with those fermented flavors.

Finishing with the desserts trio (甜品三味)：

Wolfberry ice cream (杞子雪糕)

Jujube jelly (棗泥糕)

Almond milk (杏仁茶)

We had told the restaurant ahead of time that we were on a schedule and needed to leave by a certain time, so kitchen sped up the service for us. Lunch definitely felt a little rushed, but that was the result of us choosing an extra dish. Happy to have made the ladies happy today, and I'll be back in a month to bring yet another group of first-timers here.