Don't let them decant your wine

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The Compatriot is making a rare overnight stop in town so he could have dinner with me, and asked for Cantonese food. We could hit one of our regular haunts for that, but I decided to try something different. Having been stuffed with lots of goodies at a lunch organized by a VVIP last year, I have been wanting to return to Flower Drum (鋒膳) on my own. I finally got around to that tonight.

My friend wanted to try more dishes, so we opted for the Omakase menu. Not the more expensive one, because that includes shark's fin that I wouldn't touch. Yesterday I saw the boss put up a post on social media about a special dish, and I was hoping that it would show up on our menu tonight.

We start with antipasto platter (三喜碟), which wasn't actually a platter but three different starters:

South African abalone with Bannou negi (南非鮑魚配萬能蔥) - the chilled abalone was fine, and came with some condiment that seemed to resemble 薑蓉, except in addition to spring onions, ginger, and sesame oil there were also fine bits of Chinese ham. The sauce made with Bannou negi (万能ねぎ) purée, though, was not that great as it left a bitter aftertaste.

Sadly, they didn't have enough ganbajun (乾巴菌) in the kitchen to make the special spring rolls... I guess I should have called ahead and asked for it.

Crab and cheese spring roll (蟹肉芝士春卷) - OK la... with button mushrooms and onions inside.

Steamed razor clams (蒸蟶子皇) - very classic preparation with minced garlic, spring onions, and glass vermicelli. Pretty decent.

BBQ meat : 21-day dry-aged Miyazaki pork char siu (宮崎快樂豬叉燒21天熟成) - this place is kinda famous for their char siu, and it's always on the menu. This was a nice hunk of tender, marbled pork. Nice honey glaze with some charring around the edges.

Soup : black garlic, whelk, and fish maw soup (湯：黑蒜螺頭花膠湯) - this was actually really nice, with flavors of black garlic standing out. Arguably the best dish tonight for me.

Primo : lobster (主菜壹：三十年菜圃炒澳洲龍蝦) - hmmmm... every Chinese stir-fried lobster dish will forever be measured against the version I've had many times at Fook Lam Moon (福臨門). This one certainly did not measure up. First of all, the lobster came in chunks which were too big, so they were somewhat overcooked on the outside. Then there was the use of supposedly precious 30-year-old preserved radish, which should have delivered marvelous and deep flavors. Nope. Practically tasteless. Either the quality is poor or something went very wrong. A simple version with standard black beans - like they do at FLM - would have been much better.

Secondo : broccolini in chicken broth (主菜貳：雞汁西蘭花苗) - very, very delicious, with sweet broccolini in a tasty, thickened chicken broth. But calling it "main course two" was maybe somewhat misleading...

Terzo : crispy roasted pigeon (主菜參：琵琶乳鴿) - the pigeon certainly looked pretty good... The very crispy skin came with a noticeably sweet glaze, and while this was fairly tasty, I found the breast a little overcooked.

Mains : sea urchin fried rice (主食：海膽炒飯) - as the Arrogant Prick with a very jaded palate, I had a number of issues with this dish. First of all, the sea urchin was totally superfluous. I can imagine, though, that many diners would "Oooh" and "Aaah" over them. Then there was the diced ginger in the flied lice. Was it there to offset any potential unpleasant flavors from the sea urchin? That seems to be an oxymoron, because if the diner doesn't love the pure flavors of the sea urchin, why serve it at all?! I found the presence of ginger in my flied lice offensive.

Dolce : peach gum, snow fungus, and Chinese honey locust soup (甜點：桃膠雪耳雪蓮子) - I know Chinese people like to have hot dessert soups, but this was veering towards scalding hot territory... This was my second time having Chinese honey locust seeds, and this time I also thought there was waaaaay too much of them in my bowl, since they are very filling.

Homemade ice cream : peanut ice cream (自製冰淇淋：花生雪糕) - this was actually very, very tasty. I wish I hadn't taken so much of the dessert soup just moments before.

Petit four : quinoa chocolate, fig cookie (美點：藜麥朱古力，無花果曲奇)

I know that The Compatriot has just stepped off the plane hours ago, and he hasn't been drinking much lately, but I felt we still needed 3 bottles for the 4 of us.

Unfortunately I was too focused on greeting my friends and chatting with them that I totally forgot to take care of the wines. I should have remembered that they don't have a sommelier I trust, and when I asked them to decant my bottle, they don't know that they need to leave enough in the decanter so that the sediment stay, too. Nope. Uncle poured it all into the decanter. So what the fuck was the point of decanting?!

2020 Smith Haut Lafitte Blanc - nose of green apple and muscat. Drinking well with a little ripeness to balance the acidity.

1981 Guigal La Landonne - all sediment poured into decanter. Started drinking around 40 minutes after decanting. Kinda meh. With the char siu the after taste was pretty metallic and a little funky. Got better after 1 hour in the decanter, and now I could smell the acidity, and the acidity also started to show on the palate. Still got sweet fruits like plum on the nose. After 1½ hours the nose was now better than the palate. Just kinda disappointing.

1990 Montrose - all sediment poured into decanter. A little bretty just after decanting. Started drinking about 1 hour and 45 minutes after decanting. Very lively. Around the 2-hour mark the nose was very smoky, showing lots of tobacco, leather, mineral and savory notes. Really nice and fragrant. Maybe not performing as a 100-point wine tonight but very delicious nonetheless.

This was a pretty happy evening. I enjoyed spending time with good friends over food and wine, and while I was somewhat disappointed in the menu tonight, it was only because my expectations were very high. After all, my last visit was with a VVIP and the restaurant pulled out all the stops for us. Oh well...

It was also a happy evening for me, because someone remembered my love for Sprüngli chocolates and carried this from Zurich!