Sichuan jasmine

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For the last couple of years, Mr. Chichi has been hell bent on getting me to eat spicy food with him, despite having been told that my tolerance level for heat is not very high. I've flat out turned down invitations to Hunanese cuisine, even though they were invitations from restaurants and I wouldn't have to pay. I kinda pushed my limits last month at Chef 1996 Restaurant (1996川菜•主厨餐厅) in Beijing, and I know that meal made Foursheets pretty happy. So when Mr. Chichi extended an invitation to Deng G (鄧記), I relayed it to wifey... who promptly said 'Yes'. Having tasted Chef Deng's cuisine a few times over the years, I know that his style isn't all about red chili oil, so I figured I could do it.

The only problem is that the original location in Wanchai closed, and we now have to cross the harbor to the remaining outlet in K11 MUSEA. Travel distance aside, I really hate dining inside this mall - because the whole place reeks of that fake vanilla scent that's pumped throught the entire complex. Not only does it interfere with the food, it also kills any decent wine I bring to my meals. So I very, very rarely willingly go and dine in any establishments there. But I now have to do it for Foursheets.

Well... these digs are certainly a lot more grand than the old shop, and since our host is a VIP, we got ourselves a private room with harbor views. Foursheets even thought that the fake vanilla scent in the mall wasn't as bad as she remembered...

...but unfortunately, vanilla has been replaced with jasmine, which was pumped into our room mere moments after I sat down. Is that better? Perhaps, since jasmine tea is at least part of Chinese cuisine while vanilla isn't really used much. But the periodic spray into the room did annoy me, especially since there were a couple of bottles of wine on the table.

As always, Chef Deng Huadong (邓华东) put together a special menu for the VIP, and unfortunately it included one of my dietary restrictions. Sigh.

Once again, we started with Deng G six appetizer combination (鄧記六小碟):

Spicy seafood medley (鮮椒海鮮匯)

Sliced pig's kidneys with red chili oil (紅油腰片) - came with lots of finely-diced raw garlic. Very nice.

Spicy poached Kamei chicken (藤椒嘉美雞) -

Shredded lotus root with black truffle (黑松露脆藕) - the flavors were kinda funky, but somehow familiar.

Organic cauliflower marinated with pickled chilies (嗆拌有機花椰菜) - marinated with pickled chilis, with a mild hit of acidity and some kick.

Preserved and smoked pork (臘腸臘肉) - really nice, as the sausages came with some spicy and numbing peppercorns.

Dry-braised fish maw (乾燒廣肚) - I found it curious that the toppings kinda reminded me of preserved mustard greens (雪裡蕻).

Basted young chicken (油淋仔雞) - this was a little springy and chewy, pretty nice, but just a tad undercooked by Chinese standards.

The skin was pretty nice and crispy.

Radish bird's nest in clear broth (清湯蘿蔔燕) - so this was not bird saliva, but a root vegetable scored very fine to mimic the texture, while ticking the box of being more environmentally conscious.

Gotta say that texture was pretty amazing. It almost felt like there was a small amount of bounce, very soft and tender. I would not have believed this was radish.

Kung pao deep-fried crullers with shark's fin (宮保油條翅) - I wish Chef Deng hadn't stuffed shark's fin inside, but the crullers were tasty and the kung pao (宮保) flavors were nice enough.

Shao Cheng pork buns (少城小包) - apparently these originate from the now-defunct Shao Cheng Xiao Can (少城小餐) where Chef Deng used to work. Tough to go wrong with pork buns...

Stir-fried river shrimp with fermented rice lees (糟炒蝦仁) - this was pretty nice, with small amount of ham as well as crunchy cubes of water chestnuts(?) marinated in wine.

Stir-fried shredded freshwater eel (火爆鱔絲) - this was very nice, with shredded bamboo shoots and Chinese celery.

Braised beef tenderloin and pig intestines in red chili broth (水煮吊龍肥腸) - this red chili broth is usually not my thang, as it's always extra spicy to the point that I can't handle it.

But I made an exception for the pig intestines, which tasted kinda strong and benefitted from the heavy level of spicy heat.

Stir-fried choy sum (清炒菜芯)

Mapo tofu with minced beef (麻婆豆腐) - this classic dish was much more spicy than I expected, but I loved it with the black beans (豆豉).

Stir-fried shredded pork with green capsicum (青椒肉絲) - this was the dish that was universally panned. Much too wet and flabby.

Steamed eight-treasure rice (八寶鍋蒸) - I don't think I've ever had this dessert before. Water is added to flour that had been fried in lard to the point where they melded together, and the texture started to resemble a giant chunk of marshmallow - but denser. Nice with sesame, peanuts, and maybe some diced candied pomelo skin.

Spicy Sichuanese cuisine normally doesn't do so well with wine, and I wasn't too surprised that we didn't have too many bottles tonight.

2017 Col d'Orcia Riserva Poggio al Vento - this was very fragrant with good amount of sweet fruit. About 1½ hours later we also had nice, woodsy notes.

2001 Arietta H-Block Hudson Vineyards - started drinking after 1 hour and 15 minutes in the decanter. This was really sweet and very ripe, almost jammy. Smoky and also nice, woodsy notes.

It was very nice to come back to taste Chef Deng's cuisine again, and I love that the heat for the dishes - most of them, anyway - didn't blow my head off. Unfortunately this meal once again reaffirmed my conviction that I should never eat inside K11 Musea ever again. I just can't deal with the artificial fragrance.