Six sons for lunch

It was more than 8 years ago that I brought Gaggan and Tara to Seventh Son (家全七福) and fed them their famous roast suckling pig. Gaggan wanted some dim sum today with the boys, and although my original intention was to bring them to Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店) - which I introduced to our mutual friend Champagne Diva last year - plans changed a few hours ago. And we ended back here, with a table of 8 hungry mouths.

While waiting for our food to arrive, I showed the boys a picture of my friend on his last visit here. He was proudly wearing a top from a famous Japanese designer, woven with a Chinese character (or kanji (漢字), if you prefer) that one does not use at a dining table. I'm not sure how much my friend has changed since that meal 8 years ago, but at least this time it's too warm for him to be wearing the same top.

As always, Mr. Tsui Wai Kwan (徐維均) - the seventh son himself - sat at a table in a corner enjoying his lunch as well as observing the crowd. It's been a few years since I last stepped foot in this restaurant, and he seems to have aged a little more than I had expected - not unlike what happened to my own parents. I'm happy he's still fit enough to come and keep an eye on things.

Barbecued whole suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬全體) - OF COURSE we started with the roast suckling pig again. The boys were all excited and took out their phones for pictures and videos, but some bongwater lover couldn't wait for everyone else and decided to snag a piece of the crackling first.

Oh I totally understand! I love this amazing crackling, which is just so thin and crispy.

The piggy was taken away, and the trotters and other parts with crackling were presented first, but I couldn't believe how shy the boys were. I had to push them to take a trotter so they could see how satisfying these taste. The pork ribs came later, and I love how milky they taste.

Now that we were done with the piggy - and the head had been packed away for Bong Girl to take home for congee - it was time to bring on the dim sum.

Steamed prawn dumplings (七福鮮蝦餃)

Pan-fried radish cake with cured meat (香煎蘿蔔糕)

Crab meat and chives dumplings (蟹肉韮菜盒)

Steamed rice rolls with shrimp (爽滑鮮蝦腸) - must remember to order more of this because Mr. Bongwater like shrimp, apparently.

Steamed rice flour rolls with shrimp and chicken meat spring roll (春風得意腸) - as 炸兩 (which is simply a layer of steamed rice flour roll wrapped around a core of deep-fried cruller 油條) is too low-brow for a fancy restaurant, they have chosen to use spring rolls as the core.

Steamed vegetarian dumplings with pine nuts (崧子仁素菜粿) - I honestly don't remember having seen this on the menu before, but by pure coincidence, it appears that we also ordered this when we brought Gaggan here for the first visit.

Deep-fried frog's legs in garlic and chili (椒鹽田雞腿) - I remember having these just about every single time I went to Fook Lam Moon (福臨門) with the Tiggers. It's nice to have these again after a few years.

Deep-fried chicken and taro dumplings (雞粒荔芋角) - still one of my favorite dim sum items. I just love how the taro mash fluffs up while deep-frying.

Stir-fried rice noodles with beef (乾炒牛河) - this is always a good call, and must be taken with Yu Kwen Yick (余均益) chili sauce (Tai Hing 泰興 would be even better)  so that someone is happy...

Love the wok hei (鑊氣), which Gaggan made sure to explain to the boys.

Fried rice with salted fish and diced chicken (鹹魚雞粒炒飯) - it felt that we needed a little bit more food, so we ordered up this classic flied lice. Salted fish can be so fragrant.

Gaggan paid particular attention to how the rice grains remained separated and not stuck together, and this is especially important in Cantonese cuisine that the rice should be dry and not mushy, while retaining a tender texture with sufficient bite.

We had a few desserts to finish off:

Black sesame roll (懷舊芝麻卷) - having learned the "fun" way of enjoying this "film roll (菲林)" on his first visit, my friend gave a demonstration to the boys.

Steamed traditional brown sugar sponge cake (欖仁馬拉糕)

Since it's the middle of my work day, I told Bong Girl that I wasn't planning on bringing any wine to lunch. The other bottles I had wanted to taste with Mr. Bongwater would have to wait for another day, I guess...

As we were finishing up, I was looking around at the mostly-empty dining room. Chef Liu Zhen (刘震) and Ms. Yu Qiong (俞瓊) from Yong Fu Hong Kong (香港甬府) happened to be at a neighboring table with the restaurant's owner, and introductions were made between the chefs. Ms. Yu stilled remembered that Gaggan's team had given them a pair of Thai boxing shorts embroidered with the restaurant's name - something each and every restaurant which placed on the 2023 Asia's 50 Best Restaurants (including the "back 50") received that year. Anyway, it turns out that the restaurant owner is a big fan of Seventh Son... and that's pretty convenient considering they are literally just around the corner.

I told Chef Liu and Ms. Yu that I would be seeing them at dinner in a few hours. I'm really looking forward to that meal.