No MSG

Pin It

A couple of days ago mom mentioned that, on a radio program she tunes in to regularly, the host had interviewed the chef of the Golden Dragon Restaurant (金龍餐廳) in The Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店). The chef claimed on the program that they make their dim sum items fresh everyday (shouldn't all decent restaurants do this?!) and that they don't use MSG. The latter was what piqued mom's interest. As a long-time sufferer of adverse reactions to chemical additives in food, she doesn't visit Chinese restaurants often when dining out. So she wanted to see whether these guys really live up to their claim.

I made a booking for lunch, and of course Last Minute Uncles does what he does best... join us and insists he won't come unless he gets to pay. Well, he is a member at the hotel's club so he knows this place better than any of us.

It's the first time I stepped foot in this restaurant, and as I look at the dim sum section of the menu, I got a little ambitious and wanted to try as many items as possible. I did remember to order in rounds, though...

Steamed rice rolls with mixed sauce (混醬腸粉) - this is a street food staple in Hong Kong, and I've had it many, many times for breakfast. Unfortunately the sauces just tasted off... although neither Foursheets nor I could pintpoint why.

Steamed char siu bao with oyster sauce (蠔汁叉燒包) - unfortunately I didn't get to taste this, but mom seemed to like it.

Shrimp dumplings (鮮蝦餃) - I did count 13 folds on this one, and the flavors were OK. None of us could taste any MSG here.

Char siu pastry with honey sauce (蜜汁叉燒酥) - clearly the kitchen didn't put enough egg wash on top so the color was just too pale...

The pastry shell was much thicker than I would have wanted, and it was much too mushy. The pastry was also on the sweet side.

Beef meatballs with seasonal vegetables (時菜牛肉丸)

This was fine.

Abalone shumai (鮑魚燒賣) - I had expected the tiny abalone on top to have been braised but...

Dry-roasted prawn shumai (明蝦干燒賣) - while this was OK for a siu mai, I didn't really taste any special flavors from dry-roasted prawns.

Fengcheng shrimp dumplings (鳳城鹹水餃) - the color was darker than expected, but the flavors were fine.

Steamed rice rolls with minced shrimps and assorted vegetables (春風得意腸粉) - Foursheets and I took one look at this and we knew it would be a FAIL. The shape was too irregular, implying the spring roll inside had an irregular shape and not nicely executed at all. And sure enough, the spring roll was just too overcooked.

Turnip cake in XO sauce (XO蘿蔔糕) - I accidentally ordered a different version of turnip cake than I originally wanted, but I'm always happy to take this one, too... with the X.O sauce adding some spicy kick.

Stir-fry seasonal vegetables (清炒季節時蔬) - this was pretty nice, because we couldn't taste any MSG here, either.

Cantonese chow mein (廣東炒麵) - not the right dish for mom but I love this type of crispy fried noodles. The char siu here had very, very strong porky flavors.

Pan-fry pumpkin cake (南瓜煎餅) - not a bad way to finish.

There were certainly a few hits along with a couple of obvious misses, but the important thing is confirmation that the kitchen definitely uses a lot less MSG or chemical additives than your standard Chinese restaurant. Mom did not seem to have very strong reactions afterwards. So why the food tonight was nothing to write home about, we at least have found a place where she can come and dine out without worrying about the consequences.