The watery Chairman

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This is the first of two nights out that I’m spending with the King. I had promised months ago that I would get a booking at The Chairman (大班樓) so that some of their friends from Taipei could get to try it, so here we are. I had asked the visitor to choose the dishes tonight, with a couple of inputs from me. Some of their choices were a little surprising, but as we would find out later during the meal, the regular customer isn’t always right.

Crispy taro cake with smoked duck (荔甫鴨盒) – flavors from the Chinese celery were pretty noticeable.

15-year aged tangerine peel beef ball (十五年陳皮牛肉獅子頭) – after trying this for the first time and not liking the texture, I never ordered it again. Now at my guests’ request, I could see that the exterior of the meatball had been coated with starch… so it appeared slippery, smooth, and glistened under the lights.

I knew that from the beginning, the kitchen had been constantly trying to improve on their recipes, and tonight the texture was definitely more to my liking – meaning the thing didn’t crumble and fall apart so easily. The flavors of the beef were pretty strong, as were those from the aged tangerine peel. I was definitely happier tonight.

Smoked baby pigeon with Longjing tea and chrysanthemum (龍井菊花煙乳鴿) – I sometimes forget that while we take roast pigeons or even braised pigeons for granted here in Hong Kong, they are much harder to come by in Taiwan. So I shouldn’t be surprised when this was requested.

I do like the way the birds are cured and smoked, and as always, they remind me of the classic tea-smoked duck (樟茶鴨).

Fresh water crab roes with pomelon skin and winter melon (蟛蜞膏柚皮冬瓜) – SOMEONE was very happy to have tasted this dish again, but unfortunately that person was not me. I seemed to have drawn the short straw tonight, as my piece of rehydrated pomelo skin was very, very bitter. That was definitely a FAIL.

Watercress and gizzard soup (西洋菜鴨胗湯) – definitely got the watercress flavor, but sweetness rather than bitterness here.

When the group first came back with their list of dishes, I was very, very surpised to find that the signature flower crab was not among them. I knew that half the guests were coming for their first visit, so I kinda nudged them into order it… since this may potentially be their own opportunity to dine here.

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) – the crabs themselves weren’t very big, so we ended up with two of them.

Unfortunately, my guests turned out to be very wise in not wanting to have crab tonight. The chef among them knew this was not the right season for crab, and sure enough, these were what Cantonese would call “water crab (水蟹)”… meaning the shells were kinda hollow and weren’t completely filled with crab meat. Oh well… at least they enjoyed the noodles soaked in the sauce.

Whole fish 2 flavours: stir fried fillets with pepper (一斑二食:胡椒炒球) – pretty standard stuff.

Steamed with aged lemon and fried garlic (一斑二食: 陳年鹹檸檬蒸頭腩) – this is always the more interesting preparation, especially with the salted lemon (鹹檸檬) that had been aged.

Crispy skin chicken with red bean curd marinate (南乳麵醬炸子雞) – I’ve always liked this dish, as the skin is thin and crispy, and one could already taste the red bean curd (南乳) in the skin.

Stir fried kalian with XO sauce (XO醬炒芥蘭) – usually a good call here, as the quality of their veggies is top-notch.

Yunnan ganbajun and beef short ribs Chinese cured liver sausages claypot rice (乾巴菌薑絲肥牛膶腸窩蛋煲仔飯) – this was the one dish I insisted on ordering, as I wasn’t gonna pass up a chance to have ganbajun (乾巴菌). While some of us are lucky to have been exposed to it for years now, it’s still unknown to my guests from Taiwan.

I have to admit that, when the rice first arrived in front of us, I thought the fragrance of the fungus wasn’t as strong as I had been expecting it to be. However, the combination with the Chinese preserved liver sauce (膶腸) was still really nice. And YES, taking a sip of red Burg and mixing it with ganbajun in the mouth just creates mini explosions of flavor in the mouth. DIE, DIE MUST TRY!

With this particular rice, there is a second service where the pot is sent back to the kitchen, and soup is added along with clams. The pot came back with boiling hot soup.

As much as I love very hard, crunchy rice crispies (飯焦), they’re also nice when softened up a little in broth.

Finally, we have the desserts trio (甜品三寶):

Almond cream (杏仁茶)

Goji berry ice cream (枸杞雪糕)

Steamed jujube (紅棗糕)

I took advantage of the opportunity to open up a couple of magnums tonight.

2011 Joh.Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel, from magnum – the nose was very fragrant with lots of white flowers along with the petrol / white truffle. So beautiful. Of course, there was also a mild level of sweetness. Thankfully the guests did not mind too much.

2011 Domaine de Montille Corton Clos du Roi, en magnum – not bad… some fruit and woodsy notes, along with leathery fragrance. This was a bit more muted than I had expected, and also a little more lean than I had hoped for.

Other than the disappointing crabs, I think the visitors were pretty happy overall. I was pleased to see that the beef “lion’s head (獅子頭)” had evolved and improved, so maybe I would including it when ordering for future visits.

And yes, one must not forget to count one’s blessings, especially when many, many other do not have the same booking privileges that I do.