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A few hours after sipping on some wines together into the wee hours at our place, I'm meeting up with Geruhage and Tomo-chan for lunch. DaRC had kind of overruled our friend's original wish to try dim sum at a place he hadn't visited before, and the bunch of us ended up at
Forum Restaurant (富臨飯店). One could never go wrong here, and I jokingly reminded Geruhage before coming here that we should pre-order the fish maw... which used to be priced at around HKD 30,000 but is now listed as "market price"...
DaRC comes here much more often than I do, so we are guaranteed to have a wonderful experience when we're with him. I left the ordering up to the expert.
Forum steamed premium shrimp dumpling with pork (富臨蝦餃皇) - they do this classic so, so well here. Very plump and full of flavor.
Pan-fried cuttlefish cake (香煎墨魚餅) - this was really nice. Very crispy on the outside, with diced water chestnuts inside, and again just full of flavors.
Deep-fried spring roll with shredded chicken (懷舊雞絲春卷) - I've had this many, many times. Always a reliable choice.
Steamed vegetarian dumpling with black tiger palm mushroom (黑虎掌野菌餃) - the translucent wrapper made with tapioca allowed us to peek inside at the ingredients, and the star was undoubtedly the sarcodon aspratus (黑虎掌菌), or "black tiger paw fungus".
Crispy rice roll stuffed with Hokkaido scallop and minced shrimp (北海道帶子脆米腸) - I've had these here many times, but this has to be the best in my memory. Must be because I'm dining with DaRC. Anyway... I've always loved the textural contrast among the springy shrimp mousse and scallops in the middle, the crispy middle layer, and the soft, steamed rice flour rolls on the outside.
Dashijie siu mai (大師姐燒賣) - I've never had the privilege of dining with Dashijie (大師姐) here, so I never knew of the existence of this off-menu item until today. This is very, very old school
siu mai (燒賣), and the texture was just really fluffy and bouncy. The minced pork ball came with salted fish, and the center tasted really strong and salty, and quite pungent with fermented flavors. What a treat to have tried this! Again, benefits of dining with DaRC.
Deep-fried shrimp bean curd sheet roll with supreme soup (金湯腐皮卷) - I'm used to having the "dry" version of these tofu skin rolls, but they are also OK when served in soup. The skin stops being crunchy, though...
Pan-fried Huangqiao meat floss and sesame cake (黃橋燒餅) - forever one of my favorite things to eat. I just love the incredible fragrance all those sesame seeds bring, and the stuffing of diced ham, spring onions, pork floss, and of course lard inside the flaky pastry. MUAH!
Braised bean curd with mushrooms (三菇燒豆腐) - a surprising choice from Ro Ro...
Deep-fried crispy chicken (富臨脆皮雞) - love all those deep-fried shrimp crackers on the side.
Deep-fried pork with dried mandarin peel in sweet and sour sauce (陳皮咕嚕肉) - the sweet and sour pork had crispy batter and were nice and fatty inside. Good acidity from the vinegar, and lovely fragrance from the aged tangerine peel. The sweetness of the sauce was totally up my alley.
Sweetened red bean soup with dried mandarin peel (陳皮紅豆沙) - I'm not sure I've ordered this before, so I never knew this was served with some powdered aged tangerine peel. Unfortunately, this was a little bitter.
Deep-fried sesame glutinous ball (黃金煎堆仔) - MUST.ORDER. Why wouldn't I like deep-fried dough with tons of sesame seeds?!
Since Geruhage is ALWAYS thirsty and it's been a whole 10 hours since he was given any wine, I decided we should enjoy some nice whites today...
1986 Ygrec - this was really lovely, with nose of white flowers, a little flint, some ripe fruit, and definitely saffron. There were some signs of aging after 40 years, but DAYAM! This was so, so fragrant and beautiful!
1989 Maximin Grünhauser Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese - there was a really light amount of residual sugar sweetness, and the acidity on the palate was still nice. Nose of white truffle and beeswax.
2024 Clos Mao Light (理光) - this was decanted before serving. The nose was very fragrant, very buttery, still flinty with plenty of lemon and a little bit of vanilla. Really good acidity level on the palate. So nice.
Sadly, the damage today came in at a lot less than HKD 30,000... since we didn't order any fish maw. I really need to come here more often with DaRC, because everything is just so much better when you're a VIP!
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