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DaRC and I are rolling out the red carpet for Geruhage and the visitors, so the itinerary naturally includes a dinner at the private kitchen. Given the experience from last night, I foresaw that some of the dishes tonight would be challenging for the visitors. But no worry, it means more for the rest of us!
Deep-fried sea urchin custard (海膽戈渣) - this is definitely something new for the visitors, and something so few chefs are still doing.
The custard made of eggs, chicken stock, and sea urchin inside is melts easily once inside the mouth. This is always fun to eat.
Deep-fried crab claws (椒鹽肉蟹鉗) - I would have been happy to get myself a smaller claw and leave the bigger ones to the visitors, but the servers had other ideas. Looking at these plump claws of giant mud crabs makes me drool.
This was our second deep-fried dish in a row, and here the salt really brought out the natural sweetness of the crab meat. It’s a dish that is so easy to love.
Stir-fried tripe with mixed vegetables (七彩炒肚尖) - now we get to the second dish which originated from the famous Imperial Scholar Kong (江太史), and this requires a chef to show their knife skills.
The finely-diced pig tripe tip (豬肚尖), celery, red bell peppers, water chestnuts, yellowed chives, sweet pickles, coriander and Chinese black olive kernels (欖仁) make for an interesting mix of colors, hence the term “seven colors” in the Chinese name. Tonight Chef Duck did well with the execution, and there wasn’t much leftover juices from the vegetables making this wet.
Traditional Buddha jumps over the wall (古法佛跳牆) - well… since DaRC was the host tonight, there was no instruction to the chef to skip the shark’s fin. So this would be the “complete” version of this classic.
I still got plenty on my plate to be happy about, though. A nice abalone, goose web, fish maw, tendons from pig legs, spiny sea cucumber, bamboo shoots, and roast pork belly. Naturally, we used some steamed rice to help pick up all the collagen-laden sauce. And our generous host offered up the house’s collection of Louis XIII to taste along this dish… and also added into the sauce.
Bird's nest and partridge porridge (燕窩鷓鴣粥) - the third classic dish from the imperial scholar’s kitchen. Due to the warm season this year, it wasn’t yet cold enough to have my favorite snake soup as the snakes haven’t been fattened enough, so this was what our host asked for.
An amazingly elegant porridge that came without rice but finely diced bird’s nest, along with shredded partridge and drops of egg white. The stock had plenty of flavor.
Steamed humpback grouper (清蒸海老鼠斑) - this had a very slippery texture tonight, and also springy at the same time. Great product and the execution was on point.
Crispy chicken (脆皮炸子雞) - it’s probably not very easy to find a well-executed chicken with thin, crispy skin in Canada…
Stir-fried kailan with crab roe (蟹皇扒蘭度) - we are now in crab roe season, so the veg dish suddenly isn’t so vegetarian anymore… But I like it.
Chef Duck had originally planned on another preparation for the crab claws, but changed it to deep-fried claws. The winter melon that was originally part of the dish was then used to simmer in superior broth (上湯) along with some
choy sum (菜芯). Underneath we find diced shiitake, loofah, shrimp, duck... all the ingredients normally found in a winter melon soup (冬瓜盅).
Steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaf (飄香荷葉飯) - always nice to see this on the menu, as the big lotus leaf imparts a wonderful fragrance.
Our generous host brought out a very nice tea for Geruhage.
One of our visitors is celebrating a birthday on this trip, so the chef offered up some
birthday buns (壽包) with lotus seed paste inside.
Double-boiled ginkgo nuts and lotus seeds (銀杏燉湘蓮) - probably my favorite dessert here, with
I would have thought we would polish off more wines tonight, but apparently not…
Eric Rodez Macération, dégorgée en Avril 2025 - nice and fresh, with strawberry notes on the nose and good acidity on the palate.
Eric Rodez Grands Vintages, dégorgée en Avril 2024 - this was already showing a nice level of maturity without being very old, with good depth on the palate and classic marmalade nose.
1997 Joh.Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese - classic nose of white flowers and lemon notes. Very elegant.
Remy Martin Louis XIII - this was soooo sweet on the nose, lots of caramel.
2014 Marc Roy Gevrey-Chambertin Cuvée Alexandrine - first whiff of the nose was very ripe, actually maybe overripe for my taste.This was nicer the second time around with good fruit and leather notes. Very nice.
2009 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir Allen Vineyard - this was even more ripe and sweet, with fragrant potpourri on the nose.
2006 Sine Qua Non Raven Grenache No. 8, from magnum - served nearly 1½ hours after decanting. Very ripe and sweet as expected, and maintained at this level for another 45 minutes. After 2½ hours in the decanter, this was showing notes of forest, and developed a very fragrant and woodsy nose. Drinking really well after 20 years.
That's a wrap on day 2 for the visitors. One more to go!
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