Hot in the city

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I seldom have hankering for hotpot meals in restaurants. Besides the soup base - and often I would prefer something clear or even plain water - it's mostly about the ingredients. There isn't much cooking skill involved, and I freely admit to having next to none in that department. I'm almost always joining friends or family when I find myself at a hotpot restaurant. So it was the case today... when Mr. Chichi extended a rare invitation to join him for Beijing-style lamb hotpot (涮羊肉).

Having spent a lot less time in Central over the last year or so, I've been oblivious to the opening of Peking Hotpot (新京熹老北京涮肉火鍋) - a genuine Beijing import. I had, in fact, walked past it last month without taking much notice. But since Mr. Chichi is organizing, I figured I'd get to have a pretty good experience - and a lot of food.

We have the hotpot with traditional clear broth (傳統清湯鍋).

We were presented with the array of condiment sauce (搭檔小料), and I love the traditional sesame sauce.

Yilan hop 2022 day 1: Peking duck sushi

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Years ago when I heard a friend heap praise upon the roast Peking duck at Silks Place Yilan (蘭城晶英酒店), I wasted no time in making a booking to try it out. While there were a few things I didn't like about that meal, I thought a few of the dishes were truly outstanding. I even thought the duck sushi was one of the best things I ate that year, and possibly merits a visit to the Red Lantern (紅樓) restaurant just by itself.

So when we decided to come to Yilan this week, I decided to make a return visit to the restaurant. After all, Sankala has never tried this Peking duck. Due to our smaller group compared to my last visit, I chose to reserve just the basic Cherry Valley roasted duck cuisine in five ways (櫻桃霸王鴨五吃).

As we were coming on a week night and not on a busy weekend, we were able to be seated within the restaurant proper instead of being shoved into the big function room. The level of service, though, didn't seem to be much different. Every single table was here to have the duck, which meant that a certain number of courses were being served across a large number of tables. The service has become factory assembly line-like, which is to say very mechanical.

I also ordered up a couple of extra dishes since there were no vegetables included in the set, and also got some fried rice in case dad didn't feel full after just the duck.

Fried rice with spring onion (蔥花炒飯) - WTF?! In what world is it acceptable for the fried rice to be served FIRST and not LAST in any Chinese meal?! Well... I guess we were hungry so we made sure dad got some food in him before the duck arrived. He IS, after all, known to get hangry...

4-star day: char siu and ramen

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It has been much too long since I last enjoyed a leisurely lunch on a weekday, and after all that's happened lately I thought I should take a little break.  Today's lunch was meant to have taken place a week ago, but thanks to the sudden ban - which was quickly reversed 2 days later - of all dine-in services, we ended up not showing up at the doors of Ta Vie 旅.

Thankfully we found time for lunch today, and the dish DaRC and I most wanted to have was still available.

We started with some cold-brew tea, which happened to have been sourced by DaRC.  This was, apparently, "green" Iron Buddha (綠鐵觀音).  Just so floral and fragrant, such elegance!

Classic and fatty Peking duck

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It's been a while since I last had the pleasure of Da Jam's company at a dining table, so when he suggested that we go and have some Peking duck at Spring Deer (鹿鳴春) - an old school place popular with tourists and locals alike - I didn't hesitate to say "YES".

Just to set the matter straight... Many of us Chinese people don't eat Peking duck on a regular basis.  Not that there's anything wrong with ordering Peking duck, but... there are tons of other dishes that we prefer to order - especially in a city with such variety of choice when it comes to Chinese food.  As I've discussed when entertaining foodie friends from out of town, I find myself ordering it mostly when I'm in the company of... you guess it... Caucasian visitors.  And my last visit to this restaurant was with visitors in town from the US - although one of them was originally from Hong Kong.

I left it up to Da Jam and Kung Fu Panda to take care of ordering the dishes, especially when Da Jam seemed to know his way around this place.

Saute pig's windpipe with coriander (鹽爆管廷) - it's been a while since I last had the pig's windpipe, and I do like it for its springy texture.  Traditionally it's sliced and scored so that it looks like a centipede or vertebrae - in other words, a little freaky.  Da Jam told me that they usually put a ton of salt in the dish, so he had already requested for the kitchen to dial it down.  Very tasty and fragrant with all that coriander.  Love the (almost) raw garlic, too!

Eat like an emperor

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I'm up in Beijing again for a quick trip, and this time around I actually get to have a couple of decent meals.  I was chatting with Mr. QLI about the potential candidates, and in the end he suggested that we hit Family Li Imperial Cuisine (厲家菜).  While there are several branches of the restaurant in the city, curiously, one of them is a long way from the city center.  In fact, it's not far from Beijing Capital International Airport.  Mr. QLI told me that this particular branch, named 蘭庭厲家菜, is where Chef Li Xiao Lin (厲曉麟) - the second generation owner - cooks.  Apparently the location is close to his home.

Since I was flying in this afternoon, it seemed to make sense for us to dine here - as I wouldn't have far to travel from the airport and therefore not subject to the frustrating traffic jams that Beijing is known for.  But poor Mr. QLI did have to travel for about an hour just to have dinner with me...

I arrived to discover an empty restaurant in a quiet shopping mall, and Mr. Li chatting with Mr. QLI in one of the five private rooms.  We seemed to be the only diners tonight, which wasn't too surprising giving the restaurant's location.  I dropped my luggage, apologized for arriving a little late, and was introduced to Mr. Li.  I had had my first taste of their cuisine at their branch in Taipei last year, and had been curious about what it would be like at to eat in Beijing.  Well, I did better than just eating here... I got to meet and chat with him.

Everything seemed to have been arranged, so I just sat back and waited to see what came our way.

Fried beancake (炸咯渣) - these were interesting, because they were crispy on the outside but soft on the inside.  Similar to gaozha (高渣).  Pretty old school and dipped in some garlic-laced soy sauce.

What, no holes in my tablecloth?!

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An old friend is back in town for a visit after a prolonged absence, and we made plans to catch up.  In spite of the inconvenience of Occupy Central, we decided to stick to our original plan and meet up for drinks at Butler.

I started with a more "girlie" drink... It's been years since I last had a melon ball, and since I was at a Japanese bar...  This was not bad at all.

Then I was ready to move on to a "real" drink... and these days I'm liking negroni.  The version here was pretty damn bitter, with nice citrus flavors and fragrance.  Yum.

We nibbled on some sausage platter, but still needed a real dinner!  So we adjourned right next door to Spring Deer (鹿鳴春), one of the classics in this town.  I haven't been back here for more than a decade... and I was pretty excited about going back.

Another pissy birthday dinner

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I was in Hong Kong for just around 12 hours before I was on a plane again, going back to Taipei to spend my birthday weekend with my family.  Some time ago I had seen pics of a Peking duck feast from a friend, and had been wanting to check the place out for myself, so I made a reservation last month while I was in town to celebrate the parental units' anniversary, and invited Last-Minute Uncle's family to come along.  What I didn't expect at the time was a surprise guest, in the form of my Brazilian Uncle...

We drove out to Yilan a little early to try to check out the city a little. We were taking the second seating so we had a little time, but it's a pretty small town and there wasn't a whole lotta stuff to see - other than the old Yilan Station (宜蘭車站) that had been decorated by artist Jimmy (幾米) and Jimmy Park (幾米公園) across the road.  We soon returned to Luna Plaza (新月廣場) and Silks Place Yilan (蘭城晶英酒店) and went upstairs to Red Lantern (紅樓).

The restaurant's really busy on weekends and holidays, so they open up the banquet hall and seat all the tourists there - especially the larger parties.  We were led to one end of the hall, and it felt like we were just going to a large-scale Chinese wedding banquet...

They only do set menus on the weekends, and only for 4, 6 or 8 people.  We were 7 but given that there's one of us who can eat for 3, naturally we took the largest set.  I fully expected us to finish all the food anyway... Some of the menu required us to pick from a list of choices, and after I made the selections, the food arrived at our table pretty quickly... A little too quickly, in fact, and out of order.

Flavors of Lanyang (蘭陽美味集): choosing 4 out of 8 possibilities

Tomatoes marinated in plum juice (梅汁蕃茄) - these cherry tomatoes were pretty tasty... with skin removed so that they can really soak up the plum flavors.

Cherry duck wings (櫻桃鴨翅) - very nicely braised... tasty.

Spicy beef tendon (麻辣牛筋) - nice with just a small amount of spiciness, just strong enough to numb the tongue a little.

More Peking duck

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My second and last night in Beijing on this trip, and once again my friendly neighborhood prime broker arranged a dinner with Peking duck.  We were shipped off in batches to Duck de Chine (全鸭季) - the Peking duck restaurant within the complex known as 1949 - The Hidden City.  The complex was formerly a factory and research facility set up in 1949, and this was converted into an F&B complex.  The historical feel of the place was maintained, and looked a little out of place in the sea of tall, concrete-and-glass buildings surrounding it.

The menu, of course, was preset... so I waited for the onslaught of dishes.

Everything but the duck

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I'm in Beijing for a short business trip, attending a conference organized by a former employer.  As part of the overall program, I'm attending two dinners hosted by my prime broker, and Peking duck feature prominently at both dinners...

First up tonight is DaDong Artistic Conception Food (大董中国意境菜) - a branch of which I had hit on my last trip to Beijing.  The location tonight was within a shopping mall, and was in fact within walking distance from the Peninsula Beijing.  Pretty convenient for me.

We unrolled the scroll that was our menu tonight, and my jaw dropped at the number of courses we were going through tonight with the Winter Tasting Menu (冬趣).  I'd better not finish everything put in front of me tonight then...

Crispy mushroom in tomato (蕃茄脆菇沙拉) - the tomatoes were stuffed with mushrooms, which was interesting and actually tasty.

Goose liver hawthorn (山楂鹅肝) - half of these were hawthorn (山楂), and the other half were foie gras pâté made to look like hawthorn - much like the foie gras lollipops at Amber.

The skinny duck

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I'm up in Beijing for a couple of days on a business trip, and have a free slot for dinner tonight.  It's been a little more than 2 months since Felix stopped by Hong Kong before moving to Beijing, and I thought it's high time I caught up with him.  After a couple of rounds of discussions - and disqualifying some venues due to timing issues - we settled on the new branch of DaDong Artistic Conception Food (大董中国意境菜) - a 3-storey building right at the East Entrance of the Beijing Worker's Stadium (工人体育场).

This is quite a palace that Mr. Da Dong has built for himself.  The entrance is quite dramatic - one either walks through a lawn with numerous lights as well as a couple of grazing horse statues, or drive through to the underground entrance, where the first scene encountered is an army of chefs roasting ducks in a central oven.  In the middle of the main dining room on the ground floor, there is a 2-storey high screen which loops through a video about - who else? - Mr. Da Dong and his philosophy.  Felix and I joked that in some scenes, instead of looking like a mild-mannered and cultured scholar, the boss ends up looking like the Shanghainese mafia of old…

I was a little flustered when I got to the table, and my first attempt at flipping through the menu left me bewildered.  The dishes seemed to be crammed into the first few pages of the tome, and it all seemed like information overload.  Fortunately, the same dishes appear on the remaining pages along with beautiful pictures, which made things a lot easier.

I wasn't particularly impressed by the duck when the chef came to Hong Kong last year, so I needed to see if I liked it any better here in the home base.  My last dinner left a pretty good impression in terms of the other dishes, as I found plenty of Western cooking techniques at work.  I was very curious on some of the more creative and fusion-looking dishes, and thankfully Felix was game.

An American in Hong Kong

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In a casual conversation a couple of months ago, a friend and I discussed the idea of going to American Restuarant (美利堅餐廳) for some old-fashioned Pekinese food.  It's an institution in Hong Kong that has been around for years, but somehow I have never gone out of my way to pay them a visit in all these years.  The subject came up again a couple of weeks ago, as news surfaced that a neighboring restaurant was due to close.  So I made a reservation and rounded up a couple of people for dinner tonight.

I had done a little homework online, and figured out the dishes which I wanted to avoid.  One doesn't often get the chance to have Pekinese or northern Chinese cuisine in Hong Kong, so I'm looking for a few old favorites tonight.  My friends very kindly let me do the ordering, which is something that would come back to bite me at the end of the evening…

Lame duck

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The birthday celebration continues, and tonight I had the opportunity sample cuisine from the famed DaDong Roast Duck (北京大董烤鴨店) for the first time.  This is the second year that the Mandarin Oriental has invited the restaurant to showcase their cuisine at Man Wah (文華).  I was invited to attend a preview/tasting last year, but was unable to attend as I was scheduled to be in mid-air - on the very day of the massive Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.  I was therefore very glad that I happened to be in town this time around.

Tigger ordered the Chef Dong's Signature Dinner set for us, which I suppose is their "greatest hits".  Unfortunately I was in the middle of a crisis tonight, and this severely affected my attention span as well as my mood and my palate.  It also put a little damper on the mood of everyone else at the table...