Whipping up a new venue in town

Pin It

Just a few hours after getting off the plane from Shanghai, I'm headed to an MNSC gathering at Whisk, the new restaurant at the Mira whose menu is put together by Justin Quek.  It certainly has been the talk of the town lately - along with Cafe Gray.  I was really looking forward to the dinner, especially since our host promised us an unforgettable tasting.

We were in the private room with a one-way mirror looking into the kitchen.  The decor of the room itself was fairly understated, although the view opposite the kitchen overlooked the Chinese restaurant downstairs, and we got the full view of the really, really bling set of lights...

Tonight's menu - put together by Justin although he left Hong Kong last week so wasn't in the kitchen himself:

Tartar of marinated oysters and Nordic salmon with dried seaweed - this was interesting, as  I'm expecting salmon tartar in my mind but then come upon the taste of something stronger at the same time.  Do I like it better than plain old salmon tartar?  Still thinking about this one...

Carpaccio of wagyu beef with truffle salt and aged Parmesan - now THIS was a really nice dish!  The fragrance of white truffles filled my mouth, and the saltiness of the aged Parmesan also enhanced the overall experience.  The beef was, of course, very tender and practically melted in my mouth.

Roasted scallop in Shao Xing wine with ceps mushrooms - this was probably the only dish where I thought the execution was a little weak. I thought the scallops were a little overdone.  Flavor-wise I guess there may have been a bit of the Shaoxing wine (紹興酒) although it wasn't very apparent to me.  The ceps were very nice, though.

Rice roll of duck confit with Chinese sausages, foie gras and fresh white truffle shaving - wow! Here was a fusion dish that worked very well.  Being a big fan of duck confit, I was naturally drawn to this dish.  The white truffle shavings, of course, dominated and left me wanting me.  I honestly wanted to ask for seconds...

Roasted crackling suckling pig with mesclun salad, spiced red wine - Justin always knew how to roast the piggies, and this was another yummy example. The delicious crackling - which stuck to my teeth a bit - kept the meat moist and tender.  The red wine reduction kept the dish from being boring.  The mesclun came with some truffle oil.

Grilled home-smoked M4 bone rib eye with autumn vegetables - I'm typically not a big fan of beef at these types of restaurants, so I had low expectations for this dish.  The execution was very good and the meat stayed red and tender as I had asked for. The creamy mash was especially nice.

AOC cheeses from Philippe Olivier - this was a bit of a let down, as we only had Emmental and Cantal.  The apricot jam in the middle, however, was absolutely fabulous...as was the bread.

Duo of chef's dessert - vanilla custard topped with mango sauce, and a flourless soft-centered chocolate cake.  I normally detest soft-centered chocolate cakes as being a dessert that has been done to death, but I was very impressed with this particular version.  It was light, airy and not at all heavy like the usual suspects.  The vanilla custard was pretty yum, too.

Our host did deliver a fabulous tasting as he promised.  There were a total of eight wines (not including Champagne) served in three flights, and all were pretty fantastic.

1996 Salon - served pre-dinner and accompanied the first course.  Toasty, yeasty nose and fairly acidic on the palate.  Needs time.

1973 Petrus - classic claret nose, a bit musty at first with grilled meats and a sweet fruit core.  A hint of marmalade and a little smoky and spicy on the nose.  Closed down for a little, then showed green peppers and vegetal notes.  Pretty sweet on the palate.  91 points.

1973 DRC Echezeaux - Wow! Amazingly sweet, fruity nose.  Obviously a Burg, with some bacon and floral notes.  Finish was a bit short which led me to lower the score a little.  94 points.

1973 Beaucastel - nose was very fruity but initially overwhelmed by a burnt charcoal / rubber smell... Very farmy with bacon fat.  Nose was very sweet and absolutely beautiful when the burnt rubber smell disappeared.  Wine was very cloudy as it was not decanted.  Died a horrible death in glass after the second pour...what happened?  Only nose of black olive tapenade remained.  93 points.

1982 Jaboulet La Chapelle - Wow! The nose was very sweet with obvious floral / rose characters.  Also showed grilled meats and orange notes.  An amazing wine!  97 points.  With the floral notes I thought it was a Côte-Rôtie with Viognier...like Guigal's La Mouline.  Who would have thought it was an Hermitage?  Most definitely my wine of the evening.

1982 Grange - nose was amazingly sweet and jammy, and a bit metallic at the same time.  Also notes of caramel, cotton candy, vanilla and coffee.  A classic Grange.  95 points.

1982 Vogüé Musigny VV - the weakest wine of the flight.  Nose was pretty sweet, fruit and floral but the body was light.  89 points.

1990 La Conseillante - initially smelled of stinky cheese, toasted black sesame and smoke.  I didn't like it quite as much as the others.  93 points.

1990 Henri Bonneau Marie Beurrier - nose of smoke, farmy, arm pit, a bit stinky...hint of wet chalk, cumin.  Then sweetness emerged with orange and raspberry.  A very good wine.  95 points.

Once again an MNSC turned out to be a real revelation - that wines from a weak vintage like 1973 - the birth vintage of our host - could actually blow us away if kept in very good condition.  And of course I was glad to have finally tried Whisk, and happy to see the high quality of the food and service.  I look forward to crossing the harbor for future meals...

Crabulous trip to Shanghai day 4: oldies are still the best

Pin It

I've been eating my way through Shanghai for a few days now, and I've got two more big meals to go... More hairy crab please!!  But first I would visit an old friend...

Jesse (吉士酒家) is my absolute favorite restaurant in Shanghai, and I try to come here on each visit to the city.  Josie and I met up with my childhood friend Julia, who also happens to love the restaurant.  She's a regular here and decided to order up a storm... five starters and a bunch of other stuff...

Salty steamed chicken (吉士咸雞) - not bad but the drunken chicken would have been more classic...

Mixed mushroom with beancurd sheet (腐竹熗蘑菇) - this is a classic dish here, with some sliced button mushrooms at the bottom, coriander on top and the whole thing soaking in a mix of chili oil and vinegar.  Pretty nice and light.

Wine preserved shrimps (吉士醉蝦) - this was one of the surprises.  I normally see drunken shrimp made with shrimps or prawns that are much larger, but this being Shanghai, one would of course use the tiny freshwater shrimps.  Some Sichuan peppercorns (花椒) are used along with the wine, adding some complexity to the flavors.  The raw shrimps were of course very succulent and sweet, much like Japanese amaebi (甘エビ).

Jellyfish with vinegar (老醋蜇頭) - a classic that never goes wrong.  Lots of coriander leaves that fragrance in the mouth.

Dates stuffed with glutinous rice (心太軟) - Josie ordered this coz she hasn't had this in a while.  Nicely done.

Stir-fried freshwater shrimp (清炒蝦仁) - Josie and I both loved this dish.  Even though I've had this dish countless times in Shanghainese restaurants all over, this particular presentation has got to be the best.  Leaving the tail on the shrimp was pure genius, as the dish no longer looked boring and the orange red of the shell added some much-need color.  The shrimps themselves, needless to say, were sweet and succulent as expected.

Stir-fried shepherd's purse with bean curd skin (薺菜百頁) - originally it was to be the classic combo of shepherd's purse (薺菜) with bamboo shoots, but they ran out of bamboo shoots (totally inexcusable for a Shanghainese restaurant, by the way...) so a substitution was made.  Pretty nice with some Chinese ham.

Then came my favorite dish - braised pork in brown sauce with bamboo shoots and cuttlefish (筍目魚燒肉).  Honestly, all I ever need is a pot of this and a bowl (or two or three) of rice, and I'll feel like I'm in heaven.  This was sooooo good... and yes, I kept picking out the fatty bits for myself as well as the cuttlefish.  We even added a couple of braised eggs (滷蛋) on the side.  As expected we couldn't finish it, so I packed away the leftovers to take back to Hong Kong with me.

Crab fat with sheet jelly (蟹膏粉皮) - not quite as good as the one from Xinguang (新光酒家), but still pretty tasty in its own right.  More crab meat and roe than the sperm...

Braised superior sea cucumber with shrimp roe (蝦籽大烏參) - the final dish and probably one of Josie's favorites.  This was to be the best sea cucumber we would have on this trip.  The texture was soft and just slightly springy.  The sauce was sweeter than the others, but at the same time thicker and richer thanks to the shrimp roe.  Best of all there was no trace of that medicinal taste that I dislike so much - the absence of which did not go unnoticed by Josie.

I was totally stuffed by this point, and would have appreciated if someone put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me out of the restaurant.  The staff offered us some glutinous rice balls with fermented rice (酒釀丸子) - which were supposedly really good here.  But I just couldn't...   and besides, if I had any room left in my stomach, I'd rather shovel in some more of that braised pork anyway!

Josie and I needed help digesting all that food, so we sat in a café down the road from the restaurant and sipped on double espressos.  After giving Josie a brief tour of the house, we decided to stroll a little more as we took in Shanghai.  We would end up walking the distance of 2 1/2 subway stops on the No. 2 line, finally giving our tired feet a rest while sitting at an outdoor table at Mr. Donut next to Le Royal Méridien at People's Square.  And yes, we both nibbled on a donut before dinner...

Dinner was another hairy crab feast, this time at Wang Bao He Restaurant (王寳和酒家).  This place was recommended by a couple of friends who now live in Shanghai, so I thought I'd try an alternative to Xinguang.

The restaurant was much larger and seemed much more popular with the local crowd.  There was a bewildering array of set menus on offer in addition to the a la carte menu.  We decided to pick the RMB 600 option which offered a single crab - the same price that our set at Xinguang cost us.  For each set menu there were a number of different dishes where the restaurant offers small portions for individual diners, allowing them to taste a wider range.

We had three small starters (風味三小碟), which were:

Marinated celtuce stem and ark shell - the celtuce (萵苣) was a little on the old side and I was able detect some fibers while chewing.  The addition of the ark shell (赤貝) was different.

Stir-fried freshwater shrimp (油爆蝦) - classic Shanghainese dish with these tiny shrimps.  Very sweet to the taste, and typically eaten with the shells.  These were pretty decent - not too oily.

Sliced abalone (鮑魚片) - this was a complete failure.  I don't understand the fascination with abalone - especially when all you taste is the salt.  Bleh.

Eight treasured crab roe soup (蟹粉八珍羹) - your typical starchy soup that includes many ingredients but only a bit of everything.  Not really worth finishing the bowl.

Crab meat creation (菊花映蟹形) - this was the first yummy dish in the set, as we weren't impressed with the few before. A pile of crab meat (and fish maw?) topped with an empty crab shell and "legs" made of carrot slices.  As one would expect, the yellow crab oil was the key ingredient that made the dish...for without it the crab meat would be simply sweet but without the complexity.

Stir-fried vegetable with crab roe (蟹粉扒時蔬) - the veggie was fresh and you could taste the sweetness.  Crab meat and roe on top was OK.

Crab roe soup with fish lip (蟹粉燴魚唇) - this soupy concoction had gelatinous pieces of shark tail (commonly referred to as "fish lip" in Chinese) along with the obligatory crab roe.  The tail bits are all jelly and full of collagen, and is essentially the poor man's shark's fin.  This was much more interesting than the eight treasured soup earlier...

Crab roe xiaolongbao (蟹粉小籠) - one single dumpling came in its own basket.  I shoved the whole thing into my mouth and got flooded by the pork juice.  Once I started chewing, however, I quickly realized that this was all pork and I couldn't even taste any crab roe...

Braised sea cucumber with crab roe (蟹粉扒遼參) - these are the spiny kind from Liaoning Province.  The texture was fairy chewy (meaning less cooking time) and it was pretty bland other than the medicinal taste.  The starchy soup was pretty tasty, though.

Abalone and mushroom with crab roe (蟹粉鮮鮑腩) - a big piece of abalone mushroom (鮑魚菇) and a slice of abalone in the same starchy sauce as before.  Not a great dish.

Baked puff pastry with turnip and ham (蘿蔔絲餅) - the taste was not bad but the stuffing was a little more solid and not as runny as I'm used to.

Finally the steamed hairy crab (清水大閘蟹) came.  They looked a little bigger than the ones we had yesterday at Xinguang, and the quality was pretty good.  This was pretty much the only item on the menu whose quality was on par with Xinguang.

I'm still slow with my crab, and I took my sweet time going through all the bits.  We decided to take pictures of the end result...two piles of crab shell!

As long as we were paying the same price for a hairy crab feast, there is no comparison between the two restaurants.  While Wang Bao He offered more dishes and variety, the quality was significantly poorer and some of the dishes were totally unnecessary.  Service was poor at both restaurants, with the staff bringing out dishes in quick succession as they are done in the kitchen.  The difference here is that there are more dishes at Wang Bao He, so you are under even greater pressure to finish what's in front of you.  And the staff tried to get me to pay the bill while my hands were still busy with my crab!

I don't think I'll be going back to Wang Bao He anytime soon... Sticking with Xinguang seems to be the wise choice!

Crabulous trip to Shanghai day 3: the best hairy crab feast

Pin It

I had a pretty easy schedule today - the only important event on my schedule was dinner with friends. So I strolled around my neighborhood late in the morning, and wandered back to Sapar (新疆伊寧遠征餐廳) for a casual lunch.

I finally got to have plov (新疆抓飯), one of my favorite dishes in the Uygur / Central Asian cuisine.  The rice is typically fried with carrots and squash, with liberal use of oil (or was it lamb fat?).  The lamb today was a little on the dry side, not as moist and juicy as I would have liked.  I made up for it by ordering a couple of skewers of lamb shashlik (羊肉串), which were pretty succulent and yummy even though I didn't get the fatty bits.  The best plov I've ever had was still the one from Samarkand last year.  I can still remember how beautiful it looked, and my mouth still waters at the thought of it.

I walked around a bit more and headed back to the house to read and rest a little.  I met up with a friend late in the afternoon, and sat at one of the open air cafes on the Nanjing Road pedestrian shopping street for a while.  Tall, modern skyscrapers intermixed with French renaissance style buildings from the 20s and 30s...and an endless stream of tourists, both local and foreign.

The main event today, of course, was the hairy crab feast at Xinguang Restaurant (新光酒家).  It has long been my favorite place to enjoy hairy crab.  None of my local friends have heard of it, and I was determined to change that.

In recent years the restaurant has started offering "set menus" for patrons.  Rather than ordering individual dishes, the set menu now includes one hairy crab for each patron plus 4-6 of the "greatest hits" from the a la carte menu - with the portions sized according to the number of guests at the table.

The first to arrive was a plate of steamed crab claws (清蒸蟹鉗).  I was taken aback initially at the small portion, until I remembered that we were only a table of four, while I came with larger groups on my previous visits.  Yes, the best thing about dining at Xinguang is that if you didn't want to, you didn't have to get your hands dirty at all!  Someone has gone through the trouble of removing all the shells for you, so that all you need to do is to take a big spoon, scoop up the meat and shove it in your wide, open mouth!  How cool is that?!

The second of the "greatest hits" was the stir-fried crab legs with asparagus (蟹柳燴蘆筍).  Once again the staff has taken the time to extract the meat of the crab legs, and they went very well with the asparagus.  I'm lovin' it.

The stir-fried whole crab meat (清炒蟹粉) was absolutely decadent.  A whole plate of crab meat and roe, scooped up by spoons into hungry, waiting mouths...and that yellow crab fat...who cares if I can hear my arteries clogging up?!  I'd rather eat now and die a happy man.

The final plate was stir-fried crab roe with Chinese transparent bean curd (蟹膏炒銀皮) - actually it's not bean curd but rather glass pappardelle made from mung beans.  Yes, boys and girls, that translucent sticky stuff from the male hairy crab is actually the sperm.  It's one of the few times you'll find guys like me who will happily lap up the seed of another without feeling weird about it.  And guys, if you're wondering what else you've been eating without knowing that it's some creature's sperm or reproductive organs, you might wanna check this out... or gimme a shout.  Anyway, I digress...  This was one of the best dishes to be had at the restaurant.  The consistency of the noodles was similar to that of the "roe", and how much yellow crab fat was used in making the dish is plain to see.  Need I say more?

The noodles with crab meat (蟹肉拌麵) was also very yummy... as the oily mixture coats the noodles and make it go down real well.  They ran out of crab roe wontons (蟹粉餛飩), so we were offered glutinous rice balls in fermented rice (酒釀丸子) as a substitute.  The weird thing was that they insisted on serving this before we had our steamed crab, because procedure dictates that the crab comes last, even though the rice balls is a dessert course is something that one should finish the meal with...

And we did finally have to use our hands to eat the steamed hairy crab (清蒸大閘蟹).  The ones we had were pretty decent in size.  While I didn't specifically ask about the size, I thought I overheard a waiter telling the next table that they weighed half catty (半斤) each, which would make them gigantic.  I doubt they were that big, but they were definitely at least six taels or more.

We were definitely very full from the feast.  I was very, very happy with the meal, and I hope that my friends enjoyed it as much as I did!

One thing about Xinguang... it's a restaurant that many locals have never heard of, partly because most people find it overpriced.  Crab is something that many people enjoy in the privacy of their homes, as you get your hands dirty and inevitably wind out with messy piles of broken shells in front of you.  Most locals also wouldn't pay a premium to get someone else to extract the meat, as one of the joys of eating crab is the extraction process itself.  On this particular visit - just like each prior visit - I heard no Shanghainese spoken by my fellow patrons.  The clientele has always been mix of Hongkie, Japanese, Taiwanese and lao wai (老外).  I guess things haven't changed much since my first visit at the turn of the century...

Crabulous trip to Shanghai day 2: I'll Be Back...Not!!!

Pin It

I'm running a few errands today, trying to familiarize myself a bit more with the only city in which I have property exposure.  As lunch time rolled around, where else would I find myself but back on Huanghe Road (黃河路), in front of the twin dumpling palaces.

The first stop was always going to be Jiajia Soup Dumpling (佳家湯包).  I chose not to have their pure crab roe xiaolongbao (純蟹粉湯包) on my last trip, but now that's it's crab season there was no way I was gonna pass this up!  Fortunately I waited less than 15 minutes in the line outside, but it would be some more time before the freshly made dumplings arrived on the table in front of me.

And these were definitely worth the wait!  The dumplings looked a little larger than the regular xiaolongbao others were having.  They also came in baskets of half-dozen instead of having the full dozen sitting in one basket.  I couldn't wait to dig in.  But first, I used my chopsticks to pry one of them open...very carefully.  I needed a peek at the contents inside to see how rich it was.  And I wasn't disappointed.

Yes, it was all crab roe / meat inside, with no pork to distract me.  Yes, I could feel large chunks of the orange crab roe breaking loose from inside the skin, and roll around my tongue.  I was in heaven.  I can't say with 100% certainty that these were the best crab roe xialongbao I've ever had, but they were definitely among the top 3 experiences in that category.  And at RMB 81 per dozen of these babies, most certainly the best bang for the buck.

After a dozen of these, my stomach is feeling slightly more full than it felt on my last visit here.  No doubt it's because the pork has been substituted with more crab roe rich in fat, cholesterol and who knows what else.  But the mission is not yet complete.

I stroll across the street to Xiaoyang Pan-fried Dumpling (小楊生煎舘) and order up a tael (兩) of the famed dumplings (生煎包).  Since I wanted to sit at a table and felt weird about spending only around RMB 5, I decided to order up a bowl of glass vermicelli soup with tofu and duck blood (粉絲血湯).

The plate of 4 dumplings more than filled up the rest of my stomach.  One tiny bite through the thin bottom (the dumplings are fried upside down so the skin at the "top" is thicker) and copious amounts of pork jus would gush into the mouth.  It's been a while since I last had some of these, and I'll just say that stuffing my face here was totally worth it...

I was mentally distracted while going for the last dumpling, and bit into it with a little too much force.  I found myself shuddering with shock as some of the jus gushed into my right nostril... It wasn't quite what I had in mind but I guess it just shows how much fat and protein-infused liquid is inside!

The soup was a total disaster.  I looked at the menu and scratched my head at the array of curry-flavored soup on offer.  Not exactly Shanghainese, I thought... So I chose the only Shanghainese-looking soup, but it was totally bland.  I normally try not to waste food, but I had been pushed past my limit with the dumplings and there was no way I would force myself to drink a bowl of dishwashing water...  I've had this soup elsewhere so I know it's supposed to be relatively light in flavor, but c'mon... this was waaaaay below par!

I continued to run my errands in the afternoon, letting my stomach do the heavy lifting in the process.

My friend Josie arrived from Taipei - the only one who truly answered my call for a foodie trip to Shanghai while the rest of my friends bailed.  We went for a late dinner at Nanling (南伶酒家) since a mutual friend had recommended the place.

We arrived just before 9:30pm, which we knew in advance was the time for last orders.  A quick scan through the menu and we ordered all the dishes in rapid-fire succession.  So we sat and waited with anticipation for the food to arrive.

It's crab season, so of course there's crab roe on the menu.  The first to arrive was stir-fried freshwater shrimp with crab roe (蟹粉炒蝦仁).  There was a ton of crab roe on the plate - with the usual clumps of orange roe and the whole thing sitting on a bed of the yellow oil.  Lots of flavor here, especially when you scoop up some oil with the shrimp.  Glad to see that they're not stingy with the crab roe!

Next came one of the signature dishes of the restaurant touted on web reviews: giant meatball with crab roe (蟹粉獅子頭).  There was just a small dollop of crab roe on top that I joked with Josie that she should take it all, since there wasn't enough for us to split... The meatball itself was OK.  It was a bit unusual because unlike the versions I've had elsewhere (and at home) the meat wasn't finely minced but came with chunks, including some bits of ham.  So the texture was a bit more interesting.  The Chinese cabbage soup was nice.

Josie wanted some sea cucumber, so we ordered with braised sea cucumber with spring onions (蔥燒大烏參).  She enjoyed it but I wasn't terribly impressed.  The texture was a little bit more chewy / springy than I normally prefer, and there was still that medicinal taste  I find annoying.

Finally came the yellow croaker and leafy mustard soup (雪菜黃魚湯).  Two small croakers had been pan-fried then boiled until most of the meat came off the bone.  The soup itself was milky and nice, with the salt of the leafy mustard providing the flavor.

It was then that disaster struck.  We're in Shanghai, so I ordered a dessert made from dates.  For some reason I thought that 棗泥拉糕 would be some yummy date paste encased in a pan-fried layer of dough, but what showed up on the table were cubes of cold, hard jelly.  Worse, they were completely flavorless!  I can't recall the last time I had a worse dessert in a Chinese restaurant.  I managed to take two (or was it three?) bites and promptly refused to have any more of it.  Josie actually took pictures of our half-eaten cubes as a reminder of how bad this was.  We both gave it a big, fat zero for a score.

It's funny how a little thing like dessert at the end of the meal could completely ruin your dining experience, so that the thing that you remember most was not how wonderful the crab roe was at the start of the meal, but how badly the dessert flopped.

The other thing that made me never wanting to return to the restaurant was the service.  Yes, we arrived very late so that most of the customers on the ground floor had left by then.  The staff just stood around and chatted among themselves, not really caring whether we needed something.  At one point I waived to the staff, and the only one who saw me was the manager, scolding the other 4 waitresses as she walked towards our table.  Whenever we needed more utensils during our meal, it was just easier to grab it from the empty table next to us.  We were unwelcome intruders, and the staff clearly wished that we'd just hurry up and get the hell out.

So we did, and they sure as hell won't ever see me again.

Crabulous trip to Shanghai day 1: Sapar, Sapar

Pin It

I'm back in Shanghai for a few days to inspect the renovation work on the house.  It is, of course, the season for hairy crab (大閘蟹), so the other (perhaps more important) reason to be in Shanghai is to sample them...

I arrived just around dinner time, and wanted something simple as I'm flying solo tonight.  I stopped by Sapar (新疆伊寧遠征餐廳), the Uygur restaurant a few minutes from the house.  I was pretty curious about the food here and thought I'd get me some lamb...  Incidentally, sapar means "long march", and was the name of the hotel we stayed at in Shimkent, Kazakhstan.

I asked for plov (抓飯), forgetting that this is a dish served only during lunch.  The restaurant owner suggested that if I wanted something simple, I should just order a plate of stir-fried lamb with cumin (孜然羊肉) and a nang (囊).

The lamb was just what I needed.  In typical fashion, it was a bit overcooked and slightly on the chewy and dry side, but I didn't mind.  The mix of red onions, Chinese parsley, chili powder and cumin was wonderful, with the flavors dancing around in my mouth along with that of the lamb.  A simple yet yummy dish.

The nang was perfect with the lamb.  It had just enough flavor from the salt and the spring onions inside, and came warm to the table.  I washed everything down with some pomegranate juice.  My appetite satiated, I called it an early night and strolled home.  The next few days would be filled with culinary feasts...