| |
 |
|
Glories of Hong Kong, The Cuisine Champ
HONG KONG - Under the circumstances - increasing cultural
competition from Shanghai and Singapore, general post-changeover
anxiety and then the health scare with poultry - it
would be downright impossible for the Hong Kong food
arena not to be subjected to stress. Tourism, the locomotive
for this island's hotel and restaurant business, is
way down, and shows no signs of perking up overnight.
That said, the Hong Kong restaurant scene appears, on
the surface at least, remarkably stable. Given the choice
of spending a week in any Asian city to experience the
glories of Chinese cuisine, I'd opt for a ticket to
this gastronomic capital. Immense variety, experienced
chefs and a well-heeled, well-informed clientele, all
help make this an unbeatable food city. The only real
downside is the decreasing availability of some choice
ingredients - the finest teas and delicate Shanghai
crab for example - as the increasingly wealthy mainland
Chinese begin to limit exports to the island and keep
the luxury goods for themselves.
Certainly the most exciting meal of the weeklong stay
was at Dynasty, the elegantly comfortable restaurant
in the New World Hotel. For those who think Cantonese
food is the same old 20 greatest hits, think again.
Chef Tam Sek Lun has been holding court at the Dynasty
for 15 years and his maturity and dexterity are evident
in every dish. He is known for his home-style Cantonese
food (as opposed to dim sum or banquet fare), honest,
warming, easy-to-love fare.
Who could find fault with the chef's steamed eggplant
with preserved vegetables, a dish with unusually rich,
smoky and earthy flavor, a properly bitter edge and
lots of cabbage, a brilliant vegetarian substitute for
the traditional pork.
-
Rice Delicacies
His clay-pot rice dishes are worth a trip all on their
own: Rice is cooked in covered, unglazed pots so the
bottom layer crisps, making for fragrant, nutty, crunchy
rice contrasting with the moist rice on the top. It's
served with pork sausage and a blood sausage so sweet
and dense it was like eating candy.
But I swooned over - and still dream of - his outrageously
delicious baked silver cod, an offering of smoky, complex
flavors with fat fillets marinated for four hours in
a blend of Chinese wine, several different bean pastes,
celery, lemon, chili peppers and ginger, then roasted
in an ultrahot oven. The dish has it all - aroma, silken,
soft and soothing texture, and that well-calculated
balance of spice, fire and acidity. This intelligent,
modern creation should quiet those who believe all Chinese
cuisine is nothing but reworked old classics.
The elegance of the Chinese red-and-cream embossed
menu and the teahouse decor with rosewood screens and
antique ornaments are not at all at odds with the accessible
fare, for the presentation is at once homey and stylish.
A dish of steamed egg white with baby scallops, meat
and vegetables was both creamy and ethereal, like reaching
for clouds and dropping them in your mouth.
Desserts here are remarkably appealing: delicately
sweet, baked honeydew melon puffs filled with a melon
paste, like little presents of evenly balanced sweetness
and acidity.
Next in line for most enjoyable fare in Hong Kong is
the incomparable brunch-time dim sum at Victoria City
Seafood Restaurant. This vast, and somewhat impersonal
restaurant plopped in the middle of a huge office complex
remains a mecca for those who want little bites of heaven
to tide them over until the next good meal.
The dish of the day was the Shanghai crab roe dumplings,
steaming hot and dripping with the brilliant saffron
color of the rich roe, so sweet and pleasurable.
Traditional steamed fresh shrimp dumplings are classic
and flawless, while the glutinous rice in lotus leaf
is a hedonistic affair, a fragrant bundle of tightly
compressed rice, all stick-to-your-teeth chewy and exorbitantly
satisfying. Equally awesome were the Shanghai mince
pies - flaky lard pastry that would make a French chef
proud, filled with a delicious mix of moist and evenly
spiced mincemeat and showered with a thick layer of
crunchy sesame seeds.
Far less inspired this time around was the meal at
the generally exquisite Lai Ching Heen, my hands-down
Hong Kong favorite of the past. At the last meal at
this exquisitely appointed dining room in the Regent
Hotel, the earth moved. This time, it did not even tremble.
Gone were the harmony and brilliance. One might chalk
it up to a bad day in the kitchen, but the once brilliant
deep-fried scallops with pear and water chestnut was
lackluster, the baked, stuffed sea whelk in its shell
seemed to have lost its reason for being, and other
dishes - sautéed lobster, snake soup, deboned
pink garoupa fish and beggar's chicken all lacked intensity
and polish. Menus are planned according to the moon,
so it may just be that Scorpios should have stayed away
during that lunar cycle.
-
THE Regent kitchens redeemed themselves with a flawlessly
fresh meal at Yu, the inventively simple all-fish restaurant
with its turquoise aquarium, soft lighting and panoramic
harbor view. What raw-oyster lover could resist a presentation
that includes bluepoints from America, belons from France,
Sydney rocks from Australian and Pacifics from Canada?
Yu also offers a spectacular seafood platter that arrives
as a conical mountain of crushed ice, with shellfish
and crustaceans attached like rock climbers. Likewise,
an abundant assortment of live fish and shellfish, from
jumping shrimp to sweet king prawns to baby abalone
to cherrystone clams can be served steamed, poached
or grilled.
Hong Kong has its share of ''attitude'' and of the
city's most steadfastly surly spots is the old Luk Yu
Teahouse, where only local regulars are accorded courtesy.
But force your way in the door (gently, kindly) and
settle into a world of fading local history and dim
sum dreams.
As slow-moving old ladies in faded chef's whites parade
about with battered metal tins of steaming buns, one
sips fragrant peony-blossom tea and witnesses a dying
breed of Chinese men who spend the morning reading,
ruminating, nipping at their tea. The dim sum selection
is vast and varied - ranging from lotus-root puffs to
pork ribs in barbecue sauce to glutinous rice in a lotus
leaf - but they're heavier and richer than you'll find
in other establishments. Go for the nostalgia and the
1930s charm.
-
Dynasty, New World Hotel, 22 Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui,
Kowloon; tel: (852) 2369-4111, ext. 6361; fax: 2734-6006.
Open daily. Reservations necessary. All major credit
cards. About 300 Hong Kong dollars ($39) per person,
not including beverages.
-
Victoria City Seafood Restaurant, Sun Hung Kai Centre,
2F, 30 Harbor Road, Wanchai; tel: 2827-9938; fax: 2827-7218.
Open daily. Dim sum, 22 to 30 Hong Kong dollars per
basket.
-
Lai Ching Heen, The Regent, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui,
Kowloon, Hong Kong; tel: 2721-1211; fax: 2739-4546.
Open daily. Reservations necessary. All major credit
cards. About 400 to 500 Hong Kong dollars per person,
not including beverages.
-
Yu, The Regent (see above); tel: 2721-1211, ext 2340;
fax: 2724-3243. Reservations necessary for dinner. All
major credit cards. About 600 Hong Kong dollars per
person, not including beverages.
-
Luk Yu Tea House, 24-26 Stanley Street, Central; tel:
2523-5464. No credit cards. Reservations not accepted.
Open 7 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily. 150 to 300 Hong Kong dollars
per person.
Next week: Food trends in Asia.
|
