Two stars yet no sparkle...

I had been very much looking forward to this meal at Ming Court (Langham Place Hotel - Mong Kok) - allegedly 2 macarons in the 2010 edition of the HK/Macau Michelin red guide... Michelin should definitely stop rating Chinese restaurants, or hire people who actually have a clue about Chinese food. Not only did this place treat us to sub-par service (by no-star standards) and we had to fight with them to actually get some food delivered to our table (even though we pre-ordered everything...) but they also took care of dropping a few colourful comments about the foreigners at the table (2 allegedly "mango-loving" gweilos and 2.5 Koreans, who btw I am sure eat dogs eeek...). I am fairly open-minded about cultural jokes but suggesting that gweis don't know sh!te about Chinese food and always order mango pudding insulted the wannabe-foodie in me. This added to the fact that the food wasn't that impressive at all (and even downright mediocre for some dishes), I will not be visiting them again anytime soon. Too bad, gweilos are human beings, they have tastebuds too...

Chilled bean curd sheet with shredded duck meat

This was pretty good. The duck was tender, I liked the texture of the bean curd sheets, and the chilli sauce added a nice kick to the dish.



Chilled drunken pigeon

Tender meat with pretty obvious Chinese wine flavours. Not bad at all.





Braised shredded winter melon and mashed carrot accompanied with broccoli, topped with egg white

This was the first apparition of the ubiquitous baby bok choi...see later pics for more. This dish was quite spectacular in its presentation. Made to look like crab roe, the topping was actually a combination of mashed carrots and egg white, which had a nice texture. I detected some chicken broth flavour (so don't think the dish was entirely veggie...)



Stir-fried sliced garoupa with assorted mushrooms and dried shrimp roe

Supposedly an award winning dish, this turned out to be pretty disgraceful... The fish was very obviously muddy (even with the skin off) and possibly overcooked (judging by how the cheeks were falling off the head)... or was it just not fresh ?? The mushroom / shrimp roe combination had some interesting flavours to it but would have worked a lot better with a côte de veau in my opinion. Judging by this dish alone, this place would deserve to be stripped of both stars (and don't get me started on the service and the attitude...)

Stir-fried sliced garoupa with assorted mushrooms and dried shrimp roe

In this pic: fish cheek, falling off the head... no good



Stir-fried pigeon eggs with crab meat, scallop, egg white and yellow oily crab roe

ooh... baby bok choi, how original!! Apart from this minor detail, this dish was pretty delish. The bed of pea shoots added some bitterness and nicely balanced the sweet fattiness of the crab roe & scallop topping. The fried pigeon eggs were just yummy :-)



Stir-fried shrimp with egg white

Sweet shrimp, topped with egg white (loved the texture) and enhanced with vinegar, shrimp heads (good I don't eat these, because the kitchen managed not to put enough on the dish for all the guests at our table!!). The crisp fried perilla leaves on the side were pretty nice.



Stir-fried giant garoupa stuffed with shrimp paste in soya sauce

The slices of (muddy...) garoupa were wrapped in a layer of shrimp paste which tasted more deep-fried than stir-fried... never been a big fan of shrimp paste anyway. More baby bok choi (part of your 5-a-day) - we're at minus one star with this dish...

 



Crispy fried chicken

A classic, perfectly executed. The breast was tender, juicy and tasty (and I normally don't go for white meat...) and the skin was crispy and slightly fatty as it should be. I managed to grab an abandoned sot-l'y-laisse left after all the big pieces were gone... yummy :-) The thin lotus root crisps were nicely done too.






Mango pudding with attitude

Compliments of the management after we complained (very heavily...) about the service... and because (quote) the gweilos like mango (unquote) WTF?? Mango pudding has to be one of the most boring desserts ever, mostly because no restaurant ever seems to be able to get it right... and this place was no exception. This pudding contained so much gelatine it was actually chewy (I am sure it would bounce right back at you if thrown against a wall...). The top layer of osmanthus jelly was not as fragrant as I expected. This could become interesting with a lot more work on the textures and quality of the ingredients. And the dry ice... *yawn*



 

Steamed custard buns with egg yolk

A bit too shiny to be honest... one of the guests mentioned double-steaming - not sure if it was double but it was definitely too long, so I think the buns had lost quite a bit of their fluffiness when they reached us.



The filling was yummy though - runny salted egg yolk custard :-) but the skins were definitely chewy. One of the foodies in attendance said they looked nuked... I think I prefer not to know.