In all honesty, tonight's dinner was hit and miss. The service was generally good and attentive, and some of the dishes were clearly outstanding, whilst at the same time some others were tarnished by basic flaws that - dare I say - betray a lack of attention to details. The kind of details that could, potentially, one day, cost you a Michelin star. The Chairman is clearly a very good restaurant, and makes a point of serving only premium-quality, unadulterated food. They pride themselves (rightly so) in serving only the freshest of seasonal foods, and refuse to use additives such as baking soda (a plague that has spread over so may kitchens these days) or MSG. They have chosen to exclude expensive, "bling" food items such as abalone or shark's fin from their menu (even though they would serve it at a customer's request), which is a gutsy move when so much dough is thrown about town on these worn-out novelties for gweilos, and clearly demonstrates the confidence the Chef has in his cooking skills and his ability to attract, interest and retain the not-so-status-conscious tasteful diner. Such noble beliefs in what good food should be about command respect. There is no doubt this is one of the finest kitchens in town, and it is definitely worth one (or more...) visits - and I will certainly return myself at the earliest opportunity. Don't get me wrong - I don't mean to be a food snob and I know my fault-finding sometimes confines to OCD - it's just that when such a promising place does so many things right, I would hate to see it miss the recognition it deserves by falling short of a few basic standards of execution...
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| Dried baby shrimps These were absolutely delicious. Extremely fragrant and tasty, without being too salty. |
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| Deep-fried shrimp heads I have to be clear here - I don't do heads. Sucking the brains out of a shrimp is a taste I haven't quite acquired yet (not that I'm working on it either...). But these just looked good, I had to give them a try. I tentatively munched on a first, then a second, then a third... delish. Crunchy, sweet, a bit of salt and chilli seasoning, perfectly cooked with no oily aftertaste. Very well executed. |
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| Pickled young ginger "We serve only the freshest young ginger available on the market during the second and third week of June" says the restaurant website . This pickle was excellent, I simply couldn't stop munching on it. Young ginger is a lot lighter in taste than mature ginger, as it has yet to develop the characteristic peppery taste whilst the citrus notes are already there, albeit milder. It also does not have any of the fibres that mature ginger has, and is a lot crunchier with a crisp bite. The pickling was faultless and knowing that the shrimps were quite heavy in flavours and there was wine being tasted, this was a thoughtful addition to the table to clear the nose and palate. |
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| Marinated ox tongue Excellent tongue, marinated in a mix of vinegar and Chinese wine, and topped with a flavourful mix of strong condiments - garlic, chilli, chopped cilantro, mature ginger and something citrussy which I thought at first was galangal, but after a second thought might have been a non-pickled version of the young ginger. The combination of flavours was meant to work really well with the meat/vinegar flavours, only that the kitchen did a pretty sloppy job on the chopping here. Raw garlic is a pretty strong taste, and should have been chopped much much thinner. Also the strong flavours of the condiments would have required a much more sparing use. Especially knowing there was a wine tasting going on. In a nutshell, good ingredients, good combination of flavours, but some work to do on the execution. |
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| Deep-fried smoked duck & taro puffs with osmanthus sauce This dish was just superb. The taro coating was crispy and light on the outside, moist on the inside, and the smoked duck was very intensely fragrant and flavourful. The osmanthus sauce was sweet and very floral and fragrant, and worked perfectly to tame the smokiness of the duck. Brilliant. |
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| Deep-fried smoked duck & taro puffs with osmanthus sauce - note the beautiful texture of the puff, like taro lace. |
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| Baby pigeons These had been braised (and probably lightly smoked as well) and the flavours were pretty intense. The tasty meat was tender, although not as tender as I would have expected. There was nothing wrong with the execution here, although I am not a huge fan of poultry with non-crispy skin, but really that's a matter of personal taste... |
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| Turtle soup I was very happy to hear this item was featured on our menu, and I was curious to see how this version would compare to the ones I have had in Singapore. Despite its policy not to use farmed seafood, the restaurant makes an obvious exception for turtles. The broth was very, very good, with a resonable amount of dissolved collagen, and tiny bits of ham could be found with the turtle meat at the bottom of the bowl. As usual, a few bones showed up in my cup, which is to be expected with this dish and is normally not an issue. What I wasn't prepared for though, is to have to spit out dozens of tiny fragments of bones the size of a pin head - probably the result of a cleaver-happy commis. I found this most unpleasant and it ruined an otherwise very enjoyable dish. |
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| Stir-fried shrimps & sugar-snap peas Delicious, but here again chopping size issues on the spring onions. The peas were really young, with a reasonably thin skin, and very sweet, with that characteristic clean "green" taste. The shrimps were amazing. They had this unique, bouncy bite that only super-fresh, flash-poached/stir-fried shrimps have, and were pretty sweet. |
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| Stir-fried shrimps & sugar-snap peas Peech thought he had detected some bicarbonate, but in all honesty I could not taste any; this trick is easy to detect and I do not think the restaurant would take the risk to lie to its customers on this. The rather large pieces of spring onion however did throw the subtle flavours in this dish out of balance. Again, an excellent dish with top-quality ingredients and overall good execution, but challenged by an overlooked detail - and the devil is in the details... |
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| Steamed flower crab with Chinese wine & chicken fat, "pleats please" rice flour rolls The crab was amazing - perfectly cooked and so sweet! I love the texture of these particular rolls, which always make me think of the "pleats please" collection by Issey Miyake, for some reason... (don't ask) - perfect sauce mops! The flavours in the sauce were gorgeous when sparingly used as a dip for the crab and rolls, however I tasted a spoonful of sauce on its own and there was a strong bitter aftertaste that made me, and some of my fellow diners, wonder whether the wine had been cooked long enough. |
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| Steamed flower crab - I got a claw!! :-) |
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| Pan fried duck with glutinous rice The crunchy texture at the surface of the rice topping was nice, but I found the flavours of this dish a bit bland. The texture of the bottom layer needs some work - it was falling apart when I picked up a piece. Even though it was not bad, I did not find this dish particularly interesting. |
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| Chicken gold coins aka "cholesterol sandwiches", as some of the foodies in attendance tonight call it. This is normally one of the most deliciously decadent things on earth - layers of chicken liver and pork fat, wrapped in char siu, full of moist and smooth fatty goodness. This dish was downright mediocre. My piece of liver was bitter, which denotes issues with the gutting process and is frankly not acceptable. The liver was unexpectedly not smooth, and the execution was rather poor as the whole piece was dry. Back to the drawing board ... |
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| Stir-fried kale with preserved fish The veggie was excellent and very well cooked. The salty fish topping made the dish though. Delicious. |
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| Shrimp stir-fried rice This dish included shrimp paste, chopped fresh shrimps and chopped dried shrimps. Here again, knife skills issues, as the pretty salty dried shrimps were chopped in pieces that were way too big and ended up massively overpowering the delicate taste of the fresh shrimps. I would also question the idea of using both shrimp paste and dried shrimp in the same dish, but maybe that's a matter of personal taste. The rice was also a bit too dry, and even though I enjoyed the flavours, I left most of my bowl untouched. |
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| Almond cream Silky, milky, fragrant - very nice. |
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| Home-made wolfberry ice cream The ice cream was rather milky than creamy, and therefore not too fatty, and worked pretty well with the delicate flavour of the wolfberries. Very good. |
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