Weekend in Guangzhou: all crows are black

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I've organized an eating trip to Guangzhou this weekend, with the primary aim of hitting 2 restaurants I wanted to tick off my list. Luckily I have managed to rope in a few others to join me, so that we can do some proper ordering at Chinese restaurants. This would be my first time back in the city since I spent an unscheduled day in 1998 on account of missing a connecting flight...

The trip on the high speed rail was pretty uneventful, as it should be. After getting off at Guangzhou East Station (广州东站), we grabbed a 6-seater van to Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou (广州文华东方酒店). Our rooms weren't ready yet, so we dropped off our bags and walked across the street to BingSheng Private Kitchen (炳胜私厨).

The manager had actually messaged me while we were still at the hotel, and warned me that most of the dim sum items had already sold out. By 12:30 p.m. I'm wondering if they share the dim sum supply with the sister restaurant a few doors down, and they have been taking customer orders since 11:00 a.m. So when we arrived and shown to our private room, we were literally asking for the last portion(s) of less than a handful items still left...

Homemade sachima with olive kernel (超級欖仁沙琪玛) - we did ask for them to serve us the dim sum items first, but HELLO? You serve us the dessert first?! Well, we waited until all the savory dishes had been finished, and this thing had gotten kinda limp. In any case, the flavors weren't very interesting.

All set for Friday

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Foursheets was meeting a business contact for lunch today, and for some reason the person really wanted to meet me. Since Yong Fu (甬府) was chosen as the venue, I happily tagged along as the food was always going to be pretty tasty.

After trying out the set dinner a few months ago, this was my first time having their set lunch - which serves up 10 courses. We collectively made our choices for the dishes.

Homemade fish cake with spicy oil (辣拌自製魚餅) - this is their usual fish cake that I like, but they have dressed it up in a light, spicy oil to tingle the tastebuds.

A good night to die with 3-star food

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Tonight is a good night to die.

'Tis the season for game meats, and one of my favorite dishes from this genre is lièvre à la royale - which I've been lucky to have at a few top restaurants in Europe as well as here in Hong Kong. The dish is pretty heavy, so it's not something I have every year. In fact, the last time I had this was actually 4 years ago!

So once again, I organized a boys' night out at Caprice. Hairy Legs Cookie Monster always serves up a great version of the dish, and while I have tasted other dishes served with hare more recently, I still can't believe it's been so long since I last tasted this classic.

I was grateful that Cookie Monster put us at the Chef's Table, which was where some of us last had this dish together with a huge game menu. We would be having a slightly lighter menu tonight... or so we thought.

I gotta say... I've had these three bites from the boîte à bijoux multiple times by now, and tonight each of them were the best versions I can remember.

Mushroom tartlet - tonight the mushroom flavors were pretty intense... porcini, par hasard? There was the usual Parmesan cookie at the bottom, and a small disc of Comté on top with a bit of tarragon. This was more salty than I had remembered, but the flavors were very, very good.

ChocoFergie

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We were celebrating two November birthdays tonight, and the birthday boys have booked us a table at a place that is new to many of us. Yuet Tung Hin (粵同軒) is a new addition to what used to be my 'hood, and Fergie was obviously very impressed with his prior visits. Since I trust my friend's palate, I didn't do any homework before showing up with bottles of Champagne.

Chiuchow-style marinated goose platter (潮式滷水拼盤) - there were 10 of us so a big platter was in order... and we got the whole shebang! On top of the standard sliced goose meat, we've also got the wing, the web, liver, gizzard, intestines... etc. The masterstock (滷水) used for marinating was definitely not as salty as usual... and maybe even bordering on being a tiny bit sweet.

The overcooked Chairman

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After making sure Sporty Cousin finally got a chance to dine at The Chairman (大班樓) for the first time, I thought it would be nice to invite him for another round. After all, the guys clearly wanted the oppotunity to taste more dishes from the restaurant's repertoire. And I made sure that we would not repeat any of the dishes we had the last time they came.

Ginger and vinegar pig trotter terrine (甜醋子薑豬手豬耳凍) - I really, really love this dish... So happy that they came up with this delicate, refined version of the Cantonese classic. The finely diced kaffir lime leaves on top of the minced pickled ginger really shone tonight. I did notice, however, that the jelly in the terrine had a firmer texture this time, and didn't melt as easily with heat.