The tycoons' canteen

My last meal with my guests from Geneva took place at Fook Lam Moon (福臨門), the restaurant known as the tycoons' canteen (富豪飯堂). Having been here numerous times, I had no doubt that this place would completely cream Lung King Heen in terms of quality of the food...

We started with the roast suckling pig, which has got to be one of the best in Hong Kong. The thin layer of skin is so crispy and crunchy. The tiny legs of the pig are also great to munch on. Yummy!

Next came the baked crab shell (釀焗蟹蓋) with Worcestershire Sauce. After the horrendous crab claw at lunch today, my guests were transported to heaven with this dish. There was so much sweet crab meat here...

Once again I ordered the fried giant pomfret (香煎大鯧魚), which is smoked and then pan-fried. While the portion tonight wasn't as large as what I'm used to, it actually was enough given the number of dishes I have ordered. As yummy as usual. It still amazes me how big the pomfret is...

Stir-fried lobster with black beans and green peppers (豉椒炒龍蝦球) was a hit. For people who do not get to eat high-quality Chinese food, this is an unsual way to do lobster, but it is sooo good! The lobster was so fresh, so that the flesh was sweet and the texture had the right bounciness. Wow!

For veggie we had pea sprouts blanched in ham broth (上湯浸豆苗), since the pea sprouts are in season. While I love pea sprouts and can eat it day in day out, I was really hoping to have something out of the ordinary for the veggie dish. In particular I had hoped for wolfberry leaves, but apparently those are only in season during summer/fall... Oh well, gotta wait a few more months.

The final straw that broke the back of a few camels tonight was the claypot rice with preserved meats (腊味飯煲). The plate of liver and preserved sausages (潤腸，腊腸), preserved meat (腊肉) and the tasty duck (油鴨) was just awesome. What's even better is that we got to have the rice crispies (飯焦), which were so fragrant and crunchy. You can definitely hear it when your neighbor is chewing on it... 

For dessert, many of us chose to have almond cream with egg white (蛋白杏仁露), while others had the walnut cream (核桃露). The almond cream was light and heavenly...

I brought along 4 bottles of wine tonight, to make two interesting pairings out of the classic Burgundian varietals of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

1999 Armand Rousseau Mazy Chambertin - color was very light and diluted. The nose was pretty muted while the palate was a bit acidic. Pretty disappointing to be honest. I expected Rousseau wines to be light, and the Mazy Chambertin would mean that it's quite restrained. But this is kinda pathetic...

1999 Kistler Pinot Noir Cuvée Elizabeth - this is Kister's top Pinot Noir with a production of around only 2,000 bottles. As I expected there was a lot more concentration here. The nose has plenty of sweet fruit, a bit of mint, blackberry, preserved plum and even a hint of mocha. Pretty nice, but still a bit of a let down. This wine can be mind-blowing but it wasn't to be tonight...

1995 Chartron et Trébuchet Bâtard-Montrachet - a beautiful wine with nose of sweet grass, straw, sweet and creamy butter and a bit of lemon. There is a little bit of ripeness on the palate. Not bad for the price I paid.

2004 Aubert Chardonnay Lauren - a very typical Californian Chardonnay, with lots of lemon citrus, minerals, toasty oak, and sweet butter popcorn. Pretty ripe on the palate. I can only imagine what this wine would taste like in another 10 years...

Once again we managed to close down this restaurant. It was a wonderful meal, and I ended up carrying my stomach home for the third evening in a row...