Tim again

Two days after my dinner in Macau, I'm back at Tim's Kitchen (桃花源小廚) - this time in Hong Kong.  I had set up this dinner a few weeks ago, and decided it would be in very poor form to change the venue.  Besides, I don't mind having the same dishes a few days apart - at least not these dishes.

I skipped the stir-fried giant glass prawn (玻璃明蝦球) to save myself some stomach space, so my first dish became crab claw poached with winter melon (冬瓜蟹拑).  It was as good as always, and I particularly liked the delicate and subtle flavors of the Yunnan ham in the sauce.

I passed on the braised assorted snake soup (太史五蛇羹), as I wasn't really in the mood and wanted to have a lighter meal.  The ladies, however, happily slurped away... especially that loud Resident Froggie...

Braised pomelo skin with shrimp roe (蝦子柚皮) - the waiter served the dish, and went into autopilot and immediately dissected it into four pieces.  I completely forgot to stop him, and I could see Froggie cringing and clenching her fingers around the grip of her SLR.  Clearly she had wanted to take a picture of the thing in one piece, not four... Oh well.  With the delicious skin in our mouths, we wondered how anyone ever realized that pomelo skin could be made into a dish, and discovered that pairing it with shrimp roe would be so awesome...

At the same time that the pomelo skin arrived at our table, two other dishes were also served to us.  I got a little agitated at the service, as there was no way we could get to all the dishes before they got cold.  The staff apologized and took the dishes back.

But the roasted baby pigeon (紅燒頂鴿皇) had just been freshly chopped up and needed to be consumed immediately, so we picked up the pieces and started chomping.  The pigeon meat was succulent and tender; there was lots of seasoning, especially on the skin and the membranes around the inner cavity.  While the flavors were nice, somehow I didn't quite get the wonderful surprise I found in Macau.

As we were finishing up the pigeon, the waiter brought the remaining dishes to the table - supposedly fresh batches instead of reheating the original plates.  Stir-fried tripe with mixed vegetables (七彩炒肚尖) is always welcome in my book, and the tripe was particularly chewy today.  I kept wondering whether the chewiness resulted from reheating...

Braised goose web and pork tendon in oyster sauce (豬腳筋扣鵝掌) - Froggie doesn't do feet, so she kept to the soft and wonderful tendon instead. It had been braised for so long that the outside became glue-like and left a coating on my lips and tongue.  The goose web was really well-done, too.

The ladies were pretty full by this point, while I was just fine.  No carbs tonight, and I decided to pick out a couple of desserts to finish the meal.  The steamed jujube cakes (紅豆糕) were honestly a little too gelatinous... and we put in some effort to separate and eat the layers one by one.  The fragrance was that of jujube skin, but the smokiness was intensified.  Not very sweet.

The sago puff pastry (甘露酥) was a total failure, and none of us liked it.  There was absolutely no sago anywhere.  Instead the filling was actually lotus seed paste - like a mooncake - with pine nuts.  Unfortunately the outer shell wasn't puffy at all and crumbled instead.  Now I wonder if they gave us the wrong dessert...

I brought my last bottle of 2006 Taille Aux Loups Montlouis Sec Rémus, which showed floral notes along with orange marmalade and honey.  Nose was kind of sharp.

We left the restaurant satiated, and I for one was happy not to be stuffed like a pig...