Stuffed like a duck

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I returned to Tim's Kitchen (桃花源) tonight, my fourth visit in as many months.  I had wanted to take Tigger and family there for some time now, and finally got the opportunity to do so.

Our starter was a plate of roasted crispy baby pork belly (脆皮燒腩仔).  Nice, crispy skin with good amount of tasty fat and tender meat.

I started the rest of the gang on the signature crystal king prawn (玻璃明蝦球), although once again I decided to pass on it.  I did have another wonderful steamed whole fresh crab claw with egg white (蛋白蒸原隻鮮蟹鉗).  This one seemed bigger than the ones I've had before, and again it was steamed to perfection.  The bed of egg white was coated with a layer of starched ham broth.  Very nice.  Everyone was happy.

Now that we are in December and "winter" is upon us, it was time to savor some supreme snake bisque (太史五蛇羹).  I only eat snake soup at a handful of places, and this is one of them.  The snakes were finely shredded and the broth was light and delicate.  I added plenty of deep-fried wonton skins, chiffonade of kaffir lime leaves, coriander and white chrysanthemum petals.  Lovely.

One cannot leave here without trying some of the simple and homey dishes, so we had a piece of the braised pomelo skin with shrimp roe (蝦籽炆柚皮).  This is a dish I enjoy every time I'm here, and did not disappoint.  Auntie liked that she was still able to taste the pomelo, unlike many other versions elsewhere which have become tasteless.  The shrimp roe were very well-toasted and provided lots of flavor.  I wish I had a bowl of rice or some bread so I could mop up the sauce, and I jokingly picked up the plate and pretended to lick it clean.  Our humorless waiter immediately came over and took my plate away...

I pre-ordered the de-boned "eight treasure" duck (八寳鴨) as I'd never had it.  It was wonderful... stuffed with barley, egg yolk, offal.  So rich and flavorful, with tender and tasty meat.

I had a similar dish in Macau last year, but the stewed eggplant with minced pork and salty fish sauce (魚香茄子) was really, really good.  The eggplant soaked up plenty of oil and was piping hot and tasty.

We also had some deep-fried frog leg with peppercorn salt (椒鹽田雞腿).  These were pretty good, although not as impressive-looking as  the ones found at Tien Heung Lau (天香樓).

Finally, the fried glutinous rice with preserved pork sausage and liver sausage (生炒糯米飯) - which I had been reminded numerous times to pre-order - arrived.  How I love this dish when it's done well!  The moisture balance was perfect - not so wet that the rice grains became mushy, but moist enough so that the individual grains were still chewy and had bite.  One of these days I'm just gonna come and order this rice for takeout...

Given my last experience here with the desserts, I thought it best to pass on them.  We were pretty stuffed, anyway, and happily went home with our bellies full.