Not quite ocean view dining

Lady Agar is spreading her wings and leaving our little island commune, so a group of us gathered for a final feast.  Fortunately for me the chosen venue this evening was Hoi King Heen (海景軒), a place I'd heard a lot about - especially from a particular friend who raves about it - but never checked out.  A bunch of us took the subway across the harbor, then proceeded to trek on foot to the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hotel and descended into the basement.

Smoked scallop with rose flavoured (玫瑰花香薰帶子) - the smoky aromas hit us fairly quickly.  This was an interesting twist... I've never had smoked scallops before, and while I like smoked dishes in general, this basically overwhelmed the natural flavors of the ingredient itself.

Braised winter melon balls stuffed with black olives mustard (欖菜玉珠) - the presentation sure is pretty... looks like a bunch of grapes on the vine.  A plus in my book.

The melon balls were a bit hard for my liking.  No doubt it was necessary for them to hold their shapes, as veggies needed to be stuffed inside.  The upside to this was that the melon tasted a little more "green" and refreshing, while the stuffing had stronger flavors.

Sautéed fresh prawns with spring onions (招牌玻璃蝦球) - these were not bad, but the MSG was a little more prominent here.

Steamed garoupa rolls with Yunnan ham (龍皇白玉卷) - a signature dish that didn't quite do it for me, and I think many fellow diners felt the same.  At first glance this would look at home in any French/Australian restaurant, given the lovely presentation.  But the truth is the dish was simply too busy...  The garoupa, being the key ingredient, was OK but not impressive.  The strip of ham inside the roll was a little too strong and overpowered the garoupa.  There was a layer of prawn cake below, on top of a shiitake mushroom, on top of a layer of spinach mousse and egg white.  The sauce at the bottom of the plate was made with salty egg yolk and crab roe.  All the other ingredients tasted fine and good, and all worked well with the sauce.  My attempt to try to taste all of them in one mouthful proved futile.  I applaud the chef's creativity, though...

Fortune chicken (順德富貴雞) - a touristy version here, where guests are allowed encouraged to pick up the colorful hammer to break the clay mould.  When all is said and done, I found a very "wet" chicken in the lotus leaf.  While we sometimes complain about the chicken being a little dry at Tien Heung Lau (天香樓) and prefer the moist version at Hongzhou Restaurant (杭州酒家), this was downright soggy!  Yes, the meat was juicy and moist, but we joked about this being more like chicken (noodle) soup...  While the meat was tasty, the fragrance was definitely lacking...  Nothing like the lovely version from the other two restaurants.

Braised beef short ribs with papaya (萬壽果牛肋肉) - definitely one of the highlights of the meal.  While some people felt that the chef "cheated" by using the enzymes in the papaya to tenderize the meat - and I had no idea what the geeks were talking about - I was perfectly happy with the result.  The beef was tender and tasty, the sauce sweet from the papaya.  I couldn't help but gobble a few pieces down...

Deep-fried pork spare ribs with honey prune sesame sauce (蜜梅京燒骨) - another dish that was popular with the crowd.  Slighty fatty pork spare ribs coated in a sweet and sour sauce.  Not as "gweilo" as your ordinary sweet and sour pork...

Vermicelli in fish soup with mushrooms (嘉福魚湯米粉) - I was pretty disappointed with this, and I know I wasn't the only one.  The fish soup just seemed a little too bland... I think I can tell the difference between "delicate" and "bland", and this was bland.  My fish soup from Saturday was "delicate".

Pan-fried glutinous dumplings (家鄉煎茶稞) - these were basically the same as deep-fried Chiuchow dumplings (潮州粉果), with the same exact fillings, except they are pan-fried instead of being deep-fried.  Not bad.

Deep-fried puffs with egg custard (奶黃脆春卷) - the puffs looked like some versions of the puffs with turnip (蘿蔔絲餅), except the filling is sweet.  These were OK.

Sweetened almond cream with egg white (蛋白杏仁露) - amazingly this was completed tableside by adding the egg white into the claypot while stirring vigorously.  Very yummy.  Thick enough yet not overly sticky. 

There was a reasonably big crowd tonight, and we actually had some drinkers!  I was able to polish off some of my large stockpile from the office...

1999 Beringer Chardonnay Sbragia Limited Release - I bought this years ago and had been a little fearful that it's overly oxidized - which would produce a nose that only a few of us would appreciate. The color was certainly a dark copper tone, not golden or straw-colored like a young Chardonnay. Nose was very sweet and buttery, with sweet grass, pear and a little flint. I was happy with this wine... It had everything I wanted from an old Chard, without being over the hill. Didn't really feel the 15.1% alcohol at all...

2001 Henry's Drive Reserve Shiraz - can this be more typical of Aussie Shiraz? TONS of coconut butter like I was chewing a Mounds bar and savoring the shredded coconut... There was also lots of vanilla, mint and exotic spices. I knew what I was getting into and there weren't any surprises...

2009 Pride Viognier - very floral, lots of oak, extremely sweet with vanilla, banana and exotic, tropical notes. Ripe and alcoholic, definitely feeling that 15.4%. Very young Cali Viognier which Lady Agar carried back from her last trip.

We also had some 女兒紅, which was interestingly served on ice with slices of lemon.  It looked like ice lemon tea...

We had a lot of fun tonight.  I think most of the dishes were pretty decent, although not many had the "wow factor" we were hoping for from a Michelin-starred restaurant.  Given that we missed having the specialty soup tonight, I guess I'll have to make a return visit to sample it another day...