Missing Kim

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A bunch of us got together to go watch Noma at Boiling Point, the documentary about the restaurant in Copenhagen that has replaced el Bulli as THE place to go for foodies.  As there were quite a few of us, it seemed logical to go and grab dinner together afterwards.  Someone suggested that we go to the Kimberley Chinese Restaurant (君怡閣) for the pig, and I honestly couldn't think of a better idea!

Double boiled fresh ox bone and turnip soup (蘿蔔鮮牛骨清湯) - not surprisingly, we started with a giant clay pot of this as it's become the tradition.

As much as I loved having a huge bowl of this clear broth, I didn't quite get that sticky, yummy goodness on my lips tonight.  Guess there just wasn't enough collagen in the soup, and I sure didn't get any from the ox bones in my bowl.

As we were still working on our bowl of soup, the first of the two piggies arrived.  Yes, we ordered TWO of the roasted suckling pig stuffed with fresh Chinese yam and savory sticky rice (金陵乳豬烤鮮淮山香苗).  The last time I had a taste of this wonderful piggy - which I had dubbed "the Kimberley pig" - was on the night before I moved to Taipei.  I couldn't begin to tell you how much I have missed this… although the price for the piglet is now roughly double of what it was when I first tasted this 5 years ago.

I was surprised to find that they have inserted Chinese yam (淮山) in the middle of the stuffing.  I don't know the rationale for this change, but to many of us this made no sense whatsoever.  The yam certain wasn't adding any fragrance or additional dimensions to the flavor, and turned out just to be a dry piece of root that occupied the space of additional sticky rice.  I'd be happier with more rice!

I hit my limit of two slices of the piggy, and barely had enough space for a little of the spinach with salty and century eggs (金銀蛋菠菜).

We still wanted dessert, and somehow ended up at Australia Dairy Company (澳洲牛奶公司).  Not being a fan of their popular desserts, I ended up ordering some pineapple ice (菠蘿冰).  Being fresh off the boat from Taiwan, for some reason when I saw the words "刨冰", I thought this would be similar to what we had in Taipei.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  This was nothing more than pieces of pineapple from a can with some crushed ice on top.  No sugary syrup, and the ice isn't shaved as I was expecting.  Not something I would order again.

Despite the lack of a satisfying sweet finish, this was still a very good evening for me.  I was happy to have been in the company of more piggies, and look forward to visiting more of them…soon!