Team dinner

The boss is back in town, and most of the research team was here visiting for the first time as well.  The boss wanted to do a team dinner, and naturally the task of selecting the venue fell on my shoulders.  Given the near impossibility of booking any of the restaurants at the Four Seasons Hong Kong on short notice, I ended up choosing to take the team to Fook Lam Moon (福臨門).

Roast suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬) - introducing this to visitors is de rigueur, especially since one of your visitors announced "I want meat!" when you asked them what they would like.  Very good as usual, and I think the leftovers lasted for a couple of days...

Scrambled egg with 'kei wai' prawns, centurion egg and spring onions (蔥花皮蛋圍蝦炒滑蛋) - 'centurion egg'?!  Someone needs to double-check their Engrish.  I love homey dishes like this, and I think the team enjoyed it, too.

Steamed finely minced beef with aged mandarin peel (馳名陳皮蒸牛肉餅) - pretty good, but would have been better with some white rice.

Wolfberry leaves in superior stock (上湯枸杞葉) - I love this when it's in season, and of course with wolfberries (枸杞) on top.

Deep-fried boneless duck filled with mash taro (荔芋香酥鴨) - FAIL.  Where was the duck?!  So many pieces seemed to be just taro mash only.  Or was the duck meat so finely minced/shredded and mixed into the mash that I couldn't pick it out?  And the whole thing was too wet.

Deep-fried sliced pomfret (古法炸鯧魚) - not happy with this.  When I pre-ordered this, I specifically said that I don't want just small pieces, as I'm used to having this dish as either whole or a big plate of it.  The person on the phone said that she'll put me down for 2 orders.  So what did I get?  One lousy slice.  I was upset, and immediately ordered a second order, which was what we see in this picture.

Steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaf (鮮荷葉飯) - always pretty good.

I was pretty full and didn't take dessert, but did enjoy one of these walnut cookies (核桃酥).

I thought I'd bring out a little bit of wine for the team, but the boss kept his consumption within reason.  After all, he needed to keep a clear head as the US markets were about to open...

1995 Vieux Château Certan en magnum - nose of coffee, tobacco, some dried herbs.  A little musty, perhaps?  Acidity was high at first, and a little alcoholic at first.

I gave myself a failing grade tonight, as I ended up ordering way too much food for us.  Many of the dishes shouldn't have been bumped up to a "medium" from "regular", but amazingly the team managed to finish just about everything... and even had room for dessert!  I look forward to welcoming them back to Hong Kong later this year.