Ex-boss at the Boss

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The ex-boss was in town with his family, and no surprise that the responsibility of choosing where to have dinner fell on my shoulders.  Given this was his kids' first trip to Hong Kong and a request was made for "what I can't have normally find (in Taipei)", I naturally took them to a good Cantonese restaurant - since there is virtually no decent Canto restaurant in Taipei...

After checking with a few places in Central, I decided to lead our contingent to the Boss (波士廳), an underrated restaurant which got themselves a little macaron in the last round.  I had only ever been here for lunch, and relished the opportunity to try out more dishes when dim sum items aren't on offer.

Double-boiled almond soup with pig lungs (生磨杏汁燉白肺湯) - definitely something you can't find in Taipei.  First of all, I don't think anyone makes anything savory with apricot kernels in Taiwan... and I doubt that many people cook with and eat pig's lungs.  In any case, I thought the soup was nicely done here... with a rich and slightly thick texture and plenty of fragrance.  The kiddies seemed to like it, too... and even ate the pieces of lung.

Steamed leopard coral trout (清蒸東星斑) - something else that Cantonese restos in Taiwan don't seem to do well is steamed fish, so we had to have it while they're here.  I think they over-steamed this ever-so-slightly, but still fresh and tasty.  The kids had fun devouring the fish like a couple of pirahnas... and I have a couple of after pictures for the record...

Baked crab with vermicelli and home-made sauce in casserole (奇香粉絲蟹煲) - I liked this the first time, and ordered this as one of the kids wanted crab.  Very fragrant, indeed, with Thai basil, garlic, peppercorns, fermented soy beans (豆瓣).  I also find it interesting that they throw in thin slices of three-layered pork along with the crab and glass vermicelli.  Very, very yummy.

Deep-fried chicken pieces with home-made shrimps sauce (大澳蝦膏炸碎雞) - this was the dish that I fell in love with on my first visit, and I'd order it any chance I get!  Loooove the taste of shrimp sauce!  There was just enough of it to make things a little stinky, but it's the kind of stinky where, if you got it on your fingers, you couldn't resist putting your fingers up to your nose so you could smell them... Slurp.

Fried noodle with black truffle (法國黑松露炒麵) - I was expecting to see a big bowl of E-fu noodles (伊府麵) or something, but they made this with the same egg noodles that are used for classic Cantonese wonton noodles.  Thankfully there were no notable alkali flavors, but that may have just been covered up by the good amount of black truffle paste used to toss the noodles.  Very yummy, but could have used a little more wok hei (鑊氣).

I was very happy with the food tonight, and judging by the reaction of the kids - and the leftover fish bones and crab shells - I'd say that they enjoyed it, too!  Given that this place is just a stone's throw from my office, I gotta come back more...