Last snake soup of the season

I've been talking about my new favorite private dining facility with a friend in Taiwan, and decided to set a date so that a bunch of them can take the opportunity of a business trip to dine there with me.  So it came to pass that on the day I was due to fly to Japan to start a week-long eating tour, I was busy stuffing myself with some good ol' fashioned Cantonese...

I originally thought the chef would put together a lighter menu because it's lunch, but I guess he wasn't thinking along those lines... In the end I had to ask him to cut out a couple of dishes, which would also help lower the cost of the meal.  It was still a pretty penny to have to pay for lunch, though...

Deep-fried prawns with salt and pepper (椒鹽鳳尾蝦) - first time having these prawns here.  Pretty good, but a little more greasy than I expected.

Stir-fried beef cubes (大千禾牛粒) - WOW!  Very, very yummy.  The beef was pretty tender, but it was the accompanying deep-fried garlic, pan-fried garlic, onions, spring onions, and chilis that really made the dish.  All those flavors in one mouthful...

Stir-fried shredded meats with abalone (鮑魚銀牙炒三絲) - this was also very good, with shredded abalone, chicken and barbecued pork (叉燒).  Very nice with yellow and green peppers, bean sprouts, onions...etc.  Best part of the dish?  Those Indian almonds which had been stir-fried at high heat.  You can just taste all the flavors thanks to the wok hei...

Imperial scholar's five-snake soup (太史五蛇羹) - the main event, once again.  This would be my last time having snake soup this season, and I've been lucky enough to enjoy it on 5 separate occasions here during this season.  More than enough.  Still lovin' it.  Amazingly complex with layers of flavors, yet so delicately balanced.

The one dumb thing I did today?  I wore fleece to lunch.  And after two bowls of the snake soup, I was sweating a lot inside.

Stir-fried choy sum with beef fat (肥牛炒菜心) - veg dishes are supposed to be healthy, but when they're stir-fried with the fat that's been trimmed off the beef we had earlier... not so much.  Delicious, though... and absolutely nothing to complain about here.

Tea-smoked chicken (茶皇烟燻雞) - still love the smoky flavors and the soy sauce.  Still very tender.  But something was off about this chicken today... The skin and/or the fat just tasted weird.

Pan-fried noodles with garlic and shredded chicken (蒜香雞絲煎生麵) - interesting to see the chef use Cantonese egg noodles for this... and in fact this was pan-fried on both side, instead of just one side as it's done at Chiu Tang (潮廳).

Besides the traditional condiments of vinegar and sugar, the chef also prepared a bowl of sauce made with shredded chicken and garlic.

This is how I chose to have my noodles, and it was a very, very good combination...

Almond cream with lotus seeds and egg white (蓮子蛋白杏仁茶) - very good as usual.

That was a lot to take in for lunch, but I'm glad I got to introduce some more friends to this place.  Burp!