No. 7 typhoon at No. 7 son

DaRC had rounded up a bunch of us for a dinner at our favorite private kitchen tonight, but Typhoon Wipha decided to come pay us a visit.  As most of Hong Kong began shutting down this afternoon, we were advised that our dinner venue would have to be changed.  Thanks to last-minute efforts by RAW Meat Bro, we managed to get ourselves a table at Seventh Son (家全七福) - which surprisingly remained open.

I wasn't surprised to find the restaurant less than half full tonight.  Given the lack of transportation options, most of Hong Kong was probably trying to stay home and hunker down.  I guess we were just too die hard...

I had to take a work call as soon as I arrived at the restaurant, so I almost missed the first course...

Deep-fried chicken kidney mixed with egg custard (雞子戈渣) - pretty much as always... fluffy and delicious.

Barbecued whole suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬全體) - RAW Bro ordered it cut into thin strips, instead of separating the crackling from the rest of the piglet.

The verdict was unanimous.  The piglet tonight was probably the best we can remember, and this is a crowd who has eaten many, many piglets here... and previously at Fook Lam Moon (福臨門).  We speculated that because of the typhoon, ours was the only pig being roasted tonight - hence the big jump in quality.  The crackling was simply PERFECT.

Winter melon soup (冬瓜盅) - always welcome in the summer, as this serves to cool the body down.

So we've got chunks of the winter melon, along with roast duck, loofah, lotus seeds, tonkin jasmine (夜香花), mushrooms, crab meat...

Deep-fried garoupa fins in salt and pepper (椒鹽斑翅) - so we had two preparations of garoupa tonight, which were served together.  First we have deep-fried chunks of fin, lightly-breaded and seasoned with chili and pepper.

Stir-fried garoupa fillets with preserved olives (欖角炒班球) - then garoupa fillets seasoned with diced preserved olives.  Very nice.

Baked stuffed crab shell with onion and fresh crab meat (釀焗鮮蟹蓋) - this has always been my favorite version of blacked stuffed crab shell in town, and I was so happy that we were having this!

Just look at the shredded crab meat mixed in with shredded onions.  Plenty of sweetness from the crab as well as the onions, with just a bit of cream.  The breaded crust was just about perfect.

Roasted crispy goose (脆皮燒鵝) - the roast goose here is often underrated, and the skin was certainly very crispy and delicious.  Alas, the breast was obviously overcooked and tough tonight.

Braised pomelo skin with shrimp roe and tofu (豆腐蝦子柚皮) - another classic dish among our favorites.

The sauce was so, sooo good... but I knew I didn't have stomach space for steam rice.  The Japanese frozen tofu puffs were pretty good, too.

Steamed sandwiches of boneless chicken with 'Kim Wah' ham and shiitake mushroom (金華玉樹雞) - I don't remember ever having this, and this was definitely very interesting.  Very delicious and silky chicken.  Gotta remember to order this in the future.

Frog's legs and phoenix nut in clay pot (鳳眼果炇田雞腿) - phoenix nut (鳳眼果) is in season, but I wasn't a fan from my one and only taste of it.  It seems that the real gourmands at the table went ga-ga over them, so that's what we got...

Salted fourfinger threadfin (煎鹹馬友) - really fragrant and tasty, but damn... soooo salty and way, waaay too big in terns of size.  Would need big bowls of rice to even finish one of those pieces... and no way I had the stomach capacity at this point.

Black sesame roll (懷舊芝麻卷) - always fun to unroll the "film" and eat it...

Walnut cookies (核桃酥) - as tasty as always... my favorite dessert here.

Leaf wrapped glutinous dumpling with red bean paste (豆沙蘋葉角)

OF COURSE we had plenty of bottles to go with our food, although it did require a reshuffle in the lineup.

1990 Bruno Paillard Le Mesnil, dégorgée en Mars 2014 - nice balance here.  Dry-ish but not too acidic, and not overripe, although definitely kinda lean.  With the second pour came salted/preserved lemons, with a bigger palate and longer finish.

2004 Domaine Leflaive Meursault 1er Cru Sous Le Dos d'Ane - very ripe and buttery.

2010 Castello della Sala Cervaro della Sala - big, toasty nose.  Ripe and very big on the palate.

2009 Joseph Drouhin Bâtard-Montrachet, en magnum - very ripe.

2006 Kistler Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard - eucalyptus notes.  Sweet-ish on the palate.  Still fairly concentrated.

2005 Kistler Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard - more open than the 2006, but seemed a little subtle.

2003 Kistler Pinot Noir Kistler Vineyard - a bit gamey, stinky barnyard, leather.  Still kinda sweet on the palate.

At the end of the evening, as we were packing up to leave, one of us had the clever idea of pouring the leftovers of the 2003, 2005, and 2006 into the same bottle - which we jokingly compared to Vega Sicilia's Único Reserva Especial.  A few of us took a couple of sips, and realized that the result showed more complexity as the different characters of the wines all showed up.

1989 von Schubert Maximin Grünhäuser Herrenberg Kabinett - good acidity balance, not too acidic, some ripeness.  Lemon citrus notes.

We were grateful that the restaurant staff still stayed at work to ensure we had an enjoyable evening.  There was still a lot of wine left on the table when the desserts came, and there was no reason for the staff not to go home at that point.  As we were a bunch of regulars, the manager invited us to stay and finish the food and wine even after they went home.  And sure enough, by the time we finally left, there didn't seem to be a single soul in sight...