Post-typhoon dinner

Time for the Peanut Gang to gather once again, even though we had met up just over a month ago.  Brother KC had promised to take us to a famous "yellow shop" with great food, but alas... as Hong Kong was shut for most of the day on account of Typhoon Nangka brought strong winds to the city, the restaurant chose not to open tonight.  PR8 went into high gear and quickly arranged a room for us at West Villa Restaurant (西苑酒家).

It's been way too long since I was last here, so I left the ordering to the adults... and just waited for the food to arrive.

Honey glazed BBQ pork (西苑大哥叉燒) - wow!  It's been a while since I had char siu here, and this was pretty damn good!  Good amount of marbling here.  Very tender. 

Double-boiled conch, chicken, ham and honey melon soup (馳名爵士靚湯) - apparently this soup is famous, but what's most important is that it tasted pretty good.  Nice sweetness from the melon.

Crackling roasted goose with abalone sauce (鮑汁霸皇燒鵝) - pretty good la... Crispy skin.

Shrimp and bean vermicelli in pot (西苑銀絲蝦煲) - this is always something I liked, and they did a pretty good job here.

Spicy chicken Chungking style in pot (重慶麻辣雞煲) - this came highly recommended by PR8, and I gotta admit that it was pretty good.  We asked for mild because, well, I'm a wuss when it comes to heat.  The pearl onions, lotus root, and coriander were all very good.

Pan-fried lotus roots with minced pork pate (香煎蓮藕餅) - this was a pretty decent version.  I don't order this as much as I should.

White cabbage with tofu in fish broth (魚湯千層浸菜苗) - nice and comforting.  

Braised beef rib (紅燒牛肋條) - I was surprised when KC ordered this up, but it was pretty tasty.  Very, very tender with nice flavors from the beef fat.

Casserole rice with Chinese sausage and preserved pork meats, preserved duck leg (原煲臘味煲飯) - it's starting to be preserved meats season, and I was so happy that we ordered this.  I always look forward to this during the cooler months.

Deep-fried twisted flour sheet (家鄉脆麻花) - this wasn't exactly what we had expected, but actually better.  I looooved how crunchy these were, and the coconut sugar!

Almond flavoured bun (雪影杏汁飽) - one of the signature desserts here, so how could we pass them up?

Very, very good.  I forgot how good these were... wonderful sugared crust with that fragrant almond custard in the middle.

Red bean and lotus seed sweet soup (蓮子紅豆沙) - not bad for something that was complimentary.  I could taste some aged tangerine peel (陳皮).

Chinese sponge cake (原籠馬拉糕) - pretty decent, too. 

We were pretty civilized when it came to alcohol...

2016 Blanc de Lynch-Bages - pipi de chat, much riper on the palate than expected.  Pretty nice.

2016 Coessens Blanc de Noirs - nice and yeasty, reasonably ripe on the palate.

2012 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Reine des Bois - riper than expected, with forest and dried herb notes.  Drinking nicely.

2006 Krug - still a little on the young side, but can there ever be a bad bottle of Krug?