The other pig

Two nights after enjoying my favorite roast suckling pig for the first time in years, I'm having roast suckling pig again. Rikachu is back in town for a few days and requested to have Cantonese food. Although they live in the Bay Area, Chinese food just ain't the same. I immediately thought about going back to Seventh Son (家全七福) as it's been some time since my last visit. You can't go wrong with the food, and besides, I bet they don't do suckling pig like that in Cali.

Barbecued whole suckling pig (大紅片皮乳豬全體) - I pre-ordered the pig and it was certainly very well-received by everyone. This was my first time having the big here after the head chef in charge of roast meats moved to Moon Bay Chinese Cuisine (灣悅 賞 • 中菜), and I gotta say that the pig really wasn't as good. The crackling was definitely thinner, and some of the pieces of crackling weren't that crunchy. That never happened before.

That's not to say the pig wasn't delicious. It still was, very much so. Our friends dug into it with gusto, devouring not just the crackling but also the ribs, the tender and juicy back meat, and of course the trotters. We spent over an hour working on this pig.

Honey glazed barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒) - the char siu (叉燒) was surprisingly good tonight, with wonderful marbling and a very tasty honey glaze.

Fried bean curd with morel mushroom (羊肚菌琵琶豆腐) - this was more tasty than usual thanks to the addition of morels. Our visitors were happy.

Stir-fried choy sum with garlic (蒜蓉炒菜心)

Scrambled egg with 'kei wai' shrimps, centurion egg and spring onions (蔥花皮蛋基圍蝦炒滑蛋) - how funny that the last time I ordered up this dish, we also had someone who didn't like century eggs... and we also had to ask the kitchen not to add that offending ingredient. Well... tonight I felt the consistency of the scrambled eggs was a little off somehow, and the kei wai shrimps (基圍蝦) were a little on the mushy side. Not as good as before, but our visiting friends were still very happy to be able to eat something they don't get back home.

I brought along 2 bottles of wine for some light drinking...

2003 Pax Syrah Castelli-Knight Ranch - served right after decanting. Floral, smoky, nice and fruity, even two hours later.

2020 Calcogno Ginestra - high acidity on the palate. Flinty and oaky on the nose, and not bad after it opened up.

It was so good to see old friends back in town, and the important thing is that we all enjoyed ourselves. Happy to be back at Seventh Son, where the service level is still much better than Moon Bay.