White girl fish and more

Haokoufu was back in town and the Man in White T-shirt wanted to bring her to lunch at The Sports Club (五陵會), which required a few helping mouths. Not having been back there in a few years, I was only too eager to sign up for this. It turned out there were a few other chefs at the table, too...

Century eggs and pickled ginger (皮蛋酸薑)

Deep-fried pork spare ribs with shrimp paste (香酥蝦醬骨) - difficult for this not to be tasty with that shrimp paste...

Deep-fried tofu (炸豆腐)

Double-boiled winter melon soup (冬瓜盅) - always happy to have this in warm weather to cool down.

Sweet and sour pork (咕嚕肉) - can't really go wrong with this.

Virgin mud crab (奄仔蟹) - always, always happy to see crabs with tons of roe. And no surprise that the Great One was really excited.

Deep-fried garoupa filets (脆炸吉列斑球) - it's been so long since I last had what is probably the best "white girl fish" in town, but I was pretty restrained today.

For me, it's just gotta be that sweet corn and egg drop sauce. It's just so classic... nay, ICONIC. I've loved this combination for years, although we're certainly not having frozen tilapia here!

Stir-fried kailan with dried flatfish (方魚炒芥蘭) - the little bits of dried flatfish give the dish so much more flavor.

Roasted baby pigeons (紅燒妙齡乳鴿) - always happy to have pigeon.

Baked porkchop rice (焗豬扒飯) - OK la...

Mung bean soup (綠豆沙) - after so many years in Hong Kong, I've now grown accustomed to their way of serving mung bean soup... which isn't complete sweet but rather comes with a savory flavor profile thanks to the use of kelp and rue (臭草).

Since Haokoufu was going be at the table, I promised I would bring a bottle of bongwater...

2020 Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant - served nice and cold, so the wine showed some flint on the nose without being overly ripe. A little reductive, with floral and tropical stone fruit notes.