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Yes, I'm well aware that only 3 months of the year has passed... but I very much doubt that any meal I will have during the rest of 2025 will be as bad as my dinner tonight.
Sporty Cousin has been working in Foshan (佛山) for a few years now, and used to visit
102 House (壹零貳小館) during the initial pandemic years when they still operated solely out of Foshan. As he was a frequent guest of the restaurant, I was planning to go and visit him 2 years ago, just after the borders reopened between Hong Kong and the rest of Mainland China. But before I had the chance to do so, it was announced that the original restaurant would cease operations - apparently due to the village house being scheduled for demolition.
I first heard about the restaurant in January 2018, when they did
their first collaboration with The Chairman (大班樓). I remember being so impressed with the passion shown by Chef Xu Jingye (徐泾业) as we were told stories about their research into classic Cantonese recipes. Everything at that meal was new and tasty, so I had a really good impression of the team.
While a number of friends subsequently took the trip to Foshan during the following 2 years - before China's borders closed in January 2020 - I never made the effort. I also missed some opportunities to check out their Shanghai location, which by now has 2 Michelin stars and had just taken the No.29 spot on
Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. So when Sporty Cousin messaged me a few days ago and asked whether I'd be up for dinner in Foshan tonight, during the week-long "private kitchen" stint when Xu Jingye and manager Yao Min are back in town, I didn't hesitate. I immediately booked my train tickets, and even arranged to buy a few bottles from a wine shop in Guangdong to be shipped to Foshan for this dinner - given that Foursheets and I could only carry 2 bottles of wine across the border without paying duty.
But... I did had some reservations in the back of my mind. V has been a regular over the last few years in Shanghai, and told me that the cooking has gotten significantly worse in recent days. Apparently it has been so poor that he was bitching out Chef Xu during his visits, and then stopped going altogether. Another fellow foodie has also warned me that the kitchen in Shanghai is on a downward trajectory, has also bitched out Chef Xu during their visits, but didn't think that I would have a bad meal in Foshan.
Unfortunately for the six of us, we all left the restaurant fuming. I had heard from my friends that Chef Xu no longer cooks in the kitchen - which isn't a problem if the kitchen team can deliver. Saffron Bae a.k.a. Hairy LS is often galloping around the world taking after his idol Monsieur LS, but the kitchen team at
Caprice still delivers impeccable dishes without him. Well... I saw Chef Xu out and about in the courtyard, so it's doubtful he spent much time in the kitchen tonight.
Pan-fried Chinese white shrimp (干煎大明蝦) - we were all a little surprised that there were no "starters" and the meal began with these giant shrimp. The use of tomato ketchup in the preparation is a familiar one, if not quite traditional Cantonese.
The real problem here was that the kitchen got lazy. In order to preserve a more aesthetically pleasing presentation, they kept the shell intact along the back,and left the shrimp's intestine inside. The issue with shrimp of this size is that their intestines can be very full of, well, what essentially is their undigested food and/or their poop... and in this case, the size was about a whole Q-tip cotton bud! IT WAS FUCKING BROWN, MAN! And it looked just like wet, gooey shit! Since we had only chopsticks as utensils, I ended up using my fingers to dig and remove all the crap from the shrimp, as I had zero intention of swallowing and ingesting another animal's poop. A really disappointing start to our meal.
I wish I had taken a picture of how much poop I had to scoop out of the shrimp, but like my dinner last Friday, I was just honestly too shocked that this happened. Anyhoo, the poop was kinda sticking out the underside of the shrimp in the picture above so you get the idea.
Stir-fried spinyhead croakers with vegetables (菜远狮头鱼) - it's not often that we get to have spinyhead croakers (獅頭魚), and they have been stir-fried with
choy sum (菜心) along with diced garlic and ginger. Pretty tender and decent.
Stewed shredded black Amur bream soup (拆会边鱼羹) - the wild black Amur bream (邊魚) from the Xi River (西江) has been shredded and stewed together with shredded zucchini, yellowed chives, shiitake mushrooms, seaweed, kaffir lime leaf
chiffonade, and toasted Chinese black olive kernels (欖仁). Lots of white pepper in the soup to mask any "fishy" flavors along with the kaffir lime leaf, as one would expect. Very classic, and pretty decent.
Steamed egg white with river crab roe (礼云子琼山白玉) - this was a special add-on. The steamed egg white (瓊山豆腐) was very light and fluffy, and came topped with roe from tiny river crabs (蟛蜞). Honestly, we found the flavors of the roe to be on the light side, which manager Yao Min (姚敏) explained as being more "elegant"...
Stir-fried catfish (油泡钳鱼腩) - the hemibargus (芝麻魽) was another special add-on.
The skin and the layer of fat underneath gave us some crunch, but I didn't understand why this fish was so prized as a delicacy...
Stir-fried frogs' legs with black beans and peppers (豉椒炒田腿) - this was very nice and lived up to expectations. The flavors from the black beans, capsicums, and ginger were pretty tasty.
Fragrant pepper crab (飘香胡椒蟹) - WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS?! For the second time in as many weeks, the "local" mud crabs (青蟹) served to me were lean and of poor quality, and tonight these went beyond being what the Cantonese call "water crab (水蟹)" - meaning the crabs had recently molted and have yet to grow into their bigger shells. I had a bite of a claw from Foursheets, and while the meat was fine, the noticeable gap between the crab shell and the meat wasn't lost on anyone. As for me... I did what I usually do when crabs are on the table, which is to focus on the body and the legs and let others take the claws and elbows. These crabs were very, very bad... The meat was so soft and mushy it was practically gooey. If I thought I was upset with the quality of the crab at
this meal a week ago, I was totally livid as I munched on this tonight. And I wasn't alone. Everyone else at the table was shaking their heads at the poor quality of these two crabs.
So what is it that makes restaurants like this think they can serve shit crabs to customers? If they don't bother to check the quality of their produce, what the hell are they doing charging this kind of pricing?! And if it's not the right season to serve crabs - when they molt and haven't grown more into their shells - what happened to serving only what's seasonal and best?!
The only redeeming part was the seeds of the Chinese spice bush (香葉樹) from Yunnan (雲南), which are kinda like 山胡椒. Wonderful fragrance and a little spicy, numbing sensation on the tongue.
Stir-fried vegetables with ham broth (腿汁扒时蔬) - I didn't notice any problems, but Foursheets was a little upset to find some dirt and sand in her leafy amaranth (莧菜). We were told that the broth was made by adding "one catty of water to one catty of ham", and while we could taste flavors from pork fat, the boys at the table had some doubts about the ratio and the quality of the ham being used... as well as the consistency of the sauce. There was simply not enough flavor nor any complexity or nuance in the taste of that sauce.
Steamed saltwater fish with dried radish (萝卜干焖海上鮮) - this mandarin fish (桂花魚) tasted so muddy that Foursheets immediately gave me her pieces after just one bite. As someone who grew up eating freshwater fish and can tolerate that muddy taste more than his wife, even I gave up after having one piece. Do I look like I enjoy eating mud? The
last time a restaurant served me fish this muddy was more than a decade ago, and I didn't go back to that restaurant for another 6 years. Anyway... everyone hated this and we all stopped touching it.
Signature sweet and sour pork (招牌咕嚕肉) - this was one of the dishes I really enjoyed at that first collaboration 7 years ago. Technically this is still "sweet and sour pork" even though there's actually no lean meat here... just a block of pork fat that's been battered and deep-fried. One bite and the center melted in the mouth. As someone who loves pork fat and lard, this was completely up my alley and I was happy. Served with chunks of pineapple and seasoned with 3-year old housemade pineapple vinegar.
Crispy fried chicken (生炸脆皮鸡) - another FAIL. Everyone stared at the bird in disbelief when it arrived, because whoever chopped it up did an incredibly sloppy job in both the chopping and then plating it. This chicken had no flavor at all. And the skin could have been a lot better in terms of the crispiness, or at least stay attached. The boys around the table were angry that yet another dish fell short of expectations.
Clam and crucian carp claypot rice (鲫鱼蚬肉饭) - now we've reached the end of our meal with the rice dish.
I guess Foursheets wanted to be able to see the slices of crucian carp (鯽魚) so she asked Chef Xu not to mash it all up together with the rice.
Since this involved two different types of seafood, the kitchen chose not to use any soy sauce that would normally be added to many traditional Cantonese claypot rice. Even with the diced preserved mustard stem (榨菜), the flavors here were just very, very light... and surely Yao Min would have described it as "delicate" had we asked. I didn't mind this, because I'm pretty used to Japanese clay pot rice (土鍋御飯) often being light and delicate to showcase the taste and fragrance of the rice itself. But I will admit that this wouldn't be what diners would expect these days in a Cantonese restaurant, and the rice used here was definitely nothing to write home about.
We all know that crucian carps have a ton of fine bones, which makes the preparation a real pain. They announced proudly that they had removed the bones from the fish before cooking so we didn't have to worry about them. Well... one of us did get a bone in his fish and didn't realize until it was halfway down his throat... Thankfully it was small and flexible enough to go down without causing more trouble. Maybe next time - although I doubt there would be a next time for me - we need to have the fish mashed up for safety reasons!
Adzuki bean soup with aged tangerine peel (陳皮紅豆沙) - sadly, this had been watered down... quite literally. Yes, there is some fragrance from the aged peel, but there was also a bitter aftertaste from the bean purée.
It was just not my day today. The 3 bottles of wine I ordered never arrived, thanks to a total fuckup by SF Express. So we had to make do with just 2 bottles...
2009 Louis Roederer Brut Nature, dégorgée en Mai 2016 - nose was pretty nice with some ripeness and savory minerals. There was good acidity on the palate thanks to zero dosage, but also a little Chinese salted plum with the savory profile, and a nice, long finish.
2004 Ducru-Beaucaillou - started drinking after about 1 hour and 15 minutes in the eto decanter. Nice nose with lots of smoke, very meaty, lots of wood, and still got the fruit. Definitely some sweetness on the palate, and very silky smooth.
via GIPHY
This was such a disappointing meal I could hardly believe it. I felt like Vizzini in
The Princess Bride, repeating the word "INCONCEIVABLE!" ad nauseum. HOW?! How does a restaurant team holding the honors of 2 Michelin stars and a not-exactly-low rank on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants do shit like this for a "pop up" at their original location, where they had been in business for around 17 years?! We had shit shrimp (pun fully intended), shitty crab, muddy fish, and tasteless chicken. DID THEY THINK WE WERE ALL IDIOTS AND DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER?! The regulars at the table - including Sporty Cousin - were shocked that these guys were so far off their game compared to just a couple of years ago. As for Foursheets and I, we would be damned if we gave these guys another fucking yuan from my pocket.
This begs the question: does Xu Jingye even care anymore?!
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