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2009-05-12
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In Chinese cuisine we like to celebrate seasonality of different ingredients (不時不食). 公子of course knows very well about this; hence he kindly brought us to Fu Yiu 富瑤 this time to celebrate 清明鵝 before the jumbo geese all slim down in the hot summer. Although our menu at 富瑤 weighted heavily on traditional Cantonese dishes (傳統粵菜), the trio of appetizers demonstrated the restaurant's ability to execute both conservative and contemporary dishes equally well. 泰式皮蛋 was a tweak of the old-fashioned
In Chinese cuisine we like to celebrate seasonality of different ingredients (不時不食). 公子of course knows very well about this; hence he kindly brought us to Fu Yiu 富瑤 this time to celebrate 清明鵝 before the jumbo geese all slim down in the hot summer.
Although our menu at 富瑤 weighted heavily on traditional Cantonese dishes (傳統粵菜), the trio of appetizers demonstrated the restaurant's ability to execute both conservative and contemporary dishes equally well. 泰式皮蛋 was a tweak of the old-fashioned appetizer with a mildly spicy and refreshing lime and fish sauce. 咸蛋黃茄子粒 showcased the skills of the kitchen with the eggplant dices all coated with just the right amount of salty egg yolks. They were not a bit soggy or greasy, a common flaw suffered from most eggplant dishes. I swooned over the aroma from the marinade of the 滷水豬腳仔 when the dish arrived on the table. The marinade (滷水料的香味) flavor had penetrated deep into the crunchy skin of the petite trotters (皮爽脆入味), making it a great appetizer to start the dinner with more surprises to come.
The crafty yet labor-intensive traditional dishes, 懷舊金錢雞 and 燒鴨腳紮, were much anticipated by our table. The 懷舊金錢雞, each consisted of pork fat (冰肉, mine had two ), lean meat 瘦豬肉, and chicken liver slice (鳳肝) layered into a “sandwich” and tucked into a lotus bun (荷葉餅), was dainty and neat. I admired the house-made Chinese-wine-scented 冰肉 which was rich and moist and a good complement to the otherwise dry pork meat. The presentation of the 燒鴨腳紮 was a bit sloppy, with a lot of the duck intestines and chicken liver already fell off from the duck feet. While the flavor of the sweet glaze was good, the duck feet were too skinny and dry and there wasn’t too much to munch on, so to speak.
It was no surprise that the deep flavor of the soup 西洋菜烏魚豆腐肉片湯 was much more intense than your ordinary fish soups, with the abundant amount of fish (烏魚)and meat ingredients that were used. Knowing that it cost about $700 each, I had high expectation. However, the grassy scent of watercress overpowered the delicate flavor of the fish which somehow got lost in the resulting concoction. To give it some credits, the soup was soothing and clean-tasting (不油不膩，清甜無比), and I easily finished the whole bowl.
Next up was a rather luxurious ingredient, abalones with ginger and scallion in claypot 薑蔥鮑魚煲. The abalones in the sizzling hotpot were tender with a chewy bite (香軟有嚼勁), providing a great textural mouthfeel. The zesty ginger dices and the aromatic scallion juliennes were both incredibly addictive, stimulating your tastebuds in every single bite.
Finally, the much awaited highlight of the night, the twin roasted geese 包脆清明鵝, appeared at the tableside. Just from the deep caramelized color of the shiny and crackling skin, I could tell that I was in for a treat. Once again I was stunned by the aroma coming from the sliced duck platter when it arrived at the table. It was the smell of heaven! When I tasted a pieced of the sliced goose, my brain went “OH MY GOD!”. The skin was crispy and thin, slightly moistened and softened by the roasted duck sauce (燒鵝汁) poured over it. The meat underneath the skin was juicy and succulent, with a noticeable “duck” taste and a hint of spice flavor. It was truly 皮脆肉嫩夠肉汁! The fattier pieces had some opaque duck fat between the skin and the meat, and ignoring all the advices from my doctor , I savored each piece slowly, hoping to capture this nirvana moment as long as I could. Even the accompanied sweet and sour dipping sauce was so much better than the artificial cloying sauce that was often served. I have to say 富瑤 is now my preferred restaurant for roasted goose, considered both the quality and the location factors.
Another highlight of the night was the 雞油花雕蒸蟹. While the crabs themselves were meaty and juicy, the real star was THE GOLDEN SAUCE – a blend of Chines wine 花雕, chicken dripping 雞油, and crab roe 蟹黃– Do I need to say more? It was rich and velvety, and we couldn’t help but to get extra white rice to soak up every drip of deliciousness. The funny thing was that while we were almost done, the waitress brought us a basket of steamed rice pancakes "to mop up the sauce”. Oh well, too late, as we already finished indulging in the pool of crab sauce paradise .
By this time a lot of us were quite full, and we weren’t able to finish the 茶燻雞 which resembled more like an overly salty soy sauce chicken due to the lack of tea smoke flavor. The soy sauce aroma of the goose intestines 豉油王鵝腸 was again extremely alluring, and the blend of the savory soy, ginger, and scallion was fully absorbed into the crunchy yet soft intestines. (爽滑的鵝腸充份吸收了豉油王和薑蔥的鹹香). The silky white fish broth in the 魚湯浸時菜 was even more delectable than the house soup and as luscious as milk, and any vegetables bathing in this sweet broth would undoubtedly be tasty, just like ours.
The last two savory dishes were both signature items at 富瑤. I was amazed by the chef’s skill in creating the 豉油王炒麵 by using chopsticks to rapidly untangle and “stir-fry” the noodles. The outcome was a perfectly “fluffy” noodle dish with each strand of noodles surrounded by just enough soy sauce for flavor and no oil residue at all. The 拆肉泥鯭粥 was adorned with scallions and pickled vegetable 頭菜, and the citrus peels (果皮絲) was a refreshing foil to the fish meat. With the super crunchy freshly fried crullers (剛新鮮炸起的脆口油條), it was a really enjoyable and soothing finish to the savory portion of the dinner.
The three desserts, namely, 馬拉糕, 脆麻花, 咖啡糕 were a bit of an anti-climax as they were quite average and unimpressed. Nevertheless, we were all tremendously satisfied with the dishes before; desserts for us were pretty much an afterthought.
Overall, I was extremely impressed by the sensational culinary creations at 富瑤. While the chefs at 心軒 focused on inventing new dishes with creative combinations of humble ingredients last time, 富瑤 took the opposite approach by leveraging superior (and sometimes luxurious) ingredients and tried to accentuate the true characters and flavors of the elements. There weren’t anything too fussy or innovative, just simple but really good cooking. Perhaps it’s not a fair comparison as the dinner at 心軒 was much more meat-centric (with heavier dishes like 稻草西施骨 and 鰽白蒸肉餅) whereas this dinner was a feast of mostly poultries and seafood. I think I enjoyed the approach at 富瑤 more, where simplicity and quality shine.
One thing that I noticed at 富瑤 was that the chefs were able to infuse each dish with such stimulating aroma that it aroused your appetite before you even tasted it! That was not common in other restaurants except may be 陸羽. This was truly a great dinner, one of my favorites besides 陸羽 so far. Thank you 公子 once again for all your efforts and organization.
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