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2015-10-11
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A foodie friend of mine was in town and she found this place, which I had never heard of. It was a great experience.First of all, it's a little hard to find. The best way would be to take the footbridge from Victoria Park toward the typhoon shelter. We took a different footbridge, and had some trouble finding it. Once you arrive at the little pier, you get ferried out to your dining boat, which is tied in a row to the other dining boats.Here's my friends right after getting seated. You get one b
First of all, it's a little hard to find. The best way would be to take the footbridge from Victoria Park toward the typhoon shelter. We took a different footbridge, and had some trouble finding it.
Once you arrive at the little pier, you get ferried out to your dining boat, which is tied in a row to the other dining boats.
Here's my friends right after getting seated. You get one beer free with the menu (Tsingtao), but if you're a beer-swilling gweilo, or any other beer-swilling type, they'll sell you more for pretty cheap.
You don't get a menu, everyone gets the same thing. The first thing to come was a pile of (boiled, I guess?) shrimp. Only about half of them are in the picture. Now, I'm not one of these 'plain shrimp are great' kind of people, but my foodie friend said that not only was she such a person, but that these shrimp were perfect. Pretty strong rec, if you're into that sort of thing.
The next thing to come was more up my alley. First of all, I've never had razor clams this big, apparently this species is often called 'bamboo clams'. This preparation frequently comes with scallops: it's vermicelli noodles topped with tons of garlic, oil, and scallions. The clam meat was a little disappointing in terms of being very chewy, but the oily garlicky noodles were great.
My general opinion of thin noodles cooked in soy sauce at Cantonese seafood restaurants is that they're mostly bland and not worth ordering. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised that these noodles were very tasty. Nothing exceptional outside the context, but definitely exceptional within it.
The mussels were a hit. They were very tender and strongly flavored by a soy-based sauce. I always assume mussels are difficult to cook, because frequently they arrive tough and chewy and unappetizing. Not so here.
You get congee too. I'm not sure it's in general optional, but as we're Westerners, they asked us if we wanted it before they brought it. I will say that I don't think I'd ever actually had congee before. My wife had it a few times in the hospital, and she never had anything good to really say about it (though hospital food is as notorious as airplane food). I thought it was reasonably good tasting, but as I predicted, I was not a fan of the texture.
Last to arrive was the crab, and they did not skimp on the crab or the fried garlic. One time I stopped at Spicy Crab or whatever it's called in the Temple Street Night Market and got a crab for some ridiculous price, and there was hardly any meat in it and since then I've studiously avoided the dai pai dong crab. Well this crab was great. It was huge, with lots of meat, nicely broken up for us, and obviously, very garlicky. I liked this place and I'd definitely recommend it. It's more than you usually pay for similar stuff, but it's very good quality. It's out of the way, but that's kind of the point. You're secluded, floating out on the water-- it's a very different experience than my normal seafood haunts.
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