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2009-01-20
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'The Pursuit of Happyness' may be a journey through hardship, made into a box-office hit. My pursuit for the Happiness (with an i) was no safe sail either. At 8 Happiness, dinner experiences can be in such extreme that can make you wonder whether the good experience was a dream or the bad experience was a wake-up call from the good one. It's hard to tell, but in 2 visits I can be well-assured that there really are BAD NIGHTS for eateries like 8 Happiness, and when it's a bad night, there was no
BAD Experience -- in brief.
We arrived with a reservation at 7:30 sharp and assured that the baked little oysters in savoury custard (蚵仔砵) would be available all night. 8 pm, the manager took our orders include the baked little oysters. Off he went, half an hour and one order of Pepper Pastries later, he returned with a flat tone that the oyster dish were sold out. My disappointment evolved into rage, as I struggled to inform the manager that I was assured that no 'reservations' were needed an hour ago, and that the dish would be available 'all night'. The manager didn't respond to my dissatisfaction or for that matter, anything I said after "what?" He turned around and left, and refused to be noticed for the rest of the night. The Meat-Filled Pepper Pastries (胡椒餅) were good -- flaky on the outside and so moist and well flavoured on the inside with a sharp taste of crushed peppercorns laced throughout. Soup-Filled Buns were satisfactory, the soup was blander than I thought they would be, but the wrapped was rolled thin. 宜蘭割包 was the best dish among all. It featured thin folded up pieces of dough, set aside from slices of braised pork belly, chopped peanuts and diced pickles. Place each filling into the bun and eat it like a wrap. The juices from the meat moistened the wrap while the nuts and pickle offered the crunch. It's easily my favorite. The Fried Rice Noodles were nowhere near perfection. Onions were raw while shrimps happened to be rubbery and mealy at the same time. Rice noodles clumped together despite the residual oil on the plate when it's finished...A night full of disappointment came to an end, and just as I thought the nightmare was behind me.
GOOD Experience -- in details.
Saturday night, under the bustling of overlapping conversations I was here again, ready to be disappointed. This time I smartly reserved the Oyster Dish I missed, and with my calling the eatery to reaffirm that I'm not leaving without it, they assured me yet again, that this time I would have it, and I did. Tea was surprisingly bland and didn't quite taste like what I ordered. A snack was presented -- dried tofu, edamame and mushrooms tossed lightly in sesame sauce presented in a dainty plate. The edamame was crunchy and the tofu moist and dense. The combination of sesame sauce and vinegar somehow reminded me of Japanese Miso. With the oyster dish, 宜蘭割包 and Pepper Pastries orders placed, we moved on to the "3-Cup chicken in clay pot" (三杯雞煲), "Edamame with soy bean sheets and preserved vegetable" (雪菜毛豆百頁), Stir-Fried Rice Cakes with mushrooms(阿嬤炒年糕).
The Chicken in clay pot arrived first. Chicken tenders tossed lightly with soy sauce in a hot wok, and a bunch of basil leaves in the mix offered the dish extra aroma of herbs and a refreshing taste to the meat. The soy bean sheets were tied in knots and cooked, as they took on the flavours from the preserved vegetables. The edamame offered lone spots of bright green in this vegetable dish. The freshness within this dish was the focus and this has been played out soundly. The rice cakes were a little chewier than I thought they could be. Bits of mushrooms blended throughout and overall it's not a bad dish.
Then the oyster dish arrived, in a shallow clay dish. Baked with a rich egg custard, baby oysters were cleaned and tossed inside. I expected it to be somewhat similar to a Spanish Tortilla. It turned out, that the golden brown baked crust was nothing more than overcooked scrambled egg on the top. The oysters were moist and fresh-tasting. Chinese tangerine peel made a sharp entrance and the entire dish was very eggy but rather bland to be exact. Calling it as a signature dish I was expecting the oysters bursting into juices in my mouth was instead it was a rather thick omelette that was not very steamed and not very baked either. I was disappointed at how bad this dish turned out to be, and couldn't stop wondering whether coming here to "finally try it" was an attempt of necessity to fulfill the inner foodie desire to try it, or was it just something I should've let it slipped by without chasing after.
I sipped on the straw into one of the Taiwanese Malted Milk Tea, slurping up the giant tapioca pearls that once took the city by storm and now almost diminished from our foodie radar. I knew that as a part of a big restaurant chain, 8 Happiness has found the draw in the red/black decor and extremely comforting seats (but tables were quite close to each other), but there certainly is room to become a better place it can be. I can imagine myself coming back for the Pepper Pastries, and for my pursuit of 'foodie happiness/ satisfaction', I reckoned that my journey will continue on...
张贴
