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2009-05-06
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I was lucky enough to join the gathering at 心軒, thanks to the invitation and flawless organization of 惡男. Since he and my OR friends 辣子, 紅叮, 唔食都知唔好食, etc., had already provided elaborated reviews of the dinner and details of individual dishes, I am not going to embarrass myself by writing too much. Instead, I am going to provide more pictures with some close-up shots, as well as my thoughts on the food and the restaurant in general. Hopefully with their brilliant descriptions and all the pict
I was lucky enough to join the gathering at 心軒, thanks to the invitation and flawless organization of 惡男. Since he and my OR friends 辣子, 紅叮, 唔食都知唔好食, etc., had already provided elaborated reviews of the dinner and details of individual dishes, I am not going to embarrass myself by writing too much. Instead, I am going to provide more pictures with some close-up shots, as well as my thoughts on the food and the restaurant in general. Hopefully with their brilliant descriptions and all the pictures, you will be able to “feel” and “taste” the food that we had!
In my opinion, the highlights of the night were definitely the 稻草炆西施骨 and 西瓜老鴨燉湯. Other reviews already explained how the 稻草炆西施骨was done and tasted. I absolutely appreciated the creativity and originality of the dish, not to mention the extensive process to prepare it. While I didn’t see any bone in our dish, I got a piece of the beef that combined beef fat (牛脂膏), membrane (筋膜), and beef meat (牛肉) together (see pic) . The texture was absolutely fantastic!
Imagine this: 肥薄軟膠質的筋膜 + 入口融化的甘香油脂 + 鬆化軟淋的牛肉 = HEAVEN!
It’s sort of like combing 坑腩 and 爽腩 together! The aroma of the grass straw (稻草) penetrated to the meat and brought a whole new dimension to the flavor. I akin the straw fragrance to 粽葉, with a more intense grassy note. I will describe this dish as 色香味(特色, 稻草香, 茨汁+肉味) all wrapped into one!
西瓜老鴨燉湯 was another favorite of mine. While the technique 燉湯 wasn’t anything innovative, and the ingredients like watermelon, duck, Chinese almonds (南北杏), and pork weren’t particularly exotic, it was the resulting flavor that intrigued me. I didn’t think you could “imagine” how this soup taste based on the ingredients until you tried it. It didn’t resemble the taste of just duck, or watermelon, but the combination was a new unified flavor on its own. It’s a very interesting dish that I plan to try to recreate at home.
The chef’s takes on several traditional dishes, such as 鰽白蒸肉餅, 煎釀土鯪魚, 蒸荷葉糯米飯, and 子蘿咕嚕肉were generally well-received. Compared to the rustic approaches of traditional restaurants like 鳳城 or 陸羽, 心軒tried to interpret the dishes in a more contemporary fashion. You could tell that the ingredients like the dice fish (鯪魚) and pork were of high quality, as the sauces or seasoning on these dishes were much lighter than the traditional style. I think the chef did a nice job in balancing modern approach without compromising the integrity or flavor of these dishes. You could probably get a better version of each of these dishes in the city, but the renditions at 心軒 were definitely above average. I can see that some younger or Western palates would prefer the “cleaner” versions by 心軒. Of course, whether you like country favorite Miss Texas or modern sunshine Miss California is really up to your personal preference.
桂花糯米藕片, 酥椒鹽雞軟骨, and 苔條雪菜豆瓣酥were simple, well-executed, and palatable. The lack of wine aroma in the 花鵰醉鴿子 was completely forgiven when I detected loads of jelly (see pic) beneath the skin.
百花片皮雞 and 焗釀生拆蟹蓋 were innovative and labor intensive, but they blemished with too much fussy “dress-up”. Fancy ingredients like shrimp mousse or mashed potato with cheese might make the otherwise mundane fried chicken or stuffed crab shell more elegant and upscale, but the overall combinations didn’t register too well in terms of flavor. 碧綠芝麻蝦球 suffered from the same problem with the addition of mayonnaise, when a simple stir-fry could have been a pleasant way to accentuate the texture and freshness of the shrimp. Perhaps a more modest approach would have been sufficient, and I think these dishes had the potential to be great with a few tweaks and improvements.
Overall, I think 心軒 is a quality restaurant with good food, great service, and impressive décor. The highlighted dishes are definitely worth trying, even at full price. The best part of the meal, besides the food, was of course getting to know some fellow OR members and exchanged food experiences and knowledge! (I hope I didn’t scare off my new friends at my table …) Thank you 惡男 once again for all the work that you have done, and I look forward to future gatherings more to come!
張貼
