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2012-05-14
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One of Hong Kong's most famous winter indulgence ought to be clay pot rice. What makes it special is not only because of the savory toppings over hot rice but as well as the distinctive flavor from cooking it over a charcoal stove. Nevertheless, such way of cooking the clay pot rice is time-consuming and people use alternative ways of cooking to cook clay pot rice as Hong Kong people have such a fast-paced lifestyle where waiting for a long period is not likely to be tolerable. Consequently, eve
This restaurant claims to serve authentic clay pot rice and have been on newspapers, so we decided to give it a try. Being in a municipal services building, above the market, the restaurant would not be fancy yet it resembles much of Hong Kong style. Nonetheless, for being a Hong Kong style restaurant or food stall, it was, thankfully, a quite clean and neat place. And it is a bonus that the waiters aren't rude and impatient like many other waiters in traditional Hong Kong style restaurants and food stalls do.
Other than clay pot rice, it serves many stir-fry dishes as well. Since it claims to cook the clay pot rice in a traditional way, to prevent getting bored from waiting the rice to be ready, we ordered a few dishes to eat first.
We ordered a Sizzling Chicken Hotpot (啫啫雞煲) and a Sauteed Broccoli w/ Abalone Slices (鮑片扒西蘭花). Something alluring about a sizzling chicken hotpot is how its tempting aroma spreads across the room and is able to make everyone mouth-watery. This sizzling chicken hotpot indeed smells awesome. The ginger and herbs gave out great flavor yet it would not be too over and wouldn't cover the flavor of the chicken. To some people who preferred or expected a really heavy and strong flavor from the sauce, this might not be good enough but to me, I think its well-balanced flavor is pretty satisfying.
The broccoli is well presented by fitting the florets into a sphere and then laying the abalone slices on top. There ain't anything special about the dish. It's okay but I, personally, would prefer the broccoli a little bit tender.
Not long later, the first clay pot rice was served. It's the Minced Beef w/ Poached Egg Clay Pot Rice (窩蛋免冶牛肉煲仔飯). It's first served to the table and the waiter would pour over some soy sauce on the rice and cover it again. This probably a traditional way to cook the clay pot rice. Nevertheless, as it is a poached egg rice, the best part of it should be the runny egg yolk flowing into the rice. This one, however, as the clay pot rice is covered and further cooked for a while, there is no runny egg yolk then. Missing the runny egg yolk was kind of a bit of a disappointment and made the rice a bit dry. I was, as well as, expecting the beef to be juicy, to make the rice not too dry and making it savory with beef juice. However, I think the beef was kind of a bit tasteless and not exactly savory.
While one was sort of a disappointment, the other two, fortunately, weren't. Firstly for the Spiced Mutton Clay Pot Rice (彊土羊肉煲仔飯), it was a pretty savory one. The mutton was tender and the spices really gave a boost to the flavor. The mutton has a strong and distinctive flavor yet it won't be exaggerated. The flavors were all well-balanced.
The other was the Chinese Eel Clay Pot Rice (燒汁大鱔煲仔飯). It was fairly nice too. The sauce was flavorsome and savory, and the eel itself was satisfying either.
No matter the topping is savory or not, the essence of clay pot rice is the crispy burnt rice at the bottom of the clay pots. For all the three pots, the rice were not a disappointment. The burnt rice makes a crispy texture, and a distinctive taste. It was quite a delight to have them despite that some were a bit too burnt to eat for health's sake. Even though these clay pots were pretty satisfying, I believe there are still some better ones throughout Hong Kong. Nevertheless, what makes this restaurant stands out is their innovation. Clay pot rice is undeniably one traditional cuisine, and typical toppings are always Chinese sausages and so. This restaurant, on the other hand, serves a huge variety of toppings, and some which I believe are solely served here. Being innovative is something quite crucial in the food industry these days in Hong Kong. What this restaurant did is to blend the traditional and the innovative ways together to create a new combination, giving your taste buds a new sensation. It is like bringing the old and the new together, and somehow they created a spark and ended up with all of these innovative ideas. It used the old ways to create a new taste, and this is an era of having the old meeting the new.
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