Once in a while, we crave the old. Most of us are suckers for nostalgia. Or perhaps I shouldn't generalize. I am a sucker for nostalgia. While I can't be stuck in time, I like traveling backwards, once in a while, to a time that once was.. when life was simpler, unfussy, innocent, and you get the point.
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| 豬油撈飯 Rice drizzled with lard |
It wasn't so long ago that many of our families were still living close to or below the poverty line. During that time, meat was not an everyday occurrence at the dinner table, and often times, people resorted to using pork lard as a fragrant drizzle over a steaming bowl of rice, made savory with soy. A simple indulgence which kept us warm through cold winters. Tai Wing Wah brings this bowl of simple goodness back with decent quality liquid lard and soy. They also use a good grain, keeping each separate and distinct, but not hard. The combination was sinfully good.
To be honest, the rest of the grub isn't going to blow you away. But hey, it is good ole fashioned stuff that is going to bring back vivid memories of the way we were.
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| 脆鱔 Crispy Eel |
Yup, crispy. Couldn't necessarily tell it was eel, except that it's a little crunchier than most fishies. Good with a cold beer.
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| 南乳蓮藕扣肉 Fermented Tofu braised with lotus root and belly pork |
Of course, you could have bowls and bowls of rice with this one! Sucker for fermented tofu. For those unfamiliar with this, do NOT confuse this with stinky tofu. This one has a sweet alcoholic fragrance to it.
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| 蓮藕片 Stir Fried Lotus Roots |
A nice way to have lotus root. Crunchy, juicy and tasty from a good sauce which lightly stains it.
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| 黃金蝦 Dry Fried Shrimps Stained with Salted Egg Yolk |
This one is always sinful but good. It's easy to forget the piles of cholesterol you can pick up with this one when the fragrance of a sea shrimp intermingled with a salty eggy-ness is delivered via a crispy texture.
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| 馬拉糕 Steamed Malay Cake |
This is one of the more famous versions in Hong Kong. And it is good. Fluffy, not too sweet and of course, the aroma of the lard that went into kneading the flour with...
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| 奶黃水晶包 Steamed Crystal Dumplings with Custard |
This was interesting but ordinary. Custard was ok in taste although a tad clumpy. I take the Malay cake over this one any time.
If you miss the good old days, this is a quick fix. Just make sure you have enough people with you to reminisce.
2/F Chevalier Centre
8 Wan Hoi Road
Kowloon Bay
Tel: +852-2148 7773
Hi Ed,
ReplyDeleteI am one of the managers of a restaurant in San Francisco called Mission Chinese Food. The restaurant was recently featured in the New York Times, twice, The LA Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, also twice. We were also named best new restaurant and best Chinese restaurant by The San Francisco Weekly newspaper.
Most of the restaurant’s staff—including the chef, Danny Bowien, and several of our other cooks—are traveling to China this month. For reasons that are too complicated to explain, we will be spending a few days in Shenzhen, where we have decided to cook our style of Chinese food in a restaurant for one night only: Sunday, June 12th, 2011. We are inviting you to attend with up to three guests (four total people). The meal will be 5-10 courses and will cost 100-150 RMB per person depending on market prices and availability. 10 RMB from each meal will be donated to the Shenzhen Red Cross.
I apologize for contacting you directly, but the owners of the restaurant requested that we welcome our guests by invitation only, because they do not want to publicize the event in advance. Please email me to RSVP at missionstreetfood at gmail dot com. You can choose any time between 6:00pm and 8:30 pm. After the dinner, you are free to discuss or blog about the event, but until then we ask that you do not publicize it beyond your guests. We will email you the address on the morning of the event. Thank you for understanding—we know this is highly unusual, but we hope that the experience will be fun and delicious.
Best,
Anthony Myint