Saturday, November 19, 2011

Dimsumbar (Kowloon) 11/2011

Hong Kong is packed with hordes of people who all need to eat and there are restaurants of every variety to look after them. We tried this very modern efficient place across the road from The Prince Hotel at Shop G103 G/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, on the recommendation of our Concierge. He thought it a little different from the standard yum cha restaurant and it was. There was a short queue when we arrived . We were given a numbered slip of paper When our turn came the queue was just as long as when we arrived. The small bare tables were closely set out with colourful paper place mats depicting some of their dishes. The place looks clean, almost new and quite contemporary with minimal decoration, mostly provided by a couple of large TV's depicting a slide show of their dishes. There is a menu with clearly numbered attractive colour photo's of their dishes and a small printed menu on which patrons mark the dishes they want. Service is sensible and efficient, dishes being presented two at a time. We started with the first thing on the menu 101 Prawn Dumpling, (HK$26). Sounds mundane but they were remarkable for the delicacy of the thin layer of pastry skin wrapping them. Two women were making sheets of this stuff. A ladle of pastry mix was poured onto a wet cloth that sat over a perforated tray over boiling water. After a couple of minutes the cloth is carefully lifted and turned over onto a slab. The cloth is then delicately separated from the pastry skin which may be rolled for future use or have ingredients put on it to be sealed into dumplings before being further steamed and served. Our next course was steamed cheong fun rolled with fresh chicken and shredded abalone served with a Chinese vinegar, sweetened by mirin with a nice soy sauce added, (HK$38). Unusual and pleasant this was less out standing than other dishes.This sauce, with fine strips of ginger, was also provided for a a plate of traditional nanxiang style steamed xiao long bao dumplings (6 for HK $54) in the shape of Shanghai dumpling. These were very moist with a superb flavour of some soup, though not as much as in a Shanghai dumpling. Steamed rice with spare ribs and chicken feet was matched with soy sauce. Another beaut dish, unusual in being very slightly sweet. Crispy sesame egg rolls were the most crisp we have ever had. They were almost empty but had small amount of some strong cheese like content. They were a bit too fatty for my taste.Steamed minced beef balls with bean curd sheets, (3 for HK$24) balls looked much as they always do but these were exceptionally light. If meat balls had pedigrees these would be in the top class! A lobster bisque was not as intense as we would have liked with a fairly bland king's dumpling was the last course before a very moorish dessert in the form of a baked almond cream buns (2 for HK$20) filled with almond paste.The bill at the end of all this came to less than A$45.
Score 15/20

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