Another dinner in Causeway Bay. In the beginning, my friend has chosen Paradise Dynasty (again), since we had just been there 2 days ago, we would like to try another restaurant. We didn’t want to be too far away, so our second choice was in the same building Lee Theatre - Wu Kong.
The place is mentioned in the Michelin guide. The local Open Rice Food site gives an okay note. The place is situated on the 17th floor, it had an interesting view of the new/old Causeway Bay.
Wild vegetables mixed with bean curd (cold dish) - quite a classic in Shanghai cooking
That sounds right. The entrance may have been from Peking Rd.
There was another decent Shanghainese restaurant (Snow Garden?) on Nathan Road in either TST or Yau Ma Tei in a highrise that had a movie theater on the ground floor.
We had a somewhat similar version in a Shanghai restaurant in Taipei. Wife knows this dish by another name , does not sound like Ma Lan Tou though. Good ratio of bean curd.
The sauce for the eel and sea cucumber was too similar, and a tad heavy for my palate.
Long’s Shanghai is now in the midst of the Taipei financial district. The restaurant was established before Taipei became a business power house, the modern city somehow just mushroomed around them. Located in a quaint side alley, it still retains much of the old village time feel, until you look up and see the skyscrapers surrounding.
Ma lan tou is the Mandarin name of the green vegetable, but in Shanghai is used to refer to the whole dish. Elsewhere in China it may be called ma lan xiang gan or something like that.
The soup with ham, fresh pork and tofu knots is yan du xian, an indispensible part of a Shanghainese dinner meal in the Spring. It should have fresh bamboo shoots in it, too.
@sck had another write up on Lu Yang Cun in Hong Kong a year ago, the Ma Lan Tou was more or less the same ratio (tofu and veg). We had also a meal at Lu Yang Cun after his write up. I have preferred my meal in Wu Kong. (Lu Yang Cun’s service was pretty non-existent, every action was translated to long waiting or repeated requests)
I have to agree you with you, I used the word modern only to signify that the meal was relatively light, not heavy or oily like in the Shanghainese restaurants especially in France or in HK many years ago.
@Google_Gourmet Thanks for your recommendations of Long’s Shanghai in Taipei, I think Taiwan will be a future food destination for us. I’m amazed at the price of air flights in between Asia countries.
They don’t have a lot of lamb dishes in Wu Kong, maybe 3-4 in the whole menu.
I think it is also related to the fact that lamb is traditionally consumed winter (exception maybe in Tibet or Mongolia).
I just saw this video on their site. The hotpot dish is available in winter.