About fifteen of us met up at King Tsin in Berkeley. The restaurant was recently acquired by some China Village staff, including one of the old chefs, and while they’ve kept some of the old Cantonese dishes, they’re focusing on Szechuan and Hunan now.
We took up two tables. Table one had
Sesame puff bread
Cucumber with spicy garlic sauce
Thinly-sliced five spicy pig ear
Thinly sliced five spice beef tendon
Double-skin, which is called Rainbow Salad here
Thousand-chili fish filet
Wok-charred cabbage
Cumin Lamb
Braised pork shoulder
Spicy whole sea bass
Sliced rib eye with golden broth
Ong choy (a sauteed green)
Table two had
Sesame bread
Double-skin
Cucumber with spicy garlic sauce
Mouth-watering chicken
Wok-charred cabbage
Szechuan fish with lamb
a different sauteed green
Umami frog
Several of the dishes that one table ordered were shared with the other table, so everyone pretty much got a taste of everything. People will probably be along to post photos (I didn’t take any).
Everything was excellent and right up there with China Village. Some dishes that we knew from CV were even better, in my opinion the thousand-chili fish filet and the braised pork shoulder. There was a depth in most of the sauces, especially the mouth-watering chicken which tasted like they used a wine reduction in the sauce.
Melanie Wong brought a nice 2002 Riesling, semi sweet and citrusy.
The bill per person at table one was $32 including tip. I didn’t record the table two charges.
In all, this is a great new addition to the East Bay Chinese scene. We had a great time seeing each other (again), and we left hoping the energy is still here in the future for these get-togethers.