Wow, I’m actually pretty impressed I’m doing a write up relatively soon…
In any case, I had a fantastic meal at Tasting Court (though now curious if I was charged more now…).
Here’s the menu!
Alright… maybe not the best… so here it is!
1.Spicy Stir-fried Clam with Peppercorn & Chili
2.Dried Sliced Beef marinated with house-made soy bean sauce
*Deep-fried pork fat stuffed with prawn(+$108X2)
3.Pork Lung Soup with Almond Essence
4.Steamed fresh flowery crab with aged SHAOXING Wine served with rice noodle
*Slow cooked meat ball in chicken soup(+$60X3)
5.Deep Fried Spare Ribs with Pickled Peel & Plum
*Prawn Roe with Citrus Skin(+$148X1)
6.Vegetable Scalded in Fish Soup
7.Fried Rice with Ginger, Dried Scallops, Sakura Shrimp & Egg White
8.Blended jujube coconut juice pudding
9.HUADIAO with dried jujube dessert drink
$788 p/p +10%service charge
Starred items were the things I wanted.
As you can sorta compare with the previous posting, I changed a few things around to try new items and added the meatballs back since I just loved how they were last time.
In any case, starting off our meal was the spicy stir-fried clams with peppercorn and chilli. There were at least five types of peppers in this dish. The tingling sensation of the Sichuan pepper was definitely present along with jalapeños, black peppers, some sort of green pepper, and one other pepper I wasn’t too sure what the waiter said. I like to think of this as an extreme version of salt and spicy dishes (say chicken wings or calamari). Excellent in any case but I’d probably lean towards the sake version next time.
Following our clams was the same dish as described by paprikaboy. The dried sliced beef marinated with house-made soy bean sauce was quite savory; simply umami filled. I recall the waiter said the beef was aged for three days (shorter than what I expected, considering some of those aged steaks seems to be there for months). In any case, if you wanted a more hearty meal I’d say stay with the char siu.
An addition to our meal were these deep-fried pork fat stuffed fried thingies with shrimp. I recall seeing that in someone’s blog and they looked delicious if not artery clogging.
Quite crisp on the outside and not too greasy. The vinegar and garlic sauce went nicely with the deep fried pucks, but I thought they were great by themselves. Cucumbers were pickled with a nice sweetness and acidity; helped clear the pallet as well.
I can’t recall the exact dim sum dish, but I recall having something similar to this before. Was it like… gai long? In any case, nicely done, would eat this again.
Finishing up the appetizers, our soup arrived! Pork lung soup with almond essence! I don’t think I have ever seen pork lungs sold in any of the butcher shops in Chinatown, but I have heard that the process for cleaning the lungs are a time consuming process. In any case, the soup was very very nice. Savory with a nice almond scent in the background. I wasn’t too fond of eating the lung though. Texture-wise the lung is quite spongy (well … that would make sense haha).
Following this is one of their best dishes, the steamed fresh flowery crab with aged shaoxing wine and rice noodles just sopping up that delicious essence. As sck mentioned earlier, the wine is the 25 year old hua diao so the effects of the wine does not seem as harsh but more mellow. Quite delicious, but even better, after clearing the dish, they’ll strain the sauce and bring it back for one more finale.
Another addition to the menu, I really loved this meatball in chicken soup. Super soft with a very sweet broth, everything just seems to melt in your mouth. Still not sure how they were able to cook it for so long without it drying up.
The deep fried spare ribs with pickled peel and plum was delicious. The meat easily came off the bones. Mixed with a nice tangy sauce that was not too cloyingly sweet, the ribs were great. The fresh pineapples on the side seems like the little pineapples from Thailand that we saw from the street markets.
Our last additional dish is the prawn roe with citrus skin. I recall reading this dish in SCMP’s original review and I was very curious how the dish was executed. I only recall eating it somewhat recently at Koi Palace and wasn’t too impressed with their version. The sauce in Tasting Court’s dish was fantastic, however, the pomelo still seemed well… soggy. No sauce was absorbed within it and just seemed watery. Is that how its suppose to taste? I think @klyeoh might be the master at least describing the dish. I probably need to try the version at Fu Sing to have a better idea.
In any case, this was probably my least favorite dish of the night.
Next was the vegetable scalded in fish soup. The name of the vegetable escapes me as of this moment, but the soup was quite good. The yuba were a nice soup absorber and the gingko nuts gave a slight bittering note once you ate them.
Our last main dish was the fried rice with ginger, dried scallops, sakura shrimp and egg whites. Cooked extremely well with seemingly individual grains, the sakura shrimp gave a more interesting… mm… briny flavor compared to your usual dried shrimp. The crab sauce also came back out and mixing a little bit of the sauce with the rice gave another twist to the dish.
We ended our humongous meal with two dessert items, the blended jujube coconut juice pudding and the huadiao with dried jujube dessert drinks. They didn’t have any other dessert items I could swap out sadly (was hoping for maybe an almond tea). Nevertheless, the jujube coconut pudding was quite interesting. Jujube pudding sandwiched the coconut layer and the entire thing was still warm and slightly sticky to the touch. Not too sweet with a hint of jujube and coconut when eating the item.
The jujube liquor had a nice smooth taste, but in either case, I’m not a huge fan of jujube so eh.
Overall a fantastic meal and I’d definitely go back. Gotta try the salt baked chicken next time… haha
