A new entry in the haute cuisine Chinese market. Located in Waldorf Astoria. They bill themselves as offering the cuisine of China. The menu covers a pretty wide range of regional cuisine, including:
South- Guangdong, Yunnan, Taiwan (well, let’s set aside the question whether its part of China), Zhejiang, Huaiyang
Central- Szechuan
North- Shanxi, Beijing
Looking at the menu, they seem to try to reinvent regional dishes with a western preparation twist:
Beef short rib sous vide, aged huangjiu (Zhejiang)- Zhejiang has sous vide? I guess the prep is modified to get a different rib texture.
Sous vide black cod (Guangdong)- same as above, Guangdong typically steams fishes.
Berkshire pork collar with liquid nitrogen crust
The soup dishes look fairly interesting:
Chicken “cloud” consomme, morel, huangjiu yellow wine
Sea whelk consomme, tofu chrysanthemum
Their seafood/ meat dishes look somewhat westernized with the protein typically found in non-chinese restaurants using some chinese sauce: maine lobster, diver scallops, sea bass fillet, prime beef tenderloin. Though I can understand since they are located in a hotel with a clientele that places a premium in these familiar ingredients.
I don’t get the comment about the steamed rice. in chinese, it says, they change once every two days. Does anyone get it?
So far, it seems like the menu is written with both Chinese and western palettes in mind. Has anyone tried the dishes? Are they more traditional or more fusion? Since they have so many regional specialties, are they able to execute well across the regions?