This re-visit bears a special goal and objective……to assay some previously un-tried traditional house specialty dishes.
We decided to give the following a try:
- Roasted Suckling Piglet paired with marinated Jelly-fish and Japanese
seaweed. - Poached Free Range Chicken with Premium Top Soy-Sauce
- Steamed live whole BC Dungeness Crab with Chinese wine, minced garlic on a
bed of rice vermicelli. - Fried BC jumbo oysters with pepper honey glaze.
Our meal started off with a gorgeous BANG!! First dish to arrive at our table was a superbly prepared Roasted Suckling Piglet. The super crisp, light and delicate wafer-thin skin was divine! IMHO, one of the best renditions I have encountered in the GTA.
Sadly, the same cannot be said about the fried oyster dish that followed. Though the texture yielded a welcoming crunch, however, the overly sweet and cloying honey glazed seasoning was way-off, rendering the dish an unappealing failure!
The Chicken dish was passable thanks to spot-on cooking time. However, taste profile wise, the herbal and rose essence wine fragrant normally associated with this dish was somehow missing. The result, a one dimensional tasting bird, lacking depth and complexity.
The steamed BC Dungeness Crab was nicely executed and flavorful. However, IMO, the flavor profile could be elevated to another notch with the addition of more rice wine. As well, at $80 for a two pounder crab, IMO, it was way overpriced!
The slightly sweet late-harvest German Gewurztraminer paired wonderfully with the suckling piglet, sweet soy chicken and the sweet fried oysters!
Great example of “ You win some, You lose some!! “
