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2013-12-07
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When talking to people who love food, it is always worth asking what kind of restaurants they visit regularly or someplace they would recommend. When I specified Chinese food, rather than a starred establishment or hotel restaurant, one name kept popping up, The Chairman.Curious to know just how good the food was at The Chairman, it was lucky that Miss K had her birthday soon and when The Chairman came up in conversation she readily agreed to having her celebration there~ It was easy to see how
Curious to know just how good the food was at The Chairman, it was lucky that Miss K had her birthday soon and when The Chairman came up in conversation she readily agreed to having her celebration there~ It was easy to see how popular the restaurant was since it took me one month to secure a reservation so please be sure to call ahead.
The restaurant is quite non-descript, you could say it has two levels, but the so called 'ground floor' only has a couple of two seater tables squeezed into the corners while the majority of seating is upstairs. The low ceiling makes the space feel quite cramped and don't expect too much in decor with its plain white walls, but it doesn't really matter so long as the food is good.
And it was.
Starting with century eggs with pickled ginger. The familiar pungent metallic tang of the gooey yolk, offset nicely by the sweetly spicy ginger.
Cubes of ox tongue marinated in a dark vinegar sauce concealed a spicy kick. Succulent and fleshy, what's not to love about ox tongue?
The best appetiser would have to go to the wild clams fried in chili jam. It looked like any ordinary stir-fried clam dish, but the flavour was amazing~ Tender morsels of clams combined with the chili burn from the thick sweet sauce... really addictive. I am normally not a big fan of shellfish, but this I would really recommend.
One of The Chairman's most signature dish is the flowery crab steamed with ShaoXing wine and chicken oil. An impressive looking dish with the crab looking like it's hugging guarding the rolls of rice noodles. For those who were willing to get their hands dirty (a big thanks to Mr. K who was willing to crack everybody's crab ) they were rewarded with sweet soft flesh, while others ate the perfectly steamed rice rolls. I did find the broth to be overpoweringly alcoholic, almost as if the cook was a little too happy in pouring in the wine, if they tempered this down it would have been even more enjoyable.
We had chicken~ The Chairman's soy sauce chicken to be exact. Well marinated, with supple skin and the slight chewy texture of the meat that may hint to free range chicken. This was pretty decent too.
The pork belly cooked in preserved vegetables and dates was a crowd pleaser. Generous slices of pork with heart stopping layers of fat that just melted in the mouth... combined with the sweetness of the preserved vegetables this absolutely sinful. Oh and don't forget the fluffy man taos too~
It seemed like we ordered a lot of spicy dishes without meaning to, as the beef stir-fried with peppercorns was served. The beef was actually very tender and the peppercorns made it similar to that of a Si Chuan dish. It was a pity I didn't eat more of this, but there were just too many dishes arriving at that moment that I sort of just forgot about it...
Always need greens~ Stir-fried gai lan and they made the effort to shave the tough exterior around the stalk so we could just enjoy the crunchy fleshiness of the vegetable. Appreciated.
Our last main dish was the caramelized black vinegar spare ribs. Everybody received one chunky piece, a good layer ratio of fat and lean meat, perfectly cooked through while still retaining a moist tenderness.
Since we are Asian, it only seems fitting that we ordered rice somewhere along the way, two dishes in fact. Fried rice with conpoy and egg white, and fried rice with prawns trio- fresh prawns, dried prawns and shrimp paste. I think most of us were already too full to enjoy the rice, but it was nicely fried with evident wok hei and if you really love prawns, you should try the prawns trio version as it seemed like every grain of rice tasted of prawn.
No Chinese desserts for us since we had cake~ Rose and Lychee cake to be exact~ Happy Birthday again Miss K~
Really amazing food, there was no bad dish which nowadays is pretty hard to achieve. In terms of Chinese food with no starred status it is not overly cheap, but for the quality you are given I would say is worth it. Service is brisk and abrupt, with times that you do have to hand over your dirty plates to the server and they did forget to serve us soup that we had ordered, but other than that I wouldn't mind coming back.Those who have visited The Chairman, are there any other particular dishes that I should try next time? I would love to hear your suggestions
張貼
