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2013-01-27
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I have heard about this private kitchen for quite some time, but have not had the chance to visit until this dinner. I tried to search online before but I could not find much information about this place. It was only by word of mouth that I thought this was one of the places I wanted to explore as a foodie. Fa Zu Jie means the French Concession in Shanghai back in the previous century. Hidden in the heart of central, it was actually a very busy restaurant that I secured my booking more than a mo
So on the date of dinner, we made an attempt to arrive early since we were told it was rather hard to figure out the entrance. Enshrouded in the LED lights and signage in LKF, we walked down this narrow alley that resembled those we saw in gangsters movies, and hesitantly followed the staircase that led to a plain white door. When the door sprang open, there we were, finally, at the French Concession in Hong Kong.
There were less than 10 tables in the restaurant that had an open kitchen. We were offered the table at the corner and since the menu has already been set, we were given the set menu for our reference on the courses to come. Our first dish surprised us on the appearance as it did not resemble the normal octopus dishes. Diamond. Indulged Octopus was its name. The octopus slices were prepared with some Chinese wine surrounding plum jelly and deep fried seaweed. A very special dish that at the first bite of the octopus, it reminded me immediately of another Shanghainese Dish called Drunken Chicken. It was quite a special dish which I reckon will stay on my mind.
Happily enjoying the ambience, the second course was ready, which was another cold dish. By the name of Shrimp Roe. Pickle C. Pickle K. Sanuki, it was again hard to comprehend unless the ingredients were 'deciphered' - cold udon with shrimp roe oil, Japanese fish soy sauce, Chinese and Japanese pickle. I liked the yellow pickle better that it added a hint of sourness to the noodles.
Our first main was Lion. Swallow. Crab Meat.. It was the traditional Shanghainese Stewed Pork Ball which was prepared with hairy crab meat instead of pork this time, while the dumpling was made with Tofu skin. This was less heavy than it used to be, while the Chinese ham broth added more flavor to the dumpling.
Porcini. Sticky. was the next main. I was not a fan of Shanghai sticky rice cake but there was a lot! It was accompanied by porcini mushrooms, I reckoned the sauce was a little too heavy that covered up the taste of the porcini. I was not able to finish this dish since I had to leave room for the last 2 courses.
The last main was Diana Spicy Slow-cooked Beef. Wonton. Since it was inspired by an aunt of the Chef, this was in fact a Taiwanese style dish. Beef shank was slow cooked, with pumpkin wonton and caramelized onion. Beef shank was quite tender as expected, but I personally liked the pumpkin wonton better than the beef shank, which was more special.
Finally, our dessert arrived, happy six months dearest. It was a dish of tiny donuts with line sorbet and caramelized bananas - Ice. Burn. Little Spheres.. Loved lime sorbet to freshen up the tastebuds for us to gobble down all the donuts (Chinese 沙翁) and bananas.
It was a lovely venue to celebrate an anniversary dinner. The venue was quite homey when you could sit back and enjoy a relaxing dinner while watching people preparing food for you. But maybe we were both having higher expectations on the food given the good comments we have heard. I would say this is Chinese food, but not much with French fusion. 張貼
