My son and daughter, Gino and Giannina had decided while making the reservation to leave it all up to Chef Ken Chiu and give him a free hand on whatever he had in his mood to serve for the evening. I had brought a few simple bottles of wine that on the average could well stand up to the upfront flavours of Chinese cuisine. Indeed, the meal started off well with a Sierra Valley Chardonnay 2002 from E & J Gallo. Common supermarket wine it was, yet the light buttery apple, pear and citrus notes of this wine went very well with our starter combination) of Spring Rolls (with Worcestershire sauce as a Hongkong signature combination and deep fried Shrimp tempura topped with toasted garlic that also went very well with their homemade X.O. sauce. The wine stood up gracefully to the chili heat, spice and strong flavour of dried scallop shreds still announcing its light oakiness and apple pear notes. This white wine also pushed the flavours of our cold braised pork knuckle steep and infused with lots of flavour while lightly braised in a most fragrant stock then chilled to a gelatinous bite that also had some nutty notes from a burst of sesame oil. The finely slivered almost vermicelli like sheds of Jellyfish was dressed with tobanjang (fermented bean and chili). Jeremy’s extra order of Horgaw, or crystal shrimp dumplings which I do believe nobody can resist is still to me the best in the country with its ultra thin crystalline wrapper.

By this time, our chef had come in worried by the soup which was a Shark’s fin with Sea Whelk and Chicken. I had reassured him that his fear of Filipinos not taking to clear soup was not always true. The shark’s fin based soup though clear was so tasty and full of umami goodness that its richness reached the side of my cheeks. Now this is truly what the Chinese would term as a superior stock. (Emperor Court also has a shark’s fin lunch menu good for even one person at a very reasonable price.)

After polishing off the bottle of Chardonnay, we proceeded to our spicied and stronger dishes thus necessitating our group to open a Torres Viña Esmeralda 2000, a gewurtztraminer varietal that was flowery and had shades of ylang-ylang and sampaguita. The chilled wine married off well with the Braised King Prawn in Szechuan chili sauce and Scallops wrapped in Fruit bacon with the lightest almost minute touch of Thousand Island Dressing (May sound corny, but the scallops in bacon had been fried in a flavourful infused oil…)

The Braised Garoupa Belly served in a pot stewed in bean paste sauce had some silky bean curd cubes that took in the richness of the Garoupa belly. I just wished the bellies had been bigger so that we had thicker chunks of meat coming off the belly bones.

We finished off the spicy white Spanish gewurtztraminer with some Shrimp paste marinated fried chicken.

We then opened a Cartlidge and Brown California Syrah 2002 that was not typical of a Rhone style nor Australian Shiraz style. This amazing find was spicy and flowery and was a good partner to Chef Ken’s Pan Fried Beef Cubes in Black Pepper Sauce. An accompaniment of Sweetened Walnuts gave good fail to the spicy sauce and paired off compatibly with our red wine.

Dessert was a fruit platter with some mango pudding topped with whipped cream shaped like a gold fish that complemented the whole motif of the room with vases of flowers containing live golf fish.

Of course, we just couldn’t end dinner just like that and continued our conversation and jests about cuisine by capping it with some simple cigars downstairs at Fort and Tey. The boys had some sleek Portofinos while I puffed away at a strong, dark Maduro diplomat; planning out the next culinary escape.

SHORT STOPS:

I enjoyed two good products recently and those who love bottled sardines or milkfish will enjoy Sarangani Bay Milkfish in Oil. I even tried it on Pizza.

Another line of bottled and packaged fish products is El Nero Frozen Bangus Teriyaki and Sardines. The Spanish style is tangier and more tomatoey (probably less color) than even its imported counterparts.