The Mid-Autumn Night Menu At Tin Hau
Gene Gonzalez
It took a whole lot of meetings for Chaine Charge de Mission Ed Yap to organize what would be a truly fitting feast for the senses for all the 100 persons who attended this dinner at Tin Hau.
A normal Chinese banquet would be served, family style, in platters shared in rounds on the table, but this dinner was monumental in having individual plated portions per guest with the corresponding choreographed service.
Besides the well appreciated performance of the soprano and tenor, and a rendition from a Chinese harpist, the usual loud dances and drum rolls gave this dinner a truly Chinese spirit that invited prosperity and luck. Blessings were made by a Feng Shui Master and everybody seemed to be in anticipation of what this mega-production dinner was.
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| Steamed White Seabass Fillet | |
Dinner started with a Tin Hau Deluxe Dim Sum combination platter of steamed "four happiness" seafood dumplings which had a delicious filling of chopped seafood and whole scallops, steamed mini-sharks fin ravioli with crab meat and black mushrooms and deep fried seafood wrapped with bean curd skin and seaweed.
Touching our hearts with the dim sum was a wonderful pairing of Torres Viña Esmeralda 2006, freshly coming out of customs. (Fortunately, because we thought this wine would never make it for this dinner.) The flowery and fruity nuances of this gewurtztraminer and muscatel blend stood up to the varied characters of the dim sum and highlighted the balance of seafood, meat, soy and touches of leek and ginger in these tasty appetizers.
Next came a double chicken soup with sea clamshell meat and Chinese herbs. Lots of umami on the taste buds due to long simmering of chicken and powerful notes of Chinese Tonic herbs that had a pleasing earthiness to the Soup. A crisp Angove’s Nine Vines 2006 Viognier uplifted the character of the soup with its citrusy and white pepper notes and seemed to sweeten the bittersweet edge of this wine.
Soon after a deep fried crab claw wrapped in shrimp mouse accompanied by fried lobster with "Kan Xiang" sauce reminiscent of the X.O sauces with dried seafood followed.
For the Fish course a steamed Chilean sea bass with its large oily flesh flaking for every bite with celery sauce was set on a bed of sautéed three mushrooms and rainbow vegetables. For this plate, a Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand was a great choice standing up to the complex flavors of the fatty fish with its hints of passion and Tropical fruit. The sea bass just melted in the mouth with its delicate ingredients masterfully trysting with sips of this aromatic white wine.
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| Deep-fried Crab Claw | | For meat we had "Dong BO" pork or the favorite long braised pork belly dish of master poet Su Dong Po. This was served with a steamed bun to sop up the tasty gelatinous bronze sauce from its long braising. A daring pair-off was made with a Carmenere Reserva from Chile. The wine had a lot of rich fruit and spice and being a newly young and cultivated varietal was a good take-off from the usual cabernet, pinot noir or merlot pairings.
The Carmenere even went well with the caramelized and soy character of the fried rice with chicken, mushrooms and Chinese sausages wrapped with lotus leaf that give it hints of the flavors of nature.
For dessert, we had snow skin moon cake with lotus seed paste, an unbaked moon caked with deep-fried egg custard and avocado spring roll with honey and a chilled ginseng root sweet tea with white fungus.
We washed this down with a choice of green jasmine tea with globe amaranth flower and some 20 year old Pu-er.
The dinner was such a success but in retrospect, what turned out disappointing was everyone was in a hurry to leave after and we didn’t get to drink our Torres 12 year old single barrel brandy. Was it the double-boiled chicken soup with Chinese Tonic herbs combined with the sweet ginseng tea in the dessert? I’m still wondering if that evening really ended early enough…
You can email me at chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com
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