Dinner at The Chairman

Following a spectacular meal at the Ap Lei Chau fish market, almost the same group of people re-convened in the same evening at The Chairman for another eating session. It’s been a while since my last visit to this classic Cantonese restaurant which is already in its 10th year at the same location and has gotten quite a reputation for its intricate, true-to-the-tradition cooking. And with its owner DY – who is considered by many one of the more serious foodies in town himself - personally picking the dishes for us, I was really curious how the dinner would fare given my already-high expectation.

We have a bigger group than our lunch with a few chef friends of us joining, and each brought a few bottles to share among the group. With the 11 of us we managed 11 dishes (plus the desserts) and 11 wines. I must say that’s quite an achievement considered how much we have eaten in the afternoon already. To start, DY did a quick rundown of the menu to us, which consisted of a few signature dishes of the restaurant, plus some new dishes and ones prepared with seasonal ingredients.

We began with a delightful piece of the seasonal fig topped with rose “jam” pickled with brown sugar, and this unusual combination worked well for the subtle floral aroma and light sweetness and was perfect as a summer starter. I don’t believe it’s their intention, but following this floral appetizer, a contrasting dish was presented to us, which was “sticky tofu” done 2-ways. Stinky tofu is a common snack food in town available in many street carts in town – for which blocks of tofu were left fermented in room temperature until a pungent aroma developed. It’s then deep-fried and served with hoisin sauce. It’s one of those food that always draw split opinions – some thought it stinks and was disgusting, whilst some enjoyed both the smell and the taste, and I definitely belong to the latter camp. Here two small blocs were served – one stayed true to the traditional Hong Kong version with a dab of soybean paste next to it (a more sophisticated version of hoisin sauce), whilst the second one was topped with salted fish and Szechuan mala sauce. I must say the one with the spicy and tongue-tingling mala sauce was the more interesting one, thought I couldn’t quite taste the salted fish in it. My only complaint was the stinky tofu not being “stinky” enough, but the mala sauce did add to the complexity to this otherwise familiar dish that I grew up with, eating from the street vendors who would prepare this on a mobile deep fryer.

Next was another classic Cantonese dish. The gold-coin chicken was served with a slight twist to the traditional version, using the halved Chinese deep-fried mantou bun instead of the steamed pancake at the bottom. The bun was crispy on the outside and soft inside, giving this more textures, plus some sweetness to counter the fatty liver and a thin slice of lard sandwiched in between. This is a strong candidate of my favorite gold coin chicken in town.

Adding to our seafood experience just a few hours ago, we then had a few seafood dishes at The Chairman as well – I suspect they came from the same market in the morning. The clam broth was done in the traditional manner with julienned white radish and scallions, but here there’s a touch of exotic flavor with coconut water added in which gave the soup some interesting aroma and sweetness. It was refreshing and I love those clams with juicy meat. Two types of whole fish were served, both steamed. We thought we had a good star snapper in the morning, but the one we had at The Chairman was one notch up, with better size, better texture and better taste. More to do with the better quality ingredient but it has to do with the cooking too.

The second fish dish was the spotted tail morwong (三刀). It’s considered the most sought after seafood delicacy in town, distinguished by its spots on the tail and dark stripes across the body. They were not commonly seen in the market, and even if they were, they easily cost 4 or 5 times more than just about any other fish you would find. So we considered ourselves extremely lucky to be served not one but two, and both came in good size too (each weighed slightly less than one catty give or take, or 600g) They were prepared in the simplest way – just steamed with scallions and a splash of sweet soy sauce, and that’s all’s needed to complement the subtle fish oil flavor in each bite of the meat which was flaky yet firm. Towards the end, we asked the waiter to help de-bone the fish and scrapped every bit of the remaining meat plus the sauce and mix with some rice, and every one at the table was fighting over that to get the last bit of awesomeness from this memorable dish.

Our next course was the steamed flower crab, which is the restaurant’s signature dish from day one. It’s steamed with Shaoxing wine and served with flat rice noodles which soaked up all the wine and crab flavor from the sauce underneath the crab. It’s good as always – again the best part was those left on the plate after the whole crabs were quickly consumed by everyone, which is the sauce rich in umami taste and the distinct aged yellow wine aroma. And just for that sauce, I must have eaten a few more bowls of rice so I could soak all the awesome flavor up.

When DY was explaining the menu to us, he mentioned the chicken served came from a local Hong Kong farm raised to his specific instruction – a castrated rooster raised to 115 days (shorter than usual), which yielded the perfect texture and taste. And the bird was steamed with chicken broth and served with chopped scallions and ginger mash on the side. “Even the chicken breast tasted super juicy with a good bite”, according to him, which led us into another fight with our chopsticks for the breast cut as the dish was brought to our table. And yes, the texture of the chicken was impeccable, with the meat juicy and tender, the skin thicker than usual with a layer of fat just underneath for the great flavor without becoming too chewy, and all the accompaniment worked great.

We finished with two more starch-heavy savory dishes and the vegetables. There’s a nostalgic flavor with the thin slices of stewed pork belly with pickled cabbage served with a steamed bun, and the sticky rice was perfectly cooked – stir-fried then steamed in a lotus leaf wrap and topped with picked crab meat. It’s a bit on the heavy side but I didn’t think anyone left any in their bowl because it was super delicious. We even thought the plate of stir-fried Chinese mustard green with ginger was exceptional – not enough ginger flavor I reckon, but I love the crunchy texture of the vegetables. And to wrap everything up, three types of sweets were served in petit-fours portion – my favorite was the hawthorn pudding with osmanthus and goji berries.

There were no lack of bottles passing around with a good variety, some coming from rather usual places. The 20-year Shaoxing wine served warm was the perfect matching with the crab dish, and the almost-20-year-old Batard-Montrachet was my favorite bottle overall. Big, buttery with good minerals plus a long finish made that perfect with our seafood dishes. Wow - what an extraordinary back-to-back great meal kind of a day, which I wish happens more often.

More pictures in my Flickr album page: www.flickr.com/photos/g4gary/albums/72157694920626040

When? August 28 2018
Where? The Chairman, 18 Kau U Fong, Central, Hong Kong
Menu Highlights? Chicken from Hong Kong local farm poached in chicken stock
Drinks?
2013 Domaine Jean Francois Ganevat Cotes du Jura 'Grusse en Billat'
2009 Giacomo Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia
2010 Roxanich 'Milva' Chardonnay, Istria, Croatia
Charles Dufour 'Avalon' Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature NV
1999 Domaine Louis Latour Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru
Hu-sen Junmai Ginjo - Wu Feng Farmers Association Distillery, Taiwan 不染純米吟釀 － 台灣霧峰農會酒莊
20-year-aged Shaoxing Huadiao Yellow Wine, Pagoda, Zhejiang Province, China 塔牌20年陳 紹興花彫酒
1955 Massandra Sherry, Crimea, Ukraine
2011 M. Chapoutier Croix de Bois Chateauneuf-du-Pape
2009 Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino
2009 Rutini Felipe Rutini (Merlot-Malbec-Cabarnet Sauvignon blend), Mendoza, Argentina
Web: www.thechairmangroup.com