The next day after our
dinner at Wing Lei Palace we went across the bridge back to Macau Peninsula for lunch at Wynn Macau’s Golden Flower (京花軒), another restaurant by the same group. But unlike Wing Lei Palace which put more focus on Cantonese cuisine, Golden Flower specializes in Tan Cuisine (譚家菜), a cross-regional style of cooking combining Northern and Southern Chinese cuisines with an imperial touch given its root from a high scholar family in the Qing Dynasty Imperial Court some centuries ago.
We were here a few years ago for
dimsum lunch and love it, and we are glad that this time we got to try more dishes, including a few signature ones. Tan Cuisine is known for the use of exquisite ingredients often prepared through long and complex cooking process, and this time, we began our meal with an appetizer platter with four different kinds served in bite-sized portion. The sweet and sour cabbage was an interesting one, with pickled Shanghainese cabbage rolled with mango inside which has a well-balanced flavor and salivating, and the small piece of spiced roasted yellow croaker reminded me of the Shanghainese smoked fish, except this one has a milder flavor with a touch of five spices and a more delicate texture, with the fish deep-fried than steamed.
One could easily be fooled by the look of our next course of chicken soup with fresh clams and jasmine. The soup was done in consommé style but has a clean but intense flavor. Tan Cuisine was known for its preparation style of soup courses, with this one went through a long process of extracting the meat flavor into the soup and clear of any residues to achieve the perfectly clear appearance, and the addition of the sea cucumber tentacles and jasmine buds gave this a bouncy bite and an enticing fragrance.
The supreme chicken broth was the course I most look forward to as this is perhaps the most famous in all of the Tan Cuisine dishes, and it’s as good as I expected. The intensity was knocked up one level compared to our previous course and much thicker in texture. Saffron was added in to give the soup a bright yellow color and a subtle aroma. Served with the soup was the stewed fish maw and a crab claw – both excellently prepared, with the fish maw slow-poached in oil to soften and it soaked up all the flavor from the broth.
We went on with two more savory courses – first the stir-fried prawns done Sichuan Kung-pao style with a touch of spicy kick, followed by a delicate vegetarian dish of seasonal vegetables stir-fried and wrapped in a thin tofu skin. It was beautifully presented with all the colors of different vegetables (tomatoes, asparagus, lily bulbs, and shiitake mushrooms). Then we ordered an additional dish of pork dumplings before we finished with a dessert platter – 2 Northern Chinese style sweet dim-sum and a egg custard done crème brulee style with the crispy caramel top, plus some fresh fruits on the side.
No wines for lunch today but instead we opted for the tea pairing, with their in-house tea master choosing a few to go with our dishes. Coming in and out of Macau in less than 24 hours but with two equally amazing meals – that made it a satisfying weekend already.
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