My lunch at Man Wah was pushed back by 2 weeks because of Typhoon Mangkhut which hit us in mid-September, but glad we could finally re-schedule and made that happened before the October 1 long weekend. I am an admirer of Chef Wong Wing-keung’s cooking at
Yee Tung Heen of The Excelsior, and recently Chef Wong moved across to its sister property at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong to be their new executive chef at the Chinese restaurant (where he used to work as sous chef before his post at Yee Tung Heen). MO’s PR team has been arranging meals at the restaurant to introduce their “new” executive chef to the media, and hence I was invited to one of them.
Haven’t been to the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel for a while, but nothing much has changed with the same traditional Chinese-style décor and good view of the city through the window. Chef Wong has been on board for a few months and have made some changes to the menu already, with new signature dishes added alongside with some traditional ones. And our tasting menu this afternoon reflected the same – with a good mix of new and old dishes.
Our first course was the one I have seen a few times on Chef Wong and some other friend’s Facebook wall but this was the first time I tasted myself. The Deep-fried Sea Urchin Pudding was based on the traditional Cantonese Guo-Ja, made using superior chicken broth frozen, cut into diamond shape then battered and deep-fried. Chef Wong came up with his version with mashed sea urchin added to the broth base, giving this a richer umami flavor. And I loved its texture too – crust slightly crispy whilst the center was still wobbly and more delicate than the ones I had before.
After a couple baked dim-sums (wagyu beef puffs with black pepper sauce and chicken tartlets with braised whole abalone), a whole roast duck was presented to us in a cart. Almost every hotel Chinese restaurants in town have Peking Duck on their menu given it’s one of the better known Chinese dishes (though technically it’s not a Cantonese dish), but this one at Man Wah stood out as one of the more memorable. The crispy duck skin was carefully carved in front of us, put onto a thin steamed pancake, mix in with the condiments (leeks, cucumbers and hoisin sauce) and wrapped into a roll and served to us. Normally, the carved duck was served family style and we had to do the wrapping ourselves, but this certainly saved us the trouble and the mess. And the taste was outstanding – that’s the most important part. Obviously we couldn’t finish the whole duck with just the three of us, but we did enjoy a few of those duck rolls each, with the rest of the duck meat made into a second dish served towards the end.
Our next course was two kinds of meat served in tasting portion. Iberian pork loin was used for the Barbecued Pork/Char Siu dish, done with a longan honey glaze made from a local farm. The flavor was top notch, but it suffered the same problem as the ones at many hotel restaurants of not having enough burnt ends in the crust. And I also prefer the meat to be slightly firmer with a bite than the super soft and tender one here. But I love the cod-fish fillet served alongside, deep-fried and presented with a rich sauce of preserved Chinese olive, black beans and five spices. Great crispy crust and delicate fish meat inside with a well-balanced sauce dressed on top.
Another new dish arrived, this time it’s the stir-fried lobster with scrambled eggs and bean sprouts (and the dish was given a poetic Chinese name in 游龍臥金沙, which loosely translated to swimming dragon on a bed of golden sand) Based on an old dish using shark’s fin, Chef Wong modified to substitute with shredded meat from local lobsters with eggs given a quick stir-fry to puff up slightly. And the bean sprouts and leeks just added some crunchy texture to it. What looked like a simple stir-fry required tremendous skills and a real test to make sure the flavor was well-balanced with a dry texture, and Chef Wong certainly achieved this in flying colors.
My last savory course was the braised chicken and abalone served in a mini casserole pot – I love the dried tiger prawn and chili added to it for some extra texture and flavor – and lunch ended with the dessert of chilled mango cream with sago, pomelo and coconut, served with great dramatic effect with dry ice underneath the chilled bowl and all.
Glad to see Chef Wong spent no time settling well in his new position – I am looking forward to even better things to come at this legendary Chinese restaurant, and yes, I am still a fan with the new chef and new dishes.
(Meal was by invitation and more pictures can be found in my Flickr album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/g4gary/albums/72157695980956240)
Where? Man Wah, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, 5 Connaught Road, Hong Kong
Menu Highlights? Wok-fried Lobster with Scrambled Eggs
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