Saturday, October 3, 2020

All Crab Menu

We finished our staycation weekend with another dinner at a hotel restaurant, this time Yat Tung Heen at The Eaton for their 8-course seasonal all-crab menu on Sunday evening. Good to see the restaurant has filled to its capacity again during the weekend dinner service, a sign that everything is slowly returning to normal after the latest wave of pandemic has cooled down. 

We began with the appetizer trio, including their signature honey-glazed char-siu and pickled tomatoes with preserved plum juice. Love the fatty meat with a good charred crust in the two thick slices of char-siu, and the tomatoes with a combination of salty-sweet flavor. And the rest of the savory courses were all following the theme of crabs, all well presented and prepared in rather unique ways. First was the whole crab claws were wrapped in minced shrimp meat, pan-fried and served in crab roe sauce. I love the bouncy texture of the minced shrimp “meatballs” combined with the decadent sauce.

Then braised abalone was served in thin slices and stuffed with picked crab meat like a roll, with a slab winter gourd braised with superior broth served underneath with the sauce made of dried conpoy and salted egg yolk. The contrasts of different flavors and textures came into play nicely with the unusual combination of ingredients. The third crab course was the soup, with braised bird’s nest and fresh crab meat served in the perfectly done superior broth slow cooked with chicken, pork and dried Yunnan ham for the rich yet delicate and comforting taste. 

The whole mud crab was steamed, cut up and served on a plate with the Chinese yellow wine and chicken oil as sauce. The crab roes turned the sauce into golden yellow and filled the plate, and there’s no other way to finish this course with a bowl of steamed rice mixed into the sauce along with the crab roes and picked crab meat, just to soak up all the best flavor from the sauce. Reminded me of the signature crab dish at The Chairman but this one is of totally different kind of crab and totally different style. I thought the last course of fried rice (with crab meat and minced ginger) would fade in comparison but it’s often the simplest dish that impressed most, with the bowl of rice perfectly cooked with subtle ginger flavor.

We end our meal with a trio of desserts – mango, pomelo and sago cream, sesame pudding and sticky rice rolls with mango. All were tasty. The menu came with a glass of wine too – and the off-dry Riesling was perfect with the crabs. We should go back again before the crab season ends. 

More photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/g4gary/albums/72157716166546307

When? September 27 2020
Where? Yat Tung Heen, Level B2, Eaton Hong Kong, 380 Nathan Road, Kowloon
Menu Highlights? Steamed Mud Crab with Chinese Yellow Wine and Chicken Oil 
Drink? 2018 St Urbans-Hof Nik Weis Selection Urban Riesling


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