The next dish was the Steamed Red Grouper Hong Kong style with superior soy sauce, spring onions and red chilli but all we saw was a small chunk of fish flesh in a bowl. I was telling the others that we don’t know if the fish 🐟 was actually a red grouper until the wait staff placed the fish head on the lazy susan. At least I enjoyed the fresh succulent and sweet fish dressed in soya sauce.
The chickens 🐓 must be lamenting that they died in vain as we diners never gotten to see the crispy Bi Feng Tang (避风塘) style Roasted Chicken gloriously spread out (展翅高飞) in front of us with spiced almond flakes and crunchy prawn crackers for garnish. Both my colleague and I were served mostly breast meat which was dry as we never gotten the chance to choose the part of the chicken we would like to eat plus my plate came with just half an almond flake. :(
Next up, the Conrad Duo of deep-fried prawn ball wrapped with breadcrumb and sautéed scallop with asparagus in home-made XO sauce. The fried prawn 🦐 ball is crispy on the outside with crunchy prawn inside. A single lonely scallop sat beside the old and fibrous asparagus as the skin wasn’t peeled. The savoury spicy sauce however brightened up the flavours of this tough vegetable.
The Abalone and Spinach I have nothing much to comment on other than the slice of paper-thin sea snail. Love the thick mushroom 🍄🟫 among the blanched leaves of spinach 🥬 drenched in oyster sauce though.
The Ee-fu Noodles or yi mein (伊面) got to be my favourite dish of the night. This noodle 🍜 is typically present on wedding menu due to the fact it is also referred to as longevity noodles (寿面). Stewed with shimeji mushroom 🍄🟫, lumps of crabmeats 🦀 and chives, where it had soaked up the wholesome flavours. So good that I finished two bowls of it.
The Chilled Cream of Avocado with Coral Weed was a big disappointment for all of us due to the avocado 🥑 soup coming with pieces of hard, almost crunchy coral weed, akin to eating chicken soft bone. I would prefer something less exotic like cubed honeydew melon or even jellies.
Overall, the food was pretty delicious though the service is kind of lacking as the wait staffs were busy portioning the food to notice our empty glasses. My colleague was commenting that he had only this one cup of passionfruit drink from start till end of the banquet and no one came to ask if he would like a refill. I am also sure the chefs would have preferred to let the diners see their beautiful, crafted creations even if for only a few short seconds rather than the hastily assembled carved-out portions.