Dear readers, a Wandering Eats post! We were up to Guangzhou 廣州, that two thousand plus year old city, historically a major port and terminus of the Silk Road and renowned birthplace of the fabulous and world famous Cantonese cuisine. So much good food in this food city, everything was yummy! That's our measure of a really cool city - if you can eat well everywhere, from restaurants to hawker food to snacks to sweets, well, that's the best kind of city ever!
We started our eating adventures at what we think is one of the best dim sum restaurants around, the Guangzhou Restaurant 廣州酒家! This restaurant, first opened in 1935, is one of revered 'old restaurant' chains in this city of picky eaters. We had been there only once before and had been totally blown away by the quality of not only the food, but also the whole experience. This particular location at Longjin West Road opened in 2022 with a new and exciting concept: providing top notch authentic traditional Cantonese cuisine 粵宴 along with immersion in a Lingnan garden 嶺南園 meets Xiguan 西關 style surroundings.
More on traditional Cantonese cuisine later, first let's talk about Lingnan garden meets Xiguan style. Lingnan garden 嶺南園 is a one of the major styles of Chinese garden design. It utilizes architectural elements of tower, bridge, corridor and courtyard, artificial mountains, water elements and stone elements to evoke an open and light garden atmosphere of casual elegance that invites one for a intimate and cozy stroll.
Xiguan 西關 style is a architectural style based on the grand old courtyard houses built by the wealthy Cantonese merchants in Guangzhou during the Qing dynasty. Some of the elements of this gorgeous architecture are colorful stained etched glass windows, open air patios and blue/grey bricks.
In the photo above you can see the front entrance of Guangzhou Restaurant. The Xiguan style influence is obvious- the blue/grey brick, the airiness, the patterned stained glass windows. So beautiful, amiright?!
Inside the restaurant the true elegance of the Xiguan style is even more revealed. Bright, airy and elegant dining areas are sectioned off by patterned dark wood screens accented by gorgeous etched stained glass. It's like time traveling to the past of Canton!
Our table! What a fabulous setting, amirite?! Our table overlooked the Lingnan style garden outside, its courtyard area dominated by a koi filled pond surrounded by multiple pavilions and walkways amongst carefully cultivated greenery. The tree leaves outside our window filtered the light coming in the windows, its soft and clear colors soothing to the soul.
A peek at the view out of our window. The green leaves of the trees gently waving in the breeze. The gentle ripples on the pond. There were even some lithesome maidens that wandered by along the covered walkway, dressed elegantly in traditional Chinese attire (a fad here in Guangzhou at the moment), completing the feeling of time traveling. So very immersive Lingnan/Xiguan style!
Now onto the delicious dim sum 點心! For those of you who are not familiar with 'dim sum', it is a traditional Cantonese meal where delicate eats are cooked and served in bamboo steamer baskets along with cups of fragrant tea. The word 'dim sum' translates to 'touch the heart' which describes this meal exactly, its small comforting delicious bites really do nourish the soul!
We started with the 'Four Heavenly Kings' 四大天王, also known as the most popular of the classic dim sum dishes: Shrimp Dumpling 蝦餃, Siu Mai 燒賣, Char Siu Bao 叉燒包, and Egg Tart 蛋撻.
Shrimp Dumplings 蝦餃, also known as Har Gow, are dumplings of juicy shrimp fillings wrapped in thin, translucent starch based wrappers. The folding technique creates the distinctive pleated crescent shape. The number of pleats for the shrimp dumpling, according to traditionalists, should be an exact thirteen nos. So if you want you can try counting them!
The filling of the shrimp dumpling is a juicy mix of fresh shrimp, fatty pork and bamboo shoots. The overall taste of fresh, sea sweet shrimp is so delish. That's why these dumpling are so popular!
Siu Mai 燒賣 is the second of the Four Heavenly Kings. Siu Mai, with its distinctive yellow skin, is so popular nowadays that it has jumped out the dim sum menu and straight into the wide wide world as a popular street snack that you can get at hawker stalls and also at every asian convenience store.
Here, though, in the world of traditional authentic dim sum, the siu mai is made as it was meant to be made. A juicy tasty bottom filling of pork and shrimp is topped with a cap of shrimp filling. To the usual top accent of orange roe, the Guangzhou Restaurant further adds a few luscious shreds of dried scallop. Nom, nom, nom!
The third of the Four, the Char Siu Bao 叉燒包, is also know as BBQ Pork Bun. These pillowy soft buns with the distinctive cracked top conceal a heart of diced up sweet and savory Cantonese style BBQ pork. A bite into these tender buns reveal the unique and delicious meat filling. These buns are totally ADDICTIVE, okay, so that why they made the top four cuz you literally can't just eat one!
The last of the four we kinda cheated on. It should be the wonderful traditional egg tart, however, we went for the Portuguese Egg Tarts cuz they looked so good. The difference with the traditional egg tart is that the Portuguese tart crusts are made with puff pastry rather then shortcrust and the filling is a richer creamier custard. Oh, and how creamy it was! This egg tart just about melted into our mouths, lol. Sigh...I just love, love, love egg tarts...
After the Big Four, we moved onto some of our favorite steamed dim sum dishes.
This is my hubby's favorite, the Steamed Beef Balls 山竹牛肉. For this dish minced fresh beef is mixed with water chestnut, ginger, cilantro and chenpi 陳皮 (aged sun dried mandarin orange peel) for a mixture of tastes and textures. If you haven't had these beef balls before they won't be what you expect, the texture is light and springy, the pure simple juicy beef flavor complemented by citrusy note from cilantro, a slight peppery bite from the ginger, a crunch from the water chestnuts bits and last but not least the umami from the slivers of chenpi 陈皮, the dried mandarin peel that is perfect subtle complement to beef.
And we didn't forget to order our favorite pork dim sum: Steamed Spare Ribs 豉汁蒸排骨. These spare ribs are steamed with garlic and fermented black beans. Bursting with flavor at every bite, you won't believe how tender these spare ribs are!
This next dim sum is, to me at least, a food treasure of the highest level, the Taro Puff 芋角. The delicate lacy wrapper of the dim sum is made from mashed taro root and starch. When deep fried the crust puffs into the airy, crispy, beautifully lacy web that you can see in the photos above. I mean , just look at it! So f-king amazing, amirite?!
The filling heart of the taro puff is usually a mixture of seasoned ground pork and diced mushrooms. But in our version that day the taro puffs were filled with lychee paste. OMGsobeautifulsogood...nom, nom...the savoury and the sweet all in one dim sum, crunchy and lacy on the outside, soft and luscious on the inside. This was, obviously, my personal favorite of the day!
This fun and cheerful looking dim sum is this Red Rice Noodle Roll 紅米腸粉. In this dim sum, a red hued silky and tender rice noodle skin wraps around a filling of crispy fried dough enclosing whole fresh shrimp. Besides the sea sweet taste of the shrimp, this dim sum is a masterclass in textures, being silky, soft, crispy and chewy all in the one bite. Really each dim sum is a poem in and of itself! Leave it to the Chinese to express their poetry souls in their food!
The final dim sum that we had that day, the Young Ginger and Preserved Egg Puff Pastry 皮蛋酥, is traditionally presented during Chinese betrothal ceremonies, given to the bride's family to symbolize fertility. This pastry features a very Chinese combination for the filling: thinly sliced tangy young ginger and savoury preserved thousand year egg held together with creamy sweet lotus seed paste. This strange combo is all wrapped and baked in a delicate golden puff pastry. Sounds weird, amirite? But when done well this pasty is to die for, so goooood!
Lulled into relaxation, replete with the truly delicious dim sum that 'touched our hearts', we were on the path outward, back towards reality, when we experienced one last time traveling peek into the past of Canton: a delicate bonsai display, a miniaturized tree, elegance once again created by crafty hands and loving hearts.
Wandering Eats at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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