I have this Japanese friend, who is a famous food and music critic, who had an amazing knowledge about Cantonese food. We always organise some dinners at Fook Lam Moon, and we always design new menus, using the seasonal ingredients, trying to remember the old recipes etc. Recently, he wanted to design a dinner menu for his friends to eat in Ginza Fook Lam Moon. He was wondering about having the 鳳呑翅 but they didn’t have enough people to have that dish. Therefore, he was thinking whether we could do that dish with pigeon instead. We were thinking about that but the pigeon we are using in Japan is a French breed and therefore, has a much stronger gamey taste to it. Therefore, if its done with soup, the gamey taste might be too overbearing. So we went to ask Chui Wai Kwan and, voila, he had a much better idea!
He suddenly remembered this dish仙鶴神針 which was an old recipe at a cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong. Chui san said Fook Lam Moon also did it before and the pigeon was braised with abalone sauce. The result was that the pigeon taste completely immerge into the abalone sauce taste, the pigeon meat is soft and gamey, whereas the shark’s fins texture contrasted the meat and was able to soak up every drop of the sauce. It was served from a clay pot where the heat can bring the smell into everyone’s memory. Then the taste was complex, sophisticated with this contrast with texture. And red wine has got to be its perfect companion. Here is the photo of the stuffed pigeon. It was simply divine. So great that I decided to blog it so that if anyone interested, advance order is needed.
Apart from that, we have also been experimenting with other ingredients.
This is photo is はぜ, which is quite similar to 九肚魚 椒塩 style.
This is おこぜ, Chui san recommended 油浸, the meat is still soft and delicate inside, but the surface is crispy and the bones also became crispy too. Then with the spring onion and soy sauce and kim wa ham stock, its just an amazingly authentic Hong Kong dish which reminds me of my childhood. By the way, these are all off the menu. But this is the magic of Fook Lam Moon. The menu is just the beginning.
福臨門酒家 Blog 