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On a recent trip to Hong Kong we decided to lash out and try the only three Michelin star restaurant in Hong Kong, the Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons on Hong Kong Island. The vineyard manager was a bit concerned that we had left the future wine makers, in our hotel, with a non English speaking babysitter but I saw it as another brilliant achievement to support my 'parent of the year' application, should they survive the evening.
We were seated with a glass of Taittinger on a table by the window. Lung King Heen means view of the dragon – this amused the vineyard manager a lot, as he fussed around to make sure that I had the seat with the best view. A glass of champagne and fantastic view across Hong Kong Harbour was a wonderful start to the evening. As it was truffle season, we opted for a mushroom and truffle tasting menu. I didn’t pay much attention to the menu – I was just happy to be surprised by the much venerated Chef.
taken from my i-phone
The feast kicked off with an amuse bouche of smoked duck breast, on green beans with chilli paste. It was served perfectly in time to wash down the last of our bubbles; the delicate smoke of the duck picking up the characters of the toasty fizz.
My expectations of the service in a three Michelin Star restaurant were that it would possibly be very stiff, but our waiter was so incredibly friendly and genuine. He was happy to have a chat with us and answer my never ending questions. This was a giant tick in my book. I can’t stand arrogant service and many wait staff could have learnt a trick or two from this chap.
The first course was baked avocado stuffed with assorted mushrooms. It wasn’t the prettiest of dishes resembling something from a 1970’s RSL club menu but it tasted fantastic. It went beautifully with a glass of Alsatian auxerrois. The wine was quite full bodied and the subtle smoky, brioche character a terrific accompaniment to the earthy, creamy blend of mushroom and avocado flesh.
taken from my i-phone
To finish our wine, we were presented with the next course – a double boiled supreme shark’s fin soup with matsutake mushrooms. Now I had a bit of a moment when I realized that we were having shark fin soup. The small moral voice within was troubled by the controversy surrounding killing sharks for their fins – my larger non moral voice was forcing me to stare at the bowl and think very hard about the movie Jaws and how it formed my childhood fear of water (including swimming pools). The soup was cooked and Jaws revenge won.
taken from my i-phone
By now the lights of Kowloon and Hong Kong Harbour were making a spectacular back drop for our next delicacy – simmered prawns with black truffle and cream, sitting on a bed of the most perfect baby bok choy. A glass of Baron Philippe de Rothschild chardonnay from Maipo, Chile was fantastic. In the glass there was some tropical fruit; mainly melon with some stone fruit characters of nectarine and peach. The flavours were carried long through the palate by beautiful fresh acidity. I couldn’t help thinking how similar in style to our own beautiful chardonnay. The prawns were large, sweet and succulent and there was a ‘peaches and cream’ type marriage with the Chilean wine.
taken from my i-phone
With perfect timing our waiter poured us the next wine an Anjou Lune d’Anjou. This is an interesting wine. It was made in a joint venture between the former Four Seasons sommelier, Cedric Billien and Claude Papin from Chateau Pierre Bise. I’m guessing it was mainly chenin blanc - it was quite tight, fine and dry and could have possibly benefitted from a little more time. Nonetheless it sat quite well with the most delicate steamed star garoupa (groper) fillets wrapped around asparagus and morel mushrooms. They were sitting in what I guess was a reduced master stock, tied with thin shreds of green onion and garnished with little berries (goji maybe?). The minerality and tightness of the Anjou seemed to work with the green earthiness of the asparagus and morels.
taken from my i-phone
The next two courses were brilliant. The first was my pick of the night; a sautéed lobster with fresh crab meat, egg whites and black truffle. It was dressed with the most exquisite little net made out of tiny whitebait. This was a perfect example of balanced flavour and texture. The flesh of the lobster and crab was sweet, the egg white silky and creamy and the whitebait salty and crunchy. It was so beautiful. At this point I entered a state of food euphoria.
The vineyard manager’s favourite dish was the wok fried wagyu beef cubes with boletus mushrooms and black pepper. Oh my goodness – the beef was so tender and full of flavour. The wagyu cubes seemed to dissolve on your tongue.
But at this point, the wines went a bit pear shaped. I don’t want to offend any of my fellow producers but let’s just say that the wagyu was matched with a New Zealand merlot made by a large commercial label best known for its pedestrian sauvignon blanc. It was very average – thin and weedy and certainly would have made New Zealand’s top merlot producers wince in pain. This brand was so out of place in this beautiful restaurant. I visualized it in the hands of Bill Heslop at Mr Lee’s Chinese restaurant in the movie 'Muriel’s Wedding'. “Pass the honey prawns will ya love?”
The next dish a multi grain rice with mushrooms and abalone sauce was very flavoursome but again an average commercial wine label appeared. It prompted me to ask for the wine list. Such an amazing restaurant with gorgeous, faultless food but when it came to new world producers the wine list was mainly the territory of boring commercial (and some not so good) labels. There was a mere sprinkling of good Australian and NZ wines listed.
OK so I have an agenda and here it comes; To whoever is in charge of the Lung King Heen wine list, a note from one sommelier to another – your beautiful and perfect Cantonese food would be greatly lifted by some of Australia’s amazing boutique wines. Please consider some hand crafted Margaret River, some funky Yarra Valley or some Barossan artisan and in pushing my own agenda you should definitely consider some elegant wines from the Canberra District. When it comes to our friends across the Tasman – the very basic representation of NZ wine, on your list, would urge most winegrowers to revert to sheep farming.
OK so this is only my view…. Ahem …. The view of the dragon maybe? It was just a minor gripe in what was an amazing experience in food, service and most of the wine.
Chef Chan Yan Tak, I now worship you and I understand why this is the best Chinese restaurant in the world.
Our meal was finished with baked sago pudding and some jewel like petit fours, before we headed back across the harbour, on the star ferry, to find the future wine makers alive and well.
But not asleep…..Damn it!
taken from my i-phone
This article has one comment.
“Love reading the blog. They need some Capital Wines on their list. I can imagine how good The chardonnay would be with that lobster.
-- Ali (June 5, 2010) ”