Text 3328, 88 rader
Skriven 2013-08-10 00:54:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: banquet 983
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Surprisingly, the most costly dish wasn't the lobster but
sauteed yellow conch with ginger and yellow chives - good
quality frozen New England yellow conch meat costs over 10
times as much per pound as lobster. This is due to a huge
demand in east Asia for medicinal purposes and has nothing to
do with the gastronomic or gastropedal characteristics of the
food itself. It's not worth the price. Otto had gotten a
pound or two of the fresh just for this occasion, but his chef
had buried it in ginger, not an unpleasant thing, to be sure,
but it could just as well have been chicken in this preparation.
Okay, the texture was unlike anything I'd had before, more like
fresh abalone than anything else, but with a little crunch at
the outer edge of each slice (with abalone the edges should be
trimmed off, as they are too hard to be pleasant). The flavor,
when I'd scraped off the ginger, was generic shellfishy, between
abalone and surf clam and geoduck and giant squid, i.e. pleasant
but not worth three figures a pound.

Next came a big grey sole done two ways - the head, tail, and
skeleton were deep-fried crisp, and the fillets were sauteed
with vegetables, mostly snap peas and carrots with a few baby
bok choys and the like thrown in, this all served in a white
Cantonese sauce. Being full, I had a pro forma couple chunks
of fish and a few bites of bones: the proper way is to suck
the residual meat delicately off the bones, or so I was told
by Nicholas. I said nonsense, just crunch them down and swallow
them. Almost everyone else followed Nicholas. As fish bones
are one of my prime sources of calcium, I chewed away unfazed.

As grey sole is Gunther's favorite fish another one, somewhat
smaller, maybe 3 pounds, came out done yet a third way - steamed
with ginger, scallions, and soy. Much of it went uneaten despite
Otto's vigorous attempts to give away the fatty bits near the
tail and the cheeks and such. Gunther eventually ate the head,
but again I suspect our loss was the kitchen's gain.

No real greens so far, so a course of sauteed pea vines was
almost welcome, though its presentation was peculiar - a waiter
came by and blopped half a pound of matted greenery on each plate
whether we wanted them or not. These were of pretty good pea
flavor, though unevenly seasoned with salt and rice wine - they
had obviously tried to cook the whole batch of about 4 lb at once
in one pot.

And then came Otto's signature fusion dish - lamb chops in wine
sauce. The chops were done medium, and my stomach was rebelling
by this time, but out of politeness I had one. It was okay,
rather oversalted, and soy sauce and wine together were never my
thing. On the side - a medley of vegetables similar to what had
gone with the sauteed sole. I might have enjoyed this had I
encountered it on an empty stomach, but as it was, the stuff
seemed almost too much to deal with.

As if that weren't enough, Otto announced that the starches
were coming. In a banquet, these are served at the end so the
real gluttons can fill up once and for all. As consistent with
the theme of the meal, we got the most expensive imaginable
rice and the most expensive imaginable noodle dish.

XO fried rice is a rather ordinary preparation except for the
numerous strands of conpoy, which turn ordinary into special
and inexpensive into budget busting. These dried scallops are
a bizarrely costly ingredient but pack a lot of umami punch.
I was full to bursting but picked out as many of the strands
as I could with my chopsticks, not wanting to waste them.

Long life noodles are a tradition at these occasions. I don't
see their charm and find them grossly overpriced, but Nicholas
seems to think they will ensure a long life. They're expensive
because of a multi-step preparation, boiled, then fried, then
boiled again, something like that, and they have a distinctive
fluffy texture. I find them a silly affectation and had about
two of them again just for politeness' sake.

For dessert, Otto pulled out a special treat - a gigantic
bowl of fresh longans; these were not so fine as the ones I
remember from my various Asian travels, but they were better
than the specimens that I had brought to dinner with the Shipps
some years ago (and then I had felt lucky to have found them at
all). These were reasonably sweet and reasonably aromatic and
provided a good facsimile of the experience. There were plenty
for all, and one of the waiters brought out little takeout
containers so those who wished could have a few for breakfast
next day.

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