The Tai Pan (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

The Tai Pan (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

The thing I remembered most about my little nugget's last birthday party was the fact that everyone was scrambling for facial masks. It was early February 2020. We just returned from our trip to Spain (Thank goodness we did.) and the news about the widespread plague was heating up. We had to cancel our planned party and downsized to a small one at a friend's clubhouse. But still there was optimism that the pandemic was going to be short lived but boy, we couldn't be more wrong. We have been living with it (the best we can) for more than a year now and it really doesn't look as if it's going to go away anytime soon.

Fast forward to 2021, little nugget's birthday is again coming up and I decided to host a small lunch for him. Where to host the celebration meal has given me headaches throughout the month of January until a colleague of mine told me about The Tai Pan at The Murray Hong Kong. Yes, I have been there before but he told me they allowed 3-4 people sitting at the same table as long as there's a plastic partition placed between the groups of two. Now, this would solve my problem (as I didn't want our group to be split into 3-4 tables).

We arrived early to make sure that our request was entertained and it was. In fact, they have already reserved a couple of sofa seats for us. which was very nice of them.

The food menu of The Tai Pan is spearheaded by Executive Chef Terrence Crandall who honed his skills across the United States before spending a 9-year stint at Peninsula Shanghai. I had the pleasure of dining at Sir Elly, the Michelin starred modern European restaurant at Peninsula Shanghai and I am fully expecting the same high quality here this afternoon.

I always like having a lot of choices from a set lunch menu. With 7 starters and 8 main courses to choose from, it certainly meets my lofty expectation.

Handcut octopus and scallop - This is a very busy dish with octopus, fresh scallop, golden leaf, soy, sake, yuzu cream and plum wine jelly all blended into a small disk. The plum wine jelly provided all the seasoning needed to complement the sweetness of the scallop and I thought the crispy bacon delivered the perfect finishing touch with its crunch.

Obsiblue prawns a la plancha - Almost everybody else took the Obsiblue prawns cooked with pistachio, parma ham, pumpkin seeds and curry oil instead. It was finished off beautifully with a rich and intense uni foam.

Interestingly, the dish came with a couple of wonton whose wrapper was made with crunchy celery root while it was filled with minced prawns (presumably the same Obsiblue prawn) inside.

I really like the execution of this dish from the prawns to the wonton but if I'm calling the shots here, I am not sure if I would have the Obsiblue prawns grilled. It sounded like a bit of a waste not to eat these blue prawns fresh. Perhaps something like a tartare to fully enjoy its delicate and sweet flavors.

Slow-cooked veal - For main dish, I decided to have the slow-cooked veal which was served with diced potatoes, bacon, croutons, spinach and a light foie gras sauce.

The pastry wrapped around the veal was supposed to give it some crispy texture but I thought it was a little chewy at times.

Roasted Chilean seabass - This is a much better choice comparing to my slow-cooked veal (as I managed to steal some from the birthday boy). The perfectly cooked Chilean seabass had this wonderfully silky texture, working well with the cherry tomato, quinoa, and accompanying chilli tomato foam. Very impressive dish.