The Hottest Meal We Ever Had
The hottest meal we ever had was in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is a strong contender for best restaurants in the world. It has countless amazing eateries and fine dining. We had scrumptous sushi at Tokoro in Mongkok our first night - convenient as it was in our hotel. The second night we ate at the lovely French outlet Spoon, forgoing Gaddis as it required "a jacket" and we were, after all, on vacation.
Our final night we wanted Chinese cuisine. We had eaten at the local places for lunch, but wanted to see what haute Chinese cuisine had to offer. We found Hutong in TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) which the local newspaper listed as one of the best Asian restaurants in all of Asia - including Japan and Singapore. We were not disappointed. On the 28th floor of a modern high-rise, the view was phenomenal of the Hong Kong skyline. The lighting was barely there, both romantic and exotic, highlighting the view and the birdcages hung everywhere. Yet it was the food that stole the show that night. We started with some scallops, delicately and thinly sliced and minimally accented, they nearly melted in our mouths. Then came the pork ribs, also beautiful to behold served on a wooden board.
We also ordered the shrimp fried rice and were warned that it was spicy. We shrugged off the warning. When we ordered the next dish, the softshell crabs with Sichuan chilies, we got the same warning of spicy. Again, we said fine. We had been in Hong Kong for just over 48 hours, but had not eaten anything remotely spicy the entire time we were there. We were jetlagged, we were clearly not thinking that "spicy" for HK may mean something entirely different than it means across the Pacific.
The fried rice arrived along with the ribs and indeed had some heat - spicy by any standards in the States. But it was nothing compared to the ... I hesitate to call it the "softshell crab dish" when it was really the "big bowl of chilies with a few crab hidden within" - which was mind-numbingly explosive. One bite and my eyes began to water, my temperature skyrocketed. I thought my tongue was going to fall off. The pity was that it tasted so good, so good. I drank water, lots and lots of water. I tried eating rice, but alas that was also spicy and did not really help curb the fire. You know how some dishes in restaurants have funny names like "fire, fire chicken" or similar to mean its spicy, well this is one dish that really was fire. I went on a near vision quest after eating a single bite.
Finally, when I had recovered slightly and even Dave was daunted by the heat - he of the habanero habit - I noticed that the crab was coated in the seeds of the chilies. I used my chopsticks to remove as many as possible and tried another bite. It was still the hottest thing I had ever eaten, but slowly but surely, I made it through half a crab. This left Dave to undertake the remaining halves. It was a slow meal. And called for ice cream for dessert!
This close-up photo of the softshell crab, aka bowl of screaming hot Sichuan chilies, allows you to see a few bits of crab beneath all the red chilies. In the first photo, you can just glimpse the amazing view we had from our table of the Hong Kong lights. It was a very memorable dinner.
Hong Kong is a strong contender for best restaurants in the world. It has countless amazing eateries and fine dining. We had scrumptous sushi at Tokoro in Mongkok our first night - convenient as it was in our hotel. The second night we ate at the lovely French outlet Spoon, forgoing Gaddis as it required "a jacket" and we were, after all, on vacation.
Our final night we wanted Chinese cuisine. We had eaten at the local places for lunch, but wanted to see what haute Chinese cuisine had to offer. We found Hutong in TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) which the local newspaper listed as one of the best Asian restaurants in all of Asia - including Japan and Singapore. We were not disappointed. On the 28th floor of a modern high-rise, the view was phenomenal of the Hong Kong skyline. The lighting was barely there, both romantic and exotic, highlighting the view and the birdcages hung everywhere. Yet it was the food that stole the show that night. We started with some scallops, delicately and thinly sliced and minimally accented, they nearly melted in our mouths. Then came the pork ribs, also beautiful to behold served on a wooden board.
We also ordered the shrimp fried rice and were warned that it was spicy. We shrugged off the warning. When we ordered the next dish, the softshell crabs with Sichuan chilies, we got the same warning of spicy. Again, we said fine. We had been in Hong Kong for just over 48 hours, but had not eaten anything remotely spicy the entire time we were there. We were jetlagged, we were clearly not thinking that "spicy" for HK may mean something entirely different than it means across the Pacific.
The fried rice arrived along with the ribs and indeed had some heat - spicy by any standards in the States. But it was nothing compared to the ... I hesitate to call it the "softshell crab dish" when it was really the "big bowl of chilies with a few crab hidden within" - which was mind-numbingly explosive. One bite and my eyes began to water, my temperature skyrocketed. I thought my tongue was going to fall off. The pity was that it tasted so good, so good. I drank water, lots and lots of water. I tried eating rice, but alas that was also spicy and did not really help curb the fire. You know how some dishes in restaurants have funny names like "fire, fire chicken" or similar to mean its spicy, well this is one dish that really was fire. I went on a near vision quest after eating a single bite.
Finally, when I had recovered slightly and even Dave was daunted by the heat - he of the habanero habit - I noticed that the crab was coated in the seeds of the chilies. I used my chopsticks to remove as many as possible and tried another bite. It was still the hottest thing I had ever eaten, but slowly but surely, I made it through half a crab. This left Dave to undertake the remaining halves. It was a slow meal. And called for ice cream for dessert!
This close-up photo of the softshell crab, aka bowl of screaming hot Sichuan chilies, allows you to see a few bits of crab beneath all the red chilies. In the first photo, you can just glimpse the amazing view we had from our table of the Hong Kong lights. It was a very memorable dinner.
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