Saturday, 07 June 2008

  • A matter of time


    Booking date: sometime in early May
    Booked for (i.e. date of visit): 5 June

    Yin Yang is a relatively new restaurant opened by Xu Yuan, who previously had a private kitchen on her little farm in Yuen Long (known as Cuisine X). She's known for making her own sauces from herbs and veg grown on her own plot of land as well as doing things the good ol' way - terracotta urns, traditional utensils, stoneground... This is slow food, Hong Kong style.


    Age of building: umm... very old? Officially listed as a heritage building


    starter - prawn in a soymilk-ish broth/froth

     
    Time taken to braise and reduce chicken feet into a jellied consommé: I didn't ask for sure, but if you try it at home, be sure to bring a hefty novel into the kitchen coz it'll take you a while... The white blocks are super-fresh squid topped with fish roe. Some excellent zero-rubber texture going on there.


    platter of preserved goose egg plus various condiments with chicken liver; super crispy roast chicken, from intact to ready to eat. I'm seriously slobbering over the keyboard as I think about that chicken...


    Time taken to produce this soup: ages, because the black chicken, pumpkin and other ingredients were cooked slowly without the addition of water in a bain-marie type environment to force out the juices. The result? A gratifying, tonic-like clear broth.


    suckling pig with mulberry sauce - intact and in action; juicy gyoza; smooth, savoury tofu fa; stoneground tofu with black sesame


    Time oyster had left the sea: minimal. These uber fresh bivalves would have been just as nice without the 'port wine' sauce.


    fish in 'spa' - true, if you think about all the herbal compresses, wraps and saunas you can get these days - the fish was perhaps a little overcooked - probably the only thing I was disappointed about, but the sauce was excellent, especially with the properly steamed rice (i.e. not from the rice cooker, thank you very much); mixed veg - from her farm, possibly (I forget, we'd had too much to drink by this stage)

     
    desserts - not as exciting: sago custard/brûlée with red bean paste; white fungus; sweet dumpling, dumpling up close

    In short, well worth the visit, especially with their zero corkage deal at the moment (probably won't last much longer...). Good food, copious amounts of wine, good company, all in a heritage building. Brill.

    Yin Yang
    18 Ship St.
    Wanchai
    Hong Kong
    +852 2866 0868
    booking@yinyang.hk

Comments (2)

  • mikestalder

    I'd love to try it (but I live in Florida).  Does the name Yin Yang refer to her menu selection as being "hot food/cold food"?  I've just been experimenting with that.


    Mike
    www.xangu.com/mikestalder
  • e_tingfood

    That's an interesting question, Mike. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure! Yin yang could refer to some kind of internal 'balance' (achieved from having good food, perhaps!) or it could refer to some sort of personal attachment (yin yang is actually the name of a pair of birds, lovebirds, if you will). Must find out next time I go!

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