Crispy Vegetable Rice Roll, a local take on the HK jar leong.
Dim sum has become an Elegant Inn Hong Kong (HK) Cuisine signature as chef Wesley Ng has elevated ordinary Cantonese dishes into a gourmet’s delight.
Hokkaido scallop dumplings.
The Steamed Radish Cake with HK Prawn and tung choi (preserved radish), for instance, shines with distinctive flavours from the lovely topping and delicious sauce. Crispy Vegetable Rice Roll, a local take on the HK jar leong (rice rolls with fried crullers), offers a slight crunch through the smooth rice noodle with crispy Vietnamese rice paper, shredded carrot and jicama while Hokkaido scallop dumplings deliver pristine flavours of a pure sweet scallop.
Happy Start Platter. — Photos: PATSY KAM and MARIAN YU
Owner Jeanette Han has named the first course the Happy Start Platter, and rightly so, as everything is delicious. The sublime Steamed Silky Egg with Pan-seared Hokkaido Scallop and Crab Roe Sauce offers a rich creamy layer of crab roe, then a luscious scallop before reaching the silky egg custard beneath. The Special Chilled Spoon Delight with Fresh Salmon and Crabmeat gives up fresh and tart flavours, while the crispy white bait in the Salt and Pepper Fried HK Silver Fish and Cuttlefish with both raw and fried garlic in this mixed “Chinese French fries”, as some children have called it, yields aroma and desired texture to the light, crunchy small fish.
Steamed Atlantic Cod with Fiery Garlic Bean Sauce.
Double-boiled Pig Stomach Soup with Peppercorns and Salted Vegetables, brewed for about six hours, is an Elegant Inn mainstay. The first sip is clear sweetness with marine flavour, then the aroma of Sarawak pepper, both ground and whole, yields heat that spreads gently in the mouth. The still-flavourful soup ingredients are served separately – pig’s stomach, pork ribs, chicken feet, Yunnan ham, dried scallops, dried conch, salted vegetables and wolfberries – almost like having another course by itself.
Double-boiled Pig Stomach Soup with Peppercorns and Salted Vegetables.
Steamed Garoupa Slices on Rice Noodles with Fresh Lemon and Chinese Black Olives gets my vote for its tangy sauce with a saltish balance from black olives. Rice noodles beneath soak up the delicious sauce. Another well-known house favourite is the Steamed Atlantic Cod with Fiery Garlic Bean Sauce has spicy sauce matching the creamy fish, and glass noodles under the cod. There’s also Golden Fried Atlantic Cod with Chinese Leeks, perfectly fried and bathed in a light sauce, topped with leek, spring onion, chillies and sweet, crispy bits of dried whole prawn.
Fish with black olives.
One dish that harks back to past popular banquets is the Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken with Chicken Tomato Salad. Thin crispy roast chicken skin is stuffed with hand-chopped prawn paste while the chicken meat is combined with orange balsamic sauce and tomato segments. You’d be hard-pressed to find this elsewhere, and as well-delivered.
Golden Boneless Stuffed Chicken with Chicken Tomato Salad.
There is unabashed delight when the Rice Noodles with Australian M9 Wagyu Beef in Egg Sauce is served as we luxuriate in the exquisite, tender wagyu beef slices and the slithery kway teow, covered in superb egg sauce. The Signature Dancing Fried Rice with crabmeat, har kon (dried krill) and egg must be eaten at the restaurant, no takeaways allowed, to ensure the flavours are captured at its peak.
For dessert, the traditional Teochew Style Tau Suan – sweet broth with split peas, usually served with yu tiao (crullers) – is taken a notch higher and served with small pieces of crunchy deep-fried sea cucumber on a spoon. The pan-fried eggy Golden Custard Cake is soft and discreetly sweet, comforting and fitting end to an amazing meal.
Golden Custard Cake.
Prices for a menu along these lines start from RM248/pax.
