Features

Hidden Pleasures

10 Oct 2006 by intern11

Scattered throughout Hongkong are “private kitchens” that manage to operate largely due to legal loopholes. Yan Jun Qiu gains entry to five of the city’s best, rating this home cooking with a price

Hongkong has a reasonably diverse restaurant scene, but there’s still a long way before it can rival other big cities such as New York, London and even Sydney. But one unique feature in dining that the city can call its own is private kitchens. In a nutshell, these are eateries usually not fully licensed and operating through legal loopholes; they are hidden in residential buildings and run in secrecy. There is no à-la-carte menu and you eat whatever the owner churns out.

This dining trend has gained such international attention that the Lonely Planet features it in the World Food Hongkong Guide, calling private kitchens “speakeasies”– a term first coined to refer to underground drinking places during the Prohibition period in the US. Private kitchens are described as places where a secret door opens upon the citing of a code word and quick entrance is to be made before the police arrive. That is dramatisation at worst, but not entirely fictional.

Although unlicensed eateries have long existed in Hongkong – particularly those in Kowloon City and Tsim Sha Tsui’s Chungking Mansions – the private kitchen scene was pioneered by Sichuan Cuisine Da Ping Huo, once located on Aberdeen Street that borders between Central and Sheung Wan. A perfect neighbourhood for it: near the town centre but slightly off the beaten track and mostly residential.

Diners who called to book their tables gathered at a nearby bar. When the clock struck the right hour, an usher would turn up (probably in a hood) and escort them to a small residential flat. The whole experience would feel like having dinner at a friend’s home, except you would have to pay at the end.

Wang Hai and Wang Xiaoqiong, husband-and-wife owners of Da Ping Huo, were painter and chanteuse respectively. When they moved to Hongkong from their native Sichuan, they were disappointed by the standards at which their provincial cuisine was represented. The only way for them to have a taste of home was to cook for themselves, and luckily, Mrs Wang was good at it. A food-critic friend discovered her talent and the idea of opening a private kitchen sprang up.

The rationale was simple: opening a full-scale restaurant would involve exorbitant rent for a shop space fitted with a commercial kitchen, months of battling with the licensing authority and stocked food going rotten in a week if business failed to pick up. And to cover all those costs, the restaurant would have to charge customers everything in their wallets. But a private kitchen operates like entertaining guests at home and the exact number of guests is known in advance, so there is minimum food wastage. With costs cut, prices would be much lower and that would draw in crowds. It did for Da Ping Huo.

Not long after it opened in 2000, the private kitchen pioneer was attracting a four-month waitlist and every foodie in town talked about it. They not only raved about the fiery dishes but Mrs Wang’s vocal styling, which was featured as part of the experience. 

The restaurant’s fame grew so fast that Mrs Wang was later invited by Man Wah at the Mandarin Oriental hotel to host food promotions. Increased publicity and profile meant Da Ping Huo could no longer operate the same way and a few years ago, it moved to a flashier space (Hollywood Road in Central), where it remains. Those with bookings can just turn up at the restaurant at the arranged times. There is also a wine list and a specialised refrigerator for the choice bottles.

Since Da Ping Huo got the ball rolling, many private kitchens have sprung up. Some are still operating, some didn’t last. Most self-proclaimed private kitchens today are actually licensed places, or at least have club licences, although they continue to require advance bookings, being in hidden locations and serving prix-fixe menus. We check out five of Hongkong’s best private kitchens.

Sichuan Cuisine Da Ping Huo

What’s it like? To the delight of its fan base, many traditions remain even after the restaurant relocated: Mrs Wang still sources ingredients from Sichuan and she still bursts into songs at the end of the meal.

Where is it? L/G, Hilltop Plaza, 49 Hollywood Road (entrance on Graham Street), Central, Hongkong, tel 852 2559 1317

Ambience: Breezy and quietly elegant in soft grey and with simple but thoughtful placement of plants and Chinese village-style bric-a-brac. Artworks by Mr Wang and his artist associates adorn the surrounding walls.

Menu: As with all private kitchens, the menu here is subject to change, but certain signature dishes such as ma po tofu (braised diced bean curd with minced beef in hot chilli sauce) and saliva chicken – worry not, it’s actually braised poultry with Sichuan spices served in hot chilli oil – are likely to remain. The brilliance of the food lies in the use of spices.

Our experience began with four appetisers – sugared pickled cucumber, seaweed with pine nuts, chilled shredded vegetable and ham, and spicy and sour bean jelly. Each seemed to be designed to titillate all senses of our palates to get us ready for what was to come. The “saliva chicken”, probably named for its unflattering but deceptive appearance, featured spices that hit us with a vengeance but instead of numbing our taste buds, it did the opposite – the spiciness gave the chicken more dimension. Sautéed assorted mushrooms and white cabbage with minced chicken was simple, but a welcome and wholesome interlude before more fire was to hit. The stewed beef brisket and tendons in spicy gravy that followed was surprisingly mild in heat, but not bland either, and flavours exploded at every bite.

Steamed marinated pork with jenrofen powder (what seemed to be a spicy couscous made with rice) was also a nourishing dish relatively low in fire. But the combustion returned with spicy prawns – with the kind of sharp spiciness that highlighted the crustacean and not overpowered it. The ma po tofu was also a cut above the run-of-the-mill variety with its depth in flavour. Lastly, a non-spicy but hearty vegetable soup with beans and Sichuan dumplings served in another delicious (and grittily) sauce, was rounded up by a refreshing sweetened bean curb soup with white fungus.

Price: US$32 per person excluding wine; to bring your own wine, corkage is US$19.

Opening hours: Tues-Sat, with the first seating at 1800 and second seating at 2100; Mon by request; closed on Sun.

Verdict: Good value, considering the quality and amount of food you get. The only hassle is that you have to pay a deposit at designated bank accounts to confirm your booking and cancellation needs to be made three days or more ahead.

Xi Yan

What’s it like? Clichéd as it may sound, this restaurant is a product of fate. Chef and proprietor Jacky Yu ran a successful advertising firm, but times were getting tougher by the day after the Asian financial crisis. So at the urging of his friends and inspiration from Da Ping Huo, he turned his pastime of entertaining guests at home into a viable business. After a million dollars and a lot of creative juice, his office morphed into Xi Yan. (Today, it has also opened on Craig Road in Singapore and soon, in China.)

The waitlist was as long as El Bulli’s (Ferran Adria’s trend-setting restaurant in Girona, Spain) at one point and patrons waited six months for a table. Capacity has been upped from two tables to five since then, but you will still need to book at least three weeks earlier on a weeknight. For a weekend evening, think two months ahead.

Where is it? 3/F, Hang Wai Commercial Building, 231-233 Queen's Road East, Wanchai, Hongkong, tel 852 9020 9196

Ambience: Located in a nondescript commercial building in Wanchai, Xi Yan greets you with its breezy and reasonably stylish interior that reflects Yu’s background of once being in an artistic field. As you enter, the first sight is a bright red wall with the restaurant’s name in silver metallic lettering emphasised by a spotlight. Red cushioned panels contrast with white walls inside, and well-designed lighting arrangements on the symmetrically beamed ceiling provide the space with bright but cool illumination. The knickknack shelves and magazine racks are intended to look spontaneous. Complete with modern artworks and you have a perfect environment for a sensational meal.

Menu: On the night we visited, the four appetisers were signature Japanese tomatoes in sesame and wasabi sauce, chilled beancurd in Japanese soya topped with pork floss, hua diao wine-marinated duck eggs, and cloud ear (black tree fungus) with wasabi. The dishes were smartly presented in aesthetically pleasing crockery of various shapes and shades, and the colours of the ingredients contrast like Paul Cezanne paintings. Who would have thought that a tomato (okay, it’s Japanese greenhouse tomato) can taste so good when spiced up by a creamy sesame and wasabi sauce? And who would expect beancurd – frankly not the most flavoursome food in the world – to be so out-of-this-world with just dark soy sauce and some deep-fried pork floss?

The hua diao-marinated duck eggs were rich in texture and dense in flavour, leaving a nice aftertaste. The cloud ears were crunchy and wasabi gave it a good punch. The presentations of the main courses, though, slipped a little, with the deep-fried pork rib flavoured by preserved mandarin orange peel being the worst offender. Although fairly tasty, it looked like half a dish.

Dried oyster in tangerine honey had an intense and multi-layered flavour that unfolded, evolved and lingered, but we were surprised that Yu was so frank in revealing that an ingredient in the sauce was Maggi. In fact, such a detail is included in one of his cookbooks. Well, whatever works.

The saliva chicken is a customised version from the traditional Sichuan, with addition of thousand-year-old eggs (cured duck eggs), peanut sauce (in the original recipe only ground peanut is added) and konnyaku (a starchy corm). What we tasted had a lot of depth and nuances, but for a Sichuan food purist, it would feel sacrilegious. Deep-fried fresh grouper with lemongrass in shrimp paste was another highlight of our evening – the freshness of seafood, the tangy lemongrass and the savoury shrimp paste all worked well together – and the bed of pomelo pulp gave a good balance.

After a lychee sherbet, we moved onto crispy rice in crucian carp soup with papaya and pork bone – which was wholesome but an anticlimax against the overall meal. The last savoury dish, a no-frills stir-fried chayote sprouts with dried shrimp, was so fresh and delicious – if all greens tasted this good, mum would have no difficulties in getting her kids to eat them. Dessert was homemade pomelo ice-cream – as good as it could be. The wine selection is limited (and both of the whites are Chardonnay!) and devoid of New World options that would go well with the food here.

Price: US$46 per head (and US$62 when a seafood-focused menu is served, mostly on Saturday); US$13 corkage for BYO.

Opening hours: Tues-Sat, from 1900 to 2300.

Verdict: It’s one of the most expensive private kitchens in town, but the month-long waitlist is an indication the food worth the asking price.

SAE Culinary Complex

What’s it like? Opened by a local chef whose resume includes such names as Nadaman (Shangri-La) and Kaetsu (Grand Hyatt), this restaurant has attracted much fanfare and was full the day we visited. That’s no small achievement, given the hidden location and frugal décor. We have also never seen a private kitchen this well staffed, and it features an à-la-carte menu in addition to two prix-fixe ones, namely Tasting Menu and Fusion Menu.

Where is it? 2/F, Mirage Tower, 15 Thomson Road, Wanchai, Hongkong, tel 852 2527 2537

Ambience: The décor, or the lack of it, suits the original purpose of a private kitchen. If the authority cracks down on it, it can probably relocate in a matter of minutes.

That was a half joke, of course, as given SAE’s publicity in the press, it couldn’t possibly operate without a licence.

Menu: Both set menus offer eight courses and start with salad and soup before progressing to sashimi, hot main courses, noodles or rice and dessert.

The names had us believe that the pricier menu had Western nuances to it, but other than the pan-fried foie gras with apple, everything else seemed largely Japanese.

The difference in decadence between the two menus also seemed slight. The sashimi course in the Tasting Menu featured amaebi (sweet shrimps), swordfish, snapper, scallop and hiramasa (yellowtail kingfish), while in the Fusion Menu – toro, flounder, hamachi, Kumamoto oyster in mirin sauce and salmon. In fact, the main course in the Tasting Menu, crispy pan-fried kurobuta with ginger-miso sauce, fared better than grilled prawns in uni sauce in the Fusion Menu.

The crustaceans tasted like the frozen-and-thawed variety. The Tasting Menu’s crispy eel salad with vinegar, sea bass and winter melon soup, sliced duck meat stir-fried with wild vegetables, and crabmeat and seaweed rolls seasoned with green tea salt were also no less enjoyable than the Fusion Menu’s platter of crabmeat and cucumber rolls with mayo, taro cooked in fish sauce and French beans with sesame sauce, snapper and miso soup, foie gras, and sake-steamed eel with tofu in seaweed sauce.

The only offensive dish was tuna rice since the fish was the cooked variety and tasted very coarse. We would pick soba (noodles made from buckwheat) in cold plum soup from the other menu, anytime. Desserts were strawberry jelly with red bean ice-cream, and blueberry ice-cream with wasabi cream.

Price: US$25 per head for Tasting Menu, and Fusion Menu, US$45; no BYO corkage charge.

Opening hours: Mon-Sat, from 1200 to 1430; Mon-Sun, from 1830 to 2300.

Verdict: All in all, the food is only standard, but if you are going for the Tasting Menu, it’s good value. And if it’s any saving grace, the few sake options are adequate.

Lips

What’s it like? This French private kitchen features menus that are reportedly masterminded by a former chef of Petrus, a fine-dining French institution in Hongkong.

Where is it? 9/F, 83 Wanchai Road, Wanchai, Hongkong, tel 852 9386 0981

Ambience: Kitschy – purplish red walls, floral-shape lampshades and 19th-century French-style furniture – but it goes down well when you arrive after having battled Wanchai chaos.

Menu: The US$22-per-person menu featured escargot with herbed butter, fish puree essence and mousseline potato (or a Romaine lettuce salad with Parmesan if you like), a Vichyssoise, pan-seared French goose liver with caramelised peach and raspberry-flavoured chicken gravy, with coffee or tea – excellent value, no less. Vichyssoise suited the hot weather – a pity it hasn’t been served at more places in this city.

The US$47-per-person menu was more lavish, with semi-raw Boston lobster tartar salad with lime yoghurt vinaigrette (or alternatively, you could choose the goose liver or mixed seafood cocktail) as starter and the pan-grilled Australian rib-eye steak with Port wine and mustard sauce for main (alongside other choices such as lobster pasta and oven-roasted Australian rack of lamb). These dishes were well done, especially the scrumptious steak sauce, but a three-course meal (soup included) at that price was hefty. The wine list features many classic French choices and some New World.

Price: From US$22. A decent Xanadu shiraz goes for US$33; US$6 corkage for BYO.

Opening hours: Mon-Fri, from 1100 to 1430 and 1900 to 2300; Sat, from 1900 to 2330; Sun by request only.

Verdict: Well executed altogether.

Vegi Culture

What’s it like? One of the few vegetarian private kitchens in town, this place serves a dual purpose. It’s the Master Fung workshop for Chinese ink painting, meditation and tai chi during the day and in the evening, Mrs Fung whips up vegetarian dishes for guests.

Where is it? Room F, 12/F Hennessy Apartments, 488 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, Hongkong, tel 852 8200 3066

Ambience: Of these five establishments, this one probably feels the most like a private kitchen as far as atmosphere goes. It’s like a well-decorated residence, except all the space is dedicated to dining tables. And if you are observant, Master Fung’s paintings on the wall will tip you off of the space’s daytime function.

Menu:  There was a lot of creativity involved: baked Chinese nian gao (gooey rice cake) with cheese presented like chopped eel, faux beef balls and fish balls in curry sauce, deep-fried wontons with seaweed and mango filling, and a whole range of other synthetic meats. Disconcertingly, some of the dishes actually tasted like meat.

Price: US$19 for eight to 10 courses. Only tea is served here, but if you would like to bring wine there is no corkage. Given the food here, you may want to bring a Gewürztraminer.

Opening hours: 1800-2200 daily.

Verdict: Nothing tasted offensive or was worth writing home about. The overall flavours were on the sweet side, even for the Cantonese palates at the table.

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