Birthday dinner - The most important person of my life

I had a happy evening out for my boy's (the mini me) birthday dinner. He is the most important 'man' of my life.

Please don't laugh at me, I was intoxicated after home. I ordered myself a whole bottle of Perrier Jouet NV. My favourite NVs are Henriot, Henri Giraud, Pol Roger, and Bollinger, but the wine cellar attached to the restaurant doesn't have any of these. No one shared with me, but I wanted some alcohol. A foolish idea, I know...

A birthday meal in Hong Kong usually comes with a roasted suckling pig, I always go with the tradition and ordered one for the birthday boy. It takes at least 30 minutes for the kitchen to prepare and roast. I ordered this immediately I arrived at the restaurant, every guest was happy about it. The pig was absolutely crispy and surprisingly lean.

One of the dishes that makes this restaurant reputable is this Cantonese BBQ pork loin. Living up to the expectation, the loin was stunningly tender, flavourful and done just right.

Moving on we had garoupa wok-fried with green onion, red onion, and shallot. The dish was not oily at all. Garoupa was flaky and the birthday boy loved it. He almost ate up the fish and I had those green onion, red onion, and shallot.

Another seafood dish came along. It was lobster wok-fried with green onion, red onion, and shallot. It was not oily at all. Lobster was springy but I was busy taking care of the birthday boy, I didn't have much of this.

Prawns wok-friend with egg white. Um, the menu says it is silky but what I had wasn't. The egg white was over-cooked.

Roasted crispy chicken. This was better than what I thought. Really crispy and juicy. It wasn't over done.

Sweet and sour pork loin. Tender and thinly-battered loin. It was ok.

Bean curds, bean curd sheets, pak choi simmered in chicken broth. Too much meat is not good, we need a balanced diet, don't we?

Bean curds, black fungus, and mushrooms in a clay pot. This was ok.

The dinner was concluded by a birthday cake. ;-)

Overall, the restaurant has been able to keep its reputation. The restaurant earns my trust and I dine there quite often. One thing particular to note is that the dishes I had were not flooded with oil. Chefs in Hong Kong tend to pour as much as oil to cook just to cut corners. Very often, you have to skim some thick oil off each dish. But that didn't happen to this birthday dinner.

Happy birthday!