04-006 Exotic food in a fine dining restaurant

04-006
Exotic food in a fine dining restaurant

I still remember his name. He is called Larry, a colleague from my previous company. He is an American, came to China just for a project. He flew to Hongkong first and I escorted him to Shenzhen. That was 20 years ago, long before the pandemic, long before the closing of the Chinese border.

We worked in a bank. The schedule was tight so we worked from early morning till evening almost every day. He is a funny guy. He is as old as my father and a good mentor. Working together with him was a pleasure.

It happened on one rainy evening. We were eating in a Japanese restaurant in Shenzhen, after a day of hard work. He ordered a bowl of noodles, with pork. When the food came, he shouted, “Hey! Help me. Take this thing away.” It was a baby octopus, marinated in Japanese sesame sauce, cooked. “Why they put this thing here? I just ordered noodles with pork!”

I was puzzled. In my eyes, octopus is just normal food. I can’t say I eat octopus every day but octopus is such a common food that you can find in almost any Asian restaurant. And it is also a common practice for a restaurant to add some side ingredients into a dish. Just like you would find cucumber inside a hamburger.

“These creatures eat themselves when hungry!”, he explained.

When talking about exotic food, we Chinese are champion. Yes, we eat everything. China is a big country. We have Mongolians in the north who drink wine brewed inside the body of a rat. In the west, we have in Sichuan fermented pork preserved for decades, with strong smell. And people there eat it raw. Even in our capital, roast scorpions and starfishes are common street food. And bat soup from Wuhan are highly suspected as the origin of the COVID pandemic.

Being colonized by the British for one and a half decades, food from Hongkong seems to be more “civilized”. But still there are plenty of food here that are scary to many. Below is one of the examples. 

White colour soup served in CGCC Club

CGCC Club is a Chinese fine dining restaurant located in Central, the financial center of Hongkong. Location of the restaurant is very convenience. The Stock Exchange is just a 5 minute walk from the restaurant. It is a perfect place for business lunches, dinners and general gatherings. Quality of service is unquestionable. Food served there are in high quality and the price is, well, matching with what you got.

But having a pocket of cash does not grant you a seat inside. The restaurant is opened only to the member of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (CGCC). But business is still business. It was late October, 2022. At that time, Hongkong was only half open to visitors. Hotel quarantine was not required. But vaccination and PCR test were still compulsory to enter Hongkong. As most countries and regions in the world were already opted to a more relaxed travel restriction. Compare to other places, Hongkong was not attractive to tourists or even business travelers.

“I can’t give you a table on the 6^th floor as most bosses dine there. But I can give you a table on the 8^th floor if you don’t mind. Food are the same. Just the décor is not as grand as that of the 6^th floor.”, said the manager, after knowing that we are not a member of the CGCC.

Business was not good. There were only around 20 diners for the whole 8^th floor in that evening. And this is probably the reason why they accepted the reservation from a non-member.

Apart from its exclusiveness and food quality, CGCC Club is similar to most ordinary Chinese restaurants in the city. We had Steamed Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Tofu with mushrooms, Vegetable pot, and Pickled cucumbers as appetizer. All the food we ordered were just normal dishes that you can find in most Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, except this one. What is it? Let’s take a closer look.

It is soup in almond milk

The soup is in white colour. It has a strong smell of almond because the soup base is made by almond milk. It smells very good. But apart from almond, what other ingredients were inside this white colour soup? Let me show you.

Inside is chicken feet and ...

Yes, chicken feet, err. But this is only the first part. Look closer. Can you see the white lump next to the chicken feet? What is it? Fatty pork meat?

It is actually Pig Lung Soup in Almond Milk

No, it is not meat! It is lung! Can you see the bronchial tubes? This is Pig Lung Soup in Almond Milk!

Most Western cuisines exclude internal organs at all. Few may include tongue, liver or kidney. But lung is totally out of the topic.

So, how much is this soup? It is HKD $78 per bowl, which is around 10 USD. Ten dollars with some chunky lung pieces in almond soup. I hope I did not scare you guys too much.

Yes, we eat everything.

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