Chiou Hwa Restaurant 九華樓 at Gloria Prince Hotel 華泰王子大飯店 is one of the go to places in Taipei for Peking Duck and Cantonese cuisine 粵菜.
Located on the second level of Gloria Prince Hotel Taipei, the interior of Chiou Hwa is well appointed. Wide open spaces, bright natural light from large windows, lacy curtains, lush carpet, satin table cloth, heavy padded chairs, chandeliers, marble columns, a huge blue ceramic vase with red flowers, gold plated window frames and other touches of luxury.
There are private spaces if you like more intimate meals.
Hong Konger Chef Fong 馮秋良 heads the kitchen in Chiou Hwa 九華. Chef Fong came to Taipei nearly 30 years ago - his friend recruited him to help out in the kitchen for 1 or 2 years but it turned out that he spent the prime of his life in Taiwan. Today, Chef Fong is a celebrated chef in Taiwan and a grandfather.
A fastidious chef who insists on the tedious old ways to ensure authentic flavours and textures, Chef Fong is a jovial, cheerful chap at heart. He told us that his nickname is Yeh Yeh 爺爺 (grandpa) because he looks like Colonel Sanders of KFC fame 😄 But, Chef Fong is famous for his duck while the Colonel for his chicken - one chicken, one duck 一只鸡, 一只鸭 😂
華泰片皮鴨 Roasted Peking Duck, the pride of Chiou Hwa at Gloria Prince Hotel.
The first thing that struck us about Chef Fong's famous Peking duck was it's sheer size - it is HUGE. Chef Fong uses ducks weighing at least 3.5 kg. In comparison, most roast ducks in Singapore and Malaysia are less than 2 kg in weight.
Chef Fong uses 宜蘭櫻桃鴨 - Cherry breed of ducks from Yilan County in Taiwan for his Peking ducks.
Yilan Cherry ducks are prized for their thick, large, meaty breast and the juicy layer of fat over it.
The duck is marinated, air dried, roasted and then bathed with splashes of hot oil till the skin is crisp and gleaming golden brown. It's tedious, time consuming work.
Chef Fong expertly carves the duck's breast into bite size pieces of golden brown skin, fat and meat.
The slice of duck skin, fat and meat is dressed with stalks of spring onion and slice of pickled ginger.
It is then folded into a house made whole wheat wrap and eaten in one mouthful.
It tastes wonderful.
The skin was crisp and light, with grease inside that was aromatic and flavoursome. The fat released sweet oil with every bite. The tender juicy meat also had a nice duck gaminess.
Love this Peking duck.
The remainder of the duck is made into two other dishes.
生菜片鴨鬆 The duck meat is diced and stir fried together with water chestnut, carrot, celery, pork etc. The fried dish is eaten with fresh crunchy lettuce wrap.
Duck meat fried with rice vermicelli.
Chiou Hwa also has a "1 duck 9 dishes" set 一鴨九吃. Ask them about it, if your party are all duck lovers 😄
Chef Fong has another famous signature dish - Goose Liver Flavoured Soup with Flower Shape Tofu 養生美白菊花盅.
The most eye catching part of this dish is, of course, the "flower" made by hand slicing the cube of soft tofu.
I really appreciate the chef's exquisite knife skill 刀功. But, taste wise, the "flower" is still tofu. Nice tofu taste but still bean curd,
What I really like about this dish is the tea coloured broth made by stewing premium smoked ham, lean pork and old hen for at least 8 hours. The dish is served by topping the tofu "chrysanthemum flower" with a small slice of goose liver foie gras.
The broth has many layers of mild savoury flavours all well balanced and in harmony.
Love it.
Silver Pomfret prepared in the quintessentially Hong Kong Typhoon Shelter style 避風塘大銀鯧. It's fresh silver pomfret meat cut into bite size cubes, lightly battered, then deep fried till a golden brown crisp outside. It is then smothered with a thick blanket of deep fried diced garlic and chili pepper. The fried garlic and chili pepper added a little savoury spiciness to the sweet tender fish inside the crisp golden brown batter.
Stir fried turnip cake with house blended XO sauce XO醬蘿蔔糕. A humble Hong Kong staple that always pleases when it is made with quality fresh ingredients. This is well fried - the firm tender cubes of turnip cake coated with house blended savoury XO sauce. Not greasy at all. Nice.
瑤柱蝦乾娃娃菜 Stir Fried Baby Lettuce with Dried Shrimp. Quite additive soft crunchy pulpy fibres saturated with mildly savoury sweet stock. Nice.
Officially "Steam Small Bun with Matsutake 松茸小籠包", it's a nice xiao long bao lah 😄 Tender sweet minced meat ball suspended in excellent tongue scathing savoury sweet stock sealed in it's dainty little purse of thin dough skin.
Restaurant name: Chiou Hwa 九華樓
Address: 369 Linsen North Road, Taipei, Taiwan 台北市中山區林森北路369號2F
GPS: 25°03'28.3"N 121°31'31.9"E | 25.057864, 121.525532
Tel: +886 2 7721 6619
Hours: 11:30am – 2:30pm | 5:30pm – 9:30pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 21 Jul 2017
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