Cantonese Cuisine

The simple fried hor fun (aka kueh teow/rice noodle/河粉) comes in many forms around Asia and is my favourite type of noodle due to its chewy texture and ability to absorb lots of flavour. Recently had dinner at the famed Chef Kang’s Private Kitchen, and we ordered a medium portion of Fried Hor Fun with Preserved Radish ($48++). And oh my, this was very good!
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Visually, it looked as expected and “the usual” but with much more ingredients till they kind of covered all the noodles from sight. The taste, on the other hand, was phenomenal.
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Yes, it had a lot of wok hei and fragrance from the lard, but what set Chef Kang’s version apart was how he managed to bring out so much sweetness from the preserved radish, vegetables, onions and a lot of mushrooms, instead of using dark soy sauce. No, I’m not talking about dessert level sweet, but rather savoury-sweet, 鮮甜, which characterises Cantonese cuisine. Chef Kang’s tendency to elevate sweetness in this savoury-sweet balance gives his dishes a unique character.

Crispy Pork Belly ($38++) was unassuming, but yet made for a really nice snack! The crunchiness of the pork skin was 💯 and spices were quite addictive too! I liked how it didn’t feel oily, and hence don’t feel too health conscious when eating this okay 😇

Prawn Rolls with Salted Egg Yolk ($38++) served in cute little cups, as if the chef is asking me to eat it all in one bite, which I did 😚 the prawn roll had a really nice crunch through the prawns, tofu skin and vegetables, and combined with the addictive salted egg yolk, it made for a very flavourful bite indeed.

The salted egg yolk was creamy and slightly sweet, resonating the common inclination towards sweetness in many of Chef Kang’s dishes. No, not dessert sweet, but savoury sweet 鲜甜, a characteristic taste profile in Cantonese Cuisine. 😊

🧨 Presenting the Kurobuta Char Siew ($48++) served on a hot plate by Chef Kang! Beautiful char with a flavourful garlicky and sweet marinade glaze~ unlike the usual char siews, the chef’s rendition had the glaze still in a viscous form due to the hot plate heat, instead of a dried or poured-on glaze sauce, resulting in a flavour bomb of just-caramelised thick glaze when it reached the tastebuds 🤤

The meat itself was very tender, but a bit too tender to the extent it easily broke apart when taking it out of the hot plate. Like really much too easily, which is not a good thing 😅