Cooking Across 4 Generations

Landing in Hong Kong on a Friday afternoon found us checking in to our hotel, having a quick siesta and then heading out to stretch our legs and find somewhere for dinner. We settled on a restaurant with a view, Hutong, located on the 28th floor of 1 Peking Building, just behind Heritage 1881.

Since our last visit three years ago Hutong has had a change of theme, but ever so slightly. The new theme is ‘old Beijing’. Gone are the bird cages and in are little rickshaw models, along with a large rickshaw at the entrance. The dark woods and antique architectural details that we love are all still there. The lighting is still low, but this allows for greater enjoyment of the nightly light display across the harbour.

The menu has changed as well, which is to be expected. For entrees we ordered chili spiced bamboo clams(steeped in Chinese rose wine and chili sauce)), seared scallops topped with pomelo segments.

We then chose two mains that were quite similar in that they both came with pancakes. Double Happiness (roasted suckling pig with Pancakes) and crispy boneless duck. Both were served with traditional pancakes and accompaniments. You may notice in coming posts that we have a thing for duck. No wine this time around, we decided to go with Chinese tea.

For the first time we also went for Chinese traditional desserts and selected Double Decker Dessert Box.  Attractively served in a double bamboo steamer, the box contained: mango glutinous rice rolls coated with shredded coconut, pumpkin pudding with sticky rice, osmanthus flavored jelly with white fungus.   The desserts were quite different to anything we have had before. The pumpkin pudding was nice with the flecks of sticky rice through it, the osmanthus jelly was interesting, but our favourite was the mango pudding.

During a our dinner we had not only the light show from across the harbour but a huge storm came through as well. While most would be put off by that, the rain gave another dimension by hazing out the lights and giving a soft ethereal look to the view. The lasers lights off some of the buildings became a really spectacular sight through the rain.

We are looking forward to visiting Hutong again next time we are in Hong Kong. If you go, book well ahead and request a window seat, as long as you don’t get vertigo LOL.