Restaurant review: Happy Paradise, SoHo - May Chow’s short menu of clever takes on classic Chinese dishes
By turns delicate, tongue-tingling, even humorous, the dishes here were well cooked and nearly all of them worked - but if you insist on Instagramming everything and don’t like music played at high volume, this may not be for you
It’s my favourite type of menu: short and tempting. It’s divided into sections of snacks, small plates and large plates; the drinks and cocktail menus are longer than the food section. Many of the dishes are clever takes on classic Chinese dishes, and it works most of the time.
The inverted commas in the dish of scallop “rice roll” (HK$98) should give you a clue that it’s not cheung fun wrapped around scallops. The small rolls resemble the rice flour rolls you can get at almost any dim sum restaurant, but the taste and texture were different because they were made entirely of scallops. Delicious.
Steamed egg with ginger, scallion, apple vinegar and okra (HK$78) was a cool (temperature-wise) version of the comforting homestyle dish served in many a Chinese household. The custard was perfectly textured: wobbly and delicate, and the apple vinegar and aromatics made the dish light and refreshing. Szechuan chicken wings (HK$108) had juicy meat and delicately crunchy skin, and the Sichuan peppercorn spice mix sprinkled over the wings was tongue-tingling.
