Where to eat imperial Chinese dishes fit for an emperor in Hong Kong
- Six restaurants, from Man Wah at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong to Crystal Jade Jiangnan, that serve up exquisite dishes meant for royalty
If you’re curious about the dining habits of emperors, here’s what was served per meal: upwards of 80 lavish dishes, some more for show than appetite. But even though the emperor may not have sampled every dish, you can be sure every single one of them ranks among the best on offer.
Rediscovering and reinterpreting these forgotten dishes for the modern palate is a journey in itself. As restaurant consultant and food critic Isaac Lau discovered, even deciphering the ancient characters was a challenge. For instance, in the recipe for crabmeat-stuffed orange in the old cookbook Shanjia Qinggong, Lau found that the character for orange (棖) is no longer in use, and further research was required to figure out what it meant.
Some of the recipes Lau found would be unappealing to the modern palate.
“There is an imperial dish from Jiangnan – the area that included Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song dynasty – called golden shrimp cake, where the shrimp is fried then put into soup. Modern Hongkongers like fried food for its crispiness, and dunking something like that in soup would defeat the purpose, making this recipe redundant,” says Lau.
While there’s no doubt that the average Hongkonger enjoys top-notch Chinese food, here are a few restaurants that allow you to go on a royal culinary journey back in time.
1. Tasting Court Chinese Cuisine
Fried crabmeat in orange is the signature dish of this private kitchen. The dish comes from the Jiangnan area when it was the capital of the Song dynasty. It was served to world leaders during the welcome banquet for the 2016 G20 summit in Hangzhou. The tartness of the orange sets off the sweet taste of fresh crab – a delight for the taste buds.
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